Do the holidays already seem a fading memory?
Last years work and business success or impact might already be a distant memory too.
If the end of 2018 for you was anything like it is for many of us, you found yourself having to try and wrap up some key projects, drive in some final numbers, perhaps even complete performance reviews and other year-end tasks.
Then, before you can catch your breath or even start to worry about work, you were straight into planning, preparing and, hopefully, enjoying the holidays with family and friends.
You must be exhausted already! Kicking off another year can be a daunting proposition. A new year brings a fresh set of challenges and almost a feeling of starting all over again. It doesn’t have to be that way.
First things first, bid a final farewell to the last year, you can even use the 15 questions from the Review Your Year With No Fear Workbook to feel entirely complete, get your copy by clicking here.
Now for 2019. How do you find the energy to kick off another year, build your personal brand, maintain momentum and ensure you don’t get bogged down or distracted to still achieve what you want to in your career or business?
Some people talk about finding a word for the year and blogger and speaker Chris Brogan has talked for several years about finding 3 words – here is his last years post about it.
Whether you pick one, three or five hundred can I suggest one of those words be ONLY?
Here are seven ways to boost your personal brand and get things done without feeling overwhelmed and focused on ONLY.
ONLY ONE GOAL FOR THE YEAR
Goal setting is important, and although I am not in the camp of saying that goals or resolutions don’t work, we need to be smarter and realistic about what we set and expect of ourselves.
Only 8% of goals or resolutions set are achieved by year end.
Rather than run the high likelihood of not hitting them, or even dropping them before the end of January, set yourself one big career or business goal for the year. Imagine that you are sitting down at the end of this year and excitedly telling your friends what your one significant career achievement or business breakthrough was. Then work backward, identifying the steps, actions and milestones it took to get
Well, not literally of course!
Once you know what your year goal is, ensure that you stay focused.
Review it each evening and then commit to one action the next day that is going to move things forward. Determine what your most productive time of the day is and book an appointment with yourself to spend at least 30 minutes on that one thing.
Resist the temptation to open emails, or worse distraction of social media, do not let others peoples lives and agendas run your day.
Momentum is the key.
ONLY GET KNOWN FOR ONE THING
If I were to ask some of your colleagues what you are known for, what would they say?
Is that what you want recognition for this year?
We have all heard the figure of speech “Jack of all trades but master of none.”
Don’t be thought of like that at work. Identify the essential skill or attribute that you want to own this year, then do a self-communication audit to determine the best medium for you to communicate your uniqueness and get noticed at work consistently.
Check out the book ‘The ONE Thing’ if you want some help with this.
ONLY PICK ONE SOCIAL CHANNEL
Managing how your online brand is perceived is important, trying to do it across a multitude of channels is foolish unless you have a team to do it for you.
For many of you, there will be one social network above others that makes the most sense for you and your target audience. Most professionals will find that will be one of the ‘big’ three or four – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram.
In 2017 I really focused on LinkedIn and found great success. In 2018 I tended to not spend as much time there and I certainly experienced a difference in terms of regular opportunities coming my way.
For 2019 it will be all about LinkedIn again for me. Want some help with that? Check out my LinkedIn consulting packages here.
Pick one and become highly efficient and impactful.
Do not run the risk of diluting your personal brand by trying to cover all the bases; it will likely end up feeling like too much work and like a resolution fades away or be a drain on your time for little return.
ONLY YOUR NETWORK HAS A NET WORTH
The end or the start of a year is an excellent opportunity to review your network strategy.
If you ask “What strategy?” then start by determining what you want to offer and get from investing time in other people.
Do not look to be adding connections for the sake of saying you have a big network.
Think instead about who you can help, who you can influence, who influences you and who can help you move toward that career or business goal. Then look to add value purposefully, help others and business karma will come back to you over time.
Stay consistent with your networking activity, do not only look to ‘fire up the Rolodex’ when you need it.
ONLY MEASURE WHAT CAN BE IMPROVED
One of the reasons that most of you will drop off the resolution wagon is a failure to review and measure your progress.
Start this year by benchmarking the essential elements that will determine your career goal success. This might be revenue figures; it could as easily be the number of connections or followers or readers of articles.
Whatever the metric is that you choose, be sure to review progress at least monthly. That way if things are not tracking the way you hoped you could make adjustments or change tactics.
ONLY STAY TRUE TO YOU
If the last couple of years has taught us one thing, it was to expect the unexpected.
Not everything is going to happen the way you want it or in the timeframe you expect.
Don’t push the agenda too much that it compromises your personal brand.
Stay true to who you are and what you believe and stand for rather than appearing false or inauthentic. Be prepared to pivot when necessary, however, resist the temptation of the next bright shiny project before you have given it a fair shot.
One final thought. In all the turmoil, upset and uncertainly ONLY one thing is in your control – YOU. Each year the New York Times produces a list of things to consider doing to be a better person this year. Here are their 11 Ways to Be a Better Person in 2019 – perhaps that is the ONLY thing we should all be doing.
Have a brandtastic 2019.