Wedding Business Solutions

Don't make resolutions, take actions!

• Alan Berg, CSP, Global Speaking Fellow

Share episode

Don't make resolutions, take actions!

Are your New Year's resolutions setting you up for success or failure? Can you break down your goals into actionable steps? In this episode, I discuss shifting from making resolutions to taking focused actions that drive real results. Learn how to prioritize tasks and turn aspirations into daily habits that stick.

Listen to this new 9-minute episode for strategies on making realistic goals, breaking them into achievable steps, and building consistency for lasting success.

Episode Summary: 

In this episode of the Wedding Business Solutions podcast, I emphasize the importance of taking actionable steps over merely making resolutions. I share personal anecdotes and practical advice on how to prioritize and achieve goals in both business and personal life. I recount my experience at the National Speakers Association conference, where I learned to focus on a few impactful goals rather than being overwhelmed by many. I discuss the value of creating habits, like my daily language lessons, and encourage you to make realistic, manageable changes that can lead to long-term success. Join me for insights into goal setting, prioritization, and consistency for a prosperous New Year.

If you have any questions about anything in this, or any of my podcasts, or have a suggestion for a topic or guest, please reach out directly to me at Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com or visit my website Podcast.AlanBerg.com 

Please be sure to subscribe to this podcast and leave a review (thanks, it really does make a difference). If you want to get notifications of new episodes and upcoming workshops and webinars, you can sign up at www.ConnectWithAlanBerg.com  

View the full transcript on Alan’s site: https://alanberg.com/blog/


Mon. Feb. 17th, Las Vegas, NV - Save $100 with this link: https://tinyurl.com/LVMini100

Mon. Feb. 24th, Miami, FL - https://events.humanitix.com/nawp

I'm Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you'd like to suggest other topics for "The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast" please let me know. My email is Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com. Look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.

Listen to this and all episodes on Apple Podcast, YouTube or your favorite app/site:

©2025 Wedding Business Solutions LLC & AlanBerg.com

Don't make resolutions, just take actions. Listen to this episode, See where I'm going. Hey, it's Alan Berg. Welcome back to another episode of the Wedding Business Solutions podcast. Happy New year. It is January 1, 2025. Wow. I can't believe I'm saying 2025 already.

And this is the time of year. Hopefully you're not too hungover when you're listening to this. Or you weren't overserved. As a woman in Texas once told me, she never drinks too much. She' occasionally overserved. Hopefully weren't overserved too much. Maybe a little hair of the dog if you were. But let's think about this.

Resolutions, right? The idea of resolutions. We wait until a certain day of the year to say that we're going to do certain things and then maybe we don't do them. It really comes down to taking actions and it also comes down to being specific about what you want to achieve and what the things it will take to get there and realizing you can't do everything. I wrote about this in my book, your Attitude for success. How in 2007, when I joined the National Speakers Association, I went to my first conference and some of you have experienced this. It's like drinking from a fire hose. Just so much good information. You take a notes and taking notes and taking notes and I'm like, oh, so much good stuff.

And then you look back and it's just so much there. Where do I start? And the president of the association on the last day of this two and a half day conference of drinking from a fire hose said to us, go back, take a look at your notes and write down all the good ideas. Rewrite that list now, because you did this in a different order, right? So write this list out and then put it in the order of that you think it'll have the most impact on your business or your life. And. And then again in priority order, right? First, most, most important, second most important, so forth. And then just keep the first three things and physically get rid of the rest of the list because you can't do it all. And then work on those three things because they're not really three things. Each of those things gets broken down into other things.

And I that to heart again. Whatever pitcher of Kool Aid he was serving, I just drank that whole picture. And I said, that's what I'm going to do. And I went back to my office and I erased my whiteboard. I took a picture of it first, but I erased it. And the funny thing is, years later, I tried to find that picture because I wanted to use it in a presentation to talk about that. And I couldn't find it because I never looked at it, because I started working on those three things instead of the 35 things that were on that whiteboard. I have accomplished so much more by having that short.

I call it my to do list versus my today list, right? My to do list of those big picture things. And if you think about resolutions now, what are the one, two, or three things that you really want to accomplish? And maybe you need to let go of some of the things that are just sucking time away from you, that you're just. They're not important anymore. Doing these is not as important as these other things. So when I'm trying to write a new book, right, If. If I'm doing that. So I just published my book with Brian Lawrence, from browsing to booking, that was on that list. Learning language, in my case, French every day.

So today was 1450 Days of French lessons. Every day. I've done at least one lesson for 1450 days that was on the list, right? And then there'll be a third thing that along beyond that list that I want to do. And it could be something with my business, it could be something in life, but something else I want to do. And then there are the less important things. So I do French every morning, but then at night, if I have time, sometimes watching TV with one AirPod in my ear. And I'll be doing Dutch because we're going to Amsterdam on a cruise. And even though I know everybody speaks English there, I thought it just like when I learned Spanish, it's respectful if I can speak at least a little bit of your language when I come to your country.

I don't do it every day, but I do it enough that by the time August comes around, I'll have enough Dutch that I'll be able to say something to someone. And fortunately, some of the words are close enough, like hello is hallo and sorry is sorry. So that's easy. I'll be able to do that. But coming back to your resolutions, you know, if your resolution is to lose weight, I'm just going to throw that out there. A lot of people do that. Or to get fit, put those on your list and say, okay, what do I need to do to make those a priority? So for me, every morning I'm going to do duolingo French, because that is a priority. And.

And they've gamified it. So that little green owl is going to goad Me, if I don't, it's going to pop up and say, don't lose your streak, Alan. And I sometimes just go in and do one quick lesson just so I keep that streak. And other days I will do five, 10 lessons. Sometime when I'm traveling, I'll do them on the plane, do in the airport. I will do even more than that. And I'm just keeping that streak alive. So how do you keep your streak alive? What do you need to do? And be realistic with yourself, right? You want to be realistic.

If you're going to work out and you've never worked out before, ease your way into that or you're going to hurt yourself, and then you won't be able to work out. But also say, what can I do based upon my schedule, based upon what makes what's realistic for me? And then it's not a competition with somebody else. Right now you might have a workout buddy that's even better. You can get there with a workout buddy. I have buddies in my. My duolingo. I'm connected with other people that I know, including friends, including relatives, including my son, my grandson. Right.

We can encourage each other with that to keep going. What are you trying to accomplish? I've had a lot of people want to write a book, and I just had a conversation with somebody the other day about writing a book, and I told them, don't write a book. Write words. Editing turns the words into a book. And my 11th book is out now. And I've had people say to me, you know, I've been thinking about writing a book. I said, that's the difference. You've been thinking about writing a book.

I wrote a book, right? And then I wrote another one and another one and another one because I just wrote words. I learned to just write words. And then the editing that latest book that I did with Brian, I actually cut out probably five or six chapters that I wrote that I said, you know what? I don't think they're appropriate for this book. Or maybe they're too close to some other chapters. Or for whatever reason, I said, they don't need to be in here. That's the editing process. Will those words ever see the light of day? I don't know. Maybe.

Maybe not. Doesn't matter because the book is out. So another philosophy that I have is I'm never trying to be the best that I can be at anything. I want to be better than I was the last time, every time. So can you do one more sit up or pull up or Push up or curl or whatever at the gym. Can you write a little bit more today than you did the last time? Right? What can you do that's a little bit different if you're, if you're trying to, to, you know, change your eating habits? Because they say that dieting is not good. Dieting is a temporary thing, right? Changing the way you eat. Can you eat 10% less at this meal? Right? Can you push away and say, I'm done.

We know not finishing, right? That's just making a little step and then just do that a little bit consistently. Consistency is the key. Resolutions. The concept of them I don't like. But if you're trying to accomplish something, you can do that, but you just have to make it realistic and break it down. So that's my three things on my list that's going to help me because three things on my list is going to say, okay, I can accomplish these. If I break this down into other pieces, such as writing a book, can I write some words today? Not can I write a book today? I can I edit some words today? Can I change something on my website today? Can I follow up one more time that I than I have been today? What's your resolution? Turn that into a habit. Takes at least 30 days to become a habit, right? The gyms love for you to sign up and not come, right? They count on that because if everybody who was a member showed up, they don't have enough room or equipment, so they're counting on you not coming.

So is that what you want to do? Be the one that shows up and let other people not come? Right. You have that treadmill. It's not a place to hang your clothes. It's a place to work out. So what can you do to change the idea of a resolution from a temporary thing I'm likely to fail at to something I'm likely to succeed because I can achieve it, because I've made it a realistic thing and then I can build upon that. So just my New Year's thoughts for you. I wish you a happy, healthy, prosperous new Year. I look forward to seeing you at events.

Letting me know on the Ask me anything on my podcast.allenberg.com any suggestions for the podcast or guests, and any way that I can help you out in terms of your business with consulting or converting more leads or sales training or speaking for your organization. Let me know. Happy New Year.

I’m Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you’d like to suggest other topics for “The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast” please let me know. My email is Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com or you can  text, use the short form on this page, or call +1.732.422.6362, international 001 732 422 6362. I look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.

Listen to this and all episodes on Apple Podcast, YouTube or your favorite app/site:

©2024 Wedding Business Solutions LLC & AlanBerg.com


People on this episode

Contributor

Alan Berg, CSP, Global Speaking Fellow

Host