The New Year brings hopes and aspirations for us all. The ambitious seek greater fortunes, while those who are content will prefer peace and tranquillity.

Ambitious aspirations demand great effort, some luck, a strong resolve, an unwavering determination and a clear, focused mind.

Ventures inevitably generate stress of all sorts - personal, financial, psychological and emotional. How we cope with this self-generated stress in a productive way depends on personality type, understanding of life, relevant support systems and inner spiritual development.

An understanding of life depends on experiences and personal development, plus the influence of family, friends, school and work colleagues. It requires an active enthusiasm to constantly learn from life's events.

Given the nature of man and his variable ability to deal with stress, the first New Year's resolution I consider to be vital is self-analysis. Ask yourself: Who am I? What is my goal in life? What do I want from life?

While these questions may sound basic, few of us devote enough time to preparing a personal development plan. Most of our planning relates to crisis intervention, which offers short-term solutions.

Long-term gain is achieved by carefully structured and well thought out personal planning, which provides role clarity and a sound platform upon which to work.

Role clarity is the key to preventing unhealthy conflicts and helps people in their dealings with others. This is as important in personal relationships as it is with work colleagues, superiors, customers or strangers.

Understanding your personality type helps you construct your own development plan which you can handle and achieve. It also helps to identify your own learning needs. The Myers-Briggs method of determining personality types is well established. For more information, contact Jenny Rogers www.managementfutures.co.uk One of the techniques I use for achieving some clarity in my plans is the Force Field Analysis - five pertinent questions to ask yourself: Where am I at? Where do I want to be? What do I need to do to get there? What helps and what hinders? How do I know when I have got there?

It is good to consider your effort as an achievement and reward in itself - it is better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all. Remember: Man proposes, God disposes. But without effort, even God may fall asleep.

I wish all readers a successful personal development and a happy and prosperous New Year.

Dr Milind Jani works as a conventional and holistic GP and Dr Asmita Jani as Ayurvedic Consultant from 3 Eaton Gardens, Hove.

Call them on: 01273 777448 or email: milind.jani@ntlworld.com