Whether you are celebrating a new year at this time or whether it is a moment when you think, “It’s time,” it is, as the cliche goes, never too late for a new beginning. Sometimes the trigger is a date on the calendar, turning an age that ends in a “0” or a “5,” or just a recognition that this, for you, is the moment.

We take stock of our lives, of our dreams, of changes we want to make and we decide that, this time, we are going to go forward, this time we mean it. Although the little voice, that one that lives in the back of our brains, says, with that slightly mocking tone we know so well, “Sure you are. Just like all the other times.” And we think about how many times we have said, perhaps to ourselves and perhaps to others, this will be the time, this will be the year, this will be the decade.

Change is hard. That is a universal truth. But change is possible. The key, I think, is to set a goal and to recognize that there are many steps, definable steps, to reach that goal. Sometimes, often in fact, those are baby steps but each one leads us closer to what we want to achieve.

Suppose your goal is a personal one, something very doable, but often pushed aside, like exercise. If your bigger goal is to improve your health and fitness, you know that some sort of daily exercise matters. We’ve all done this, I suspect. Sign up for a class so you have a commitment or work out with a friend or lay your gym clothes out so they are right there and unavoidable when you wake up in the morning. For those of us who have used those tools, myself included, they work. One step, another step and a pattern is created and a change is made.

The same applies, I think, to our professional goals. What do you want to achieve? What will it look like, feel like, when you achieve it? It may appear to be a million miles of bumpy road between where you are now and where you want to be but that does not mean you can’t get there. It means that you have to start. It means you have to define, for yourself, what each step looks like and commit to taking them.

The most important commitments are the ones we make to ourselves. And they are the ones we most often disregard. Holding ourselves accountable, keeping our goals—whatever they are—in our efforts daily, will enable us to reach our objectives, live our dreams and continue to fill our full hearts.