Entering the New Year—What to Start, Stop and Continue

As we prepare for a new year, now is the time to reflect and plan. One of the most beneficial ways I have found to accomplish this is through sitting down and reflecting on what items should be started, stopped and continued in the coming year. This exercise is beneficial for both personal and professional goal setting and serves as a great starting point.

What to start:

First, begin by reflecting on the past year. What areas within your personal life could use improvement? For me, this comes in the form of better annual planning and utilizing the proper calendar tools to better my life and my business. My action item for this is to begin looking into some tools that will help support this. Next, ask yourself what areas within your business could use improvement? I plan to become more intentional with starting to focus on areas of growth for Scott Hackman Ventures. This looks like developing and implementing leadership and learning programs for organizations going through growth and transition to utilize as well as building our team accordingly. One of the action items for this is to stop some of my one-off kind of client/project work that takes me away from the larger goal.

I plan to build an annual plan for all the areas of my life that I want to nurture and aligning those with the goals I want to accomplish this year.

Helpful questions to ask when identifying areas to start implementing changes:

· What things are not being done, that could be?

· What things can I begin doing to get better results?

· What action items are worth experimenting with?

What to stop:

When identifying what areas of your life to stop repeating negative patterns, ask yourself, what could I stop doing as I enter the new year? For me, on a personal level, I want to stop worrying about things outside of my control. Through recognizing and identifying when I am doing this and naming it, I can eventually work towards letting those things go.

Helpful questions to ask yourself when identifying what to stop:

· What things am I doing that are not serving me and others well?

· What things are impeding my ability to reach my goals?

· What is not delivering the desired outcome?

What to continue:

Identifying what area to continue may be one of the most encouraging parts of the exercise. This is where you identify something that is already beneficial and create a plan to ensure you continue implementing it into your life. For me personally, this is to continue exercising even during in the cold months in the winter. As many of you know, I enjoy outdoor bike rides all summer long, but, with the change of weather, I can easily lose motivation. I intend to create an exercise plan, within built-in accountability from my family members who also exercise. I will also utilize the tools I already have in house, such as our Peloton bike.

Helpful questions to ask yourself when identifying what to continue:

· What things are working well in my life?

· What things do I enjoy that benefit my overall health?

· What am I doing that’s contributing to becoming the best version of myself?

I hope that this exercise benefits you and your goal setting for the coming year. Taking the time now, to plan for the future is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself. I encourage you to carve out time in your busy schedule to sit, reflect, and put this activity into practice. You, your family and your team deserve it!

Let’s move forward one step, one breath, at a time. Cheers to 2021!