5 Year End Tips to Prepare for a Successful New Year

It’s that time of the year again where we all wonder where 2017 went.  It seems like it just started!  Soon our friends and family will visit and we'll enjoy the holiday season with loved ones. I wanted to share with you my top five tips to tie a ribbon on this year and prepare for an even more successful next year.

Reflect on the last year

• What went well?
• What did you do to prepare yourself for that success?
• Can it be replicated and scaled next year?
• What didn’t work?
• Why didn’t it work?
• What would you do differently if you had a chance?
• What are you going to do about it next year?

Clean out your email inbox 

• How many emails are in your inbox, just sitting there, staring you in the face for days on end? Take the time to weed through those emails and don’t be afraid to discard them if they are no longer important. If they were vital to your success, most likely they would have been done by now or brought up again by the colleague that sent them to you.
• Unsubscribe from all of the emails that you receive that are no longer valuable.  Take a few minute now, to save you hours in 2018 and help you maintain your focus on your key initiatives with an uncluttered inbox!

Set a personal goal

• Is it to lose weight?
• Save money for a house?
• Get a puppy? 
• Take a trip to the place you have always wanted to go?
• Go to Space Camp?

Doesn’t matter what it is, but if you want to achieve it you need to commit to it and set a path of progress to get there.

Set a work goal

• Open in a new market?
• Take on a large rebranding campaign?
• Or perhaps your goals are more career oriented, perhaps to get that next promotion? If so, you want to pay attention to these great tips and avoid these common mistakes.
• Create a winning annual plan for your business?

Reestablish old connections

• Reach out to someone in your business network that you haven’t spoken to in a long time, someone who has done something special for you over this past year or an old friend from your former job. Drop a line to a friend that overcame a personal challenge this year, somebody who left you a message a while ago that you just never got around to returning or just for no reason at all!

It may seem like a lot to squeeze in at this busy time of the year, but I can guarantee you that it can be done with just a little conscious direction. Think of it as a gift that you can give yourself. Take the necessary time now to practice some of these tips. The gift of clear focus, direction, and alignment will be one you can appreciate all through next year.

Happy Holidays!

-Ted

Photo Credit: iStock by Getty Images