10 Resolutions You Can Actually Stick With
Most New Years Resolutions Don’t Work.
Less than 10% are kept through the entire year. About a quarter of adults who make resolutions quit them by the end of the first week of January, and almost half by the end of the month. So why are we even talking about them?
The beginning of a calendar year brings a fresh start, a clean slate, and a burst of energy or motivation to make change… But business success is never the result of something you do just once. Instead, here are 10 baby steps that will lead to real, sustainable change over the course of the year. Each is designed to fit into an entrepreneur’s schedule – you can do them in 15 minutes or less. Target one per week, and you’ll start to see results by the end of the quarter.
1. Set your GPS
You wouldn’t start driving if you didn’t know what direction to travel – so don’t start the year without knowing where you want to end up. What, if you achieved it this year, would make you feel most proud? What would you like to look back on next December as your biggest win for the year?
Don’t worry if you don’t know how you’ll get there. Just by writing the goal down, you’ve set your brain’s GPS and your subconscious can get to work figuring out the path.
2. Gain consistency
Pick a process, behaviour, or action in your business that could be more consistent. What’s your average performance? Whatever that is, make it your new baseline. By reducing the number of times you’re operating below average, your numbers will automatically improve – even if you don’t change anything else. Usually all it takes is sharing information, recording the steps, or writing down the script.
3. Identify time wasters
What are the distractions, interruptions, rote tasks, or pointless meetings that take you away from your most important work? List the most obvious ones and keep adding to the list throughout the week. Don’t worry about solving each one as you make the list – trust that as you pay more attention to what’s wasting your time, your level of dissatisfaction will build. The more awareness you have, the more obvious (and urgent) the solution will become.
4. Measure something
As a wise man once said: “What gets measured gets managed”. What data do you wish you had about your business? Where could you capture more detail or nuance, that would allow you to make better strategic decisions?
Common examples are tracking weekly spending, how time is really spent, or where the best leads are coming from. Whatever you’d like to manage better, the first step is collecting some baseline data. Create a spreadsheet and use it for a week – what does that data tell you?
5. Stop doing dumb stuff
What’s taking your time, money, or energy but not giving results? Where’s profit leaking out of the business because you’re delivering something your customers don’t care about? Engage your team on this – chances are they already know what you can easily stop doing.
6. Talk to customers
Why did your best customers choose you, and why do they keep coming back? What suggestions do they have that would improve their experience? A couple of candid conversations with the customers you’d like to clone can unlock new ideas, a better marketing message, or increased focus on what matters to those you serve.
7. Tidy up
The Law of Entropy tells us that time brings disorder. Pick an area (digital or physical) and take 15 minutes to declutter and tidy up. You’ll feel better, and you’ll waste less time looking for the things you need.
8. Catch someone doing something right
Simple acknowledgements and praise go a long way. Positive reinforcement is more effective than catching mistakes. Make a point of catching someone you work with doing something right and thank them for it.
9. Practice positive self-talk
The stories we tell ourselves matter. Is your internal narrative keeping you back or pushing you forward? Write down 10-20 “I am” statements that are congruent with the person you’re working to become, and say them out loud.
10. Pass it on
Share what’s working for you with someone in your life. Your learnings are multiplied when they’re shared. And when it comes to resolutions, they’re way more likely to stick when someone else knows about them!
If you found this list valuable, share it with someone else and hold each other accountable to follow through for the next 10 weeks.
This Week’s Takeaway
Change doesn’t have to be drastic to be meaningful. If you consistently make minor tweaks or changes to your business and stick to them, one per week all year long, your business won’t look the same by the end of 2025.
If you had 15 minutes to make one small change, what would be first on your list?
Jan 29th: Tune Your Marketing Engine
(Without Spending a Fortune on Ads)
Bridge the gap between your vision, lead generation, and marketing by honing your marketing engine.
Join me this month for another fun evening at the Port Credit Log Cabin in Mississauga on January 29th, 6:00pm, to uncover straightforward lead generation and marketing strategies that are easy to implement, cost-effective, and designed to deliver real results for your business.
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Feb 13th: Master Business Leadership
Lead by Example with the Management Masterclass!
This February, the 12-week Management Program opens! It’s a series of educational sessions to help hone your leadership skills, refine your management process, and keep you up-to-date on the best practices every great manager must master.
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Learn more, and register here to get started.
Traction: By Geno Wickman
For anyone dealing with those all-to-familiar business challenges (slow growth, decision making, implementation, miscommunications), Traction offers practical strategies that can help. It focuses on six key areas of your business, providing simple yet effective ways to bring more clarity, growth, and focus to your work. If you’re looking for a straightforward approach to streamline your business, this could be a useful read.
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