26 Dec Happy New Year’s Resolutions

Well folks, here we are again at the end of another interesting year.   I sincerely hope your year brought you great joy and success.  But if it didn’t…and even if it did…I’m going to ask you the same question I ask my clients (and myself.)

What are you going to do differently next year?

Who was it who said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different response? Doesn’t matter who said it. The idea is what’s important.  If you want different…more, better, or even just different…you just gotta do different.  That’s how change happens.  Want to lose more weight?  Do more exercise.  Or eat less.  Or both. Want more business?  Do more marketing.  Or change your marketing.  Or change up your networking.  Or lower your prices.  Or (for the lucky few) raise you prices.  Do something different.

Or course, it’s not quite that simple. To really make a change you need a solid plan about what you want to do differently, making sure the actions you take are connected to the result you want.

Here are some hints to make it easier.

1. Clearly articulate your goal. Make it specific and measurable.  Not just lose weight.  But lose 10 or 20 or 30 pounds.  Not just get more clients, but get five more clients a month. Or 10.  Or whatever number works for you.

2. Then find all the things you do or don’t do, or could do that can contribute to the goal.  Look over what you did last year, see what worked and what didn’t work and then figure out exactly what you could change that could help bring about the effect you want.

3. Break down all the items into even smaller manageable tasks.  If you want more 5 more clients a month, and changing up your networking is one of the things you need to do to find them, that task could be broken down into spending two hours finding new networking opportunities, visiting five new groups to explore possibilities, and then joining one or more.   Trust me on this one.  The more specific you are, the easier it will be to accomplish your tasks and get to your goals.

And finally, if you can’t figure out what to do next or if you need someone to hold your feet to the fire (and you know who you are) you also know where to find me.

I wish you all great success in 2012…changing it up for the better.