It’s a new year with new goals and a fresh outlook. What’s on your agenda in terms of moving your business forward this year? Are you hoping to gain more clients, take on some juicy new projects, or rise up in size/rank? Whatever your objectives are, you have eleven and a half more months to make them happen.
Here are a few surefire ways to make some bold business moves and achieve your goals this year:
- Map it out. What do you hope to get out of the year? Putting it down with pen and paper is like a written contract with yourself- a deal that you’re going to make it happen. So make it, sign it, and then deliver the results.
- Determine your why? What’s in it for you? Are you hoping to boost your income, get more satisfaction, grow your notoriety, or help others in a big sort of way. When you know your why, you can move more strategically and actively towards your goals.
- Figure out your how. Once you’ve determined what you want, your next task is outlining how you’ll get there. What must happen in order to make your dreams come true? What resources do you already have to help? What more will you need? What steps will you take between now and the end of the year? This mapping process will be critical for the successful attainment of your goals.
- Give yourself some small milestones. It’s not going to unfold instantly. You willl need to take a lot of tiny steps on the path to success. Break your larger goals into smaller ones so that it will be less overwhelming for you and so that you can hit some small achievements along the way to the larger ones.
- Set dealines. In my experience, if you don’t attach a timeline to it, it’s less likely to happen. So, set a timeframe for each of the milestones as well as your overarching goals. That way, you can stay on top of your progress and ensure that you are doing the things that you need to do so that you can be where you want at the end of the year.
- Celebrate little victories. When you’re going after larger goals, there tends to be a lot of work before you finally achieve them which can often leave you feeling overwhelmed and overworked. Try to celebrate the smaller wins on your path in order to prevent this overwhelm. We can find victory in the journey, not just the final outcome.
- Execute, execute, execute. Everything worth having takes a lot of work so ensure that you set aside the proper time for execution. If it’s outside of your day job, you’ll have to work before or after hours. If its part of your daily routine, find space for it there. Productivity and execution are the keys to your ultimate goal attainment.
- Check in on your progress. At the end of the day, these are your objectives, so you’re in charge of your work towards them. Put progress checks on your calendar so that you can check in from time to time to see how you are doing, and make adustments as needed. And, no matter what, keep going. If you really want to make them happen, you will!