In the United States, mid-November through the end of the year are a time when many people take a step back and reflect on the successes and challenges of the previous year. The Holidays are a good time to clear your mind, regain your focus and hit the re-set button.
What follows are several techniques I use to plan ahead and make the next year better than the one I’m putting behind me. I’ve been doing these things for many years now. To my great surprise, they seem to have resulted in a pretty good track record.
Ready? Here goes.
- Have Perspective: Do you fall into the trap of looking at other people’s lives (or careers) and thinking that it’s all smooth sailing for them? Well, it’s not. On the surface, everything may seem like it’s going smoothly, but their lives and careers are just as haphazard as yours is. By recognizing this, you can stop wasting energy worrying about other people’s success/failures and start using the energy to move the ball forward for yourself.
- Do a Reality Check: We all have a tendency to focus on the fun/easy aspects of our careers while hoping that the difficult/hard aspects will magically disappear. Unfortunately, they won’t disappear — unless you address them. Take a calculated look at your strengths and weaknesses and analyze which ones you need to improve upon. Better still, ask someone you trust to give you honest feedback on what’s working and what’s not working for you and focus on those.
- Identify Your C.S.F.s: Your C.S.F.s are your Critical Success Factors. These are the key things you have to focus on in order to have a successful year. For 60 Second Communications (my marketing communications agency), our C.S.F.s are 1) Client Retention, 2) Client Acquisition, 3) Cash Flow Management, and 4) Employee Development. If we get those 4 things right, the rest are all details.
- Establish Your S.M.A.R.T. Goals: You won’t accomplish your goals unless you write them down and make them specific. S.M.A.R.T. goals are Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and Time-bound. By using S.M.A.R.T. goals you can hold yourself accountable for your results.
- Break Goals into Categories: If you write all your goals down without categorizing them, it’ll be a mess. I’ve found that breaking them into categories keeps me from getting overwhelmed. My categories are Business, Family, Spiritual Life, Marriage, Hobbies and Physical Health. I have a variety of goals for each one of those categories.
- Write Your Goals on a Spreadsheet: There’s an old saying in business — things that get measured invariably improve. In order to measure something, you need to write it down, otherwise it’s just a vague concept rather than a specific data-point. When you write your goals down, don’t forget to include a timeline of when you expect to see improvement.
- Find an Accountability Partner: The biggest secret of all is to get an accountability partner to keep you on track. I’ve had many throughout my career (including a very good friend named Eric Miller). If you get the right accountability partner, you’ll find that accomplishing the goals is much, much easier. But here’s the trick — you have to meet regularly (Google+ is great for this). Eric and I used to meet every Friday afternoon at 4:00 pm to review and discuss our goals. Meeting with Eric every week was one of the smartest things I’ve ever done in business.
Those are some thought-starters on how to make 2014 your best year ever. What are some of the tips and techniques you use? Share them with our community members below — we’d love to hear from you!
Jamie Turner is the CEO of the 60 Second Marketer and 60 Second Communications, a marketing communications agency that works with national and international brands. He is the co-author of “How to Make Money with Social Media” and “Go Mobile” and is a popular marketing speaker at events, trade shows and corporations around the globe.