We’re all guilty of it. We set our resolutions on the 31st of December, jazzed to make progress in our personal and professional lives, and then, by the middle of January, we’re bored. Our goals, which had once seemed so within reach, have suddenly become infinitely far away. It’s no wonder that a mere 8 percent of people follow through on their New Years goals, according to University of Scranton research.
This year, rather than giving up preemptively, I propose we reset our resolutions and revive our excitement.
Here's How To Reset Your New Year’s Business Resolutions, And This Time, Make Sure They Stick
Write your goals down.
Writing your resolutions down is the first step to taking them seriously. While it's great to brainstorm goals, without writing down your mission, focus fades and continuity begins to decrease. Putting pen to paper forces you to focus, and to identify the specific goals that you are working toward.
In our company, we have a goals board. Everyone gets to set professional and personal goals each year. We broadcast the goals on a formal wall for the entire office to see. Whenever I walk into the office and see my own goal, it reminds me to take action. Our brains work subconsciously to help us accomplish our mission when we keep our resolutions top-of-mind. What’s more, it makes me happy -- it’s exciting to so much optimism and ambition, and a reminder of how much there is for each of us to look forward to.
Be realistic with your expectations.
Whether it's about weight-loss or ROI-growth, setting unattainable goals doesn't help your success, it hinders it. Set goals that, though they require hard work and perseverance, are, in fact, doable. It's better to set a smaller goal that can be expanded upon than something you feel you'll never actually reach. If you aim to increase your bottom-line, think about what strategies you can use to hit that revenue goal. Pick a number; a realistic number. Going from 100K to 100 million in sales will not happen overnight. Think about the most important things that will impact your business that with hard work and effort, you can actually achieve.
Establish milestones to track success.
A year is a long time to stay focused. Here's where the planning comes into play. If you fail to plan, you are, in essence, planning to fail. Think about what success looks like short term and keep yourself motivated. Be sure to set key performance indicators for each of the goals you set. Otherwise, how will you know if you're on track? Give yourself a schedule and monthly (or, weekly, if you're extra committed) milestones to know that you're breezing through the things you want to accomplish.
Last year, my goal was to lose 60 pounds. I would not have been able to accomplish that aggressive goal if I didn't measure my weight each week (sometimes each day) to keep track of how much I lost, how much longer I had to go, and what roadblocks I had to hoist myself over to come out successful.
Taking these ideas and incorporating them into business, my company will be resetting our goals and pushing through 2014 until we see our desired results.
Here are 5 Business Goals I've reset for my company in 2014:
Adding Value: We want to continue to organize our company to make it more efficient and profitable so that both, our clients and our employees can get more out of their time. Our goal is to increase our corporate value by 200%.
Thought Leadership: We plan to produce and execute four marketing seminars, one per quarter, to help business owners see success by sharing important growth strategies and hosting interactive workshops and webinars.
Business Networking: We’re working to build our Events Division, Business Events NY, to increase reach by 25% and continue widely branding our company. We aspire to host one monthly event for up to 300 business entrepreneurs.
Strong Recruiting: We aim to hire 10 additional experienced marketing professionals that can add to our existing talent-pool and help continue the steady growth of our business.
Quality Sales: We need to define our target market to three major areas. Then, we'll start marketing to this target the right industries and going deeper with our clients.
Remember, when thinking about your own resolutions, ask yourself:
Where do you want to be in 1 year, 3 years, 5 years?
With these goals in mind, what will be different for your company? What's the end-goal?
What type of investment can you make to your goals, in regards to time, effort, energy, money? Is it doable?
So, which goals are you resetting this month? By sharing your goals with others, you train to hold yourself accountable.
Let me know in the comments box below!
Joe Apfelbaum brings more than thirteen years to the online business, technology and marketing community. Serving as CEO and Co-Founder of Ajax Union, www.ajaxunion.com, he has been featured on
