New Year – New You

There’s something about the New Year that makes us desire some personal changes in life. It’s as if turning the calendar page inspires us to think about self-improvement. Making major alterations to one’s life requires a plan and a good deal of patience…and effort. To achieve one’s goals there must be an understanding of how it will happen while managing expectations of when it will happen. Anything less and it is quite probable that the goals will not be met in the New Year.

Here are three things that you can do to help ensure that you achieve the goals you set for yourself in 2018:

Set Realistic Goals

Quite possibly the most important thing is to establish realistic goals that require effort and energy but are by no means insurmountable. You want your goals to be outside your comfort zone. Typical goals such as saving money, losing weight, re-engineering your company, finding new clients, and exercising more are all achievable as long as you establish and follow an action plan that will take you to the goal. When establishing your action plan, establish it for a goal that is WAY beyond what you are looking to achieve. If you want to lose 10 pounds, outline steps you would take if you were going to lose 30 pounds. Following the ‘enhanced’ steps will get you to your goal more quickly, and who knows, will probably get you beyond that goal and well onto your next.

Recognize Success Along the Way

Though you may have a long-range goal, you should make it a point to celebrate success along the way. For example, if you seek 20 new client accounts in the New Year, try to recognize the positive results (every 5 accounts, say) as you build towards that ultimate goal. The same holds true for personal goals like weight loss and exercise: hit benchmarks and recognize when you do. You may even want to build in a reward, for yourself or your team, at key moments, allowing everyone to remain energized and working towards accomplishing the big goal.

Consider an “Accountability” Partner

Making change in the New Year may be more difficult than you think even if you establish reasonable goals. If this is the case, you should work with an “accountability” partner to keep you on track and moving forward even when the “going gets tough.” Depending upon the goal the person can be a friend or family member or a hired professional coach. Be sure that this person is comfortable with giving “tough love” when necessary. There are plenty of viable options, and for many people having an accountability partner can be the difference between success or failure.

Remember to be kind to yourself. Most goals can be recalibrated with a revised action plan to bring you forward. If you set a goal, and aren’t reaching it, don’t give up on the goal….rather, come up with different actions steps to achieve it.

Happy New Year from all of us at Champion Office Suites. May you blow through all of your goals for 2018!