The newspapers and money magazines overflow with advice for "The best stock choices for 2008" at this time of the year.

Since I am no financial guru, my contribution to your New Year is of a more personal nature. Instead, I want to focus on the investment of your personal and professional assets of time and energy.

So without further ado, here are my Top Seven Investment picks for 2008:

1. Make time to reflect and plan
   
   In the chaos of frantically busy workdays, followed by high-paced "catch-up weekends", it is near impossible to step aside for a moment and see your own life clearly. "What do you really want out of your job and your life?" becomes an almost laughable question.
   Some of my most productive and creative thoughts have come during long operas. Don't chuckle - I go to the opera because my husband loves it, most operas are very long, and I have 3 and sometimes 4 hours of uninterrupted thinking time! Perhaps there's something about that music that gets my creative juices flowing.....
   
   *** Resolve to be a Time Sentinel - find AND guard a block of time to reflect on what did and didn't work for you in 2007, and to create a plan for 2008 that is feasible enough that you can actually commit to it.
   
   
2. Organize your workspace
   
   I get a profound sense of accomplishment after a day like yesterday, devoted in part to "deep cleansing". Going through our closets, organizing, sending donations to our charity, throwing out clutter, and generally lightening the load of "stuff" in our house and my office -- what a special sense of calm it induced right at the start of the New Year!
   
   *** Resolve to be a Space Preserver - cherish the possessions that matter and protect your environment from overwhelm.
   
   
3. Get control over your calendar
   
   Whether you use a day planner, smart phone, online calendar or mental checklist of appointments and meetings, there seems to be a widespread whine of "never enough time". Some of the whining is mine!
   I will state, however, that since getting trained to use many of the previously ignored features of my Outlook calendar (using a wonderful home-study program called Outlook for Entrepreneurs), I have been way better at managing my time. I realized that every minute I enter onto the day's schedule represents an opportunity to say "yes" or "no" -- and I am getting better at that all the time. 
   
   *** Resolve to be an Appointment Warrior - fight for how you spend your time and NEVER give it away without your consent.
   
   
4. Surround yourself with success stories
   
   Did you observe how down you felt after nursing a cocktail at the holiday party with all your depressed colleagues? There isn't much joy amongst many of our physician friends these days.
   One of the great pleasures of my business is to interview successful physician entrepreneurs for podcasts (I promise that the podcasts will be more "weekly" after the holidays!). I am always uplifted by the stories of perseverance, big dreams and high hopes as told to me in these interviews.
   
   *** Resolve to be a Student of Success - hang out with and draw inspiration from people who are energetic, hopeful, and accomplishing something significant personally or professionally.
   
   
5. Nurture your network
   
   Given what we know about human nature, the current explosion of social networks in cyberspace comes as no surprise. Even introverts are getting connected!
   As Keith Ferrazzi writes in a favorite book of mine "Never Eat Alone" :
   "To achieve your goals in life, I realized, it matters less how smart you are, how much innate talent you are born with, or even, most eye-opening to me, where you are from and how much you started out with. Sure these are all important, but they mean little if you don't understand one thing. You can't get there alone. In fact, you can't get very far at all."
   
   *** Resolve to be a Memorable Mentsch - abide by a code of abundance, give of yourself and your talents as hard as you can, and nurture the relationships in your network.
   
   
6. Select a "thought partner" who will challenge your assumptions
   
   I am blessed with several people who are willing to be sounding boards for my ideas, my writing and my decision-making. My husband, who is a physician of the surgical persuasion and therefore much more pragmatic and concrete than I, is a wonderfully blunt commentator on things that don't make sense to him. My Mastermind Groups (I belong to two very different ones) are filled with smart, insightful people who both support AND contest my thinking at varying times. And my own business coach is the ultimate caring challenger!
   
   *** Resolve to be a Question Seeker - find those fearless but loving people who will ask you the tough questions, and be sure to appreciate the value of their contributions to your personal and professional development.
   
   
7. Choose with intention, rather than by default
   
   This final investment is the most esoteric and intangible, but has the opportunity for the highest payoffs once you "get" it.
   Too often, we pass through our days unconsciously - getting up, going to work, maintaining a hellish pace all day, returning to a routine at home, and finally collapsing in front of the TV or computer for another couple of mindless hours.
   All the sages and masterful meditators keep reminding us to "live in the moment". Not so easy, I argue, when our lives are so full and frantic.
   However, I've noticed that if I ask myself one simple question when deciding how to use my time or what to focus on next, I experience a shift in mood and productivity. I try to find the right answer to this question: "Will what I am about to do help me accomplish something useful or meaningful?" 
   
   *** Resolve to be an Attentive Decisionmaker - actively choose the Who, When, Where, Why, What and How. This will have a huge impact on the quality of your friendships, time, work, and expereince of life.

Wishing you a 2008 in which the ROIs (returns on investments) of ALL your resources yield huge dividends!