Assessing Past Goals and Setting SMART Goals for Success in 2025
It’s the end of 2024 (how is that even possible?), a time when many are taking inventory, assessing, goal setting, dreaming and most importantly, planning for 2025. Whether it’s personal or business, no goal is successfully achieved without a plan. Here are some steps that will help assess 2024 and get goals for 2025:
Review 2024 Goals
What goals were set for 2024? Perhaps it was to add a new income stream/service to your business or maybe a health-related personal goal but, whatever it was it is important to start your goal setting process for the upcoming year with an assessment of the previous year’s goals. The steps, with an example, below allow the ability not only to celebrate accomplishments and achievements from the previous year but, to objectively look at what goal from 2024 may be worth carrying into 2025 or cutting loose, based on the assessment.
Goal Assessment Process
- List the goal- refresh the company brand/logo.
- What was the outcome- created idea file, project was put on the backburner.
- What was the reason for the outcome- not enough staffing power to focus on the project, leadership felt it wasn’t a priority for 2024, a plan wasn’t made when the goal was set.
- What adjustments need to be made -add to 2025 goals, make a plan for success.
Set Goals for 2025
After assessing your 2024 goals and taking a moment to celebrate the victories, create a list of goals for 2025. Some may be unrealized goals from 2024, and some may be new. When setting goals, it’s especially important to start conservatively and make sure you have the time and help, if needed, to follow the plan for each. While it’s great to have lots of goals for the future, it’s just not realistic to expect to achieve more than can be achieved with 24 hours still in a day.
Set SMART Goals
They were originally outlined in the early 1980’s and have stood the test of time for a reason, SMART goals work! SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-Bound with the idea that achieving a goal does not have to be overwhelming and unattainable. Let’s look at the 2024 goal to refresh the company brand/logo and make it a SMART 2025 goal:
Specific- in 2025 we will update the brand of the company by refreshing the company brand identity, purpose/mission/values, messaging, differentiation, and experience.
Measurable- the best ways to measure brand performance is through brand awareness, brand equity and brand loyalty through social media metrics, website analytics, Google analytics, surveys, focus groups, referrals and sales and revenue.
Achievable- the goal of refreshing the company brand is achievable as we have a team member who is dedicated to the goal and who has allotted time into their schedule to achieve this goal.
Realistic-it is not only realistic in 2024 to have a company brand that commands awareness, loyalty and equity but it is critical. It is how our established customers see that we are keeping up with industry trends and current technologies and how our new/potential customers see who we are, what we’re about and how we conduct business.
Time-Bound- the goal for completion is by the end of Q1 with 2.5-5 hours per week dedicated to this goal until completed.
SMART for a reason and just this easy.
Accept the Challenge
Maybe your goal is to “get more sales in 2025” and while it’s not likely going to just happen because you want it to, it’s much more likely that you will achieve that goal, IF you’re SMART. Before moving on (this blog is short to leave time for homework) and following the SMART method, write down three meaningful goals for 2025. They can be all business/professional goals, all personal or a mix.
YOUR GOALS HERE
Specific- specifically describe the goal and outline what action steps are required to achieve the goal.
Measurable- define what data and methods will be used to measure the goal.
Achievable- goals need to be realistic to maintain the enthusiasm to try to achieve them.
Relevant -business goals should be aligned with the mission of the company. One way to determine if the goal is relevant is to define the key benefit to the organization. If the goal is personal, then ask yourself how it benefits your life and values.
Time-Bound- goals should have a deadline. This doesn’t mean that all the work is done, but it means that you can evaluate the success of the endeavor and set new goals.
The team at Anton, Sowerby & Associates Commercial Real Estate Services thanks you for your trust and collaboration in throughout 2024 and wishes all a 2025 full of joy, prosperity and endless possibilities.