Is it me or did 2014 zip by like a NASCAR race car? I feel like I was just sitting down to plan my 2014 year and now 2015 is upon us.
As a business owner, marketer or sales professional you likely had “big goals” for 2014, both professionally and personally.
How did that go for you?
Today, I want to talk to you about how to do more than set goals for 2015. Let’s make it happen. And let this be the year with the plot twist that changes the story of your business or your life for that matter.
Here are a few tips to make 2015 the best year ever for your business.
Start Now
Seriously, what are you waiting for? You don’t have to wait until 2015 to be awesome. The most important thing you can do when planning is to “start now.” You may not be able to make much progress or finalize anything, but starting now will give you momentum.
And really if you think about it. Is there anything else other than Now?
Thinking about your future or harping on your past won’t change anything. It’s what you do right this second that matters.
Identify This Year’s Roadblocks
If you are like me, you plan every year for growth and prosperity. Sometimes, everything I plan for happens and other times I’m lucky to just hit one of my goals. Why does planning work so efficiently sometimes and not so well others?
Well sometimes we have a bad plan and other times, life happens. Either way you need to try and identify things that stopped you this year and engineer a couple fail safes that prevent the same things from stopping you this year.
If you planned last year to increase your sales via email marketing by 20%, and that didn’t happen because you didn’t get any email leads. If you are going to keep the same goal, you know you’ll need to plan for lead generation.
I like to take all the obstacles I have and list them out, and then think through these obstacles until they become opportunities. If all your obstacles (things that stop you from obtain your goals) are now opportunities, what’s stopping you from achieving everything you want?
Nothing. Well except you of course.
Plan for Time Off
This is a hard one for me, but I’ve learned that taking time off to rest is essential for growth and success. Making a plan that doesn’t account for any recuperation is a plan that is destined to fail. Your body and your mind need time off. In fact, I may argue that you should plan this time first.
How much more productive are you when you have to get things done before a vacation? How much clearer do you think when you return?
My recommendation is every 90 days to do something. It may just be a weekend trip to the next state over, it may be a cruise (my favorite) or you may take a “staycation” where you don’t even leave the state. If you are a Zen Master, you’ll sit in a room and listen to the silence. I haven’t reached that level of Zen yet, but I’m working on it.
You need to remind yourself why you are doing all of this hard work and planning to begin with. Reward yourself.
That’s it for now.
If you need something to do right now, that will move you to your business goals. Click this link and complete our contact form or give us a call.
We’d love to help you get going in the New Year, right now.
