Forget New Years Resolutions! Here’s How to Set Your Goals and Keep Them in 2024
It’s that time of the year again — time for new year’s resolutions! As useful as they may be, it seems hardly anyone actually keeps them. Research suggests only 8% of people do…
A few years ago — around the time I started my business — I decided to try something new and it actually really worked for me. I’ve been doing the same thing ever since, with a few new improvements that have helped me stay on track, making progress on both my personal and business objectives.
This year, I’m sharing this simple little habit with you and maybe it will be useful to you too.
Set Goals for Your Business and Personal Life
The first step is to come up with your goals and write them down.
I do this in two parts, setting about five goals for myself and five goals for my business.
When setting goals for your business, the key is to make each one specific, tactical and quantifiable. It could be things like monthly revenue targets, landing a new client, bringing on a new hire or securing a strategic partnership… or it could be something totally different! It really depends on what matters most to you and your business.
Personal goals can be treated much like your business goals, after all, as an entrepreneur your personal development is a crucial part of your business development.
The more specific your personal goals, the better, but be sure to keep things manageable. I find personal goals are easier to keep when they’re broken down into steps or milestones.
For instance, if my overarching objective is to live a more sustainable lifestyle, I might start by setting a goal to always bring reusable shopping bags with me. Once that becomes habit, I’ll move on to my next milestone.
Some goals might be ongoing, and others might be possible to check off your list entirely. The main thing to keep in mind is that you need to eventually be able to tell whether you’ve been successful, or not.
Use This Trick to Actually Remember Your Goals
Here’s the really important part.
Set reminders on your phone to tell you to go back and check in on your progress. If you’re anything like me, you won’t remember in June to check in on goals you set in January, so do yourself a favor and let your phone remember for you.
Your reminders could be monthly, quarterly or based on the timeline of your goals, but at the very least, be sure to set a reminder to do a mid-year check in.
Evaluate Your Progress
When you get those reminders, set aside some time to sit down and evaluate how your progress is going. Check off goals you’ve accomplished and replace them with new ones, adapt goals that may no longer be relevant, and refocus on things that have slipped by the wayside.
I’ve often found that when those reminders come in, I’ve made a good deal of progress on some goals, and completely forgotten about others. At this point — and this is why I do this — it feels really good to see how far I’ve come or to remind myself to work on those forgotten aspects or it can also interesting to see how things have changed, when a goal is no longer important or has evolved.
That’s about it really. See, not so hard, right?
If you’ve struggled with keeping your resolutions in the past, I hope you’ll try this trick, and if you do, let me know how it went! Did you find it useful?
Marielle Reussink
Founder of The Emms, Marketing Professional, Entrepreneur & Advisor to Start-ups