Plan Your Goals for the New Year in the Old Year

“I never dreamed of success, I worked for it.” Estee Lauder

If you’re setting your personal and business goals for the New Year on December 31^st or January 1^st and declaring them on New Year’s Eve, you’re already too late. You can announce your goals at this time, but you shouldn’t just be coming up with them at that point in the year.

It takes time to develop our goals, break down the steps that we need to take to reach our goals and then implement them. And then, whoop whoop, see the benefits and payoffs of reaching our goals! If you want to start your year off strong, you should already be planning out these steps prior to the upcoming year. You can then enjoy the holidays, declare your goals and resolutions to the world on December 31st, or just restate them to yourself, and hit the ground running in January. If you wait to start this whole process until the New Year, you will lose so much time!

What are some examples of goals you may want to consider for your business?

• Collaborations-partner with people, companies or products

• Projects

• New products you want to create

• Financial goals like how to save money and increase income

• New equipment you may want (lighting, microphone, new office chair)

• Trying out new tools such as an app, video editor, captions for videos

• Goals for your social media presence like updating bios, updating headshots, a new platform you want to try

• A project you didn’t complete this year and want to carry over to the New Year

Do you need an extra layer of accountability to help you reach your goals? It may just be accountability to yourself by writing down goals and the steps to reach them. Even better if you have a method of tracking your progress!

From the HuffPost 9/14/16 blog post by Mary Morrissey:

• Gail Matthews, a psychology professor at the Dominican University in California, recently studied the art and science of goal setting.

• And she discovered that those who wrote down their goals and dreams on a regular basis achieved those desires at a significantly higher level than those who did not.

• She found that you become 42% more likely to achieve your goals and dreams, simply by writing them down on a regular basis.

Perhaps you resonate with an additional layer of accountability by sharing your goals and dreams publicly with family, friends, business associates or an accountability partner.

Celebrating your accomplishments is one more step that you should add to the goal setting and reaching agenda. Plan ahead for your celebration-know what it will be. Think about what feels like a good celebration for you for each goal you have and make a list of ideas to choose from. Then when it’s time to celebrate, you don’t have to ponder over what to do, you can just do it!

“Without goals and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination.” Fitzhugh Dodson

I want all of us to have a destination and reach it!