Twenty years ago, I asked myself these four questions, which I consider a framework for working toward success as the new year begins. We tend to look back over

the past ten years to revisit our failures more than our successes.

Similarly, at the end of 1999, I felt a great deal of pressure because it marked the end of an entire millennium. I spent a long time reviewing what had happened to assess what

I liked and what I didn’t. I asked myself just four questions and, based on my answers, made decisions that changed the course of my career.

Twenty years later, I continued using the same framework to make decisions each year. It became an essential part of preparing for success in every new year. So, what were those questions?

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What results am I hoping to achieve?

لا يتوقف معظم رواد الأعمال Think about it: if you don’t have a clear definition of success for everything you do—such as finding new customers, launching a new website,

starting a new business, or increasing your retirement savings by 10% each month—you’ll never know when you’ve achieved it. What you want to achieve is far more useful than

Making your goal vague, such as “succeeding in your career” or “learning something new.”

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What’s stopping me from achieving what I want?

Sometimes we don’t realize what’s stopping us from achieving what we want, but often we don’t want to admit what’s getting in our way. Once you identify what’s holding you back, you can

come up with ideas for overcoming it. Anticipating potential obstacles helps you prepare a plan to address them.

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What’s my plan for achieving my goals?

Setting specific goals in your business plan makes it easier to identify the steps needed to achieve them. This makes things much easier and takes less effort than

if you were looking at it from the opposite direction. To hold yourself accountable, find a coach or mentor to help you, and write your goals on a

laptop, with a weekly or monthly schedule for tracking what you do—in other words, your progress toward achieving your goals.

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How ready am I to commit to achieving my goals?

Once you’ve set your goals, removed obstacles, and made a plan, the only thing left is to hold yourself accountable. You can commit time, resources, money, or a combination of these;

to see your project through. Otherwise, you may fail to achieve your goals.

After answering these four simple questions, you’ll have a clearer picture of your business as you look ahead to the new year—or even the entire next decade.