10 Tips To Make Your Fresh Start Last

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A new year can be a great thing for your motivation and determination because it feels like youā€™ve won a clean slate or a start-over, complete with new goals (perhaps even amnesty goals not achieved last year), a new planner, and 365 days of opportunity. But the question is, how will you sustain beyond the optimistic and hopeful feelings youā€™re having right now simply because you feel you're getting a fresh start? How will you stay the course, run the marathon, and get back up when the struggles of running a business knock you down? How will you make this year different? You do everything in your power to make your fresh start last. Hereā€™s howā€¦

10 Tips To Make Your Fresh Start Last

1. Defend, Fight, And Focus On Your Goals Like A Dog With A Bone

If youā€™re serious about attaining your goals, you must act like it. Just like a dog whoā€™s so laser focused on chewing his bone that a passing squirrel wouldnā€™t faze him, you must be so laser focused on your goals that you tune out all the noise. Every action you take needs to align with your goals ā€“ the books you read, the clients you accept, the ads you promote, the conferences you attend, and the contracts you sign. Anything that doesnā€™t align with your goals is noise.

Fight for your success by saying no to opportunities that donā€™t align with your goals, eliminating ones youā€™re engaging in that are keeping you farther from success, and making sacrifices as needed. That may mean less social nights out, tabling some great ideas for another time, or eating out less so you can put more money into growing your business. Whatever that looks like for you, thereā€™s no better time than now to take action.

2. Perform Quarterly RAPs

Creating a strategic plan 90 days out is vitally important for your business but it shouldnā€™t be set in stone. At the end of each quarter, review the strategic plan you implemented. If it was not effective, adjust your tactics. Strategic plans are not flawless because new information is gained all the time, some of which could produce a better outcome. You donā€™t know what obstacle or opportunity could land in your path and totally derail you or launch your success.

Itā€™s important to be flexible. Donā€™t become so rooted in your plan that you refuse to acknowledge advancements in technology, the loss of key employees, new market trends, or a quickly changing economy. What matters is the end result. Review your plan at the end of each quarter and make course corrections as necessary to tackle unforeseen obstacles, address new information, and ensure you achieve desired results.

3. Get Very Clear About Your High Priorities

As the CEO of your company, you need to know which activities must be executed by you. Otherwise, you canā€™t be productive and lead effectively. Productivity is simply investing your BEST time into your BEST activities. Too many entrepreneurs get permanently stuck in the mud of checking emails, accounting, purchasing supplies, and social media which consumes their best time, depletes their energy, and leaves them overwhelmed.

If your goals are vague, youā€™ll end up working on tons of things that will lead you nowhere, just like running on an elliptical. Youā€™re working really hard but youā€™re not getting anywhere. Youā€™re not progressing toward your goals because youā€™re spread too thin and wearing out. Have clarity on your goals and on who needs to do what to achieve those goals so you can take purposeful and fruitful action.

4. Maintain Your Growth Mindset

Your mindset is like a flower that needs constant TLC. Even if you have a positive mindset, it can change in a heartbeat, wilt, and die if you donā€™t nurture it. If youā€™re not proactively maintaining your growth mindset, one negative review, one pissed-off client, one failed deal, or one technical difficulty could seriously screw with your head. And when your head is not in a good place, your confidence lacks. Your willpower lacks. Your focus lacks. Your passion lacks. A fixed mindset makes it difficult to make smart decisions to grow your business. Daily affirmations to the mind are like exercises to the body and both must be kept healthy. Say positive affirmations daily to build yourself up and empower yourself to do what is needed to achieve success.

5. Celebrate Your Wins

If you donā€™t take time to appreciate where youā€™re at compared to where youā€™ve been, you wonā€™t feel motivated long enough to stay the course and achieve your bigger goals. Start celebrating your wins, even the small ones. Doing so will make you feel good about your progress, help you stay motivated, and encourage you to reach your next milestone.

Celebrating doesnā€™t have to be a big or costly ideal. Enjoy a piece of candy, coffee, small gift to yourself, movie, massage, trash tv, dinner at your favorite restaurant, or even just give a ā€œNice work!ā€ to yourself. Whatā€™s more important than the reward itself, is simply acknowledging your efforts have given you reason for one.

6. Indulge In Self-Care

If you constantly put your business, everything, and everyone else first, youā€™re risking burnout. At the very least, youā€™re risking feeling physically exhausted, sick, overwhelmed, or totally discouraged. Take care of your own needs in addition to your clientsā€™, businessā€™, and familyā€™s needs, otherwise your body will eventually force you to and let me tell you, hospital beds are expensive!

Get seven to nine hours of sleep each night. Eat healthy foods that provide energy and the nutrients your body needs to function at its best. Take breaks to refresh. Take vacations to recover and rejuvenate. Take time for yourself whether itā€™s a spa day, painting class, romance novel, sport, or dining at the new it restaurant. Entrepreneurs have the tendency to think every dollar that comes in has to go back into building their business. The problem with that thinking is in building a great business, you could also be building a life you donā€™t want to be living. Self-care is essential to your long-term success both personally and professionally.

7. Donā€™t Overcommit

When you declare a fresh start, youā€™re doing so from a place of optimism and the feeling that you can conquer the world. Thatā€™s wonderful but I warn you to be careful about saying yes to everything. Itā€™s the easiest way to derail your success. Say no to othersā€™ requests of your time if it doesnā€™t align with your goals or where you are currently in your business. Perhaps that partnership would serve you well but maybe this month isnā€™t the best time to add it to your plate.

Say no to yourself. Sure, you love your Thursday nights out with your friends but theyā€™re making you show up late and exhausted in your business each Friday. If you donā€™t want to eliminate them entirely, show some discipline and start peacing out an hour or two earlier. For activities that no longer serve you but have simply become routine, eliminate them. Also, delegate tasks that can be taught and donā€™t need to be done by you to make your task load more manageable.

8. Surround Yourself With Amazing People

Be incredibly proactive and intentional with the people you let in your life. Professionally, that means your employees, team, colleagues, and peers. If you have people on your team that are not amazing, motivating, and help you achieve your goals, you need to look at realigning whoā€™s on your team. You could be one hire away from a total, positive transformation in your business. You could also be one delayed firing away from an employee sinking your ship because they keep drilling holes in it.

Personally, surround yourself with supporters of you who lift you up and encourage your success. That means donā€™t allow partners, friends, and family who donā€™t believe in you or want to limit your success to their own into your inner circle. You canā€™t choose your family but you can choose how much time you spend with each member of it.

9. Lean On Your Word Of The Year

Having a Word Of The Year helps you put that goal front and center in your life. It helps you stay laser focused on it and take intentional action toward achieving your goal throughout the year. Filter groups, communities, projects, affiliations, meetings, partnerships, programs, ideas, and any shiny object that comes across your path against your Word Of The Year. If it doesnā€™t align, consider if you should table it or if you should simply swipe left and forget about it.

10. Know That ANY Day Can Be Your Fresh Start

Sometimes entrepreneurship can feel like youā€™re taking two steps forward and one step back or even one step forward and four steps back. Donā€™t let small defeats knock you off track and screw your mindset, making you think youā€™re not capable of success. You can have a bad day but donā€™t let that bad day roll into the next day and the next day. If youā€™re behind on reaching your goal and feel like itā€™s going sideways, readjust your train, not your tracks.

The feeling of having a fresh start is really your mindset around it. Donā€™t tell yourself youā€™ll start again fresh next week or next month. Youā€™ll continue negotiating with yourself and pushing your fresh start off. Embrace the truth that EVERY day can be a fresh start, not just the beginning of a new year. You just have to make that choice.

Itā€™s easy to make a fresh start a the beginning of a new year, especially when everyone around you is vowing to make their own fresh start as well. The challenge lies in making your fresh start last so you donā€™t fall off course and wind up right back where you were at the end of the previous year, drowning in uncompleted projects, unfinished tasks, and unachieved goals. Make this year different. Grab the reigns, stay on track, get back up when you fall down, and make your fresh start last through this year and beyond.

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Amber De La Garza

About the author

Amber De La Garza is The Productivity Specialist! Amber helps small business owners maximize profits, reduce stress, and make time for what matters most by improving their time management and elevating their productivity! Amber is a sought after coach, trainer, speaker, writer, host of the Small Business Straight Talk Podcast, and creator of Leverage LabĀ®.

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