6 things to consider when you plan business changes for the new year
We tend to get really excited to overhaul *all the things* and make BIG plans for the upcoming year. But once we’re actually living through it; when we’re trying to implement 170 new things while also “getting the year off to a strong start”, things can get a bit overwhelming.
If everything doesn’t go to plan in the first couple of months, and some of the things we wanted to change slip through the cracks, we can start to lose steam. This can chip away at our sisu or motivation – and before we know it, we go through the next 10 months feeling like we messed up. And then we do it all over again next year.
I don’t want that for you.
What if you were able to make changes and work towards your goals in a way that feels good to you all year round?
What if you could feel more balanced motivation-wise, instead of having those super high highs as you plan and dream things up, and then those low lows when everything doesn’t go to plan?
Here are 6 reminders to help you approach business changes for next year in a more sustainable way:
1. Humans are wired to add instead of subtract
We are biologically, psychologically, and culturally wired to add (or to do more) when we try to solve a problem or make something work – even when subtracting (or doing less) might bring us equal or better results.
Before adding *more* to your plate, ask…
Can I remove something?
Can I do something differently?
Does this need to be done at all?
I had a client who thought they needed to hire someone to take care of their social media strategy. But during our chat, they realized that they didn’t actually need social media to bring in clients; people are finding them in other ways and they always have a waitlist of several months. So they could skip a really time-consuming marketing task, without outsourcing it. They can just post when they feel like they have something to share, and otherwise keep their social media activity to a minimum.
2. Spread it out
There’s no rule that says January 1st is the only day of the year when you can make/start all the changes. I recommend working on just 1-2 business updates or non-client projects at a time, depending on their scope.
If you regularly have slow months throughout the year, they might be the best time to tackle updates and projects so that you can focus fully on your client work during busy seasons.
3. Small, simple changes might work best
The “go big or go home” mentality doesn’t work for everyone. The better you feel, the easier it is to make changes – so if you’re exhausted, stressed, or overwhelmed, expecting yourself to make (and stick to) big changes might not work out.
Just setting one simple boundary, and tweaking it if needed, can make a big impact.
I had a coaching call with someone who was working pretty much all the time, including evenings, instead of spending her time with family. During our call, she set the boundary that she’d always finish work by 5 pm. This worked for a while, but this was a pretty big change from before, and eventually, she moved that stop time to 6 pm, which worked out better for her. This helped her not just have more time with her family, but also sleep better as she wasn’t working so close to bedtime anymore.
What change would make a particular area of your business or life just 10% better? You can always build on your progress later once you’ve implemented a thing or two.
Taking small steps is not a mindset issue; it’s not “playing small” – it’s smart.
4. Changes that make something easy, fun, and/or more meaningful are easier to stick to.
Your brain is less likely to hit the breaks on tasks or activities that feel effortless or good, versus on things that feel effortful, boring, or meaningless.
One of my clients was using social media content prompts to churn out regular content, but the work was taking her six hours per week. Once she decided she could post less, repurpose content that included key things she wanted to share periodically, and otherwise post when she had something she felt like sharing, she cut her social media creation time to just one hour per week. In combination with a couple of other business tweaks, she was able to free up a full day per week.
5. Flexibility is key
Even though most of the things we do in our businesses can’t become habits, we can borrow a little tidbit of information from habit research and apply it to business:
If you are flexible around how and when you do the things you want to start doing regularly, you’re far more likely to stick with them long-term – versus if you have very strict rules around how and when you do the thing.
For example, people who make a commitment to move in some way, for some amount of time, every day are more likely to be more active regularly – even if they sometimes miss a day. People who decide they will go to the gym for an hour every day are more likely to give up when they miss a day, because they feel like they’ve failed at their goal.
Something to consider for those days/weeks/seasons when you don’t have as much time or bandwidth: what’s a version of this that still honors the intention of what I set out to do?
For example, the gym-goer above could make a plan to walk or do a mini workout at home for 10 minutes on days when they can’t go to the gym.
6. Allow yourself to experiment
It’s really hard to get things “right” simply by thinking about them.
This is a reminder I have to give myself often, because I like to think that I’m smart and can figure things out.
But sometimes we need to actually test things out to be able to figure them out, to tweak them into something that works for us, or to find out it they’re gonna be a good fit for us at all.
Truly – there’s no need to aim for perfection, or to try to come up with something you’ll stick to forever.
The entirety of your business journey can be seen as an experiment:
You get to change your mind, change how you do things, and stop doing things all year round.
What you want and need can change, your availability or interest in something can change, and how you need to run your business or life can change. And it may change often.
I hope that these reminders help you navigate all the end-of-year content in a way that feels good to you. And my coaching door is of course always open when you want personalized ideas and support with follow-through.