We are already four months into 2023, can you believe it? With the end of the financial year soon upon us, now is a great time to check how you’ve been tracking so far this year and ask yourself “Have I been consistent?”.
Consistency is one of those things that we often don’t think about until we look back on the year as a whole, and while setting your goals first is great, the key actions you take to implement ongoing strategies to achieve them are what really count. With so much to do on a daily basis, staying consistent can be difficult, so take a look at our top 5 ways to stay on top of your goals today.
- Revisit your goals
Remember those goals you set at the start of the year? The list of key milestones you wanted to achieve and strategies to get there? Now is the time to revisit those goals. Take a look at what you set out to achieve and remind yourself of what key areas of your business you wanted to improve or change. Whether you wanted to put on a new event, do some rebranding, engage with your customers more, or launch something new, any and all of your goals, big and small, are important to have a look at. Some goals may have already developed or might have changed since you first established them. Either way, the best place to get started is to see which ones still apply and organise them based on the importance and urgency of when you want to start powering through them and ticking things off your long list.
- Track your progress
Once you’ve revisited your goals, the next thing to do is to track your progress. Make a note of what has already been achieved and what’s on its way. The best way to analyse your consistency is to see what you have been actively doing to keep up with your goals and strategies. Those goals are already a work in progress and can be a great indication of this. Did you start with the easiest goals to reach or the hardest? Tackle a big project or your smaller ones first? Find out what has been working for you, and be consistent with this as you move on to other tasks and goals. A great way to track your progress is to divide it up into sections. This can include everything from what you have brainstormed or started planning, to what is in the development stages, to what has already been launched. By breaking up each goal or task, tracking your progress becomes much easier, and allows you to quickly and effectively review what’s happening in your business and how to go about making further changes and improvements to maintain productivity and consistency.
- Review what works and change what doesn’t
Tracking allows you to take a deeper dive into what is working and what is seeming difficult for your business. Reviewing these steps allows you to make the necessary changes now so that you can get on with making progress efficiently instead of letting those goals get pushed aside. If you’re feeling like you aren’t making the progress you want, try to see patterns as to what the cause is. If deadlines are overwhelming, try to set aside smaller blocks of time more regularly to make progress consistently. If you’re stuck creatively, then try to get some fresh eyes and ideas to help kickstart your next stages in the process. At CLS, we work with so many different types of businesses and are able to help you review your business and understand what’s working and what changes you can make to improve in all areas. Contact us today for more information and help with maintaining consistency in your business and staying on top of your goals.
- Know your goal timeline
Timelines and deadlines are often what let our goals get pushed to the end of the year or forgotten about altogether. If we don’t implement deadlines, then there is no drive for us to go that extra mile and get it done, and if our deadlines aren’t achievable or allow us enough time to reach our goals at a quality level, then we aren’t setting ourselves up for success. If you created a timeline when you first set your goals, now is the time to see how far along you are or how far you expected to be. From here, you can map out key times and dates by which you want certain aspects of your goal strategies completed, which will help you stay consistent. By having your goal timelines set out and checking them regularly, you can dedicate your time to working on them in a way that won’t feel so overwhelming and can be achieved through steady progress. Pro-tip, set them out daily, weekly, or monthly. Knowing your timeline will help keep you accountable for what is required of all parts of your team and departments and can assist you in knowing what is expected and regularly reviewing this.
- Keep on top of it
The hardest part of being consistent in the months ahead is maintaining the drive and strength to achieve those goals you set out at the beginning of the year. Everyone’s had at least one New Year’s Resolution that’s gone out the door before you could even try to achieve it. In the coming months, you can make sure your goals are successfully achieved by keeping up with the strategies you’ve implemented. Once you’ve figured out what you want to do and what works for your business, it’s imperative to try to stay on top of it. This means holding your staff and yourself accountable, setting aside time to work on making effective and efficient progress, and pushing through challenges to maintain consistency.
As we head towards the middle of 2023, it’s a great time to reflect on how consistent you’ve been, and take these steps to help you start and maintain reaching your goals throughout this year. Being consistent is challenging, and sometimes all you need is a little external push to get you fired up and excited about smashing those goals again. If you’re looking for help staying consistent and achieving your goals this year, contact us about a mentoring session or for more information about how our services at CLS can assist you.