How to ensure 2023 is your best ever year.

As one of the most challenging years in living memory draws to an end, now is a good time to reflect on what you’ve achieved in 2022 and look forward to breaking all records (why not?) in 2023. It’s perhaps worth mentioning that very few people set themselves goals, yet it has been proven time after time that those who routinely set goals achieve much more than those who don’t. It’s even more important right now to do this! 

That’s why high achievers and successful entrepreneurs set goals. No matter what your objectives are for 2022 you should use the last few weeks of the year and first weeks of 2023 to plan the next 12 months. 

A good friend of mine says, “most people spend more time planning their holidays than planning their business and setting goals”. Unfortunately, it’s hard to argue against this. 

Now, without putting words into your mouth, one of your goals should be to make 2022 your best year yet. 

You can do it., despite Covid! 

But, first you need to decide what you want to achieve. 

You should set yourself personal and business goals for the year and then work back looking at what needs to be done to achieve them. And don’t be afraid to aim high. 

Don’t think small—think BIG! 

You’ll achieve much more by setting more challenging goals— and even if you don’t reach them, you’ll still achieve better results than if you’d taken the ‘safe’ option. 

Volumes have been written about goal setting, but I’m going to give you my quick guide to setting and achieving goals, to help ensure 2023 is your best year yet... 

1. Set your sights high. I’ve just mentioned how important it is to aim high. Don’t be conservative. 

2. Write your goals down. It is important you write your goals down. Remember you’re aiming high. 

Write everything down that you want to achieve in 2023 from a personal and business point of view (these are often linked). 

Just writing your goals down puts you way ahead of the majority of people. 

3. For each goal create a plan. Without a plan you’re not going to achieve your goals. Take each goal and then work backwards to identify what needs to be done to achieve it. 

A number of actions will help achieve more than one goal. That’s okay. The key is to have an ‘Action Plan’ that you can work to during the year. 

4. Ensure your plan is measurable. You need to know how well you’re doing at the end of each month. 

5. Only ‘do stuff’ that will help you achieve your goals. This is one of the keys to success. 

Only work on things that will have a direct bearing on your plan. 

In other words, 90% of your daily actions should be focused on helping you achieve your goals. 

6. Monitor every week. This is a tough discipline to adhere to—especially if you’ve never done this before, but by monitoring your progress every week, you have the time and flexibility to strike while the iron is hot. 

Waiting a month or a quarter can be far too long to monitor progress effectively which, in turn, makes it very difficult to put in place corrective measures to get you back on track if the results show you may not achieve your goals. 

7. Get back on track. Monitoring your progress every week gives you the visibility to change your plan to get you back on track. If you suffer set-backs don’t worry. 

Think of these as natural consequences of having a plan. 

Don’t panic. Simply change your actions to reflect what you need to do to get you back on track. 

I cannot stress enough to you how important setting goals is for your success. 

Don’t think that goal setting is ‘old fashioned’ or ‘outdated’. It isn’t. It’s still the proven way to achieve results... and you can ensure 2022 is your best year yet by setting your own goals! 

Promise yourself you’re going to take some time in December/early January to set your own goals and put an Action Plan in place. 

Happy holidays!