Waiting until the New Year Wastes 11.5% of your Time!
Lately I caught myself saying, ‘I’ll do that after the new year’ to friends, health, and business. It is an easy way to coast through the next few weeks – eating what I wanted, delaying networking until January, and postponing business moves that I should be doing right now.
Then I realized the time between Thanksgiving and New Years makes up 11.5% of the whole year! It’s a full six weeks. Consider this… six weeks equates to half of the summer season. It’s half of a business quarter. It’s the length of a training program that moves inactive people from ‘couch to 5K run’. It’s a long time.
That was a huge wake up call when I viewed it that way. How could I downplay 30 work days of the year (slightly less since I will take a few days off for the holidays)? I can’t ever make up that lost time. I had to make a choice. I could follow the typical holiday thinking and put things on pause for weeks, or I could use this time wisely to jump start my success for 2016. I recently read that every decision we make (or avoid) leads us to where we are in life. So true.
What’s so special about waiting until New Year’s Day anyway? In reality, it’s just another day after the football games and the parties. Whatever work/problems/decisions existed at Thanksgiving probably still remain that first week in January. Why not put that available 11.5% of time to good use right now?
The choice to pause through the last 6 weeks of the year may seem small, but it adds up and makes the work more difficult come January 1. The few extra pounds from the eggnog and pumpkin pie (my favorites) now just means more trips to the gym for me early next year. Delaying the creation of my business plan until January just puts me weeks behind the competition who took the time to create theirs in December. The list of postponing consequences just keeps growing.
What are you waiting for? Make the decision to move closer to your goals right now. Decide today how you will spend the rest of your time in 2016. Will you pause, coast, or finish strong?
Here are some recommendations (which I’m following, too) for the next 31 days so we are all well positioned for January.
1) Do one thing per week that you wanted to delay until January (attend one more exercise class, schedule one more business appointment, sign that contract, close one more deal, etc.)
2) Put your business on autopilot so it runs itself a so you have time to enjoy the holidays guilt free. Put more systems in place so they do the work FOR you. Let systems create time, money, and freedom for you.
3) Find and hire the consultant/mentor/coach you need to guide you to the next level in 2018 and break through plateaus. Life is too short to keep trying to figure things out alone (or through trial and error). Get off the fence and on the fast track to success.
4) Create your business plan in December (at least a plan that covers the first quarter of 2018) so you hit the ground running on January 1.
Now is the best time to work on your business since most people are taking time off. If you don't take action now, your competitors will leave you in the dust in January while you are playing catch. I see if all the time.
Want to create your personalized business sales plan with me? Check out this done-with-you workshop in Denver. If you are out of state, we can create your plan using Skype. Let's have a conversation on how to make 2018 your best year ever!
