I won’t rehash what we already know about how unprecedented, uncertain, and sucky 2020 has been. I’m going to dive right into making 2021 NOT suck.
Take back Control
One of the suckiest things about 2020 was the feeling that our lives were out of control. It seemed like every little thing was now being dictated by someone else. Whenever it seems like life is out of your control the best thing you can do is to focus on what you can control. An important distinction is made between people who have an internal locus of control- those that believe they make things happen- and those with an external locus of control-people who believe things happen to them. As much as you can, embrace an internal locus of control and focus on the ways that you do have agency. You still control your actions, words, and future. Take charge of the areas you have control of and don’t dwell on the things out of your control.
Create Better Boundaries
2020 constantly inundated us with news and opinions and general crap. One of the best ways to prevent 2021 from sucking is to create solid boundaries around what and who and how much you filter out. Setting limits on news or social media might be your key to a less sucky 2021. The same applies to the people and activities dragging your business down. Set boundaries with your clients and family members. Outsource the tasks that drain your energy in business as well. Boundaries aren’t there to limit you, they are there to protect you.
Be Intentional with your Relationship
Learning to be intentional in our relationships is one of the greatest things to take from 2020. Not everything from 2020 was awful. The time we got to spend at home, the simplification of some parts of our lives, and the intentionality that is now required for our friendships. Schedule time with your friends. Create a virtual book club or phone call walking buddy to stay connected and accountable to 2021 goals. Make sure you have socially distant socializing in every week. And when we don’t have to be socially distant, keep the intentionality. Keep the standing zoom bakeoff with your friend across the country. Keep checking in with your mom once a week. Keep writing letters to your parents/grandparents in nursing homes. Keep actively choosing the people you want to stay connected with.
Find the Problem
So often in business (and in life), we get frustrated because something isn’t working and we make assumptions about what needs to be changed. The most common example I see is when people blame the price of their product instead of looking to see if anything else could be the issue (target market, sales copy, marketing strategy). Let’s get more strategic in 2020 about the way we solve problems. To start out with, when you are unhappy, not making enough money, or finding you are overwhelmed with things to do (all the major indicators of a problem in your business), take a step back and area by area evaluate your business AND take a good look at each area of your life. It is so easy to let one area leak into another (ever gotten into a fight with your partner only to realize you are actually not mad you are hungry). Localize the problem so you can start to find solutions that fix the actual problem you have.
Expand Your Dreams for Yourself
When I work with clients on planning their year, I ALWAYS want to start them out by expanding their perception of what is possible for them. So often by the end of the year, our dreams have shrunk and gotten beaten down by “reality”. We look at our unaccomplished last year’s goals and try to set “more reasonable” goals for next year. That’s a load of crap. More reasonable goals are actually harder to achieve than ambitious goals. Ambitious goal light a fire under our butts, inspire us, get us up early, and beg to be pursued. Reasonable goals allow us to get complacent. I want ONLY ambitious goals for you. So start planning for a year of amazing things by thinking BIGGER and BETTER. You are capable of incredible things. Brainstorm ALL that you could do if you wanted and light yourself up with all that is possible for you.
Cast a Vision for the Future
Number 5 is about all you COULD do but Vision is about what you are called to do. Vision is about the destination you are working towards in your life. It is about the business, platform, legacy, and lifestyle that you are building for your family, for the world, and for yourself. Creating a clear statement about where you want to get to is key to making 2021 not suck because it allows you to be intentional with your time, with each and every day, so that you never get stuck in a rut of the grind. When you articulate your vision for what you want to build, you define the mountain that you are climbing and the climb now has meaning.
Set Goals that Mean Something
Too often we set goals that are stolen. We steal goals from entrepreneurs that talk about how 6-figures is the key to their lifestyle. We steal goals from celebrities that brag about their pre-baby weight. We counterfeit goals from our family’s expectations. We steal goals from the latest Instagram guru who swears by 60 minutes of meditation every day. These are not your goals, these are the goals you think you are supposed to set. Just like a reasonable goal is hard to achieve, someone else’s goals are an uphill battle in the snow in your underwear. Set goals for 2021 that are YOURS. How do you know if a goal is really yours? It leads towards your vision. Look at your vision for your life and your business and pick out the goals that are needed to get you there.
Create a Plan
Creating a plan is the culmination of each of these steps to a 2021 that doesn’t suck. Plan the boundaries you need to put in place, plan how to be intentional in your relationships, plan the habits required to move you towards your vision, plan the products and marketing needed to reach your goals, and plan reflective time to evaluate your business regularly. Having a plan gives you a touchpoint of stability even if the world isn’t stable. Creating plans for the major areas of your business (sales, marketing, products, etc) gives you a path to walk to achieve your goals so that even on your most uninspired days you know what you are doing.
Stay the Course
Even when the world is changing around you, even when there are bright shiny trends you could pursue, even when something comes up that is “urgent”, stay the course. Trust your vision. Trust that what you are building is bigger than whatever waves are happening in your world. Vision is your guiding light to where you want to go. Yes, you may have to rearrange some things a bit or tweak your plan or your goals. Little adjustments will always be happening day by day, but the big picture is far more stable than that. Stay the course.
P.S. If you want to have a 2022 that captures all of these things, I invite you to spend New Years with me on a four-day virtual retreat where we will cast a vision for what you are building, create goals that mean something, and create the follow-through plans required to make it all happen. Details are here.