We’re nearly through the second month of 2019 and it is in full swing! If you’re like most businesses you probably created new business goals you’d like to achieve this year. But how many times have you gone through the process of making your goals in January only to have completely forgotten about them or put them on the back burner until July? It’s okay! We’re all busy, projects come up, life happens and our priorities shift. That’s not a reason to abandon your goals, it only means we need to make time to reflect and adjust more often. Here are 5 tips to help you make and achieve your yearly goals.
1. Make sure your goals are ambitious but still attainable.
When you’re first thinking about your goals it’s important to review your previous year’s results so you are able to set a benchmark for your business. Take a look back at what you were able to achieve last year and determine how you can build off of that success. What are some things you feel would take your business to the next level that would require you to push yourself?
2. Write them down!
Once you’ve reviewed last year and made your goals for this year, make sure you write them down! We all think we have great memories and will remember everything, but the truth is…. they’re not as good as we think they are. Write your goals down, it’s pretty simple, but writing down goals not only helps us remember, but it also helps us hold ourselves accountable for things. Our brains react differently when we write things down, it feels more personal and gives us more motivation to not want to let ourselves down.
3. Review wins and loses weekly
Now you’ve made your goals, you’ve written them down and you’re starting to work towards them. One of the biggest keys in achieving your goals is to review your progress each week. Take a few minutes at the beginning or end of each work week and have an honest conversation with yourself. What did you do well? What did you accomplish? Maybe you sold a new account or you hired two new employees. Anything that you did that was positive should be celebrated. Conversely, it is also important to identify where you struggled or slipped up? Maybe you weren’t very productive a few days or you lost a client. That’s okay! But identifying these wins and losses keeps you on track and conscious of what you’re doing on a day to day basis and holds you accountable for your end goal.
4. Make a plan on how to change the loses to wins
After reviewing your wins and losses for the week, now it’s time to make a plan of how to continue building off the success you had from your wins and to determine how you can change your behavior or systems to avoid repeating one of your losses. Write down how you think you can adjust your workflow or mindset to have more wins than losses.
5. Review and adjust yearly goals at the end of each month.
At the end of each month, it’s time to compare notes. Look back on all of your weekly wins and losses and see how your progress is looking for your end of year goals. Were your goals ambitious enough? Maybe too ambitious? This is where you want to adjust your end of year goals to better reflect your progress and ensure you’re pushing yourself to achieve them while also holding yourself accountable.
Repeat steps 3-5 every week and at the end of each month and before you know it you’ll be knocking off your goals and getting ready to start new ones.
