SHOW NOTES:

Happy New Year! Is 2021 the year you’re looking to grow personally and professionally, without feeling overwhelmed with the goals you have in mind? In this episode of Business on the Bright Side, I’m sharing 3 ways to build momentum this year! Plus, join me on Bright Pages for You 2.0, a 21 day challenge to get clarity on who you want to be and what you want to do!

New Year’s Resolutions are a Load of Crap (1:45)

Set goals and build momentum in 2021: (2:41)

1. Crafting a Mission Statement (2:45)
2. Update your bio. (6:49)
3. Setting up your Calendar for Big Picture Goals (7:58)

Join us on Bright Pages for the 21 Day Challenge of You 2.0!

One Liner: In 2021, I’m in competition with no one, I’m rooting for everyone, there’s room for me at the top, and I am right on time. (9:34)

Review the Transcript:

Happy new year, everyone, and welcome back to Business on the Bright Side. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and a wonderful new year. I know I ate and drank way too much, but I am excited to turn the page and get this year going. I want to help you get ready for 2021 and not feel so scattered or overwhelmed with setting goals, so in this episode, we’re going to talk about three ways for you to start gaining momentum this year.

And we’re doing something special this month. Starting on January 11th, we are launching You 2.0, a 21-day challenge and community to get clarity on who you want to be and what you want to do. Each day, you’ll have a different prompt through Bright Pages, and you’ll be in this closed Facebook community with guest speakers, and I’ll be going live every day. The first week, you’ll craft your personal mission statement. The second week, you’ll level up your bio. And that third week, you’ll create the plan to build your thought leadership platform in 2021.

It’s important to know who you are, so you can really dig your heels into the world and the impact that you want to have, so this challenge is going to help you get there. It is totally free. You can head to BusinessOnTheBrightSide.com and sign up today. Let’s get to it.

What’s up, everybody? It is Jess Ekstrom, and welcome to Business on the Bright Side, the podcast where you can learn how to make a living and make a difference at the same time. Life is short, and so is my attention span, so let’s get started.

I don’t know about you, but I think I can speak for just about everyone where I am ready to turn the page on 2020 and start building 2021. And I kind of think that New Year’s resolutions, don’t tell anyone, but can be a load of crap because they are … They feel so short-term. Like you start them in January and then they fizzle out maybe by March, sometimes even February. They feel so tactical. And I don’t know, they just don’t really stick. And so I want to give you three ways that you can not just set goals but build momentum in 2021, because I think that goals are great. Love setting goals. In fact, I’ll include a free goal setting template in this episode in the show notes on BusinessOnTheBrightSide.com. But I think it’s more about the process than it is about the goal, how we get there, because goals can change as we go down the process.

Three ways to start building momentum in 2021. That first way is crafting a mission statement. Whether you’re a business owner or not, you should have a mission statement for who you are as a person. Usually, we think of mission statements for companies, and oftentimes, when I think of mission statement, I think of like, I don’t know, super fancy words that I don’t understand. Like we are elevating the minds of humans over here at blah-blah-blah association, and it just doesn’t really resonate. So when you think of mission statement, I don’t want you to think of all of those fancy terms that are attached to a company, that you don’t even understand what they do. When you think of a mission statement, you want it to be actionable, so you want it to be something that you are actively doing. So maybe start with an action verb whenever you craft your mission statement.

You also want it to be specific. You don’t want to just say we are helping the world. For Headbands of Hope, we are helping kids with illnesses through confidence by giving them headbands. So it’s very specific because when you can actually give something targeted and clear, then it gives people a chance to react. Whereas, when you’re broad and casting a wide net, people don’t feel like they can actually visualize what you do. This mission statement for yourself can be on your website. It can be in your Instagram bio. It can be wherever you have touch points with people.

But most importantly, it can be for yourself. Having a mission statement allows you to filter opportunities and things that you want to do based on whether or not it aligns with the mission that you have as a person. For example, a part of my personal mission statement is helping more women be seen and valued as experts in their field. Whether that’s through paid speaking engagements with Mic Drop Workshop or book deals with Book Pop Workshop, I want more women to be seen and valued as experts. And so when opportunities come my way that don’t align with that, it gives me that chance, that kind of check yourself of like, “Okay, is this serving this north star that I have? If yes, then let’s do it. If not, then I’ll pass.”

And so it helps with that decision fatigue and really building your life around your own personal mission. And if you already have one, the other thing about mission statements is that they should be revisited and reevaluated every few years, so mission statements are not static. They’re dynamic. And in the You 2.0 challenge that we’re doing in January, we’re going to help you craft that mission statement your first week. So head to BusinessOnTheBrightSide.com and reserve your spot.

Hey, real quick. Have you ever felt like you were made for more, but you’re just not sure what it is that you want to create? Or maybe you have a ton of ideas bubbling over like champagne, but you just don’t even know where to begin. A blank page in front of you can feel daunting and overwhelming, so I wanted to create a guided online journal designed to give people the clarity they need to make the world just a little bit brighter. Bright Pages is a guided online journal for people who do.

Here’s how it works. You have your own private journal with a designated login, and each day you get a daily prompt inside the platform, but it’s also emailed to you and you can just reply directly to that email with the prompt and it will save it into your journal. Technology. Am I right? One of my favorite Bright Pages features are the prompt pathways. You can pick a pathway based on a goal that you have, whether it’s writing a book, crafting a talk, or maybe starting a business, or even just getting out of a creative funk. Then you’ll get prompts delivered to you for one week based on that specific pathway that you chose. I mean, sign me up! Business On the Bright Side listeners get a special discount, so head to BrightPages.com and enter the code POD to get 20% off the annual plan. That’s BrightPages.com, and enter the code POD, P-O-D.

The second way to build momentum in 2021 that is really close to a mission statement is your bio. I know I am so bad at updating my bio. I think like for a while, my bio was like, “As a recent graduate of North Carolina State University.” And I’m just like, “Well, that was eight years ago now, so maybe I can’t put recent in there anymore.” But January is a really great time to update your bio with any missions that’s changed, awards, things that you’re working on, what you want to do, any experiences that you had that previous year that you want to include in there. And so that bio can be used on your website.

I know that whenever I get asked to speak or be a part of an event, they always ask for my bio to put like beside my name, and I remember I always kick myself whenever I’m at that event, and I see that pamphlet and I see that my bio is dated. I’m like, “Oh, why didn’t I just take the time to update this bio?” Another way to build momentum in 2021 is just taking the time to update your bio, which, again, we’re going to do that in You 2.0, the 21-day writing challenge.

And lastly, the third way that you can build momentum in 2021 is just by setting up your calendar for big picture bubble goals. I’m not saying like setting up your calendar date by date, what you want to do, what you want to have by then, but what’s the general idea of where you want to be month two, month three, month six, and by the end of the year? And with those kinds of goal setting, it’s more feeling, and it’s more purpose-driven than it is specific and tactical. So yes, you can set goals of like, “I want to sell 10,000 units by this date,” but I feel like this is the time for you to set a broader goal of who you want to be, how you want to feel during this year and this time and where you want to be at with your career month to month.

By looking at your calendar and just mapping out big picture where you want to be in February, March, April, and just going through each month and being loose with yourself instead of being so outcome-driven, that can kind of give you a north star instead of metrics that you have to hit.

Just to recap, three ways to build momentum in 2021: craft your mission statement, create or update your bio, and set a calendar with broad visions. And all three of these things we’re going to be doing in the You 2.0 challenge in January, so head to BusinessOnTheBrightSide.com/19, and sign up for You 2.0, a 21-day writing challenge and community to get clarity on who you want to be and what you want to do. I will leave you with this. Say it with me. In 2021, I’m in competition with no one. I’m rooting for everyone. There’s room for me at the top, and I am right on time.

Thanks for listening to Business On the Bright Side. I’m your host, Jess Ekstrom. for all the show notes, head to BusinessOnTheBrightSide.com, and be sure to tell me what you thought of this episode on Instagram. And if you’re picking up what I’m putting down, subscribe and write a review wherever you consume podcasts. See you next time, and keep chasing the bright side.