Kathy’s Home & Garden Tips – Start the New Year on the Right Path

Many people start the new year with “Resolutions”. Many involve losing weight, eating better, or spending less money. Most of these good intentions tend to be forgotten before the end of January. Most resolutions fail because there is no plan. 

First, we need to call them by their right name: goals. Next, we need to put them down on paper. Start jotting down the things you really want to work towards. They can be personal or work related, but keep them separated. Look over your list and pick two that are the most important to you. Try to make the goal as simple as possible. I used to think I needed pages of goals and plans but the simpler, the better. Goals also need to be measurable in some way. Losing some weight sounds good but how can you tell if you’re successful? Losing 10 pounds in the first quarter of 2020 is measurable. Then you can decide your strategies. 

Strategies are the action plans that get us to our goal. Say you are in sales. Meeting more contacts is your bread and butter. One of your priorities could be to meet X number of new people per week to increase your client base. One strategy could be to attend more functions with your family, like school and sporting events. Another is to go to more networking meetings. Practice your scripts with others in your office to become proficient. A strategy for losing weight could be setting a specific number of workouts per month- say 25. Knowing you have to get those 25 done in one month will keep you from putting one off, thinking you have plenty of time. 

Tell others about your goal plans. It’s called accountability and it increases the likelihood that you’ll stick to your plan. Keep track of your progress; this is why we make progress measurable. This also helps you reassess. Maybe you need to course correct by changing up a few workouts or figuring out new ways to meet people. It’s better to realize in February you need to change things, instead of waiting till October and finding out your goals are out of reach. 

So try out a new goal plan for this new year! Check out different goal plans online for more ideas on structuring a goal plan to fit with your wants and needs. Remember to keep it simple, have a way to measure your progress, and DO so often. 

KATHLEEN WEAVER-ZECH & DEAN’S TEAM CHICAGO