How Will I Know I’ve Had a Great Year?

It’s December 14th, and painfully close to the end of 2008. For most purposes, business will come to a close for the year by the end of next week, leaving us 10 days of reflection before the New Year…

And if you’re like me, you’ve already started, and hopefully, nearly finished, planning for 2009. But have you stopped to take inventory of the past 12 months of your life? When you sit to reflect, what measurements are you using to answer the question:

How will I know I’ve had a great year?

This week I heard Nell Merlino, from Count Me In, Make Mine a Million$$ Business, share what should be obvious– the most significant common trait amongst all of the women business owners who reach the million $$ goal is that they have a goal.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? And the goal doesn’t have to be huge, complex or particularly strategic– you just have to have one. And it has to be specific.

So, if your goal is to “increase my customers”, ask yourself, how many customers do you expect to increase in each month?

Or if you want to “make more money”, how much do you want to make, really? Is more $10, or $100,000?

Or if you want to spend more time with your family- what does that look like? One day a week, or one more hour per day?

For 20 years I’ve completed countless business plans, marketing plans and budgets for the companies I represented, and set lots of goals for the business and my teams, but I never did my own personal goal setting. When interviewers asked that infamous question, “where do you see yourself in the next 5 years” I was paralyzed…

It’s no secret that I created my first vision board in my WomenThatWin MastHERmind class in October 2007. I know now that I never gave myself permission to want something badly enough to put it on paper, for fear that I’d be disappointed.

With that old self-defeating “stuff” behind me, this year I have the pleasure of completing an assessment of my success on my terms because I am finally able to allow myself to want something, know that I deserve to achieve it and that I will achieve it if I set a goal to get there.

And I know I’ve had a great year!

I know because my goals are there in big, bold colors on two vision boards– one that guided me through the clarity of my personal goals, the “release” of my job, and a trip of a lifetime, and one that charts the course of Wise Well Women toward new creativity, work-life balance and prosperity today and into 2009.

How will I know I’ve had a great year? Because I’ll be celebrating!

Thanks to Sandy Grason, author of Journalution, and “Mastermind to Manifest”, I know that the most important part of my end of year assessment is to celebrate all that I’ve accomplished– no matter how small.

I intend to give myself some credit for a wonderful year. How ’bout you?

So my 10 days of reflection will be spent journaling about every little thing that I’ve done in 2008– making a huge, long, list of all the stuff that has made up this miraculous year. And I’ll be adding to my goals for 2009 along the way.

What will you be celebrating?

Share it with me– and then we’ll all know you’ve had a great year!

In the spirit of wisdom, wellness, and prosperity,
I send you wishes of a holiday season filled with joy–
Nanette

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I support passionate, forward-thinking entrepreneurs who want to embrace the business of their business rather than fear it, and as a result of our time together they effectively use simple tools to measure, manage and project their growth, free to focus on doing what they love! For more info visit www.wisewellwomen.com