Before you do your new year goal setting… do this!

With the new year looming, you might be tempted to charge full steam ahead with your goal setting for next year. But before you do, make sure you take some time to reflect on the year that was. In today’s episode, I share my end-of-year review process that you can use to set yourself up for a more impactful goal and planning session.

In this Episode:

01.48: Why reflection is important to the goal setting process
03.18: Analysing the financial data in your business 
07.19: Looking at the qualitative data of your business
12.23: Reflecting on the biggest learnings from the year that was

Links:

Transcript

With the new year looming, you might be tempted to charge full steam ahead with your goal setting for the new year…. Before you do that….  Make sure you take some time to reflect on the year that was.  In depth. In this episode, I’ll share my end of year review process that you can use to set yourself up for a more impactful goal and planning session for next year.

 

 

It’s human nature to want to charge full steam ahead.  We love bright shiny objects. But there is power in discipline.  In following a process and doing the less sexy things.

 

Let me share my end of year review framework, which I go through myself and with all of my private coaching clients.

 

Why reflection is important to the goal setting process

 

But before that, let’s talk about WHY it’s important.

 

There is a lot of power in taking the time to reflect and analyse the lessons from the year that was. You would have heard the saying “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome.”

 

And yet many of us do just that. We operate on autopilot and repeat the same patterns. We do the same thing again and again and wonder why we keep getting the same outcomes.

 

So this is why we want to mindfully take a step back and identify what went well and what to amplify in the new year. We also want to identify what DIDN’T go well and what to stop repeating. We also want to take some time to analyse the data and the facts rather than just “this felt like this” we really want to have a look at what the hard data is telling us.

 

Analysing the financial data in your business

 

So let’s run though a process.

 

First of all, I love to look at the data – your financial and other analytics too.

 

  • Review P&L (have a look month-by-month, what trends are happening)
  • Balance sheet

 

Some other analytics to look at are:

  • Number of clients
  • Average client value
  • Average sale price
  • Launch stats if you are a launcher

 

Dive in and see what this data is telling you.

 

You can also look at your KPIs. So, these are things that indicated your financial outcomes. Some examples might be followers on social media, website hits, email subscribers etc.

 

This should be data you are looking at regularly each month but there is so much power in looking at it over an annual period.

 

If you don’t understand how to analyse a P&L, make sure you check out my course The Profit Academy Foundations.  I literally teach all of this inside my course – how to understand and analyse your finances. We are in business to make a profit and while it can sound sexy to say “I had a $10k month” if you business isn’t profitable, you are going to run out of money. So it’s essential to understand this information.

 

Don’t wait until January to run these reports and look at these analytics – it’s too late!  Can look at Jan – Nov or Dec – Nov if you want 12 months.  I find comparing year on year to previous years can be really helpful too.

 

It’s definitely worth looking at it again in early Jan, but leaving this process until then is far too late if you ask me! You want to start the planning process for 2023, now. You want to start laying the foundations and setting your goals for the big growth you want next year.

 

Looking at the qualitative data of your business

 

Now that we’ve looked at the stats or the quantitative data, let’s look at the qualitative data. First of all, here are some prompts for you to go through this process. Let’s start with the wins.

 

What were the biggest highlights both professionally and personally of your year? Why?

 

What were you doing when these things came together?

 

What were the key things that made this work?

 

How were you feeling?

 

Who were you with?

 

Where were you?

 

Was it luck?  Was it intentional?

 

What kind of person were you BEING in those moments?

 

Let me share an example from one of the reflections I’ve had for this year. One of my biggest highlights/ successes was the launch of my course The Profit Academy: Foundations.

 

The logical reflections were that the messaging as on-point, the timing, the lead up was all positive. On the qualitative side of things, during the launch I felt SO energised by this topic, I was very well supported at the time, I was in MY most magnetic energetic state. People said to me that they could absolutely see my passion.

 

After you’ve gone through your highlights, wins and successes, it’s also important to look at your failures (aka lessons and things that didn’t go so well). Here are some prompts for you to reflect on those:

 

What were the biggest lowlights both professionally and personally of your year? Why?

 

What were you doing when these things came together?

 

How were you feeling?

 

Who were you with?

 

Where were you?

 

What kind of person were you BEING in those moments?

 

An example from business was that another launch of mine that didn’t go as well as The Profit Academy: Foundations. And to be honest it wasn’t something I had really wanted to launch, but I did it for cashflow. Right from the start, my energy around it wasn’t right. The messaging was great, the product was fantastic, but I didn’t have the same sense of energy around it. A big take-way from this was not only about the practical stuff, but my energetic state! When I feel exhausted, overwhelmed, it also translates into my results.

 

I’m really curious for you to explore the practical inputs to your failures and also your energetic state or even your location. I’ve had clients and friends who found that travelling really helped them have some of their biggest times in business!  Maybe that’s something you might notice too?

 

Reflecting on the biggest learnings from the year that was

 

Let’s take all the info we’ve talked about and turn it into something powerful. Lets talk about the biggest learning you’ve had this year.

 

I truly believe that every challenge we face teaches us something and it’s really important to reflect and take these lessons. I don’t subscribe to the toxic-positivity that goes around.

 

Make sure you capture all of these learnings to take forward into the new year.

 

The last part of this process is to make the plan for the next year.

 

I’ll be doing a whole other episode about your goal setting and planning process, and also I’ve recorded a 3 part series where 2 of my biz besties Anita Siek and Steph Taylor interview me using this exact framework.

 

So, make sure you follow or subscribe to the podcast so you get these episodes as they land.

 

To sum up:

  • Before charging ahead with your new year planning, take the time to reflect!
  • Start with the numbers and the stats, then reflect on the qualitative takeaways – both the wins and the failures and capture the lessons and things you do and don’t want to take into 2023.

 

As I shared earlier, I’ll be doing another episode about so please make sure you have followed or subscribed to this podcast. And if you found it valuable, please share this episode with YOUR audience so pass on the goodness so that more people can be reviewing their year with confidence.

 

 

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