Ep. 037: Goals vs. Resolutions
It's the new year and that typically means resolutions for how things will be different, or better, in the year ahead. But if you find it hard to stick to them (like most people), there's actually a better way.
Instead of resolving to do something new, set a specific goal, and then make a plan that supports that goal. Then, to set yourself up for success even further, adopt new habits to make the plan, and the goal, inevitable.
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Erika Tebbens: Before we dive into the episode, I wanted to share a little bit about my group coaching program, The Success Squad, if you find in your business that you aren't quite as booked out, as you would love to be, perhaps you are having some amazing revenue months here and there, but it's really inconsistent.
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All right now, onto the episode.
Hello and Happy New Year! It is 2020! I know I took last, last week off from releasing an episode because it was Christmas day.
When it would have normally gone out. And I know today is new year's day and I could have said, "Nah, I'll push it back another week," but why not get into it? Right? Why not dive into the new year and really set ourselves up for success. So, in no way. Am I saying you should be working today or anything like that, um, I am not. I'm going to be hanging out and going to the movies and relaxing with my family, uh, after a really hectic December of moving from New York to Michigan. But I think it's really great to just start with a good, fresh mindset and be ready and excited. I don't know if you're excited, I'm excited.
I feel like new beginnings always get me just, I don't know, really like pumped there's something good. There's something that feels really fresh about any time there is a new start. I know it's just another day, I know it's, you know, it's just another Wednesday. There's nothing that's truly significant about January 1st compared to December 31st, but it's just, I don't know.
There's something about like being able to put whatever happened, happen, you know, like whatever happened in the past it's done and now we can move forward. So today I want to talk about goals versus resolutions because it is the new year and that is, you know, resolutions are a tradition culturally, uh, in America, at least.
So I feel like we need to talk about it because. I think that there's a better way. Not that you can't make resolutions, there's a better way of resolving to do something new in the new year and actually sticking to it. So I know with resolutions, people are either like, "Yay resolutions!" Or they're like "Uh, screw resolutions!"
Um, and I think a lot of the time it's because we view resolutions as, well, I'm going to say, I'm going to go to the gym and then, you know, if you've ever gone to the gym in January, it's freaking packed, right? So everyone's like, "Oh, I'm going to go to the gym." "I'm going to I'm at a whole 30th." "I'm going to do this." "I'm going to do that." I'm going to start waking up at 5:00 AM" and all of these things.
And then by like the middle of January, uh, those resolutions are nowhere to be found. Right? So it sort of feels like. If I make a resolution, I'm just setting myself up for failure. So why even bother? Right? And instead, I would encourage you to think of setting goals and then attaching habits to make sure that the outcome of those goals actually gets completed. And let me explain this a little bit further.
So when I think of resolutions, I think of, "Hey, I am resolving to do something." Right? So I have a resolution it's not very formal, but a resolution in intention for the new year, because I'm all about local agriculture and supporting local farms and we just moved.
And so. I was thinking that it would be nice to possibly get a CSA community supported agriculture share of veggies this summer. Because we throughout last year, we weren't sure if we were moving, so I didn't end up getting a CSA and it's just something I really liked to do. So one thing that I could do is go to the winter farmer's market and try out some different farms.
And I can also ask around and I can look into some different farms and look at their CSA plans and all of that stuff. Right? And even if I decided not to get a CSA, I could decide, okay each Saturday morning or whenever the farmer's market is that I'm going to go and I'm going to get our veggies for the week. Right?
Now, obviously that in and of itself eventually becomes a habit. But for the moment what I have done is I looked at the schedule for the winter market here because it's a little bit more sporadic and I put the dates in my planner. So now I know, Oh, on that Tuesday from three to 6:00 PM. I, you know, whenever it works for me during that time, on that day with my work schedule, I'm going to go and I'm gonna get some veggies.
I'm going to try the farmer's market. Right so there's not really, I don't have to like chunk it out into a bunch of steps. There's not, it's not like I'm checking to see like how many times this year did I go to the farmer's market or what percentage of our produce was local versus not like I'm not going that deep.
Right? I'm simply resolving that now that we're here. Now that we're settled. I really want to support local agriculture, boom, done like, yeah. Nothing else to say about it. Really. Now, if you wanted to have a resolution of, let's say, make more money in 2020, which is a fine resolution to have, but that's very vague, right?
It leaves things open, uh, in a way that is not really going to be the most helpful, right? Because more could be a dollar more. Right. But you probably want to make more than a dollar more. I'm guessing. So, in this instance, it's better to look at it from a goal perspective. So if you made 25,000 last year, do you want to make 35,000 this year, 50,000, a hundred thousand?
Like what, what is the difference there, right? Or if you don't like looking at revenue goals and you like thinking about clients or making sales or, uh, any other metrics that feel good for you? It's really important to get specific about your target. And I know this makes some people anxious, which is why you set the target on your own.
I'm not going to say make a big, hairy, scary goal. If that freaks the hell out of you and is de-motivating, don't do it right. But pick a goal that is going to feel good for you. So maybe a goal is you have a. A hundred people on your email list and you want to end the year next year with 500 people on your email list.
So you have to get 400 over the course of the year. Okay. So now you can make a plan, right? You can take that bigger goal and now you can backtrack from that goal and you can actually make a plan. So how many would that be? Per quarter? Okay. It's so it's a hundred per quarter. Not that you have to get them all, you know, a hundred per quarter, because if you had 102 and one and 98 in the next, it's still all gonna even out, right?
But that way you could think, okay, well, if I need to get a hundred per quarter, so that's a little over 30 every month, right? So it's about a person a day. There's about a person a day that you want to get on your list and there's a lot of ways you can get people on your list, right? So we're not going to go all into that, but whatever you have, whether it is a free opt-in or multiple free opt-ins, or you are going to run like a webinar or a training series or a challenge or anything else.
You need to be thinking about that and set that intention that okay, every day I need to be tracking this or at the end of every week, I need to be tracking this and see, I need to be mindful of in my social media, reminding people that I have this free thing or this newsletter they can get on or whatever it is, right?
And that is going to help you get closer to your goal because you actually have something you can measure. You can actually look at the big picture and chunk it down, and then you know what to work on each day, each week, each month to get you closer to the goal. Now, sometimes the goal you're going to say, especially if it's a revenue goal, you might be like, well, I don't know.
There's so many different ways, whatever. Okay, but at the same time, it's only going to be more simplified. If you actually pick somewhere, you want to be, right? You might end up hitting it a different way, or you might end up missing it becoming close, or you might shoot right past it. But the key thing to remember is you want to actually know and have some intention about where you want to go, so you could figure out what you want to work on each day. And then if you're tracking it, you can see what's working and what isn't and what needs to be adjusted and what you can double down on.
So now let's take it one step back because I know sometimes business goals, again, can feel really anxiety producing. So let's just do something really simple, you want to read 12 personal development books in the new year, right? So that is your goal. So resolution would be like, I just want to read more, right? I'm just going to read more. It's very vague. A goal is I want to read 12 personal development books in the new year because I really want to work on my mindset.
That is my big like umbrella goal for 2020 is I want to work on my mindset. So, maybe you're not actually like an avid reader, right? Maybe you are busy, you've got kids, you've got your business. You've got life and you have fallen out of reading. Maybe you love to read in high school, but you just haven't in years, right?
Maybe in the last year you only read four books and now you're like, I'm going to read 12. What the hell? How am I going to do this? So this is where habits come in. So there's a really great book. I highly recommend it. Uh, it's called Atomic Habits by James Clear, and it talks about why connecting habits to your goals is way more effective.
Right? Cause we don't have to think about habits, like you have to think when you're starting a habit, but once it's a habit, then it's a habit. Right? So if you're like, Well, I always say, I want to read more and I always say that I'll read more when I have time or I'll read at the end of the day and you find it's not happening because the end of the day comes and you're exhausted or you haven't made time for it.
So you fill your time with everything else and then you feel like you have no time to read. Right? This is very common, like I've been through this myself. Uh, I'm sure a lot of people listening are nodding along. So the important thing to remember is instead of just saying, well, I'm gonna read the 12 books.
Okay? I have to read one a month. Okay. Well, when are you going to fit that in? If you don't already have a dedicated reading time, then how are you going to ensure that if you only read four books last year, that you are going to triple that this year, right? And that is where finding a habit that works for you is going to come in handy.
So you might. Say like, well, you know, people just say, you have to get up, you have to wake up at 5:00 AM and then read them or whatever. I can't do that. Okay. You don't have to right? But let's say that you, if your mornings are too crazy, let's say you have a lunch break, right? Can you have your book right there next to you?
So that as soon as you're done, like you read it, could you have, uh, is there a time like maybe right after dinner, when everything is cleaned up where you could sit and set a timer for her for 15 minutes and read? Uh, is it maybe that the weekdays are just totally frantic and chaotic and you are going to treat yourself to maybe Sunday mornings, you go to a coffee shop and you read for an hour, like when are you going to do it?
Right? Because then when you have a plan and when you set that new habit, like maybe every time, uh, you know, when you're I don’t know, transitioning your work stuff during the day. Like maybe you go from doing admin work to client calls. Maybe you just pause for 10 minutes and you read a little bit of a book because I guarantee you, if you make it a daily or a weekly habit, and you're not skipping that you are going to be able to read a whole book in a month. Right? So that is a different way of looking at it.
Like I know several people who read a ton and they're not fitting in reading in their free time, they are making time to read. Right. So that is a difference. It's it's about prioritization. And if you make that priority a habit, right?
Like we don't think about brushing our teeth before bed. It's just a habit. So if you are, uh, if you like, let's say I used to do this all the time. Um, when I was younger, I would just like carry a backpack or a giant purse with me. I still sometimes do this and I would have a book with me. So instead of killing time on your phone or whatever, I would take out my book and I would just read a little from my book and it might seem like, well, you know, I want to read for long stretches of time.
Well, if you don't have long stretches of time, but you want to finish books, like you have to find a different way. Right? And so it might be that you only get one page in when you're waiting in line at the bank, but it's still one page it's one page closer to finishing that book, or now we have audio books, right? So there's a lot of time in our lives where we could be multitasking that is not like detrimental, right? If you're cooking dinner, you can listen to an audio book. If you're in the shower, you can listen to an audio book. If you're driving around town, you can listen to an audio book.
So, it's really about figuring out is it meaningful? Does it matter? Does it get you closer to where you want to be? And if so, how are you going to make it a priority? How are you going to make it a habit? Because I have to say like, I. Uh, I have my, my Money Monday episode, um, which was, let me see which episode number that was.
So you can go back and look it up on your own, it is episode 23. So episode 23, I talk about my Money Monday Practice, so that was something that was not a habit at the beginning of the year. But it is a habit now, so much so that like, even when I was away on vacation, I just pulled up my phone and I did it for my phone cause it only takes me 15 to 20 minutes and it's just a habit. Right? So a lot of the stuff I do in my business now for marketing is just a habit and a habit is way more powerful because you don't have to take up your brain space to do it.
So if you know, every, every Sunday night you schedule Instagram for the week, great, then you're going to, you're going to do that. If you know that the first Tuesday of every month, you write all your blog posts for the month and get them scheduled and write emails for them, whatever. Or even if it's just writing emails to your list, great. Then you do that, it's just becomes a habit. So I hope that that was helpful.
Uh, I'm curious to know if you have any goals that you've already set for 2020, find me on Instagram, that's where I hang out the most at @erikatebbensconsulting, so find me there, be sure you're following along, be sure you are subscribed to this podcast, so you get it every week, and then when you, if you know your goals or you're struggling setting goals or even figuring out how to work backwards so that you can hit that goal, find me over on Instagram, tag me in a post in your stories, or send me a DM. I'm truly happy to help. I want to make sure that you have the most successful year yet in your business next year.
And again, remember goals and habits way better than resolutions, nothing terrible about resolutions. I'm not going to bag on them, but. They are totally different. They're totally different animal than setting a goal and then creating habits that work with that goal. So just be mindful of that. And you will, uh, hopefully find that you do not backslide by mid January and as always, happy selling.
