Getting Ready for a New Year
I hope everyone is having a wonderful and relaxing holiday season and is ready for another exciting year to begin
For most people, the dawn of a New Year is the time to think about and commit to your personal, business, and family goals for the coming 12 months, aka your New Year’s resolutions. Unfortunately, according to research from the University of Scranton, only around 8 percent of people actually achieve their New Year’s resolutions.
A great book came out a few years ago titled “Mistakes Were Made, But Not By Me”. I think the title and premise of this book perfectly describes how most people will react to the statistic that only 8% of people actually achieve their New Year’s resolutions. The typical response would be to think that you will be a part of the 8% and not the 92%. This is totally natural. If you thought you were going to be part of the 92% why even bother to make goals in the first place?
I would suggest that there are 3 simple ways to improve your chances of being in the 8% as opposed to the 92%.
- Set realistic goals – if you’ve never run a mile, setting a goal to run a marathon by this summer would be a good example of how you set yourself up to fail. Instead set a goal to run a 5K during the month of March and a 10K during the month of September.
- Focus on the process not the outcome – Often times we can only control our attitude and our activity, not the results we get. For example, your goal may be to take on 12 new clients this year. You can control the activity that puts you in a position to accomplish that goal, but you cannot control the outcome itself.
- Hire someone to hold you accountable – In my world of personal financial planning I often use the personal trainer as an analogy for what we do. Sure you can go on the internet and research tax laws, investment strategies, estate planning ideas, etc. etc. You could even come up with a list of goals in each of these areas. But without someone helping you take action and hold your feet to the fire, most people will not get on track or more importantly stay on track, especially over long periods of time.
Now is the time to start with a clean sheet of paper and focus on where you’re going vs. where you’ve been. Now is the time to dream about what it will feel like to know that your retirement is on track, the kids’ college funds have been set up, the life insurance is in place just in case, and the estate and tax planning have been done and are fully coordinated with the rest of the financial plan.
Now is the time to hire someone to hold you accountable so that next year at this time you are patting yourself on the back instead of wishing away the past year.
Now is the time to start with a clean sheet of paper and focus on where you’re going vs. where you’ve been
We are here to help. Feel free to call or write to set up a free consultation to discuss your goals for 2016 and beyond.
