5 Tips to Make This Year Your Best Ever

Around this time each year I find myself busy reflecting on my business, analyzing how I’ve done during the year and making plans for the future. I’ll be the first to admit that this is not the easiest thing for me to do because I’m the kind of guy who likes “to go with the flow”, so taking the time to breakdown what I’ve done and make plans for the following 12 months is something that requires much effort on my part.

So having done all this and set my goals and objectives for the year ahead I’d like to share some tips and advice that have served me well in the past and that I’ll be using to make this year the best yet.

Tip 1 – Make Big Goals
So when you’re sitting down with your pen and paper at the ready I want you to make at least one really big goal for the year ahead. Make it big, make it bold and make it something that excites you enough that it will keep you motivated and willing to work throughout the coming months to achieve it.

There is no point in setting the bar too low here because all that will happen is you’ll get lazy, you’ll let things slide and before you know it you’ll be 6 months down the line and no closer to achieving your Goal.

Now if your interested in setting goals for your business, perhaps you want to turnover X amount of dollars over the coming year what I’d suggest you do is take whatever figure you’re thinking of….and DOUBLE it!

That’s right, double whatever your goal is and make it as big as possible. For example if you dreamed of making $100k then upgrade it to $200k. Without setting the bar so high it’s hard to get motivated, well that’s the case in my experience, and don’t be afraid to aim big and work hard because if you get anywhere near that big goal you’ll be after having an amazing year!

Tip 2 – Create Your Plan of Attack
When you have your goal in mind the next logical step is to plan out how you are going to achieve it. The way I like to think about this is if I’m setting off on a long car journey and I don’t really know how to get from Point A to Point B I’m going to sit down and figure out my route before I set off.

That’s exactly what I’d advise you to do with your Big Goal. At the moment you are at the starting Point A and you need to navigate to Point B. The only way you’re gonna get there in the fastest possible time (and avoid getting lost in the process) is if you have a well thought out plan, your route to get you there.

I’ll give you my own personal example of this to give you an idea of what I mean here. When I sat down and made my goals for this year I cleaned off my whiteboard in my office and got to work. I started working backwards from my big goal and broke it down into smaller goals, like steps if you will, that will each bring me closer and closer to achieving my big aims for the year ahead.

I put up absolutely everything I had in my brain on the whiteboard and started to join up the dots of my plan.

Then when I was starting to see it come together I took another important step and one I hope you don’t overlook…. I simplified everything!

Simplify Your Plan : what I mean by this is take out any unnecessary steps that you’ve included that will only hold you back. Sometimes we like to make things harder on ourselves by adding in little things here and there, but when you really look at the bigger picture they are not very important so feel free to get rid of them.

What you need to do is to make your plan as easy to follow as possible. Make it easy to start achieving each step along your path to success, remove any hurdles or unnecessary tasks that you don’t need and streamline the process as much as possible.

This will allow you to get from Point A to Point B in the fastest possible time and avoid taking any unwanted detours along the way!

Tip 3 – Prioritize Your Tasks
Each week you should try and make a list of tasks that you want to get done over the course of the next 5 days. Put them in order of importance and organize each day around the most important things on the list.

Now when you have a task finished create a “Done List” and write it down there. Then look back at the end of the week and see how much you have achieved. These sort of little achievements all fuel your big goal and by seeing them get done every week you’ll remain very motivated and focused on achieving even more each and every week.

The big danger if you don’t keep yourself accountable is that you’ll waste a lot of time procrastinating. You’ll log into Facebook for far too long each day or spend hours on Skype messaging your friends. Sure you may be doing some important networking but at the expense of a lot more important tasks that should be taking priority.

So be ruthless, make your list, organize your tasks and be hard on yourself and start getting them done. You’ll be amazed how much your productivity increases when you organize your time in this way.

Tip 4 – Don’t Be Afraid to Fail
This one is a big one and I’m sure a lot of you may not like it but it’s important that it’s said – don’t be afraid to fail. I know that I will fail at some of the things I’ve set out to achieve this year but you know what? It’s ok, because it’s only from these failures that we learn and become better, stronger and smarter as a result.

The important thing is to take lessons from each failure. Use them to your advantage and build your experience. The most successful people in the world have all failed but the thing that makes them who they are is the fact that they learn from their mistakes and come back stronger for them.

So don’t be afraid to fail, just make sure you learn along the way and use it to your advantage.

Tip 5 – Take Action Every Single Day
You know what they say “there is no time like the present”…. And that’s why I’d like you to begin your journey to achieving all your goals and objectives for the year right here, right now. And once you have begun by taking that first step keep it going and take action each and every day. Don’t be one of those people who waste hours each day procrastinating and putting things off.

Take charge, make your plan and prioritize your time. Start ticking all your little tasks off your list and keep moving forward, moving towards your big goals. But the main thing is to keep going and even you stumble along the way to get back up and go again.

For the people reading this who take action (and keep taking action) I know you’ll make awesome progress this year and I wish you all the best and every success along the way!

I hope you’ve found a few of these tips useful and if you have any of your own that you’d like to share then I’d love to hear them, so leave a comment below and let me know how you are going to make this year your best one yet!

Thanks for reading,

Noel.

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