October might not seem like the best month to take a look at your goals and how your business is progressing. It’s nearing the end of the year, but not close enough to necessarily be planning out 2021.

And not to be dramatic, but this year has been varying levels of awful since February. So it feels a little bit weird to be trying to assess the progress of the past few months and making sure the last quarter of the year is a successful one.

I have a few small goals I want to reach in order to end this year on a more positive note. Most of these are tied to my personal life, but I also want to make a few improvements in my work. Adjusting to working from home went better than I anticipated, but I still have some areas I could improve.

Your work environment probably hasn’t changed much. Most people in the industry who I have talked with lately are staying busy, and some have more work than ever. If that’s the case for you, that’s great news. But being busier sometimes makes it difficult to keep up with all of your other responsibilities.

It may seem pointless to assess your goals, finances and the health of your company now when you’ll be doing similar year-end tasks soon enough. But there are still three more months before we say goodbye to 2020, and it should be more clear than ever that a lot can change in three months. It also gives you time to correct anything that isn’t working.

Even simply making a list of what is and isn’t going well can get you on track to make small changes and end the year on a good note. You can have your employees do the same, and then hold a quick meeting to get everyone on the same page. It might be smart to implement a few tweaks now before the holidays and end of the year are upon us. 

It’s also a good time to assess how you’re taking care of yourself. Everything may be going great professionally, but if you’re running yourself ragged to achieve that, you’ll eventually suffer burnout and won’t be able to enjoy your success.

This year has served us all a lesson about how the only things you can truly control are your own thoughts and how you respond to what is going on around you. It can be a struggle to remain positive when a lot of what you encounter on a daily basis is negative — the news, the divisiveness of the current political climate, social media and maybe even disagreements with your own friends and family if you don’t see eye to eye on those things.

So take stock of not only how things are going, but also how you’re feeling. Take some time to make note of what’s going well and what you can change about what isn’t going well. And take a little time for yourself, too. 

I hope you enjoy this month’s issue.