Your best year ever

Make this year count.

There is a lot of talk this time of year about goals, resolutions, and change. Companies and individuals around the world have embarked on their new years journey to grow sales, lose weight, enhance customer experience, and improve relationships.

Personally, I am not a big fan of resolutions. They seem more like wishes to me. Wishes lack commitment and sense of urgency.

I also think rigid goal setting can get you in trouble. The circumstances in business and life change in real-time, and not giving yourself the flexibility to pivot can set yourself up for failure.

Here is what works for us.

Goals

For our family, and similarly my business partners, we start with writing down everything want to accomplish/do/change in the next year. I’ve learned to not think about what we didn’t do or revel too long in our press clippings either.

Reflection

One thing we do in reflection is take inventory of where we are so we know where we are starting. The other thing we do is audit our activities and processes. We want to make sure we are doing something because it is the best way not just because it is how we’ve always done it.

Validate

Then we make sure we have a “why” attached to each of those. This is our filter. We know if we have the “what” and “why”, we can figure out the “how”.

“Hows” are fluid and may get tweaked along the way, but they’re always doable when you have the “what” and why”.

Navigation

One popular exercise that has been going around for a few years is picking 3 words for the year. The words should be broader than goals or action words. They should serve as navigational stars that help you stay on the right path, and common threads which weave through your daily life.

Start

Then we are off to the races. At home we usually sit down on Sunday nights and create our plan for the week. It gives us an opportunity to re-prioritize if needed, share success stories and what we’ve learned, and get ready for the next 7 days.

Your turn

What are you doing this year to make it your best?