SET YOUR NEW YEAR GOALS – NOT RESOLUTIONS | Dental Blog

At the start of the year, I always reflect on what worked well the previous year and with this in mind I have been thinking about what I achieved in 2012. Now I can start to set new goals for 2013. I never think of them as New Year Resolutions more like New Year Goals.

When I set my goals I always consider an Albert Einstein quote I heard many years ago in my Dale Carnegie days:

” Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”

When I spend time planning my business, this always comes to mind. The quote is so true and if you want different results in your business, doing what you have always done probably won’t get you there.

Business wise 2012 was a pretty good year. The numbers on our courses were definitely up and we ran more programmes than ever before. However, if I want to improve my business results in 2013, I know I won’t be able to this by doing more of the same. That’s what I will be doing in the days to come, analysing what worked in 2012, what actions brought about the best results, what did not and once I know what these are, eliminate them as quickly as possible.

This is a good time to do the same in your Practices. Analyse what’s worked, what’s not and then change some of your methods.

When you make these changes, whatever they may be, one thing that you must not do is let your own prejudices get in the way of a good idea. By this I mean do not let your own decision making get in the way of a good business idea. Let me give you an example.

If you had asked me a few years ago if I was on Facebook, I would have laughed in your face. My prejudice was that Facebook was for people who had no friends, people who wanted to meet old girlfriends, boyfriends etc. I was not interested and I had a long list of excuses not to get involved, of which the main one was that I had no time in the day. Now that I use Facebook, I now know this was the wrong assumption. 18 months later I literally have hundreds of friends, from all over the world. I am building some really good relationships and on the way we have had clients signing up to my programmes. My prejudice has changed.

Here is another example of prejudice. Last year, I delivered a presentation for a charity event held in Manchester. I was talking about the value of testimonial letters and videos when presenting your solutions to clients and how important they are in selling. A gentleman who ran a newspaper very rudely suggested that it was a rubbish idea, he would never use them and this was not an idea that he would use in his business. We talked about this for a further five minutes, but this guy was not for changing. That’s okay, but if I was buying advertising space from him, the one thing I would want to see is proof that it has worked. If he could not provide me with any of this proof, then I was not going to buy. You see he let his own prejudice get in the way and I often see that in business. An open mind is paramount, especially in this economy.

So when you are looking at making changes don’t let your own prejudices get in the way. If you do, then you could be missing out on many new opportunities, I know I would have if I hadn’t changed my ideas with regards to Facebook and Social Media. An open mind is so important.

So my final pieces of advice as you look to 2013, are:
Have a very open mind. Never let your own prejudices get in the way of a good idea.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing in the same way and expecting different results.

Some of My Goals for 2013

Here are just a few goals for 2013, both personal and business.

Have another book published and ready to market by September 2013
Run 25 days in my new training facility in Manchester.
Sell 5 days to other companies to use my premises.
Do one major sporting challenge, I will make up mind in the next two weeks what this will be.
Enjoy 6 weeks holiday with the family.