Happy 2014! Do you start the year off with all sorts of goals and resolutions? Do you actually keep them?
I’m terribly at keeping resolutions. So I don’t make them anymore. Instead I look at making small attainable goals and creating good habits.
On my other blog I wrote a similar post to this one, but more about personal goals. (Shameless plug: You can read it on my CPRMom blog here is the link again.) Here I’m going to make some business goals and habits.
I started blogging years ago on my CPRMom blog. I discovered I loved writing and the blog is a great way to share information and write in the quirky style that I use in my classes and when speaking.
But as with a lot of things, life gets in the way. I went from being prolific to having crickets on my blog. Not so good. I even tried a 30 day blog challenge and made it about 20 days. Realistically I don’t have the free time I used to have for writing. So for 2014 I’m setting a goal to write once a week. Some weeks there might be a second post, some weeks I might forget. But to help me out I’ve set a time on my calendar every week for writing. I find I stay on target when I have a strong calendar of tasks. To do list don’t always get to done (Get it? To Do, To Done … oh nevermind..) But when I schedule things on my calendar they do get done because I have to assign a time to them and I can’t schedule more things than there are hours in a day.
I’m also setting business goals. Things that I will put on my calendar with due dates and time lines. A friend of mine is in love with Gantt charts. I don’t write Gantt charts, but I approach business goals like a smaller version of a strategic plan. Take your goal, break it into target items and then write action steps to bring you to your goal. Sounds like a lot of work, but if I put each of these action items on my calendar I’ll bring myself closer to my business goal.
So why am I writing about goals, calendars. action items and all this stuff? What does that have to do with CPR and First Aid?
I’m setting some changes in the works for my business in 2014. I’m on the search for a new classroom space and reviewing new class offerings. I will be writing more about CPR, First Aid, Safety and managing a small business on both this and my CPRMom blog. My affiliations with other organizations has increased. In addition to teaching American Heart Association and American Safety and Health Institute courses; I’ve done contract work for Emergency University and took the instructor bridge course for the American Red Cross. I may have one other new affiliation coming down the road. This means more variety in the courses I offer. While I love teaching CPR AED and will continue to do so, I really enjoy teaching First Aid and am looking at more advanced First Aid programs.
I’m embracing 2014 as the year to move forward. 2013 was a great year for me and brought many good changes and I’m looking forward to continuing to move forward offering great courses and programs.