3 steps to finish the year strong
October 1st, 2020 by Morna
Welcome to October!
You have 3 months left until we turn the calendar to 2021. That’s 13 weeks. It’s 92 days. Plenty of time to accomplish what you set out to do this year.
Yes, I know it’s been the craziest year on record. What started out to be perhaps a short-lived inconvenience has turned into so much more.
Undoubtedly, your business was affected in ways you didn’t expect. Maybe you had to lay off employees or cut back on their hours. Maybe you applied for a loan or a grant to keep your business going. You likely had to learn a new way to deliver your product. So many people made the shift to offering more services online, whether that was teaching via zoom or delivering more marketing and selling online.
As you start this last quarter of 2020, here are three steps to taking you where you are now to ending your year in a better place than you expect.
Reflect
The first step is to reflect on where you are and how you got there.
This is about creating awareness of your situation. It’s not about judging or blaming. Consider this a no guilt zone!
Set aside time to look back at the year and review what has happened. Don’t just think about it. Write it down.
Consider:
- What worked
- What didn’t work
- What lessons you learned that you can take forward
It’s important that you look at what worked in the past and how you can put that to use today and tomorrow and the day after.
Remember not to get caught up in judging. If you do that, you’ll end up in a spiral and can feel disempowered.
This is not personal, meaning about you. It’s about your business.
And give yourself credit for all the adjustments you made because of covid. You had to ramp up your knowledge in many ways. This was clearly a time of personal and business growth!
Work on your roadmap
You just looked back. Now it’s time to look forward.
Pull out the plans you have for 2020.
You should have set a destination at the beginning of the year for year end. You may or may not have adjusted it along the way.
Consider:
- Are you on track?
- Where did you fall short?
- Where do you see room for improvement?
Go back and adjust the plan so you have a current roadmap to follow.
Take action
How do you get to where you want to go?
I often say that the how is right in front of you when you are ready for it.
While you may not know all the steps to get from point A to point B, you can figure out the next few steps.
If you have no clue where to start, try any of these ideas:
- Search the Internet for help
- Find and ask a friend or a mentor
- Read a book on the subject
- Get a coach or join a coaching program
Next, start to backwards engineer. You have 13 weeks to work with. What do you need to do each week to get to your goals? How much revenue do you need to bring in each week to close the gap?
Once you have a rough idea of how to break down the work, create a plan for next seven days. Then after the seven days, review what you’ve accomplished and set the goals for the next seven days. Continue in this fashion.
I like to do this review on the weekend. In the Members’ Studio we use a tool called the Success and Strategies Summit.
When you start each day, plan what three things you can do to move towards your goals and complete them. I actually like to make this plan the night before so I’m ready to start the day when I get into the studio.
One last tip: remember why you want to achieve the goals. That will provide you with motivation when it’s lacking.
While this is post is specific to your business, it can apply to all the other areas of your life with goals: your health, wealth, relationships, spiritual needs
It’s your turn!
What do you plan to do to end the year strong?
