What will you change in 2017?

In business and in life, the one constant is change. Yet we hang on to the past; our traditions, our beliefs, and our influencers. So, if change is inevitable what will you change this year? Will you jump in front of a trend or react to the changes as they become obvious? Will you work to improve an area that you know is weak or wait until it breaks? I can go on and on.

Change is hard; and that understates the difficulty of changing. No one ever changes until the cost of change is less (way less) than the pain of staying the same!

If you’re a like me, you’ll make a list of four or five things to change and probably be frustrated with the lack of progress on all fronts. Many clients ask me what one thing they should focus on. This is probably the right approach; pick one issue to focus on at a time but we come up with a list of five or six candidates. Which one to pick?

To help you out here is my list of four areas to consider making changes in 2017. Either to get ahead of the trends or to avoid being run over by them when you think all is safe.

1. Your health – Sure we can all probably lose 10 pounds so that’s not really what I’m referring to here. If you are not healthy (smoking, overweight, fighting an illness or disease, depressed, drinking too much or regularly doing drugs) then this is the place to start. Without a healthy body and mind, it is just not possible to tackle the hard work of making changes to other areas of your business or your life.
2. Your vision – My favorite. Where do you want to be in five years? What is your longer-term plan for your business or your life? What has changed recently and therefore how has your plan changed?
3. Your team – Our success and happiness is closely linked to the people we surround ourselves with. If you have problems at home (the home team) or at work, then don’t let these problems fester. With the start of a new year this is the perfect time to address deficiencies in your team and create a plan to make changes to improve.
4. Your sales process – Think you need more money? Then changes to how you get your message in front of prospects and how you can close more of them and for a more valuable product is in order. Here I find the hurdle is in choosing one or two changes to embrace and execute. We have 20 plus strategies to do this but you obviously can’t implement 20 all at the same time. So just picking one or two and getting results quickly is where to focus.

Which one to pick? Start with the one that interests you the most. Then perhaps you’ll stick with it. I’ve put them in the order I think you should tackle them. Regardless of which one you pick don’t try to do it on your own. Build or buy a coach, peer group, mastermind group, or accountability partner to help you stay the course.

Learn more about how a peer group can help you succeed in 2017, read our free Business Owners Guide To Peer Advisory Boards.

As Albert Einstein, famously said “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result”.