Three Essential Tips to Finish the Year Strong!

Thank you for tuning in to episode 91! If you’re listening in real-time, you know we have about two months left before we ring in the new year. It’s the perfect time to reflect on our lofty goals, what we did this year, and what we wish we would have done differently. In this short and sweet solo episode, I’d like to look at the 3 tips that can give us that little push to finish the year out strong!

First, I want you to consider the idea of changing out the word goals for something a little more tangible, like results or outcomes.
Regardless of what you are trying to achieve, making a mental shift between these words might make all the difference in the actions that you take. It’s essential to embrace the words that will push us to make better choices at the moment. With the holidays soon approaching we will have to decide how much money to spend, where or how to spend our time, what things we should eat, etc. As far as business goes, it’s easy to lose sight of our most desired outcome when we have so much pressure to participate in more social events, fundraisers, etc.

To finish the year out strong, you’ll want to ask yourself, what will it take for me to be the person that I want to be by the end of the year. Let’s say it’s to beat your sales goal. Ask yourself what do I need to do today to achieve that specific number. Another way to think of it is like this. If you know someone in your field, or maybe it’s someone that you admire, ask yourself, what choices would that person make and start making those choices for yourself? In time you’ll see that keeping a physical image of your ideal self will help you to make those tough choices a lot easier. Because, after all, that ideal version of you has already made the tough choices, you’re just following the program.

I believe we know what we need to do to achieve our wildest dreams, but I also think that we are ever so clever and try to find shortcuts.
If you want to save more money,spend less. If you want to weigh less, eat less. If you want to be stronger, lift weights.
It’s so simple, but unfortunately, we have a hard time seeing the easy and obvious. We tend to want the best of both worlds. And who can blame you, me, us? But what if we took the approach of making the ideal version of ourselves the outcome. Trust that the ideal version of who we want to be already knows what choices to make.The next most important tip to remember is one that I covered in episode 26. In 1955 Cyril Parkinson’s essay was published in The Economist. His essay explained his theory that “work expands to fill the time available for its completion.” Furthermore, he said that if something must be done in a year, it’ll be done in a year. If something must be done next week, it’ll be done next week. If something must be done tomorrow, it’ll be done tomorrow. If given the leisure to take our time with a project, we most likely will take our sweet time. I have found that to be the case in my situation. If given the time to create something, I will take my time to do so. Since I know I’m not the only one afflicted with this, I think I have found a way that we can differ from the competition. Just because we can take our time to do something doesn’t mean we should. So whenever our schedules start to get a bit stretched, remember to create a definitive deadline for each project. I find that the closer the deadline, the narrower my field of vision, and the more I laser focus.

Lastly, I want to circle back to episode 13, when I covered the 80/20 rule. Have you ever heard of the 80/20 rule, which is really like the 8th wonder of the world? The Pareto Principle says that 20% of the input is responsible for 80% of the results. When I first heard this, I thought it was insane. I remember getting defensive and truly could not for the life of me believe that any one rule could apply to my very niche business. Then I did a little research, looked at my numbers, and low and behold, it was true! I was making 80% of my income from 20% of my products! It not only was true for the type of products, but it was also true for the time of year. I receive 80% of my sales during 20% of the year. Isn’t that mind-blowing?

You can apply this principle when you’re deciding what products or services to offer. Maybe now is the time to look at your best sellers and make them shine even more or try to create a similar offer or product that resembles those winners or maybe have a sale on the pieces that aren’t big sellers. The idea is to look at the numbers and focus on what is working!

Thank you for tuning in to the show, sharing it, and for the reviews. I love hearing from you, so don’t forget to connect with me on Instagram. If you’d like to be featured on an episode, have a question or suggestion, send me an email.

I’ll see you next time!