If someone bet you $5 for every month you keep your resolution this year, the odds are that you’ll lose start losing money by mid-February. If you are already struggling to keep up with your New Year resolutions, you are not alone.
It’s simply not sustainable for most of us to stay committed to a big goal for a year without losing steam. That’s why it makes sense for organizations to plan out the year in quarters. Milestones make it easier to accomplish big goals.
In the first episode of the new video series, SLA Tips, co-founder Yasmin Belo-Osagie makes a case for starting the new year off with mantras over resolutions.
Happy New Year Motherland Moguls. Let’s jump right into the year, shall we?
More than half of all year resolutions fail, but this year, they don’t have to be yours. Many people find it difficult to maintain and accomplish their resolutions.
Here is a list of things you can do to help make sure you accomplish the goals you set for the New year, create a plan on how to reach it, and become part of the small group of people that successfully achieve their goal.
Believe in yourself
Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.”- Samuel Johnson.
Your values in life determine your beliefs, about yourself and the world around you. When you believe in yourself and chose to be a good person you will find yourself to be more positive and successful in life.
Believing in yourself is the first step to success whether it means your life, your career, or simply your confidence, and in that lies your power.
Say it again and again
The more you say it, the more you believe it. The more you believe it, the truer it will become as you strengthen yourself and your confidence!
The beginning of a new year is a good time to make a resolution to change your behavior in some way because you know millions of people are doing the same thing. So you get positive reinforcement when family members, friends, and coworkers talk about making and trying to stick with resolutions.
You feel like you’re part of a worldwide self-improvement movement – and you are!
Be Accountable
People make better choices and perform at a higher level when they know they are being watched by others. The reasoning is simple when you are held accountable for your actions, you will work harder.
Share your goals with people around you. It’s important to have another person ask you about your progress. When there is someone else other than yourself holding you accountable, you are more likely to get your tasks completed
Track your progress
What separates a person from achieving their goals and not achieving their goals is staying focused and being persistent in following through. There are many different ways to track your progress toward your goals.
Look at the big picture
Why do you wanna accomplish this certain thing? What is the purpose? Think about these things and answer these questions with the end result in mind. Take the time to reflect upon your goals and imagine what the big picture looks like. motivation.
Plan and Organize
Everyone has dreams and goals, but without planning and organizing what you need to do, you’ll get nowhere
Celebrate
Celebrating your wins not only feels great physically, but it reinforces the positive attitude and behavior you want to show up when you face a new challenge or opportunity.
As the year closes and everyone rushes to accomplish all their 2018 goals (and set the next ones for 2019!), now is a great time to reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and what lessons we can take away.
Being an entrepreneur has its ups and its downs.
The low when your proposals do not pass through or a client decides not to re-sign you. The high that you get when you finally sign a contract for a new project or when you win big for a client.
For me, this year has been one of immense growth. I visited new countries, launched new projects, finished old ones, won clients, and lost clients.
I have recruited and trained a reliable, loyal team across six countries. Throughout this year, I have learned several lessons which I hope will serve entrepreneurs — myself included — in 2019.
1. Build your support system and nurture it
The reality is some days you will feel like crying, some days you will feel like celebrating, and some days you will feel like quitting.
Find people who help you keep your balance, give you honest feedback, and cheer you on. These can be friends, family, fellow entrepreneurs, teammates, neighbours, mentors, or mentees.
2. Know your value, and what projects are worth your time
This is one of the most difficult things I have faced as an emerging entrepreneur this year. As I am selling services, not products, it can very hard to put a price tag on my offerings.
Many times instead of money, potential partners will offer you “a platform to sell yourself” or “connections” to new business. But at the end of the day, accessing these platforms may be positive, but will also require more work to close revenue-generating deals. In 2019, set your minimum rate and stick to it.
Decide which platforms are really worth offering your precious skills — and have a clear idea as to what outcomes you wish to have.
Even if your schedule is often crazy, and you may have to jump on a plane or train with 24 hours’ notice, do your best to stick to a routine.
Maybe that means having your cup of coffee while checking emails first thing each day, doing yoga, or taking a midday walk. When you are in your home base or abroad, find workspaces you can come back to that give you a sense of regularity.
I recommend joining coworking spaces such as Impact Hub or using the Croissant app to find cool spaces in different cities across the world.
4. Let business be business
Sometimes, friends or colleagues will come to you asking for help with something which will require your time, expertise, and resources.
By nature, I am someone who cares about others and wants to see other people shine but this year I learned I simply cannot always give my time and energy away for free.
Remember, your true friends will understand if you say no to their requests, and you can always try to help in other, less consuming ways. Furthermore, be bold in demanding what you deserve from your clients and partners. Asking for timely payments or resources to do your job is not being greedy — it’s business.
5. Unplug
This is the most difficult rule for me to follow, as I am someone who always wants to get rid those red notifications on my iPhone and always wants a clean inbox.
Fact is, as an entrepreneur, your to-do list will never end, so sometimes you have to know when to stop checking and unplug. When you are with friends, be with friends.
When you are exercising, put on a podcast and just listen. Do not work 24/7, because that is simply not sustainable.
6. Celebrate small wins and don’t sweat the failures
As entrepreneurs, we are visionaries. We see the big picture impact we could be having, and often feel frustrated we have not signed the multimillion-dollar deal.
We forget that entrepreneurship is a journey, a series of small wins and big failures we learn from that will lead us to the end goal. Along the journey, make sure to celebrate at every step, and give yourself the opportunity to learn and grow.
I encourage everyone to apply these lessons to your own careers and lives, set goals, and track your progress throughout the next year.
Change your mindset and remind yourself you are a trailblazer, a changemaker, and the only one with your unique experience. Use it to be the catalyst sparking the change you hope to see in the world.
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Each year in January, entrepreneurs, and moguls around the world make new year resolutions to help them reach their business goals.
Common resolutions include personal and professional goals like starting a business, building financial capacity, and even improving health and wellness.
As an entrepreneur, your first responsibility is to plan ahead. Not just for your personal agenda, but for the growth of your company.
Your second responsibility is to avoid being a part of the status quo. A recent study by the University of Scranton suggests that only 8% of people actually achieve their goals.
To avoid being part of the 92%, here are four tips to help you achieve your goals in 2018.
Create an accountability system
Research shows that when it comes to health and wellness goals, having a partner could mean the difference between success and failure.
The primary reason for this is that having a partner creates a built-in accountability and motivational system. The same is true for your business goals.
Practical accountability systems may include creating visual reminders of your goals, scheduling check-ups on your progress throughout the year, and designating key team members that are responsible for monitoring your goals.
Being intentional about holding yourself and your team members accountable using these tools will ensure that your resolutions will not be an afterthought by the middle of the year.
I often encourage entrepreneurs to use the S.M.A.R.T. method when setting professional goals.
S.M.A.R.T. stands for Specific,Measurable,Attainable, Realistic, and Timely.
Specific goals break down your general goals into manageable bite-size pieces. A great example of this might be to increase your annual revenue.
“Increase revenue in 2018” is a decent general goal. An even better goal is to “increase revenue in 2018 by identifying profit leaks, and creating monthly marketing campaigns in order to obtain new clients.”
Even that specific goal can be further developed as you think about other factors that will affect the outcome. By ensuring that your goals are S.M.A.R.T., you set yourself up to experience the thrill of achievement that will become motivation for future success.
Be Flexible
Life happens, which means that despite your best efforts, some things will still go awry. Part of good goal planning is recognizing that and planning accordingly.
Having flexibility in your approach and expectations relieves everyone involved of the pressure that comes with perfectionism. By recognizing that things may not always go as planned, you open the door for creativity to flow, and for discussion about alternative approaches to the goal.
Rewards are good for morale, which is good for productivity. As you set your business goals, a rewards system is as important as any other piece of the process.
Whether big or small, rewards that highlight performance, collaboration and other values that are important to you and any team members could be the extra motivation for your overall success.
If you find that, in years past, you have been among the 92% of people that don’t achieve their goals, there’s no better time to change that pattern than now.
Achieving your goals is as much a matter of timing, as it is a matter of consistency. No matter where you are in the process, continue to forge ahead using these tips for success in 2018, and in the years to come.
So maybe 2016 didn’t turn out to be the year you have been waiting and hoping for. However, I’m sure a lot of us will agree that it feels good to still be standing. Especially after all the shots 2016 gave us.
I know resolutions may be tired and old-fashioned. Nobody really does them any more and most of those who still do, hardly ever stick to them. Whatever your view, we can all agree that if properly followed through, they can make a positive change.
As a child, I thought resolutions were only concerned with changing bad habits. With time, I began learning that changing the way you think can very well be a resolution. Just because you pen them down at the beginning of a certain year doesn’t mean you haven’t been doing it. It serves as a reminder for you to keep on doing the damn thing!
Most of us would say we went through the most last year, and we probably have (I know I have!) I also found, however, that I learnt more about myself than I ever did before, and those very lessons are the resolutions I’d like me and you to carry into 2017.
1. Yes, I can and I will!
Just a few months ago, a 7-year old princess published her very first book, need I say more?
Never stop reaching, Mamelodi Sundowns reached for the stars and caught one!
The women who remembered Khwezi and the thousands of fed-up girls who spoke up and stood against rape culture across tertiary campuses knew they had to show up and stand up.
The hundreds of women and men that run pad, clothing and food drives continue to tirelessly show up for society where no system does.
And, it’s not even about that alone. It’s you refusing to be quiet about topics society won’t touch and linking people who need help with those who can assist. It’s you following your dream and teaching the sisters back in the hood how they can make it too. Sometimes, it’s really just the retweet, share, compliment and advice that matters most.
We need to remember that sometimes, however unfortunately, the people that need help won’t ask for it because of what they’ve been through before. So this coming year, show up for those with no hope, it might change their lives.
You must have seen this one on Instagram pics and Twitter throughout 2016 but I promise you it’s worth it. The best kind of love is self-love, the rest of it will translate outward to others.
I know women who battle to find this love after bad relationships and maybe self-disappointment. It breaks my heart knowing I can’t love them where they need to love themselves, the best I can do is tell them they are worth it and hope they believe me.
Every day of 2017, love yourself. That worth you seek in others can only be found in yourself, everyone else can only appreciate it.
4. Some people know better than you, learn from them
Being a ‘new’ entrepreneur myself, I found that there are lessons I can only learn from people who have walked this journey before. I started following and reading about this special group of people and without even asking any questions, their stories taught me a lot of what I know about entrepreneurship today.
MotherlandMogul Tip: While you ask for help, pointers or advice, don’t forget that no one can walk this journey for you, no one at all. You must be prepared to put in the work and research.
5. 2017 isn’t my year either
Yes, 2017 isn’t your year either, but when last was any year for you anyway?
We will still lose loved ones and great figures in society, fail, get hurt, worry, fight and cry in 2017. But just like in 2016, there will be jokes and stories that we think will never get old. We will achieve things we didn’t think we could, we will still regret watching ‘one more episode’.
Twitter still won’t rest, there will still be too much sauce, we will discover a meme almost as great as baby Jake. She Leads Africa will continue to make us great (yay!) and you will smile again.
So yes, 2017 isn’t your year, you and your choices are. If you plan on losing, make sure you learn, otherwise, win with positivity and inner peace.
Absolutely, clap for yourself and all the black girls breaking ground around you!
There is nothing quite like seeing girls celebrate other girls and themselves —treating the next woman like the queen they are themselves.
Sometime in December last year, the hashtag #TheGirlsAreAlright was trending and in all honesty, this one is right up there as one of my absolute favourites. The reason for the trend was a thread that was tweeted by a queen herself, @SilindileM_, celebrating beautiful, no problem African queens!
So for 2017, learn to clap when a fellow queen makes it, even if it is before you. You will be where you want to be someday, and until then, celebrate yourself for the small progress you make each and every day.
Look yourself in the mirror and tell yourself YOU ARE ALRIGHT because you are a queen! Above all, teach the young princesses to do it too, tell them how alright they are!
But guys, look, the black girls really are alright, neh? They’re beautiful and they’re happy.
With 2016 finally here, we see many Facebook & Whatsapp “New Year, New Me”. A new year is a fresh start, and a chance to set a new goals, which is why so many people make New Year resolutions. Still…
Most people find New Year’s resolutions difficult to keep
Local gyms are most crowded early January when people are most committed to their resolutions. But by February, people start dropping out that by December, they are either back to where they started before the resolution or are worse off.
Psychologist, Peter Herman and his colleagues looked into the success rates of New Year resolutions, and it turns out that most people fail at sticking to their New Year’s resolutions.
They found out that people underestimated the difficulty of their goals and selected tasks that were overly ambitious. They named the habit of making self-improvement goals but failing to fulfill them the “False Hope Syndrome.”
Essentially, we try to do tasks that are too hard, too quickly when it comes to New Year Resolutions.
Do the pre-work the goal demands
Successfully sticking to resolutions that are easy to make but hard to maintain, researchers say, requires taking actionable steps to change a behavior, rather than making drastic changes. In a study that looked at the success rates of 200 people trying to stick to their resolutions, another psychologist, John Norcross, found that those who prepared for the lifestyle changes they wanted to make were successful at accomplishing their goals.
For example, if losing weight is your New Year resolution this year, develop a meal plan with a trainer, participate in a bootcamp, or walk more. Do not set drastic goals, like running a marathon, and do not look for shortcuts. Liking Instagram pictures on a fitness page or buying the latest “detox tea” is not going to cut it either.
Learn from failure
How you react to failure along the way is another key part of being successful with your New Year’s resolutions this year. Alan Marlatt, a former Psychology Professor at University of Washington DC, found that those who do not turn setbacks into full relapses are more likely to succeed with their resolutions. Those who want to quit smoking, for example, might end up smoking a cigarette or two in their cessation journey. If they continue with their progress and do not see this moment of weakness as a complete failure, they have a better chance of quitting smoking.
How to win this year
Here’s a recap of steps to prevent the “false hope syndrome”.
Break your big goals into smaller, attainable ones.
Tackle one goal at a time.
Ask for help and talk about your goals with friends.
Celebrate small wins.
Don’t wait another year to make goals. Nothing is stopping you from making those changes now.
There is nothing quite like seeing girls celebrate other girls and themselves —treating the next woman like the queen they are themselves.
