New Year's Resolutions That Work For You And Your Construction Business

As the year-end approaches, you get a little stressed-out over all the commitments you have. This added stress and responsibility brings out the worst in how you handle your personal life and business pressures. Plus, you know you need to make a list of resolutions to improve your life and better manage your business or career.

How do they do it? Where do they find the time to fit in: family, business, customers, employees, technology, exercise, personal development, charity work, church activities, investments and vacations? The answer is simple! They aren't satisfied with being average. They want more and aren't afraid of doing something about their future. These successful people actually do something about improving their business, building a balanced life and living their dreams.

A few simple New Year's resolutions will help you and your business become better at whatever you want to work on. In other words, deciding to do something about your situation will help you improve and take you to a better place! I know what you're thinking: "George, I would like to improve, but New Year's resolutions never work." I have been procrastinating for twenty years to get fit as soon as I get my business running perfectly. I always justify I have too much work to do and put business ahead of working out and living a healthy lifestyle. What's your excuse? When will you get it together? Successful business owners and managers know that growing and thriving businesses are never stationary. Don't feel discouraged. Most people have trouble sticking to their resolutions. In January of 2000, I did a study of 500 small business owners and managers. I monitored their New Year's resolutions and discovered after one week, 90 percent of them had forgotten what their resolutions were. And the 10 percent remaining remembered their resolutions but were waiting to start once they had more time! People are surprisingly good at making excuses and rationalizing almost anything. It's okay to slip up once in a while, but don't make it a habit. Don't stop trying just because you get busy or stressed out.

Could you imagine a professional football coach starting the season without a written plan and specific goals to win more games than they did last year? Of course not! A great coach always takes a look at everyone's strengths and weaknesses after the season ends to determine what it will take to do better next year. As a business owner, manager or employee, this process of assessment and improvement is a necessary factor in achieving goals. You also need to take a look at how your live your life to determine what needs adjusting. A year-end review and goal-setting session will get you focused toward new targets with a renewed spirit of excitement.

If you're like most people, you don't make New Year's resolutions. You figure, why waste your time committing to something you'll never do? But I bet you really want to change something in your business or personal life. Maybe you want to get more organized, spend more time with your loved ones, start living healthier, take more time off from work, delegate more tasks to your employees, find someone to help you at the office, get rid of a bad customer or troublesome employee, seek new business opportunities or start looking for ways to build some wealth. Whatever you want, you'll never get it without taking the first step.

The majority of people tend to postpone going for what they want their entire life. They let circumstances keep them stuck in the same place. Ask yourself:

• What do I want?
• What do I want to change?
• What do I want to do differently?
• What can I do now to make a difference?

People who write down their goals and desires achieve them. Those who don't never make their dreams a priority and go through life searching for success. What you see yourself achieving is what you will achieve.  Every time I have a target or goal written down, I stay focused on doing what it takes to make it become a reality. Take a look at these "ANTI-Resolutions," and decide what you want to resolve to do in the coming year:

1. Spend Less Time with Family and Friends

I know it's easier to do what you've always done and hope things get better. So continue to spend less time with your family and friends and more time at the office.  Continue to try to do everything yourself at work, stop delegating, make every decision and stay at work late so you miss your son's football game. Continue to operate without a strong management team that's empowered to make decisions without your approval. This guarantees you don't have time to buy your spouse flowers on your anniversary. I know you have a legitimate excuse for spending less time with your family and friends. You are waiting for your workload to slow down, or you are waiting until you pick up more work-then you promise to spend more time with your family and friends.

This popular resolution is made by 50 percent of people every year. But most never achieve it. Why? They don't make their dreams specific and write them down. To achieve your goal of spending more time with loved ones, you must make an actual commitment, and write it in your calendar six months in advance with permanent ink. A specific action to ensure success is to buy tickets. Buy tickets to your local professional football or baseball team for the season and commit to take your family and friends to the games. Join a private golf or tennis club and commit to play every week with your spouse, children or friends. Get tickets to the symphony and commit to take your spouse to dinner and the concert.

2. Stop Your Fitness Program

After all, too much exercise can be bad for your health. Plus, if you don't workout today, you'll be more rested tomorrow and then can workout even harder. Working out also reduces your ability to be at work more hours, take on more responsibilities and make more money! So, when you finally make enough money, then you can afford to buy some workout clothes, join a gym and get on a program.

I belong to a country club that has a great health club and workout facility. When I go there early, I always see several very successful business owners working out. How do they make time to exercise? They have determined that fitness benefits their performance at work and home. After their workouts, they go to the office around 8 am or 9 am. You could never do that, right? Why? Commitment to your health is second to being the first to arrive at the office to get everyone scheduled for the day. Is the health of your company dependent on you getting to work first and leaving last? I guarantee your company could live without you for an hour or two every morning while you exercise.

Regular exercise has been associated with more health and lifestyle benefits than anything else, except air! It reduces the risk of cancer, increases longevity, helps achieve and maintain weight loss, enhances mood, lowers blood pressure and even improves arthritis. In short, exercise keeps you healthy, gives you a positive attitude and makes you feel better so you can be more productive. Even Presidents Obama has enough time to workout every day. What's your excuse? Is your daily life busier and are your business commitments more intense than the President of the United States?