Setting Successful Strategies for the New Year
The beginning of a new year comes with so many exciting and new opportunities. As we complete another year, we look around and see consistent messages about change. The reminders to stop a destructive behavior or start a new, healthy behavior. These messages transcend from our personal lives to our businesses as well.
What if we don’t set a new goal and instead we focus on why we didn’t achieve last year’s goal(s) and what limited us from reaching them?
The Accumulation of Our Choices
Through the slow accumulation of our experiences, we achieve both personal and professional results. We can certainly see how this plays out in our health more than any other area in our lives, with a close second being the results of financial choices. If we want to lose weight, there was a time when we were not heavy. It is essential to understand what occurred between the beginning and the end or the final result to know what to adjust and/or change.
Reflect on all of the patterns and behaviors that have resulted in where you are today then apply that reflection to the mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, and other factors in life. Next, apply the same exercise toward your business.
Whether you are starting a new business or scaling your business, every step you take will result in your successes or failures.
We attempt to explain behaviors like; “that person grew up with unhealthy parents, therefore they didn’t learn to behave differently”, or “their traumatic experience completely paralyzed them and they became a self destructive person”.
However, we also receive countless messages that feature how anything is possible. We are exposed to thousands of messages a day as we watch TV, listen to teachers, commit to spiritual guides, associate with neighbors, schedule medical appointment, read bill boards and magazines, scroll through social media, get lost on the internet, etc.
When do we decide to start behaving in ways that eventually result in sometimes catastrophic impacts? If we could identify that moment and intervene, many of the problems we all face personally and professionally, could much more easily change. Consider being a positive influence in younger people as we know that habits are established early.
How to Make Lasting Changes for the New Year
Is it really possible to change with all of the years of patterned behavior in have in place? The strategy for success truly is based on how we go about doing so. Much of what I see as effective stems from supporting individuals with substance abuse and addiction issues for over 30 years, most who don’t believe it’s possible to change.
A traditional traditional approach in the mental health field has been to focus on the issue such as the addiction. However, those I have supported who have been successful long term, focused on how they wanted their life to become. It appears essential to focus on the desires and all of the steps necessary to reach those desires. Their success can also result from exploring past attempts and identify what did and didn’t work.
Practicing a daily personal inventory can result in building a prominent foundation. Instead of asking ourselves “what am I going to change today or this year” maybe the question should be, who am I working to become today?
Apply the same question to our business. What does my business want to become today.
The significance of this focus will emphasize momentum instead of starting and stopping which have short lasting wins and gains. Business success results from an accumulation of successes and learning from failures.
In Conclusion
Moving ourselves forward is more than just setting goals. We must reflect and learn from our successes and failures. As we enter into a new year, don’t move forward until you have accomplished what you wanted to reach last year. Practice one day at a time moving forward. Be realistic, disciplined, don’t get caught up in the new shiny thing and focus, focus, focus!!!