The new year has arrived, and millions the world over are hatching plans to improve themselves (and their businesses) over the next twelve months. Of course, making a New Year’s resolution and actually sticking to it are two completely different things—meaning that, if you’re serious about reaching your goals this year, you’ve got a lot of work ahead of you.

In today’s episode of Above the Noise, our Brand Content Manager Jessi Carlin provides three useful tips for setting realistic, tangible goals and making sure you see them through.

Video Transcription

Goals are important, because they give you a plan and help hold you accountable. Today, I’m going to give you three tactics to stick to your goals.

A lot of people set goals at the beginning of the year. They’re called New Year’s resolutions. But you can actually set a goal at any time of year. US News actually says that 80% of New Year’s resolutions fail by February. I’m going to give you three ways so that you can actually achieve these goals and stick to them.

Number One

So, the first thing you need to do is have a plan. Most people have heard the famous quote, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” You want to actually put together S.M.A.R.T. goals to figure out what the plan is and how you can achieve it. If you look back at one of our previous videos, “S.M.A.R.T. Goal Setting,” it’ll tell you all the different ways that you can use S.M.A.R.T. goals to figure out your plan.

Number Two

The next thing you have to do is set check-ins. You really can’t have a goal that lasts an entire year without reevaluating it, maybe every single quarter. So, set those check-ins, figure out your progress, see if you need to tweak anything or reevaluate, and then continue going from there. Just make sure you don’t get discouraged if it’s not exactly on track.

Number Three

And the last tip is, “say it out loud.” Nothing helps you commit more to a goal than telling other people. They’ll actually keep you more accountable, and, in the end, when you achieve it, it’s a lot more exciting, because you can tell them about your success.

The takeaway

So, there you have it. Setting goals should never be scary, and it’s actually great for every single business to have goals, to figure out where they want to go. Let us know what your goals are for this year—and if you achieved your goals from last year—in the comments below. Check us out on Facebook and Instagram, subscribe to this YouTube channel, but, most importantly, take action on this today.