A funny thing happens to us at this time of year. We tend to go from the contentment of being with friends and family at the holiday to a panic about all that we have to do for the new year.

You see it in your hopes and goals for your fitness and well-being, your commitments, and your goals for your bodywork business.

When it comes to planning for your business, it helps to look at your goals in two ways: the big picture, and then the steps you’re going to take to achieve the big picture.

The big picture is a bird’s eye view of your business and what you’d like to achieve in the upcoming year. Just thinking about it can be daunting — if you’re a visual learner like I am, try drawing it all out in one place.

Here’s my Big Picture plan for my practice for 2019:

This is up on the wall of my office, so I can see where I am and where I’m going. It’s easy to recreate — just print off each month from iCal, or Google Calendar, and then use sticky notes to fill in what you have planned.

Put in your Me-Time first. For me, that means time off for time at the beach, time with Ranald and George, Girls Weekends.

Next, I put in commitments I’ve already made — teaching, traveling for conferences, seminars I’m attending.

Then, I put in my Hands-on and Mentoring work. My tendency is to over-give and over-extend myself, so it’s important that I limit the number of people I work with both in person and virtually. Doing a year’s plan helps me to see how many people I will be able to commit to serving in the upcoming year.

Once you’ve got this Big Picture plan in place, you can drill down — how exactly are you going to get all of this done? You’ve got goals like revenue you’d like to earn, programs you want to create, and personal goals.

The most important thing: WRITE THEM DOWN! The way I’m wired, if I write down something I’m going to do, it gets done. If I don’t write it down, it MAY get done. Here’s a shot of my appointment book:

As I’ve written before, writing has great power in it (and I’m not just saying that because I have a masters degree in teaching writing and literature! Nerd Alert!) The science is there. I use a Passion Planner, but you can use whatever system works for you.

The key is to use the system.

Write down your 3 top goals for 2019, and then 3 quarterly goals for Q1, 2, 3, and 4.

Block out time weekly to work on your business development, and you’ll be able to achieve these goals.

Check in every week on Monday morning to see how you’re doing. You can always adjust as you go along.