As the year winds down to a close, the temptation is to slow down.

And it can be easy to forget that a new year full of plentiful opportunities is about to begin!

As we move into the holiday season, it’s also the season for businesses to close their books for the year.

Businesses close their books to make sure that all the financial information about their business is accurate and entered correctly.

For a business, it is an opportunity to get it right before preparing final annual financial statements and corporate taxes.

As we draw our year to a close, what can we learn from business and their year-end closing process?

Let’s define precisely what is meant by a year-end close.

In business, it is an accounting procedure to close out business from the previous year, carry forward balances of the prior year, and open posting accounts for the upcoming year. 

Annual Operations

The Year-end close is part of a company’s annual closing operations.

It is used to generate the company’s financial statements.

Effectively, the business will review their year to set themselves up for the next year. 

And we could learn from business and apply our own year-end closing operation because we must keep going. 

The close of the year does not mean that we stop doing what we are doing.

In fact, we should accelerate if we can. 

That means make that extra call. 

Ask for the sale one more time. 

Offer an additional product or service. 

Aim to finish the year strong, so you maintain your momentum into the next year. 

Remember your physics lessons, it is much easier to keep moving than to stop and then start.

All we have to do is to keep going. 

If we stop or slow down, we have to accelerate again next year. 

That is more work.

And it is hard work to get moving again.

Go even faster

Put your foot on the accelerator now. 

As 2019 winds to a close, go even faster.

To make sure 2020 gets off to a fun and enlightening start, let’s look at all the influences of our 2019 experiences.

What were the books, movies, and other media that made an impact on you?

What did they inspire in you?

Did you remember to capture that inspiration so you can shape it into new goals for yourself?

That’s what the year-end close is all about, reviewing your year to give you great insights.

Task 1

What went right?

This part is fun, and it motivates you to keep going.

Trust me, you will be astonished when you realise what you did accomplish.

If you are struggling, get in contact, and I will give you tips to guide you through exactly how to trigger these memories to learn what you did, how you were inspired, and what themes you want to carry forward…themes you might never have noticed before.

Task 2

What went wrong?

This is an honest assessment of things that didn’t go right over the past year.

Guess what?

This is good news!

You don’t have to do it again!

Doing a year-end close helps you avoid repeating things that don’t work for you.

Task 3

What can you learn about yourself?

How can you improve your life in the next year?

This is what we call “collecting the pay” from your year.

You work on improving yourself all year.

Doing this year-end close means that you actually learn from that experience, giving you a solid foundation for levelling up in 2020.

I hope you’ll join me and do what may be the most rewarding activity of the year, a comprehensive review of our year, setting ourselves up to make the most of 2020.

The end of the year marks an exciting crossroads, AND You have a few paths forward:

PATH A: 

Dig yourself deeper for the next few week more procrastinating and missing targets, passing all responsibility to

“Future You.”

Magically hope that Future You will have all sorts of additional free time and motivation to achieve your goals.

I do not recommend Path A. It never works. Ever.

 

PATH B: 

Do your best and figure things out on your own.

This works for MOST people and is a fantastic path for somebody that can self-motivate and keep themselves accountable. 

(I think Path B is excellent for most!)

PATH C: 

Work with a pro that is really good at this stuff, and start 2020 with a crazy amount of momentum rather than dread! 

(Path C is an excellent fit for the right person!)

As you might know, our mentoring program has helped thousands of clients transform.

You can find more details here.

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