Be SMART and scrap the resolutions

As 2013 winds down, you may find yourself reflecting on the good and bad of the past year, and looking forward to 2014.

‘Tis the season for New Year’s resolutions.

As you sit down to create your resolutions, my advice to you is DON’T DO IT!

Resolutions are too easily broken

There is a good chance that at some time in your life, you started the year with proclamations like:

I am going to get healthy and lose weight.

I am going to be more organized and focused.

I am going to be more successful in my business.

These are all wonderful ideas, but if you are like most people who make resolutions, you were not successful.

It’s not that you didn’t want to be successful. You just didn’t set yourself up for success.

Want to succeed? Be SMART

Instead of making resolutions this year, you should create SMART goals. This means creating goals that are:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Realistic
• Timely

By creating specific and measurable goals, you can better craft a plan to attain them. Determine exactly what you want to achieve and how you plan to get there. Don’t say, “I want to be more successful.” Instead say, “I want to increase profits 20% by a combination of increasing my prices by 10% and following up with five past clients each month to produce one additional project each month.”

Take the first step

Before you can create your goals, you need to figure out what it is you want to achieve. When it comes to your business, you may want to:

• Update out-dated web pages
• Reduce your procrastination of to-do items you hate
• Find better blog post ideas
• Take care of your basic marketing issues
• Remove the fear of moving forward with your business

Once you know what you want to do, start creating your SMART goals. To further help you stay on track with your goals – especially if you are a freelance copywriter – enlist the help of a friend or colleague. Tell them your goals and ask them to check in with you regularly, so you are accountable to someone.

Whatever you want to achieve, I wish you luck … actually, you don’t need luck if you plan properly. Here’s to proper planning!

Happy New Year!