The days are long, but the years are short. -Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project 
February is an interesting month around here...
First of all, it's our calm before the storm that is the spring rush for a landscaping business. We have our previous year's records updated, organized and safely stored away for future reference. We've attended trade shows, met with suppliers, filed taxes, tuned up the equipment, researched new products, interviewed new employees, cleaned, sorted, evaluated, and reevaluated. A lot of checks have been marked off that winter list. Secondly, you know how Michigan weather can be...do we break ground on new projects in one week? Maybe three? How early is too early for a spring clean up? We certainly don't want to damage any new protected growth by uncovering it too early. But then again, the sun is out! The ground is bare! What's that you say? 6" of fresh powder coming by Friday? *sigh* Finally, let's be honest: it's a short month! Personally, I have a tendancy to skip right over most of February- going from Super Bowl (and our son's birthday) to March 1st. Who has time for looking out the window at the falling snow and pretty birds at the feeder...let's get this year rolling! Kidding aside, one of the MOST important events my husband and I do each winter happens in February (No, this has nothing to do with Valentine's Day). We goal set, together. We'll circle a day on the calendar that fits our *busy* winter schedules, get out our journals, sit down at the table together and talk. We reflect on past goals: why we made them, how we're doing on them, if we want to discard them, or changes to be made to them. We discuss new goals: personal goals like eating cleaner, taking up new hobbies, being a better parent; financial goals like paying off the mortgage early, how much we want to save each year; "things" goals like replacing the old carpet in the bedroom, replacing the failing garage with a pole barn; and most relevent to this blog, business goals. How many crews we want to run full season, what our ideal job looks like, what direction to grow the business, how big to grow the business, who we want to work for... It is always amazing to me, after more than 13 years of making a point to sit down and set goals with my husband/business partner, how many of them come to fruition. And the ones that don't? There's usually a great reason why. Maybe it was in direct conflict with another goal, or maybe it just hasn't happened yet. A la Tony Robbins, Todd and I give our goals a timeline: 1 year, 5 years or less, 10 years or less, 20 years or less. We often don't know how they'll happen, but now they're out there...and we never, never leave the scene of a goal without taking an action towards achieving it. If you've never goal set, you should try it. It's not hard...and the results can be amazing. |