goals Archives - EM Solutions

Year End Planning 4 – setting goals

This is session 4 of 5 in the year-end planning process. If you have not yet read the lessons or watched the videos from the previous sessions, please do before you continue.
You should now have a list of things to do for next year. This list will have all sorts of goals, activities and hopes on it. All these items need to be sorted and prioritised in order of importance. This will help you identify what needs to be done and what is a ‘nice to have’. But be firm, it is easy to downplay some of the important issues just because it is harder to do. Like joining a gym and getting your finances sorted. Yes, it can wait, but the longer you wait the more urgent it will become ending up as a critical issue later in the year.
Once you know what needs to be done, now sort them by month. It is always great to have a 12-month plan with each month having at least one WIG – Wildly Important Goal set to be focused on and achieved during that month.
Add additional and supporting goals to each month. Now you have a year full of plans.
Now it comes time for communication of these goals to all relevant people. All people who are involved or affected by your goals need to be told. This will enable them to do two things: be aware of any task they should be doing and to hold you accountable for doing your part.

By Bruce Wade|2016-12-20T10:39:24+02:00December 20th, 2016|Bruce on Business|0 Comments

Year End Planning part 3

So, now that you have that list of things left over from this year, what do we do with it?
Add to it. Add the new items for the next 12 months. Look at the areas required to get you and your business to the place you most desire. What do you need to be to get there – add this to the list? What does your staff need to be? What new tools, equipment and knowledge need to be within your business? Keep adding until you are satisfied that you have enough to equip and empower yourself for what lies ahead.
New we will have to deal with this list….. in the next part of this series.

By Bruce Wade|2016-12-19T10:46:18+02:00December 19th, 2016|Bruce on Business|0 Comments

Year End Reflection Time

And into December we go. And as predicted there are always a bunch of memes, blogs and articles telling us to pause, reflect and plan. Some of them good and some not so.

But here is an exercise that could literally change your business and your future. It is so important that we have put together a short video course on the process that we will post over the next few weeks and we ask that you follow along and do the short exercise for each lesson.

Doing is different from just listening and thinking about doing. I want to encourage you to get that paper and pen out and do the work. Just 10 minutes per day over 5 days will see significant changes in your future. Guaranteed.

By Bruce Wade|2016-12-12T12:33:52+02:00December 12th, 2016|Bruce on Business|0 Comments

Are you Planning to Fail?

The old saying: “Failing to plan is planning to fail” is never truer than it is in these busy, fast moving times in the economy.
If you and your business do not have clear-cut plans for at least the next 12 months, the chances of still being in business this time next year are drastically reduced. Your team should all be on the same page with clear objectives and strategies for the near and far future.
Plans bring ideas and people together into a focused laser beam strategy that will coordinate effort and energies into a single destination. This obviously starts with a clear Vision, mission and purpose for the business. Then breaks down into long term goals and short term plans, sprints and accountability.
But remember that setting goals is like a budget: you need to measure your actual against it on a regular basis. Goals need to be timelined with critical paths and actual progress mapped against each activity. This gives you, the manager, a clear understanding of where you are and what may be any issues or obstacles that need managing around. This, when communicated to all team members build momentum and results in forward driven progress.
So, is it not time to sit down and map out a plan for 2017?

By Bruce Wade|2016-12-05T10:09:47+02:00December 5th, 2016|90 Day Sprint|0 Comments

Bruce On Business episode 7

It’s the end of the year, and at this time of the year many people psychologically st themselves up to be tired and drained. it make sense because all we had to do all year is to chase the goals that we made for ourselves at the beginning of the year. Now its time to pause and check if those goals were achieved.

For entrepreneurs, it is also a n important period of the year because that is where we press pause to look at the way things went in the business. Few things that you can do as an entrepreneur is to evaluate your company’s goals and achievements. come up with a top 5 list of achievements and top 5 non-achieved list. find out what worked and what did not and the reasons why.

The end of the year is a great time to reflect on the company’s performance, talk about challenges and accomplishments and plan for the year ahead. Have a meeting with the stuff members before your holiday party so that the festivities don’t have to involve talking business. Bring everyone to the table and set goals for 2016. stand up and seize all the opportunities with both hands.

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:16+02:00December 7th, 2015|Bruce on Business|0 Comments

Looking back to plan forward Part 3

This week we will take a short journey through a series of exercises that we use to cement the leanings from the past year and prepare for the quantum leap into 2016.

Today we will begin to look ahead to 2016 and put pen to paper on what your BHAGs and WIGs are. Let’s start with goal setting, this is preached at every business and personal development and time management seminar you will ever go to and for good reason.

Setting Goals do actually work. Simply by writing out your goals and sharing them with other people, you have already done up to 40% of the work towards achieving them. So get going. Set some goals for 2016. We are encouraged by John Maxwell to set BHAG, Big Hairy Audacious Goals. These are goals bigger than ourselves, a little larger than we would be comfortable with and just out of reach of our normal way of operation.

What this does to us is causes us to grow in ourselves and learn to rely on others to achieve them. Both are not so bad things. We are also told by Covey to set and keep a list of WIG’s, Wildy Important Goals. These are the top 3 to 5 goals that we spend 80% of our time on each day. We read them when we get up and re read them before we go to bed, they are top of mind at all times.

So what are your goals for 2016? Write out a list of 20 main objectives for the new year. Remember to include some of the following categories: Finance, Business, Personal Development, Family, Fun Time, Product Research, Networking and Holidays. Have fun with this and allow your mind to dream a bit. If your list scares you a little you have done it right. Now select your top 5 WIGS and circle them in red. Job done.

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:17+02:00November 19th, 2015|Business Resources|0 Comments

Looking back to plan forward: Part 1

This week we will take a short journey through a series of exercises that we use to cement the leanings from the past year and prepare for the quantum leap into 2016.

The first exercise is a simple one but so many people neglect to do this each year let alone each day. Take time to pause and reflect on your achievements. Make a list of all the highlights that both you and your team have achieved throughout the year. Go through each month, pull out old notes or your diary and make a celebration list.

Once you have exhausted your achievements, jot down, next to each item, the reasons why you achieved these. What was the catalyst or mechanics behind each one? What we are looking for here are the cogs that turned and engaged that resulted in success. This is the real learning here, to understand what was done to achieve the results you experienced. When you are done with this, share these with the team and chat about what went right and what went not so right this past 12 months.

Celebrate the victories and learn from the failures.

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:18+02:00November 5th, 2015|Reflections|0 Comments

Are you afraid of failure? Well, you are not alone.

Most of us have exactly what it takes to start a business, achieve our goals or embark on any important journey in our lives, yet we find it difficult to take the first step simply because of one thing – fear of failure.

We are all afraid of failure, but does it mean we have to stop trying?

Taking action can be the most difficult step and can appear to be paralysing from time to time, but remember there is no success without failure. Everyone who is successful will tell you about the many hurdles they had to jump for them to get to where they are.

Success in life or business doesn’t happen until you take that very first step towards reaching your goal. As Don Shula once stated, “the start is what stops most people”. Well, fear of failure at the starting point contributes largely towards many people not taking off at all when they have the potential to reach for the stars.

Remember that everything you want is on the other side of failure.

It may seem like failure tends to be more public than success, hence we try to avoid it and question ourselves every time we have new ideas. But the simple truth is – no great success was ever achieved without failure.

Instead of seeing failure as a measure of your capability, rather see it as a learning curve. The renowned Mike Lipkin once unpacked the acronym FAIL as standing for ‘First Action In Learning’. So pick up your lesson and have the second attempt in being better equipped.

Go out there and use that knowledge that you have inside of you. That small business idea you have, act on it. Most of us have exactly what we need to get to our goals, but we make excuses not to even get started.

Living a successful life is all about experimenting and trying new things. The more things you try, the closer you will get to true success.

Just to borrow from Robert F. Kennedy, “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”

By nbmedia|2016-11-01T10:20:20+02:00October 12th, 2015|General|0 Comments

Where will you be in 12 Months?

The beginning of a year allows us the time to pause, plan and proceed into the next 12 months. Too often we set huge expectations on ourselves, often shared around the dinner table at some party, where we promise to exercise more, eat less and sort out our finances. But this rarely ever translates into any form of action or progress.

So If I had to ask you this: Where do you expect to be in 12 months from now? What would your answer truly be? Could you say with any level of certainty that your would have moved forward in your life goals and be better off?

Watch this sort video to get some inspiration on setting yourself up for the next year.

Share with us some of your main goals for 2015. I dare you….