With all these 2021 blog posts I’ve been doing lately, you probably think I’ve lost my mind. I mean, we haven’t even gotten to experience Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year’s Day and I’m already planning out 2021! I get it, it sounds a little crazy. But, 2020 was not the year for many of us. And, with everything we’ve been through, I think we need a fresh start for the next one. So, I’ve already created my New Year’s Resolutions! And, I’m ready to put this year behind us, so we can start learning how to be successful and make it the best year possible!
In fact, I am a firm believer that the best way to crush your resolutions, or anything that you want to achieve, is by planning! This is probably because – at the risk of sounding like SpongeBob – what I learned in business school was… To find success, you must create a strategic plan. Ta-Da! That was my key take away from business school. And I sincerely hope it will be your key take away from this post today. Don’t worry, I’m going to break down exactly how you should formulate your plans. That way, you can sail through those resolutions and become successful in 2021!
How To Be Successful In Your Resolutions
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Establish Your Goals
The very first step, before you can even begin to create a plan, is to establish your goals. What is it exactly that you hope to achieve in 2021? You’ll want to be pretty specific, so you don’t find yourself straying too much from the ultimate goal throughout the year. Now, if you saw my previous blog post, you know I’ve already started making my achievable New Year’s Resolutions for 2021. I even took it a step further and decided that each resolution will be a goal. One of those goals is to pay off two of my debts that will equal about $5,000! Don’t worry, I’ll tell you how I semi-calculated that answer in the next step.
Decide How To Be Successful At Reaching Your Goals
In this step, you must figure out what it is that you need to do to achieve your goals. As I mentioned, one of my goals is to pay down my debts! To do that, I’ll need to make a certain amount of money next year to reach those goals. In the name of transparency, I’ll tell you how much I owe. (And how terrible I am at math!) I owe $2,907.10 on my car and $969.99 on my credit card. (Side note for college students, do not put text books on your credit card!)
Anyway, if you add that together, you get a grand total of $3,977.09. But, there will be interest! I attempted to calculate that and gave up. So, we’ll round up to an even $5,000 because I’m sure that will cover it! I know that my car will be paid off by July and I can pay my credit card off in that same amount of time. So, this will be a six month plan with June being my final month.
Find The Resources You'll Need
In this step, you’ll want to find any resources you’re going to need to reach your goals. This could be anything from designated time you’ll need to work at your goals, like an hour each day in the gym. Or, tools that you need to make that happen, like a gym membership. For my plan, I need to make sure I’ll earn $5,000 from January to June. So, many of my resources are going to be ways I can make extra cash from home.
One of the businesses I found to use for this is Prestamos por Oro that offers cash for your gold jewelry. They are a jewelry buyer in Atlanta that is truly unique as they offer customer service to English and Spanish-speaking individuals. You can call or contact them from their website to schedule an appointment today! Also, feel free to check out a previous post I did for some more great ideas to earn money from home!
Execute Your Plan To Be Successful In Your Goals
In step four, you’ll want to begin implementing your plan. You must pay attention to your actions during this step to ensure that you are working toward your goal. The last thing you want to do is formulate an amazing plan, begin executing it, then lose sight of what you’re working toward. You’ll want to keep up with what you’re doing each day, week, and month to keep you on the right track. A great way to do that is to use a planner!
For my goal of paying off two of my debts, I’ll be using this budget planner kit from StatiANNEry. If you follow me on instagram, you know I’m always posting planners on my stories that I’ve found on her Etsy shop! They help me plan out things like my daily routine, my meals, and my budget. StatiANNEry offers a variety of options to help you learn how to be successful at your new year’s resolutions!
Evaluate Your Results
Finally, the final step! How mad are you going to be if I tell you that it’s not the last step? Just hear me out. Planning is a continuous cycle. So, while this is the last step in this cycle, you’re going to want to keep going! And much like with step four, you don’t want to wait until the end to start evaluating your results. You can do this each month!
Keep track of your budgeting, your savings, or whatever you’ve been working toward. And, at the end of each month, compare your progress with where you were at the beginning of that month. Did your savings grow as much as you had hoped? Did you gain the amount of muscle you aimed to? Evaluate where you’re at and see if there is anything you can change to get better results. So, when the end of 2021 comes, you’ll have completely knocked your resolutions out of the park!
Tell me below what some of your resolutions for next year are! Have you started creating a plan for them? Let me know which steps you plan to take!
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