It’s that time of year again! Christmas is over; the ball has dropped on Times Square. It’s time for New Year’s Resolutions! Your waist line may be a bit thicker, but your resolve to hit the gym 5 times every week is strong. Your credit may be maxed out or your bank account drained, but you are committed to getting out of debt and planning better for next Christmas’s spending. Or perhaps you are determined to take that amazing vacation you have been promising yourself since…you can’t even remember how long ago.
But does just “resolving” to do something help you make it happen? Most likely not. But it can be a step in the process.
Webster’s Dictionary defines “resolve” as “to find an answer or solution to something; to settle or solve something.”
We often think of New Year’s resolutions as something we have decided we are absolutely going to do, something we have settled on doing. We think it means that by making the resolution we have found the answer to getting fit, getting out of debt, building a business, etc.
But I think to make a New Year’s resolution should actually be a bit more. It is a piece of the process. I’m not talking about simply calling a resolution a goal because it sounds better and then going on your merry way. I’m talking about turning it into a process to get actual resolution to the problem you want to fix.
When you make a resolution to double your business income, for example, you are saying that you have a problem that you need to fix and that you have found the solution. The problem is that you aren’t making enough money to have the lifestyle or retirement you want. The solution you have come up with is to double your business income.
What is often missing is the HOW. How will you double your business income? Will you increase your blogging? Will you start investing in Facebook ads? Will you hire a virtual assistant? Will you add more products or services? These are all steps that you might decide you need to take in order to build your business this year, but if you don’t have a plan it will amount to nothing more than ink on paper, if it’s even that.
This is where goals and a plan come into the mix.
Your resolution and your one-year-goal may be to double your business income. If so, then your smaller goal is to add one new client or 1 new product each month. Your plan involves all of the small steps necessary to get that new client or to produce that new product each month.
What is your New Year’s resolution and how are you going to break it down into achievable goals? Let me know in a comment below.