Make 2008 Your Best Year Ever By: Dave Mather Corporate Specialist Dale Carnegie Business Group
At the beginning of each year many people commit to worthy sounding resolutions. Others have given up on this practice since they tend to disappoint themselves come January 31. New Year’s Resolutions seem to have a bad name as evidenced by the crowded gym parking lots in January in contrast to the rest of the year.
Many businesses have a “Business Plan” they dust off each January. An effective business plan focuses everyone’s attention towards this year’s key strategic priorities.
Here are several suggestions to increase the probability that this year’s business resolutions will stick.
Turn your resolutions into declarations. Resolving to do something is an intent from which you are easily distracted. A declaration is a commitment, a promise. It is also a creation. Speak in the present tense as if your creation is already a reality. Act as if it is impossible to fail.
Make your declaration specific. An expressed intention will probably fail to materialize. It is too vague. What are you bringing into existence? By what date? On behalf of what bigger goal?
On a personal level, a commitment to health creates a stronger impetus for action than a desire for weight loss. With weight loss, getting closer to the optimum weight reduces the impetus for action and the intensity of the commitment. A larger commitment to overall health gives the weight loss goal its power. Moving towards health creates momentum, trying to rid myself of excess weight lends itself to binges of action in contrast to steady progress towards creating something of genuine value.
Declare, in visual terms that others can picture, your actual business outcome at a specific future date. Don't wish and hope you will get there someday, maybe. Establish your celebration day and begin taking actions to move towards what you want.
Establish an overall purpose or theme for this year’s business focus, and then create sub-goals to move you forward. Make your purpose clear and specific. “To be the best” might sound like a lofty goal, but it creates little, if any, impetus for action.
As you decide where you want to be in the market, differentiate yourself from the masses. What makes you distinct? This probably means narrowing your focus. In today’s crowded business climate, one size cannot fit all. It is important to say “no” to market segments and narrow your focus. Choose your hill and take it. Trying to stay in the middle of the road will get you run over.
The declaration is only the first of a series of steps in creating your desired future. Resolutions to be achieved “as soon as possible” are doomed to fail. Commit to a deadline. Without a deadline, it’s easy to stand still. Deadlines define when failure occurs. [I know this sounds negative, but sometimes stating it this way produces a better result.]
The most common business mistake we see in our work with organizations is over-planning. [If you do not plan, that’s just as ineffective!] Many of us plan, plan, and plan some more. We’re trying to “perfect” our plans. However, until you implement your first action step, most planned actions are guesses at best. Write a sketch of your plan, keeping the outcome in mind in contrast to current reality. Sketch in obvious action steps that jump out at you and immediately take step one. Evaluate the results of your action, and then move forward.
Using this approach, your action steps will look distinctly different than those you speculate about in the early stages. What is required at this stage is a clear picture of the contrast between the future and the present.
Don’t overwhelm yourself or others; keep focused on what is really important to your business and concentrate on moving towards your desired outcome.
Successful people are the few who focus in and follow-through!
Plan from the future, not the past. Planning from the future gives you a distinctly different perspective than visualizing a massive goal from the present. Figuratively, look down on the present from the future. This gives you a clear view of what is required. Looking ‘up’ from the past can only replicate the past.
Stay in the declaration conversation. Whining about how hard it is to change creates a hard-to-change mindset. It’s this kind of thinking that keeps us in the past. Declaring your objective and working towards creating that reality energizes yourself and others.
People won’t resist change as much as you have been told. Actually, people don’t really resist change; they resist change they perceive is forced upon them. If the desired outcome means little to them, it won’t resonate. Listening to others articulate their connection to the vision is a step often missed. Don’t assume other’s commitment – listen for it and hear it.
Often, we engage in self-talk that keep us from creating a new reality. Creating a future we truly want is not the same as simply making changes. We strongly suggest you refrain from promoting “change.” If you could create your desired future and change nothing, would you be okay with that? We hope so. We are not promoting change here, rather we commit to creating that which truly matters to us. We’ll gladly make changes on behalf of that bigger outcome, but “resist” change that seems to have no relevance other than “making some changes around here.” Commit to outcomes, rather than commit to change for change sake.
[In the proofing of this document, several people suggested re-reading the above paragraph several times. We invite you to follow their suggestion.]
[Welcome back.]
Make bold promises and keep your word. People who make few promises get little criticism. They also achieve little of substance. [Re-read Dale Carnegie’s chapter, “Nobody Kicks A Dead Dog”, Part Six in How To Stop Worrying and Start Living.]
Speak for yourself. Pay attention to what you say and how you say it. How many times do you say ‘that’s the way business works?’ Experiment with phrases such as: ‘that’s the way it appears to me.’ This keeps your descriptions accurate and leads to clear, concrete communication.
Make promises about you and your behavior, not about everyone else’s behavior or about ‘how the world should work.’ Discipline in speaking gives you access to tremendous power. You control only what you can control. Give up any implied power over the universe or over others. Recognition of your powerlessness over others grants you absolute power over your own behavior. This way of relating to the world is a gateway to a powerful and enjoyable future.
Focus Create two or three strategic goals for 2008 Clarify the contrast between current reality and your desired future Plan from the future, not the past Make bold promises and keep your word Speak for yourself
Make 2008 Your Best Year Ever - To learn more about this author, visit Dave Mather's Website.
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