As we finish up this year, I challenge you to start to think about next year this year! For some, it’s still time to focus on this year’s goals; and by all means, continue to press on to finish strong.
Whether you are in this year’s race or focusing on next year’s goal, finish early in this month so you can spend your holidays enjoying Family, connecting with your Faith and having Fun—four of our all-important 7 F’s of True Success.
Before you can set next year’s goals both in and out of the office, I believe you have to assess your performance over the past almost 12 months. Ask yourself, what did I achieve? What worked well? Really well? And what didn’t work?
From my experience as a professional coach, I’ve observed for most people, if they didn’t achieve their goal, it often times wasn’t the wrong goal, it was the “how to” part, the execution got off track or the “how to” was vaguely defined, not the wrong goal.
Three questions I’m asking people in our executive, professionals and salespeople to complete are:
- What do I / we need to do more of?
- What do I / we need to do less of?
- What do I / we need to stop doing all together?
Those three simple, open-ended questions allowed for lots of personal reflection and team collaboration. You’ll be amazed (and affirmed) at the openness and insights others can offer both asking these simple questions.
We believe every year you ought to examine (by yourself or with the help of others) what you are doing. Then you should intentionally determine if you should do more of this activity, less of it or stop doing it period. Look at all the Fundamentals of your work in this manner. Figure out what needs changing, and then do it.
Begin that examination today, and you’ll start the new year off right.
Continue to be intentional about finishing this year within the next two to three weeks. That will leave you valuable time to spend on three other important F’s—Family, Faith and Fun. During your well-earned downtime, assess what you’ve been doing over the past year, and figure out what needs changing. Start the new year knowing exactly what you want to do more of, less of or not at all. Do this, and you’ll do what you do better in the coming year.