ChicExecs Senior VP of PR and Digital Marketing Kristen Wessel shares five tips for keeping your New Year’s Resolution on Forbes blog. Below is a highlight to enjoy.
Let’s make your business resolution stick. Follow these five tips to crush your goals for 2020 without breaking a sweat.
1. Create A Five-Year Business Plan
Where do you see your business in five years? It’s one thing to hope for a thriving, profitable business and another thing entirely to make this vision a reality. The best New Year’s resolutions are backed by data and planning — that’s how you can push your resolutions to become reality.
Instead of making a resolution like, “I want my business to earn more money this year,” think bigger. Create a five-year plan for your business instead of one-off resolutions every year. Make a plan for 2020-2025, documenting the milestones and achievements your business needs to make along the way.
2. Write It Down
Many resolutions are blurted out loud at New Year’s Eve parties, after which they never see the light of day. You can’t hold yourself accountable for achieving your goals if you don’t write them down.
Use your five-year business plan to write down your resolutions. But go one step further here: Write down this year’s resolution somewhere you’ll see it every day. Place it on your desk, as your computer wallpaper, on your phone or in your wallet. You can even write a resolution checklist on a whiteboard and cross off items as you achieve them.
3. Be Specific
When you make a resolution like, “I want more clients,” you’re not setting your business up for success. “More” clients can mean as few as one additional client. That’s not a big goal to push you to do better. If your goals are too broad, you’re much less likely to achieve them. You have no yardstick or finish line, which makes it difficult to see the road ahead. Translation: Your resolution is likely to fail.
Instead, be very specific with your goals. Use the SMART goal-setting framework to do this. Write goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound to set your intentions.
4. Get An Accountability Buddy
Speaking of accountability, sometimes we need a little pressure to pursue our goals. Try to find an accountability buddy. This is a person who you share your goals with. Check in with each other on a regular basis, and report on your progress.
5. Be Realistic
Stretch goals are important, but there’s a line between pushing yourself and being unrealistic. For example, are you expecting your $100,000 business to earn $1 million this year? That might not be realistic.
The problem with unrealistic business resolutions is that they set you up for failure. No matter how hard you work, you don’t see the payoff. That’s a recipe for frustration and a lack of motivation — and you may never achieve your resolution.
Set goals with the intention of achieving them. By setting attainable goals, you’re more likely to find success and enjoy long-lasting achievement.
Read Kristen’s entire blog here.
