Happy new year! Hopefully you had a great festive season and are back re-energised to kick those targets for the new year. Before you hit the ground running it's a great time to step back and assess where your business is headed for the next 12 months.

January is the time of year where New Years Resolutions are the hot topic, and people are generally divided into two distinct groups. Those that think setting these are a waste of time, and those that set them every year. For those that set resolutions, many will be out the window in a few short weeks.

So why is that the case? And what the hell does this have to do with business?

The main reason resolutions fail (from a business perspective) is the lack of structure required to make these a reality. The structure to go from point a where you are now, to point b where you want to go. But these resolutions also fail as they tend not to align with what you actually want to happen in business, and instead are based on what we think we are supposed to achieve in business.

We've spent many years helping business owners set and achieve goals and targets, we've read hundreds of blog articles, listened to countless podcasts and read many books on all things goals, targets and the methods needed to ensure you are fulfilling your potential.

It comes down to 3 simple words. And it's the combination of all 3 that is crucial if you want to ensure your business is performing at it's best.

Dream

This is often the overlooked part. It might also seem controversial.But having a 'dream' for your business, visualised, implanted in your brain is the 1st step needed before you can start to put together a list of action items or 'tasks' for you to complete for a year.

A dream is your story. It's your narrative, your picture of what you want your business to look like. The dream is something that needs to keep evolving. For many of you, business started from a dream. And you turned that dream into reality. But then comes along the daily grind of business. You continue to improve year after year, hitting targets. The dreaming stops and instead business just goes from one hurdle to the next.

The dreaming shouldn't stop. Having that clear vision (that will certainly evolve), being able to see and tell the story of what you want your business to look like is key to setting meaningful targets that you fundamentally want to hit.

Think of your dream like a book, that's never finished, that you continue to add chapters to as you progress.

Your dream also needs to align to your why.

What do you really want your business to look like? Why?

Design

We have all heard the saying 'failing to plan is planning to fail'. So the next logical step is to plan how you are going to achieve your dream. Think of this as the map.

This is where the detail of the dream needs to come into play.

We like to use a methodology known as OKR's (objectives and key results) in the design phase.

Using this technique allows you to set ambitious goals that match to the dream, but also put the detail of exactly what you want to achieve in the next 3, 6, 12 months as well as the action list that you need to do in order to get there.

If you are unfamiliar with OKR's there is an indepth video on google's technique here, or you can check out Atlassian playbook on the same.

Do

The last part of the combination is the doing part.

Having a structure like OKR's certainly gives you the tool to help ensure you are tracking progress towards your goal. You simply need to ensure you have dedicated time to actually 'doing' the actions you have designed and have communicated your plan to everyone else in the team.

If these actions aren't scheduled in to your day/week/month it's highly likely you aren't going to meet your goals.

We've put together a little template to help you take note of your OKR's. It's a google doc so remember when you open the template to click on File > Download.

If OKR's aren't for you and you need more structure to ensure you are scheduling what you need to do and reviewing your goals in depth then checkout MiGoals Goal Digger planner This gives you a great framework on how to set goals, and then a weekly planner to keep you on track. It's great for smaller business where the buck stops with you.