The ball has dropped, the party hats have been tossed and the confetti swept away.
Now what?
You find yourself alone with the promises, plans, hopes, and dreams you said you’d make happen in 2022.
It’s time to take an honest inventory to keep us moving forward.
What insurance goals did you commit to?
What actions have you taken to move towards those goals?
What have been your challenges thus far?
When assessing goals we like the 90/10 rule.
90% of people SAY they want to do something while just 10% of people actually DO it.
Which group are you in?
In case you tend to fall into that 90% category, here are 5 ways to stick to your insurance goals — and personal ones — after the new year hype is gone.
5. Ditch the “All or Nothing” Mentality
You are human. And by nature, humans are imperfect beings. Yet, when it comes to goals, or in this case, resolutions, we work so hard to start something new and we grind it out in the beginning only to quit once we have a minor setback.
Get comfortable with the thought process of striving for improvement, not perfection.
If you worked hard to eat healthy for two straight weeks then enjoyed a slice of birthday cake on the weekend, don’t allow that to be the reason you don’t refocus on healthy eating on Monday.
If you woke up 30 minutes early to execute on your morning routine, but find yourself hitting the snooze button the past two days, acknowledge it and then change it starting tomorrow morning.
If you started the first few workdays of the year making your cold calls first thing in the morning but slacked off the rest of the week, commit to not missing a day next week (and the following week).
Recognize the moments where you fall off the tracks, but don’t allow those moments to permanently derail your plans.
4. Think BIG, But Act SMALL
We are a society that thrives on instant gratification. We no longer even expect immediate results, we want them yesterday.
Don’t try to do everything all at once. Exercise shouldn’t be a two-hour event each day. This isn’t practical for most and it isn’t sustainable.
If you are writing a book, it won’t happen in one week. Instead, you just need one quality page at a time.
If you have a long list of renewal calls to make, don’t panic that you can’t make them all in one day.
The key to executing small daily activities with consistency is having a PLAN.
Take 5-10 minutes each evening to create a plan for the following day. This helps to eliminate questions, uncertainty, and procrastination about what to jump on the next morning.
Your thoughts control your actions and your actions will determine your results. So, take the time to think about what needs to be done. Then, take action on the plan you created.
And remember, your goals can be the size of an elephant, but your activities must be bite-sized.
3. The Aggregation of Marginal Gains
The small daily actions from tip #4 will compound over time and eventually equal massive results in your life.
Losing half a pound over a seven-day period will not likely get you excited. But what if you lost half a pound each week for this entire year? Would weighing 26 pounds less one year from today get you pumped?
Reading 5 pages of a book that will improve you each day doesn’t seem like much of an accomplishment, does it? But adding that up to 5 a day is 1,825 pages. On average, a book is about 300 pages. Would your life be better if you read six quality books by this time next year?
You are currently a tiny snowball on a mountain top. Get yourself rolling forward each day and by this time next year, you’ll be steamrolling ahead like a boulder.
2. Keep Your Eye on the Prize
I mean this literally. Write your goals and daily action plans down and keep them in front of you all day long.
When something is in your head it’s a dream. When something is written on paper it becomes a commitment.
When your commitments are in front of you they become your reminders.
1. Don’t Quit.
The most successful people on this planet are OBSESSED with FINISHING!
The truth is that STARTING something is easy. But prizes aren’t awarded to people who cross the starting line. If you are serious about achieving your goals in 2022 you MUST commit to FINISHING whatever it is you started.
There are many people who start, grind through difficult days, stick with the small daily activities required to improve them, and then right before they experience a breakthrough and the results they desire…they QUIT. Don’t be that person.
We’re here to help! Insurance Agency Optimization has the perfect insurance goals tracker. Our Win Every Day Playbook is a 14-day guide to tracking all the little things that add up to BIG results and will help you kickstart the positive habits you need to stay on track.
