WHY NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS OFTEN DO NOT WORK

Some people make New Year’s Resolutions and some simply don’t believe in them. I believe in goal achievement which is why I think that New Year’s Resolutions don’t work. Many are made in a ritual manner somewhat like turning the calendar or they are made hastily at a party.

Small wonder that the gyms are filled in January but empty by April. A goal is tied to a driving dream that you have that is specific and measurable and has a timetable. It does not just pop into your head at 11:59 on December 31^st.

What are your burning desires for next year? Are you writing them down? What worked well and what didn’t work well in the past year? What do you want to achieve in 2017?

Examples: Two additional new customers per month? Ten percent higher average per customer sale? Customer service ratings of 8, 9, or 10?

Now don’t just go to the party and make resolutions. Sit down and get to work on real goal achievement! Try to remember these points below:

1.        Keep your goal challenging but realistic. Any goal that you set for you or your company should be challenging, but don’t overdo it. For example, if you had an average customer sale of $700 this year, you wouldn’t want to set your goal for 2017 at $3000 per customer. Unless you make drastic changes in how your company runs or what you are selling, that goal is just not realistic. You know best what you may be able to achieve in your particular industry, so be honest with yourself and set your goals accordingly.

2.        Write Your Goals Down. You may say to yourself on January 1, “I want to get 20 more new customers per week this year.” A few months later you will be saying, “Did I say I wanted 20 or 30?” Or more realistically, you have forgotten that you even made that goal. If you have all of your goals written down, you will be able to not only go back and check them, but you will also be able to go down the list every few months and check to see how many of them you have completed.

3.        Assess Your Current Situation. To set goals you have to know where you are right now. For example, you might want to assess your customer service/customer loyalty rating. You could send out a survey to all of your customers. That way you could establish a base on which to build. You might keep track of other metrics such as number of sales calls, follow-up calls and ratio of that activity to closed sales.

Whatever your current situation you can establish stretch but attainable goals in each of those areas in 2017. Keep track of your progress against you goal. That way you can keep track of how you are doing, and if there is ever a hiccup, you can fix it quickly. Don’t assume anything. Always assess the current situation before setting a new goal. Take incremental but bold steps, assess, and next December you will know better what works and have more control over your results. So now is the time. Get started now.

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