While I can’t help you lose 10 pounds or finally learn French, if you’ve resolved to find a new job in 2007, here are two shortcuts to try...

1) Find Someone to Model

The most successful people in history have one thing in common: They all modeled themselves on someone else.

Before conquering the known world by age 33, Alexander the Great learned the Iliad by heart and took Achilles as his military model. Julius Caesar envied and emulated Alexander. Napoleon studied and imitated Caesar.

In music, Chuck Berry emulated his teacher, Ira Harris. The Beatles learned from Chuck Berry. And everyone learned from the Beatles.

Luckily, you don’t have to invade Gaul or learn the guitar. All you need do is find a new job. And you can do it faster if you emulate one or more highly successful people at work.

Look around. Who has the job you really, really want? It may be your sibling, best friend, neighbor or someone in the news. Pick one or more people and model yourself on them.

Then ask yourself questions to identify the critical success traits to emulate:

• Where did they start in their industry?
  
• How did they reach the top?
  
• What books and magazines do they read?
  
• How were they hired for the job they now have?

Have FUN with this and really try to adopt the mindset of your model, right down to the smallest detail.

The final question is this: What one thing should I be doing right now if I want to emulate the success of my "workplace hero?"

Then, get busy doing it. In a year’s time you may not believe how far you’ve come!

2) Let Others Sing Your Praises

Here’s a job-search trick that’s more than 100 years old, updated for the 21st century.

Back around 1900, advertising man Claude Hopkins interviewed for a job at Swift & Company in Chicago. Although he was one of the preeminent men in his field, Hopkins was told he had little chance of getting the job -- 105 men had applied for it ahead of him!

So Hopkins resolved to do something different. Something brilliant.

He approached all the leading men he knew in business -- bankers, advertisers, furniture makers and others. He asked each to write a letter to the hiring manager at Swift telling what they thought of Claude Hopkins.

A flood of letters praising Hopkins soon rained down on Swift & Company. And Hopkins was hired. (He later went on to more or less invent modern advertising.)

More recently, author and speaker James Malinchak wrote that, despite going on several job interviews and following up after, he wasn’t getting job offers. Then, like Hopkins, he had an idea. He asked his references -- former supervisors and college professors -- to write recommendation letters to employers on his behalf.

Soon, laudatory letters began arriving at employers where Malinchak had interviewed. As he writes in his book, "From College to the Real World," one manager said: "I have never received so many letters in support of one individual. You must be well respected among your peers."

Malinchak was hired soon after, in large part due to this creative persistence.

In your case, think of all the successful people you know who would write you a letter of recommendation on their letterhead. Three or four paragraphs are all you need in each letter, so long as it describes you in glowing, specific terms. Then ask your references to mail those letters to employers you really want to work for.

It goes without saying that you owe each of your letter writers a steak dinner or a bottle of something bubbly. But when you get that new job, you’ll feel like celebrating anyway, so invite them all to dinner.

Now, go out and make your own luck!