How To Finish The Year Strong in 2016 [LNIM107]

There are still three months left in the year and you have a choice: coast through the holidays or make a real push to accomplish something meaningful in your business. Mark shares a practical framework for finishing the year strong, drawing from both his experience as a part-time entrepreneur and a little league baseball coach who watched his team get blown out 16 to 2.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

• Why the last quarter of the year is your “two-minute drill” for business
• Eight actionable steps to finish the year strong in your online business
• How to realistically assess what you can accomplish in the remaining months
• Why forgiving yourself for missed goals is the necessary first step
• How small wins and decluttering create momentum for a strong finish

Episode Summary

Mark draws an analogy between finishing the year strong in business and a little league baseball game where his team was getting crushed. Some kids kept fighting hard even when the game was out of reach. Others checked out and made even more errors. The same thing happens with entrepreneurs who had big plans in January but fell behind. You can either coast through the rest of the year or push hard to finish strong and hit the new year with a running start.

Mark lays out eight specific steps for making the most of the remaining quarter. First, totally forgive yourself for whatever you did not accomplish. There is no time for self-doubt or beating yourself up. Acknowledge where you are, own it, and move forward. Second, stop procrastinating. Turn off the TV, ignore the distractions, and do something about your goals.

Third, start small. Knock out those easy, annoying tasks that have been sitting on your list. Small wins create momentum. Fourth, get your space cleared. Declutter your desk, your inbox, your hard drive, and your mind. A clean workspace reduces friction and makes it easier to focus on what matters.

Fifth, reconnect with your goals and decide what you can realistically own between now and the end of the year. Take holidays and legitimate obstacles into account and be honest about what is achievable. Sixth, leverage your support teams. Let your mentors, mastermind groups, and accountability partners know what you are working on so they can help keep you on track.

Seventh, amplify your opportunity for success by making small improvements to your health and fitness. Walking 20 to 30 minutes every morning gets your brain going and creates energy for the work ahead. Eighth, put together a plan. Take your original annual plan, throw out what is no longer realistic, and build a focused plan for the time you have left.

Mark also touches on Google algorithm news, reinforcing his standard advice: focus on creating great content and stop trying to game the search engine. The fundamentals do not change regardless of what Google tweaks.

Key Takeaways

• Forgive yourself for missed goals before you can move forward productively
• Small wins and decluttering create the momentum you need for bigger accomplishments
• Be realistic about what you can achieve in the remaining time, accounting for holidays and obligations
• Tell your support network what you are working on so they can hold you accountable
• Physical health and mental clarity are directly connected to business productivity
• A modified plan for the remaining quarter beats no plan at all

What's Changed Since This Episode

Mark recorded this episode in late 2016, but the advice about finishing the year strong is genuinely evergreen. The fundamentals of goal assessment, self-forgiveness, momentum building, and accountability have not changed. What has changed are the tools available to help you execute.

Goal-setting and project management tools have evolved significantly. In 2016, Evernote was a common choice for tracking goals. In 2026, tools like Notion and ClickUp offer integrated goal tracking, project management, and habit monitoring in a single platform. These tools make it easier to do the realistic assessment Mark describes, because you can see your entire year's progress in one dashboard.

AI-powered planning tools can now help with the planning step Mark recommends. You can use AI assistants to analyze your remaining goals, suggest realistic timelines, and break large projects into manageable tasks. This does not replace the human judgment Mark emphasizes, but it accelerates the planning process.

The concept of year-end business reviews has become more structured in the entrepreneurial community. Many business coaches now offer formal frameworks for quarterly and annual reviews that go beyond simple goal tracking to include revenue analysis, content performance metrics, and customer feedback assessment. The fundamentals, however, remain exactly what Mark laid out: assess where you are, forgive what did not happen, make a realistic plan, and execute with accountability.

Resources Mentioned

• LNIM106 — Affiliate Marketing Copyright Law
• [email protected] — email Mark directly
• LNIM Podcast

Related Episodes

If you found this episode helpful, you might also enjoy:

• LNIM106 — Affiliate Marketing Copyright Law
• LNIM110 — Defeating Imposter Syndrome: How To Become An Expert

Listen and Subscribe

Listen to Late Night Internet Marketing on Apple Podcasts or subscribe at latenightim.com/internet-marketing-podcast/. Have a question for Mark? Call the digital recorder at 214-444-8655 or drop a comment below.