New Year! Now What?

Happy New Year folks! As mentioned in my previous blog entry, let’s make 2025 a really successful one.

So now that we’ve planned our year and have taken the decision to bring our business to the next level, (in my case meaning: profitability), what’s missing? Well, planning as we mentioned is a great start but let’s not kid ourselves, you can plan all you want – even plan to fail – but if your plans aren’t feasible in the time you have, that won’t bring you anything.

That was my case in a good portion of 2024; I had planned so many things to be done that I forgot that during the day, I worked and that during evenings, there was a limited period of time that I could give to my online business because I was also working on finalizing the music application my business partners and I want to finish and bring out this month. (More on that later in this blog).

Focus

My planning was essential but my focus was, honestly, practically inexistent. Let me explain. I had planned everything I needed to work on my different business requirements but didn’t take the time to validate that I didn’t really have the time to get all of them done.

That opened up a can of worms that literally brought me to think of quitting pretty much everything. Throw in the further delays we encountered for my musical application and I really can’t say that the end of 2024 played itself out the way I wanted it to.

So what now? Well, like I was told in the Army: go back to basics and start working with what you know works and will give you the results you’re looking for. In my case, it’s making sure that I have the time to get things done. Taking into consideration that I have a day job and go to the gym to train three times a week after work.

As a side note, my wife will be the first to tell you that I’m great at planning and focusing on what needs to be done – when I’m working for someone else – so she wonders why it’s a different story when I’m working on my business.

Planning Pays

So what does all that mean? It means that I thought I had 7 to 8 hours to work on my business every day when in reality, I had 3 at best 4 hours. Facing that reality and making sure that I understood it’s implication for the objectives I’ve put in place for this year is one of the biggest takeaways I’ve realized while planning 2025.

Quick reminder: Everybody needs to face the truth that whatever time you say you have available to work on your business is probably exaggerated. You will have to deal with unexpected situations that will happen when you least anticipate them which will put you either behind schedule or completely squash what you thought you could accomplish during a specific period of time.

That, my friend, is the reality of being self-employed and being a “one-person” working team. You need to be able to lean on yourself to succeed.

That being said – and to stay positive: planning what you will accomplish in a specific period of time is how you will make sure that that doesn’t happen. In a blog entry from September of last year, The Dash Matters,  I not only talk about and provide clear immediate action steps you need to take to attain your objectives but also mention that time management also includes having the power to say “NO” to things that will keep you away from your goals.

On that same note, being able to say NO is also being able to say NO to instant gratification; something we tend to lean towards when times are rough.

Planning your days, your weeks with clear daily objectives is the one thing that I had talked about and yet, I didn’t complete them. So here’s to accountability and where you, as a regular reader, can keep me on my toes by asking me: “where are you on your daily objectives today Marc?“.

Do It, Do It, Do It

We all know of Nike’s 1980’s marketing campaign of Just Do It and how it transformed Nike from a relatively small brand to the behemoth it became. The campaign’s message of pushing yourself to achieve greatness – no matter the obstacle – had not only universal appeal but it also transcended demographics, age as well sports. Now close to 40 years later, it’s message is still relatable. You can’t stop when faced with adversity; you need to push on.

The reason why I’m talking about this is that for the past 4 years (give or take a few months), my business associates and I have been working on a musical software application and even though there have been drawbacks and delays, we’ve continued on. A very close friend and mentor asked me a great question over the Holiday period when we were at their house: “why didn’t you quit?”

Well, part of the reason of course is that we have put in too many hours and too much money to even think about quitting.

But the main reason we continued was that we absolutely believed that we had a winning product that would help musicians in so many ways. We were proven right by everyone we talked to who were musicians as well as many others who work in the industry.

Its the same reasons why I continue my blog, continue listening to Dean, Glenn, Sophie at Internet Profits as well as read comments left on the Affiliate System Community website. I continue to work, learn and grow which makes my success inevitable.

Remember, when I previously talked about how Dean states that you need to “become a person capable of success”, it isn’t only about your actions…it’s about your state of mind! So, go out there and find your success, it’s just behind that next challenge you overcome!

Like what you’re reading or have questions? Don’t be shy, write it up in the comments section for me to reply and more importantly, don’t forget to subscribe to my blog and Tik Tok account @canadianwolfe for continuous insights and tips. Together, let’s leverage the proven methods from Dean Holland’s Affiliate System to create a sustainable income stream.

To your success…to our success!