PREparing for the year ahead
Written on the 24th January 2024
At the beginning of a new year, it is usual to think about our goals and aims for the year. Whether it’s in our professional capacity or our personal lives, we are likely to have been making all sorts of promises to ourselves for the months ahead. But how successful will we be at achieving them?
If you enjoyed our recent blogabout the Juniper team’s plans for the year ahead, you would know that for each quarter in 2024, we will be focusing on a key theme that we can relate to and champion. Our focus for the first quarter is PREpare. For us, this means the value of being ready. Taking the necessary steps to enable us to perform at our best. Taking the time to think about your goals and actions to help achieve them, one step at a time, will put you in a much stronger position to get the outcomes you desire.
An easy trap to fall into, especially at this time of year, is to over-face ourselves. Rather than focusing on one area of our lives and seeking to make improvements, it can be so enticing to spread the net and hope to make multiple gains. “I’m going to aim for that promotion at work, buy a new car, drink more water, take up running, spend more time with family and friends…” The list is a little extreme, but many of us will surely be able to relate. Spreading our efforts too thinly, will not help our chances of success.
It is important to identify our career goals, financial goals, and personal and well-being goals, and make sure that they don’t compete with each other. It is very difficult to get a balance across all areas of our lives - taking the time to make clear, realistic plans will certainly help. Let’s try and achieve one thing at a time.
Being more realistic about what we can achieve also applies to the timeframe in which we hope to achieve it. When we feel inspired to make changes, there is often a desire to get there as quickly as possible. However, that will also not help our chances of success. At The Juniper Co., we are firm believers in setting short-, medium-, and long-term goals. One of the reasons that we work in quarters, is to enable us to look at the bigger picture.
Our goals are easiest to reach when we break them down into a series of small, achievable steps. Anyone who is following social media star, Russ Cook’s attempt to be the first person to run the length of Africa will have seen that traversing the length of a continent is very much achieved one step at a time.
So, rather than compiling a big list in January, let’s be easier on ourselves. Let’s take the time to really think about our goals and set up the actions we need to take throughout the year to give ourselves a greater chance of success.