We’ve entered that in-between time when Christmas has passed… but New Year’s is hot on its heels.
And with it the prospect of New Year’s resolutions.
It’s almost inevitable we’ll have the idea of these cross our minds… even if we’re not one who makes them… just because they’re like a societal phenomenon. And someone you know is bound to be talking about making one or more resolution for 2024.
They cross my mind too. Not because I like making them. But there is a tug towards doing something new and fresh in the new year.
This year I was thinking about the whole concept of resolutions.
Really a resolution is typically a positive intention to make some sort of change. Which we can reasonably classify as a good thing.
In many ways they’re like a goal. With the intention of reaching some kind of desired outcome.
The only thing is: they’re are often based on large doses of hopium and fantasy.
I’ve got some things I’d like to achieve in the new year. In fact, they’re very ambitious things. So I was thinking making some sort of resolutions would be a good thing.
BUT… the only way I’m even going to attempt it is if I treat them like any other goal that I want to actually achieve.
I expect you’ll have heart of SMART goals before. And I won’t unpack the idea because there’s plenty of places on the internet to help you.
These Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound goals give structure and earth them in reality… to try and get the fantasy blimp floating back down to earth.
SMART goals do tend to be outcome-focused. In the case of improving our fitness it might be: “lose 10 lbs in 10 weeks”. Or in our business: “make $10,000 within the next 3 months”.
But the big issue with SMART goals is they aren’t accomodating of “life happening”.
If there’s something outside our control that comes up it can pull the handbrake on our motivation when we see we’re just not going to make the goal.
Instead, I’m making the resolution (!) to set effort-based goals for my business resolutions for the new year.
Instead of going for things like: “Get another retainer client by the enter of February who pays $X per month” and setting out what I think might be a good strategy to reach that…
I’ll be working with goals like: “Consistently send 25 cold emails a week (5 per day) by the end of March”.
The outcome of these efforts is directed towards gaining a new client. And they’re withing the realm of reason to be able to achieve this.
I can measure, even on a daily basis, that I’m doing what’s required.
For me this approach is about living more in the realm of reality… and is about practicing a specific approach until the desired situation is reached. Namely, landing another client.
The focus is broad to the day-by-day things. What I can achieve today. And not on this far away goal.
And changing tack is easy if needed.
I still have some things to nail down… but there’s still a few more days to do it 😉
What are your plans for new year goals and how you’re planning to achieve them?
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Chris Milham