Insights
With the month of January behind us, it can be easy to slip back into old habits and let the excitement and motivation of our New Year's Resolutions fizzle out. It is one thing to hit the reset button on personal and professional goals, but it's much harder to maintain over the course of the year. Creating some simple changes and commitments for the long haul can help to actually make these goals a reality. Take a look at our checklist to help you ground yourself and move towards your professional goals in 2021.
For starters, updating your online presence is a quick no brainer. Write down your latest contact information, location, phone number, business address, etc. and do a quick Google search for yourself or your business. Make sure all of these pieces of information are up to date. If you have a business, make sure your hours of operation, services and website all appear correct in your Google My Business. Don’t forget to update your website and social media profiles with this information too. Make sure you are communicating the latest information about your business.
Take time to go through your email. In the same way you would sort your physical mail, comb through those saved emails, create labels, delete junk mail, and unsubscribe from sources that aren’t useful to you anymore. While you’re online, take time to update your calendar and get in important holidays or events that you know of now. Set up all those reminders! Equally important is adding any new contacts so you can find them when needed. And last but not least, clean your workspace. Declutter, recycle and donate what you can.
Now it’s time to revisit what worked from last year and what didn’t. Inventory all of 2020 and make notes of what all the ups and down. What did you learn? How will you do things differently this year? Write out what quantifiable benchmarks you would like to hit and give yourself deadlines. Use this as your roadmap to get started. The more guesswork you can take out of the year, the more likely you will be to follow your plan.
To fuel your intentions and goals, root them in change. Not just for you, but for the world at large. After all the hurt and pain humanity collectively experienced in 2020, commit yourself to be the change you want to see in the world. This will serve as an additional level of accountability when you run out of steam and will make you feel proud of your efforts.
Start by figuring out what problem you want to help solve in your community. Make a list of organizations you could team up with. Lastly, look through your resources and figure out what, how much, and when you can donate either time, items, money, your services or a combination of these.
After taking time to update your online presence, organize yourself, outline your year, and plan to pay it forward, you are all set. Move into the year with a clear mind, reminders and goals in place with room to adjust and pivot as you need to. Stick to what you can and give it all you got! Happy 2021.
