Resolve To Be Your Best

As we welcome in another new year, a call for change seems to be an annual expectation. It is, after all, a time for reflection on things past, dreams of the future, and making plans to make those dreams come true. It's about facing the truth, and choosing to make those truths better down the road. Each new year presents an opportunity to reset priorities, and resolve to make the changes that are needed to meet those priorities.

We do it all the time in our personal lives – resolving to save money for the future, lose weight, stop bad habits, and more, but what about in your business? It's time to examine what's been happening there with a fresh perspective too. Has your business realized your vision for it? Are you doing everything you can to make that vision a reality? It's time to review what's been happening, dig out that business plan, and decide what's working, what's not, and what needs to be done. Has your target market changed? Is the economy wreaking havoc with your sales? Are your employees invested in your success? Are you making the profits you need to realize? Have you found a balance between your business and your personal life?

This is not the time for regrets, for chastising yourself for things you did wrong, or things you didn't do at all. It's a time for forgiveness, gratitude, celebration, and leadership. Ask yourself what needs to change and then resolve to change it by building a strategic action plan. Be honest about what needs to happen, and realistic about your abilities to pull it off. Be specific. Vague ideas never hold up under pressure. But detailed plans that hold you accountable do. Have a clear goal, and outline explicit, measureable steps to achieving that goal. And don't just talk about it. Put it in writing. Writing down your resolutions and your plans to make them happen, actually helps you avoid being among the near 80% of those people who make annual new year's resolutions, only to break them within the first 90 days. Post them on a wall, a blackboard, your desk, or someplace that you will see them every day. Let them motivate you, inspire you, and remind you.

If you need outside resources to complete your plan or to help you meet your goal, you must first identify the sources of information, expertise, or funding that can provide the assistance you require, and then get out there and make it happen. In the end, the majority of resolutions fail because of a lack of action, not a lack of good intentions. So, share your resolutions with co-workers, employees, colleagues and partners who can help keep you on track and hold you accountable.

As you close the chapter on 2011 and usher in 2012, resolve to make it your best and most successful year ever. May you reap the rewards of your labour, and enjoy a profitable and pleasurable New Year.

Terri Plaxton Smith is the business consultant for the Greater Barrie Business Enterprise Centre, 24 Maple Ave., downtown Barrie. For information and assistance, call (705)720-2445. Watch for our column in the Huronia Business Times each month.