We are almost through the second month of the year. If you set some goals back around January 1st, how are those working out for you?

Many people choose not to make New Year’s resolutions. “I probably won’t follow through,” they say, or “A good idea is a good idea anytime, I shouldn’t only think about it at the start of the year.” All true, perhaps, but not really enough of a reason to ignore thinking about the future.

For many of us, it helps to set aside some time to really think about what we are going to do as we go forward. If your company has a strategic planning process, that’s a great time to think about the business needs, but what are YOU going to do in the future? What will you do differently at work? How will you support those strategic goals that were just created? Where do you want to be at this time next year? If you are not thinking about these things as the clock approaches midnight on December 31st, that’s fine, but when ARE you thinking about them?

Anyway, if you’re finding that you (or your employees) are not making much progress in changing things for the better, step back and evaluate your process for making those changes. You may need to reexamine your goals to make sure you defined them in a way that’s helpful. Make sure that you:

Set specific outcomes you want to achieve

Tell other people about them, so you create some accountability

Focus on things you control, not things you don’t

Pace yourself, and don’t try to change everything at once

Let yourself learn from others

You will be amazed at the progress you can make when you give some thought to how to make a change, rather than just trying to blindly make it.