New Year Resolution

For the last couple of months we have been equipping our readers with “cost saving ideas”.  In this blog we would like to educate our readers on a seasonal journey that 45% of us take but 70% fail to finish.  That is the “New Year Resolution”….Why is that? What makes it so difficult? Is it unattainable goals? How about unfair expectations?

Even though we may never know the whole “why” people don’t accomplish the resolution let us look at some steps on what you can do.

Step X: Begin with the end in mind......Maybe your end goal is to make 6 figures. This is a great place to start. Now let’s work from the end to the present and what has to happen for your end goal to be objected.  This will usually mean the steps you need to take to get there. Be wary of putting a time stamp on your end goal till you realize all the steps you need to reach first. Maybe you need more education, a better business plan,  a different career path or more confidence.  Each one of these could take months even years to complete, so making a resolution to make 6 figures and then wanting to do that by years end could be lost the second week of the year when you realize just how long it could take. (goal setting worksheet) or (personal budget)

Step X: Find help……An accountability partner is a must, someone who can take the 3^rd person point of view and can be honest with you.  Athletes are an easy example of this, particularly non team sports like tennis or golf.  We feel, the responsibility of a coach is to EDUCATE, EQUIP and INSPIRE individuals to the goal. Without a coach just how good are some of the greatest golfers/tennis stars?  Would they ever accomplish their dreams?

Step X: Stay positive……Certainly having a plan to reach your resolution and working with a coach/accountability partner will make it easier to stay positive but this step, like the weight baring beams in a building need to be strong. Your own belief in not just the outcome but process will be your track to success. The world itself has the task of bring you down with the events that continually take place, but your ability to move past and trusting your process will be a vital step. 

Step X: Take action……If you haven’t noticed the steps are not numbered because for each individual these steps will come as needed.  Some of us need a coach to help create the goal setting process.  Maybe just staying positive is the first step so that we can focus properly on creating the right goals. The “Take action” step (see previous blog) needs to be instituted throughout the process. 

We apologize for the long blog; We broke our first rule of keeping things short. Hopefully the second rule of interesting was not lost in the length of the blog.  With that said no New Year Resolution is going to determine ones success, as success is judged only by looking in the mirror. This blog is meant to guide you to the place that you want to be and to let you know that if you set and plan New Year resolutions like no one else you can accomplish them like no one else.

The time is NOW!

If you are going to save money do you know what the most important step is?  Could it be step 1?  Step 1 being taking action.  To many time we see people that want to save money but failed in the past on taking action.  They may, my favorite quote “Never been late on a credit card payment” but will continue to miss the monthly budget by one hundred, five hundred or even thousands of dollars. 

Unfortunately it may take a crisis for most people to make a change in behavior that will get them out of debt, into a career that they love, or create a winning business culture.  Most of what works is a simple formula of goals + action = progress.  So with this blog we challenge you to “take action” and find an accountability partner, a coach, a mentor or anyone that can take a 3^rd person approach to your current situation.  

In the book “Outliers” Malcolm Gladwell writes that it is not just one event that causes a passenger plane to crash. It is a series of events and that these events can be discovered in time to save lives with the proper training in place.  The same lesson can be applied to your own personal life at home or at work. Step back and become educated on what is going on around you so that you may grow in the right direction and have the opportunity to take action before the crisis.

Work that you love = $

Today we talk about the money coming in.  You see when we talk about saving money we tend to think of only the outgoing, but in order to save money we must be bringing money in.  Sure we can work more by getting a second job or ask for more hours but is that the end all be all? We often suggest that people work more but the understanding is that it will be temporary or until the crises or debt is paid off.

 

If you need to increase incoming cash you most likely will have to do what does not come natural…that is work in a field that you are passionate about.  Strong statement I know, and studies show that 55 % of people are not satisfied with their current work.  In John Maxwell’s book “Leadership Gold” he references a study that took 1500 recent college grads and sorted them into two categories.  Category A, were students who were going to work for the money, category B were students who went to work in their passion regardless of money.  After 20 years there were 101 millionaires…..100 of them came from category B!

The point is to work in your passion.  While we all have skills, abilities and traits the question is are those being effectively used?  Too often we grab a job to fulfill the bills, but I will ask you...What if you could grab a job that fulfilled you?