The New Year's Resolution

There is a shower of confetti and champagne, serenaded by noise makers and song. We all celebrate the survival of one year and the beginning of the New Year. Midnight on New Year’s Eve is a moment full of hope and opportunity, unrivaled by any other worldwide shared event.

After we sweep up the confetti and recycle the champagne bottles, many of us will turn our attention to New Year’s Resolutions. We resolve to lose weight, stop bad habits, save money, spend more time with family or become more organized.  Frequently, New Years Resolutions are quickly met by disappointment, as we fail to meet our own expectations. It strikes me as odd that a New Year’s Resolution is a goal that is set in stone with immediate results expected. We seem to think that by setting a resolution, that there is some type of magic that will make it so.  No wonder we are disappointed!

In Corporate America while annual goals are given, never is there a thought that achievement will be easy, or done on the first day. I never had a manager say, “Michele, you must open all 500 of our new checking accounts on January 2nd." How silly would that have been?

So this year, as I set my resolutions and personal goals, I will use a couple of Sales Goals Setting Techniques I learned in Retail Banking:  

1. I will set an annual goal, but break it down to smaller, bite size pieces.  For example, if the goal is to remove junk food from my diet, I will set smaller week to week, month to month goals. In January I will only have chips with my lunch one day a week. As this is accomplished, I will build on it until my annual goal has been achieved.

2. I will allow for the reality of life to be part of my goals. Every store would love to hit their sales goals at an even, month to month pace. That is not how it works – we all know that for most, they are in the red until Black Friday.  Their sales goals must be adjusted and set based on this reality of life.For my New Year’s Resolution to be greener, expecting me to start a compost pile in the dead of winter is unrealistic. I will adjust, working on other green initiatives and begin my compost as soon as the warmer weather comes.

3. I will identify the behaviors that will lead to success. When I coached sales teams, after we got over the numbers, we would dig into: What do we need to do to achieve this success? To save more money, I will need to engage in certain behaviors: set up for automatic transfers to my money market accounts, review all my utility providers, use more coupons, etc., By identifying behaviors, I will be able to easily identify where my success is coming from; or where I have more for achievement

 So this year, as you clean up from the party, and contemplate your New Year’s Resolutions,  break it down, allow for life to be part of your goals and identify the behaviors that will lead to your success!

 Happy New Year Everyone!