As we move on to cross over into the New Year, there’s a high adrenaline rush for new opportunities, breakthroughs, and successes. We sort of think, “Next year, we will achieve more and become more successful.”
But as we all know, success doesn’t come by accident. Success comes through a process. And until you follow the process, you’ll never achieve success, no matter who you are. Also, success does not come to those who wish for it, it comes to those who work for it.
To have a Happy New Year, you have to work for it. A Happy New Year is not just a slogan!
A big part of the work is PREPARATION. As they say in business, “Effective preparation prevents poor performance.” If you don’t prepare effectively for a Happy New Year, don’t expect to have a Happy New Year!
Many people think because it is a new year, everything will be happy. That’s a lie. I repeat, “If you don’t prepare effectively for a Happy New Year, don’t expect to have a Happy New Year!
And a lot of time, we get so much enthuse about the New Year euphoria that we ill prepare for the New Year. Then at the end of the year, we realize that the year was not as happy as we wish it to be. No, it’s not the year. It is because we haven’t prepared well for it.
Here are the top 10 ways to prepare effectively for a Happy New Year if you really want to make the New Year productive, successful, prosperous and happy.
- Review your Failures & Successes for the Past Year
Review Your Progress So Far
December is not just a merrymaking period.
It is a time of reflection. It is the time to count your successes and failures, evaluate how you went through the year, what went wrong, what went well and what you learned in general.
Someone said, “December to Remember.”
That means December is the time to remember, review and analyze your life and business. So analyze last year’s goals against your performance. If you’re in business, review your corporate goals and the performance for the year.
- Set New Goals for the New Year
Many people confuse goals with wishes, dreams, and resolutions. They wish this will happen and that will happen. And all these things are things in their minds. They go through the New Year following the same routines and getting the same results of the old year in the New Year.
No. You need to set new goals for the New Year!
Your goals are your yardstick to monitor, evaluate and guide the way you conduct yourself throughout the year. So set your spiritual goals, professional goals, business goals, financial goals, family & relationship goals, investment goals, and academic goals.
Your goals should be written down in concrete. They should be in the past present tense as though a year has passed and they’ve all been accomplished, e.g “ I have set up a new office in downtown.” Your goals should be specific, measurable, aspirational, realistic and time-bound (SMART)!
You also have to prioritize your goals in the right sequence and order. Which goal on your list will bring you the biggest amount of success and happiness? Note it down and prioritize the remaining goals in the right sequence and order.
- Identify the Reasons Why You Must Achieve Your Goals
Life is hard.
So expect the New Year to be hard. Right?
To go through tough times and still hold onto your goals, you need to have something strong on the inside of your propelling you to keep moving forward. You must have a “strong why” for achieving your goals. You must have a strong motive behind your goals that will keep you on course when the storms come.
So write down at least 10 reasons why you must achieve your New Year goals. Write down the reasons why you should make X amount of revenue, get that contract, start that business, open that new branch of business, expand your customer base, expand your team base and become a leading player in your industry! Write them down in concrete!
- Identify Obstacles that Might Come Your Way in Achieving Your Goals
A big way to prepare effectively for a New Year is to prepare for the storms of the New Year. Every year comes with its own storms, challenges, difficulties, and issues. But oftentimes, we’re so much blinded by the New Year adrenaline rush that we fail to prepare for the challenges that might come in the year.
Every goal has its own challenges. If you really want to accomplish the goal, then you must be prepared and forearmed to overcome the challenges that go with the goal.
So against each of your goals, identify top 3 to 5 challenges or obstacles that might prevent you from achieving your goal.
Think ahead and figure out what obstacles might come your way in your quest to achieve your spiritual goals, professional goals, business goals, financial goals, family & relationship goals, investment goals and academic goals for the New Year.
- Identify Core Values, Attitudes, Behaviors or Conduct you Must Portray to Achieve Your New Year Goals
There is a simple formula for achieving goals: BE-DO-HAVE.
This formula means that if you want to “Have” something, then you must “Do” something. But, before you can “Do” that thing you must, “Be” someone! The “Be” aspect of the goal achieving formula is the hardest part of the process.
Many a time the reason we aren’t making enough progress is because of our bad habits, behaviors, and conducts. If you run a company, it’s not enough for you to be good; your team must be good as well. Or else your team might sabotage your success.
So what is the bottom line?
Develop a code of conduct required to overcome the obstacles and the goals of the New Year. To have a happy new year, you must put forth new behaviors. If your team and you don’t change behaviors; professional and corporate goals will not be achieved. This will intend to affect other aspects of life.
- Analyze Your Relationships and Develop Ways to Improve and Increase Them
The quality of your life is always determined by the quality of your relationships.
The more quality relationships you develop, the better and happier your life will become. As we cross over to the New Year, the first thing to do is to amend weak relationships.
Ask for forgiveness from someone you’ve wronged. Forgive someone who has wronged you. Take away bitterness, anger, and frustration from your heart. Clean up your heart and release all people who have offended you.
Forgive your team. And if you’re a worker, forgive your boss(s). Amend your old relationships. Sort out issues with your customers, partners, creditors, investors, and suppliers. Ensure you have clean and straighten all relationships for the New Year to straighten up for you.
Once you have done that it is now time to plan for more relationships in the upcoming year. How many customers do you want to get? How many partners do you want to get? How many workers do you want to get? What will be your framework for forming these new relationships?
- Develop an Education Plan to Upgrade Your Knowledge And Skills
Billionaire Warren Buffet said, “The more you learn, the more you earn.”
So if you’re going to earn more in the New Year, then it means you must be prepared to learn more in the New Year. You can’t make more money with your current knowledge and skills.
A new year requires new knowledge, skills and experience.
You might be thinking, “But I have my Master’s Degree.” Yes, it’s true. You still have to upgrade. If you really want to make it big in this fast-moving world, your knowledge, skills, and experience must be growing very fast. So you have to develop your education plan.
Which courses will you take this year? Which books will you read this year? How many books will you read this year? What new skills do you want to learn this year? What new experiences do you want to acquire this year? Write them down. If you run a company, it’s not enough for you to upgrade, your team must upgrade their knowledge and skills as well. So plan for that too!
- Develop a Cash Plan
You can’t prepare effectively for a Happy New Year without a cash plan. Cash is king. Without cash, you may not be able to run your personal, professional and business life effectively. So you must develop a cash plan to achieve and accomplish your goals.
The first step is to analyze your current financial position.
Then set a goal for the total amount of money you want to make in the New Year—for yourself and your company. Identity the revenue streams you plan to employ to accomplish and achieve your financial goals.
If you have a few debts to clear, plan for it. Develop a plan on how to clear off the debt. Also, it is very important to plan your expenditure, investments and savings. How much money will you save this year? How much money will you give away to charity? How much money will you invest?
You can call your accounts clerk to help you with the basic financial planning or you can do it yourself!
- Develop a Strategic Action Plan for the Accomplishment of Your New Year Goals
Once you have done all these things, it is now time to develop an action plan on how to accomplish your goals. You have to map out a plan on how you will use your time, energy, money, networks, education and many others to accomplish your new goals.
A plan is simply a bridge to your goals.
So all you have to do is to list things you will do to achieve your spiritual goals, professional goals, business goals, financial goals, family & relationship goals, investment goals and academic goals for the New Year.
- Develop an Evaluation Plan To Keep Track of Progress
Peter Drucker, the Management Guru said, “If you can’t measure it, then you can’t manage it. If you don’t have a way to measure, evaluate and keep track of your performance throughout the New Year, then be sure that your goals may not be accomplished.
Life is full of distractions, disappointments, and competition. So you have to stay focus on the accomplishment of your goals. If you’re going to stay focus, you must develop an evaluation plan to keep you on track.
A great way to do this is to have your management team meet each month to review progress against the forecast. If you’re a corporate executive or solopreneur, get a trusted friend to help keep you accountable for the accomplishment of your New Goals.
You must also discipline yourself to plan each month, each week and each day of the year. So that you can be able to ensure all your actions are directed towards the accomplishment of your spiritual goals, professional goals, business goals, financial goals, family & relationship goals, investment goals and academic goals for the New Year.
Follow the guidelines above to always prepare effectively for a Happy New Year. Share your comments below.
Now I’m like, well duh! Truly thankful for your help.
Thanks a million. Cheers!