"Run when you can, walk when you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up."

- Dean Karnazes (marathon runner)

Before we get into the newsletter, we’d like to mention that in 2024, DEROTTO Leasing gave away more than $52,000 in gas cards! As a small business ourselves, we feel it’s important to give back to our loyal clients; so thank you to everyone who supported our business this year. Because of you, we were able to help fund over 210 small business leases in 2024. To learn more about DEROTTO's gas card program, click here.

We love dogs at DEROTTO and because of everyone's support in 2024, DEROTTO donated $5,425 to Paws It Forward. Paws It Forward is a great organization that rescues dogs.

DEROTTO hopes your business had a strong 2024 and is wishing you all the best for 2025. After a few years of navigating a tumultuous marketplace, if you are still in business, give yourself a pat on the back! Every sector has been faced with unique challenges lately and DEROTTO has observed that business owners who can adapt, seize opportunity, and reserve/manage cash flow are better off than folks trying to replicate what worked in 2019. Regardless of what stage you’re at in your business’ lifecycle, we hope you took the opportunity over the holidays to rest, recoup, and reflect on your business goals. Maybe your philosophy is to coast into another year of business, or maybe there’s room for improvement.

So, lets talk about the January buzz word, “resolutions” and how to improve your habits moving into 2025:

Every year on January 1, people set New Year’s resolutions. For most, they go through the motions for a few weeks, slip up once or twice, fail some more, and then give up.

Why? Because their resolution is too vague, and they don’t have a plan. For example, a lot of people say they want to lose weight, but don’t have a blueprint to accomplish this resolution. To achieve a desired outcome, you need specific, measurable goals and a systematic game plan. Its like running a marathon. A marathon is 42,2 km, and between the start and the finish line there are many challenges a runner will face. Without a game plan and specific strategies for training, eating, exercising, and what to do when faced with doubt/fatigue etc., the runner would never achieve his or her goal of finishing the marathon.

Instead of setting big goals that feel overwhelming and take a long time to materialize, try to focus on small habits. These small habits compound overtime and inevitably amount to desired outcomes. Micro habits also leave room for flexibility; they make the prospect of changing direction along the way manageable. Regardless if you believe in goal setting, DEROTTO wishes all our clients the best in this upcoming year, and we look forward to being apart of your business growth in 2024!

Here are a few tips that you might find useful to help create new habits and break bad ones.

1. Pay a penalty for breaking a habit

Commit $X to charity for every time you break the habit. Or assign an “accountability buddy” to keep you on track!

2. Don’t worry about giving it 100% all the time

It’s not about quality, it’s about going through the motions consistently and programming ourselves to complete our habits regularly. Many people have an all-or-nothing mentality; when they don’t have the energy for “all,” they do nothing. Instead, still take action to fulfil your habit, even if it’s just to the most minimal degree. For example, if you don’t have time for your usual 45-minute gym workout, still get dress in your workout clothes and do 5 minutes of jumping jacks at home. Habit-forming is about small, incremental changes on a daily basis. Keep doing it enough and your brain will get into the habit.

3. Break your ultimate goal into smaller short term goals

For example, if you want to lose 60 pounds, going from your current weight to your desired weight will appear overwhelming. Take it one day at a time. Set daily or weekly goals and then take it from there.

4. Identify your triggers or temptations so you can combat them

If your trigger is ice cream and you’re trying to lose weight, then don’t have ice cream in the house. If it isn’t there, you can’t eat it and you won’t feel guilty.

5. Start simple — don’t try to tackle everything at once

One small habit at a time (e.g. drink 1 glass of water at dinner)

6. Stay consistent

No skip days. But if you do skip a day, don’t kill yourself for it. Try to never skip two days in a row. Changing habits takes time but undoing all your hard work changing a habit can be undone quickly.

7. Keep thinking about the big picture

It’s easy to get discouraged with new habits when you don’t see instant results. Discouragement is almost always a precursor to giving up- don’t buy into it!

8. Insert or “stack” your new habit into your already existing daily rituals

Wake up, feed the dog, do squats in the kitchen while your coffee brews etc.

9. Consider if-then scenarios

“If I’m too tired to go to the gym, then I will do 10 minutes of yoga at home instead.” It gives you flexibility to adjust your plans without it feeling like a cop-out.

10. Be a scientist

Practice your new habit as though you’re conducting an experiment. In science, there are no failures, only experiments and results. If you don’t get the result you want, tweak the parameters of the experiment.

11. Create “getting started” shortcuts

For example, if your new habit is to start waking up early but you’re not a morning person, load up the coffeemaker the night before and set out your work clothes in advance. Removing some of the pain makes it easier to stick to your plan.

12. One step back, two steps forward

Don’t let one minor setback blow your whole new habit. If you blow your diet one day, that’s not a good reason to say, “Screw it, I might as well give up now.” Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start again.

DEROTTO hopes a few of these tips resonate with you and maybe even give you a spark of motivation tackling the first uninterrupted work week of 2025! We look forward to helping you and your business grow this year.