6 steps to ensure this is your best year ever

At the start of every year, many of us have great ambitions for our careers, business and personal life for the year ahead.

We know about setting goals but why is it we often fail to achieve what we truly desire or deserve in terms of business results or in our career?

Let’s explore some strategies to help us create and deliver against our goals, so we give ourselves every opportunity to make sure this is our best year ever.

Create a compelling vision

Goals in the absence of a vision are unlikely to realise results. If our goals don’t help us get to where we want to be in our business or career we won’t be inspired to achieve them. Remember, if you don’t know where you are going, how will you know when you have got there?

Visualise yourself in a years time what goals would you like to have achieved? Capture your thoughts in writing – if you have a list of 20 things you want to achieve, you’ll need to prioritise your aspirations. Consider which would make the biggest difference to your business or career and focus on them – perhaps they are goals related to your business or personal finances, your career, winning new clients, increasing your reputation, learning a new skill or hobby.

Build on last year’s success

All too often we move from one year to the next or one project to the next without taking stock of the circumstances and factors that contributed to our previous success

What went really well for you last year? Did you meet or beat some of your objectives? What can you learn, adopt and apply that will support you in your plans for the year ahead?

Create clear and inspiring goals

Often we have too many goals so we’re not able to apply enough time and energy to truly achieving them. How many times have you started new projects or new hobbies without seeing things through to completion? It’s highly probably that if you worked out the time you need to invest to achieve all your aspirations for the year ahead, there would not be enough hours or resources available to you.

It’s vital to prioritise your goals and focus on the ones that are the most inspiring, relevant and critical for you to attain. You’ll have more energy and commitment to achieving your goals if you’re truly energised by them.

Make sure they are documented and are SMART (specific so you are really clear about what you want to attain, measurable so you know how to chart your progress, achievable and stretching but realistic so the goal motivates and inspires you and time bound so you know when you need to complete them by) and allocate the resources you will need to achieve your goals – be that financial, your own time or the support of others.

Document your goals

Be sure to document your goals – this will make the goals more than an aspiration. The actual process of writing your goals moves them from being an idea to a decision and something you can commit to.

Each day we are surrounded by choices of how we spend our time and energy. If you have your goals firmly in mind as you face into these decisions you can then make informed choices. Only then can you decide if that enticing activity or project will actually help you move towards achieving your goals.

Set 90 day goals

It’s often daunting to consider what it will take to achieve your goals over 12 months. It’s far more manageable and motivating to break your goals into smaller projects and focus on what you need to achieve in the next 90 days.

This also allows you to manage changes during the year, be that changes in the competitive landscape, changes in your team or new opportunities that come along. Consider it like sailing a yacht where you have to keep charting the landscape and correcting your direction to keep on track – getting from A to Z is rarely a straight line!

Recruit a success team

Many of us find it easier to stay accountable to ourselves in achieving our goals if we share our goals with others.

In an organisational context then, share your goals with your team members – you are sure to have interdependent goals that will need to be completed to ensure your own and your team’s success.

For your personal goals or if you have your own business, you may find it helpful to establish a “mastermind group” where you meet regularly to share your objectives.

A final thought

Did you know most email tools allow you to delay the delivery of an email to yourself?

Why not send yourself an email to arrive in a year’s time, detailing your aspirations for the year ahead? Won’t it be fun to open it up to find you’ve exceeded your goals and that this year truly was your best year ever!