I worked out at my Crossfit gym yesterday morning and our workout was called ‘out with the old, in with the new’ - very appropriate for the last day of the year. It got me thinking. I do a similar exercise like this with my Advisory Group at our December meeting where we make this list of what we’d like to leave behind in 2017 and some new strategies and programs to bring into 2018.
Here are a few other strategies to help you get ahead this year:
Have a plan - this is by far the most important one on the list so if you stop reading after this, you’re still one step ahead of so many. What does your year look like? What do you want to achieve? If you can’t take the time to think about it and write it down, chance are, you won’t be able to achieve it. I have multiple calendar tools that I use to plan my year and by far the most effective one is the Year-at-a-Glance. Message me if you’d like the template. It has changed my business and that of many of my clients.
Focus on Your Passion - ‘Do more of what you LOVE’! We all tend to get sidetracked or pulled in different directions on a daily basis. Write down what you’re most passionate about and stick it up on your wall in front of your computer as a reminder to find time to focus on what fills you up and makes you happy.
Know your driver. What drives you internally - is it praise, meaningful work, balance in your life, autonomy, higher learning, personal development? Know what it is and stay true to it.
Start saying No and Stop saying Yes. Make a list of all the things you want to say NO to and then make list of what you want to say YES to. Stick to it. At the back of one of my favorite books, The ONE Thing, there is a sign that you can cut out that says “This sign says NO so that I don’t have to”. You can find so much joy when you start doing more of what you truly want to do and less of what you don’t want to do.
Recap and Regroup. Emails, calls, and even some programs tend to get lost in the chaos of our lives. Spend time during the beginning of 2018 going through old notebooks, old emails, old texts and list out those people or projects that you lost your connection to that you’d like to reengage.
Build stronger relationships - we spend so much time these days on social media and interacting with our clients in a digital, non face-to-face manner. Take a little more time this year to reach out and speak to someone… on the phone or set up a coffee meeting for a little face time. Better yet, plan an event for your clients and/or vendors to come together, mingle and meet each other.
Find an Accountability Partner. Who do you hold yourself accountable to? Most people in corporate America have a boss that they report into and that same person motivates them to get their job done and get it done well. As an entrepreneur, I constantly found myself looking for people that ‘understood’ what it was like to work alone, work from home, manage the juggle of work and life and I missed being in the company of smart, driven people. This was a big part of why I created my company. It’s critical to your success to have people that know your goals and can support you in achieving them.
Go Big. What’s that thing that you KNOW will take you to the next level but you’ve been pressed for time or scared to jump into it because you don’t want to fail at it? I get it. I’ve been wanting to write a book since I started my company three years ago and this is the year that I’m going to do it. It’s a big, scary beast of a goal for me but I don’t want to close out another year of not getting it done.
So, I’ve 1) made a plan that is 2) focused on my passion that 3) drives me. I plan to 4) say YES to doing something big and 5) recapping all of my content from past years. I found a woman that I met a year ago and wanted to 6) cultivate a relationship with because her skill set can help me. I’ve reached out to my network and 7) found a whole team of accountability partners that are going to be in this with me for the long haul. Together, we are going to 8) ’Go Big’ this year and accomplish something scary…. and I can’t freakin wait.
Happy Happy Happy 2018 to you all. I wish you all a year of happiness, good health and sweet success.
-Hayley