By Karlene Sinclair-Robinson
The start of each new year often has us thinking about goals and aspirations. We get caught up in the frenzy of holiday activities, eating black cake, feasting on turkey or ham, drinking eggnog or sorrel, and ringing in the new year with lots of hope. Jumpstarting a new cycle of activities to boost your financial situation might seem daunting, or maybe it is your absolute best thing to do.
Each new year brings its own favor of hope that it will be a better one. You certainly can create opportunities for your financial growth regardless of how you ended 2024. Many may look at their situation and think, ‘I don’t have opportunities,’ or believe they must stay in a job that does not pay enough to make a living wage.
Others might think there is too much competition based on their ideas or the feeling that they cannot advance because there are no resources.
Therefore, before considering opportunities for financial growth this year, take a moment to do the following:
1. List out what you were able to accomplish in 2024
a. Analyze each item you have listed and answer the following questions.
- How do you feel about each item?
- Did the listed things improve your financial position over the prior year?
- Did they improve other areas of your life or work?
- Did the items you listed help to create a work-life balance for you?
- Did your 2024 activities advance your general well-being at all?
2. Take a moment to develop a SWOT analysis.
a. A SWOT analysis helps you to identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Here is a brief explanation of the concept of the S.W.O.T.:
- Strength – what are you great at doing or something else that could be considered a strength that can help you advance?
- Weakness – something that you do not like to do or do not have access to.
- Opportunity – an idea or skill needed in the marketplace, and you have the knowledge and opportunity to bring it to market.
- Threats – something or someone that could cause you not to act on the ideas or opportunities presented to you.
3. Mindset assessment –
Above all, you should take a moment to reflect on your overall way of thinking. Are you a glass-half-empty kind of person, or are you the one who sees it half full? Assessing the way we think is necessary to help us recognize habits or patterns of behavior that could impede our accomplishing critical things in our lives.
Therefore, when one is too stubborn to accept criticism, it could hinder one’s growth. Consequently, a person with a negative mindset can often be considered analytical when, instead, they have a higher level of fear.
So, they use negativity to try and hide their fearfulness.
You must seek to understand better your behavior patterns and how they help or might deter your financial or other advancement.
So, how does an individual affect change in 2025 to achieve financial advancement?
You must know where you are right now to understand what you must do to improve and implement changes or improvements.
What to Do?
Work on the following areas to start the process:
- Declutter Your Space – if you want to improve, you must clean out your space. Shifts happen faster when you clear out the clutter in your home and mind.
- Get Organized – Work on organizing your stuff so your creativity can flow.
- Clarity Work – It is essential to work on clearing your mind to help bring clarity to what you want to achieve in life through your work and personal situations.
- Gratitude Journaling – Journaling allows you to reflect on what you are grateful for and how it makes you feel.
Once you have worked through the items above, you should be in a better position to be clear about what you would like to achieve in 2025.
These achievements could include:
- Saving to purchase a vehicle or new house.
- Getting your dream job.
- Starting your own company.
- Earning your first $10K, $100K or $1M.
- Traveling to your dream vacation spot
- Building a house through volunteering.
- Add any other dream you would like to list!
Therefore, whatever you want to achieve in 2025 and beyond is possible if you believe it; work through your issues or challenges, take ownership of your feelings and life, and start doing what you love!
You are unique. You are valuable.
And, you are needed to help make a positive difference in the world.
Now, look yourself in the mirror and ask this:
~What must I do differently this year?
~IF not now, when? If not me, then who?
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. ~Author Unknown
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bio:
Karlene Sinclair-Robinson is the author of Spank The Bank: The Guide to Alternative Business Financing, Founder of Spank The Bank NOW Business Academy, and Managing Member of KSR Solutions, LLC. She is considered a foremost expert in ‘Alternative Business Financing,’ business development, access to capital, growth strategies, credit management, small business, and start-up management for success. Karlene has been an entrepreneurial instructor and trainer for over fifteen years. She is also the Director of the Business Finance Center at Community Business Partnership, a non-profit and certified CDFI organization based in Northern Virginia. Karlene is also an Adjunct Professor at a local area community college. She is originally from sunny Montego Bay, Jamaica.