The challenge lies in the predictable loss of steam that ensues as we move past the holiday season and back into our workaday lives.
Liz Bywater's Strategies for Implementation: How to Follow Through on Your New Year's Resolutions
- Review your goals. Keep the important ones. Discard the ones that don't make sense.
- Prioritize. Decide what requires immediate action, what belongs in the mid-term, and what can be deferred to a much later date.
- Organize. Figure how to best approach the daily, weekly, monthly, and annual tasks entailed in meeting your goals and resolutions for the year. Put a system in place for efficiently attending to each of these tasks.
- Enlist help. Don't try to tackle it all yourself. Delegate where feasible. Outsource where appropriate.
- Share the news. Tell someone about your goals and your strategies for reaching them.
- Create accountability. Set up a system for reporting your progress to someone who's invested in your growth. This can be a business partner, a boss, a peer, or a spouse.
- Celebrate your successes. When you've made progress toward a goal, recognize it. Take pride. Use it as incentive to keep moving forward.
- Get feedback. Ask others how they see you and your progress. Use their input to build upon your strengths and neutralize your weaknesses.
- Don't obsess. Plan, prepare, and then execute. Don't get caught up in over-analyzing or striving for perfection.
- Give yourself a break. Remember to take time to relax and refresh yourself. Don't run yourself so ragged that you lose focus, stamina, and creativity. They're vital if you are to reach your goals and see your New Year's resolutions come to life.
Liz Bywater, PhD, is a consultant and coach to corporate executives, professionals, and independent business owners. She consults, writes, and speaks on a variety of work-related topics, including workplace performance, outstanding leadership, effective communication skills, and work-life balance.
Dr. Bywater sits on the advisory board for Par Excellence magazine and is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Society for the Advancement of Consulting, the Cornell Entrepreneur Network, and Women Inventing Next. She is quoted frequently in the media and has been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and USA Today.
To learn more, visit her at www.BywaterConsultingGroup.com. To subscribe to her complementary e-newsletter, filled with practical tips for improving performance, send an email to info@BywaterConsultingGroup.com.
