“You cannot tailor-make the situations in life but you can tailor-make the attitudes to fit these situations.”

 - Zig Ziglar

I took some time at the beginning of January to assess, first, where I was and, second, what I wanted from the upcoming year.  I learned a lot of lessons from this process and I want to share some with you.

Lesson 1

When I spread myself too thin I do not do anything as well as I should.  My natural tendency is to want to have my fingers in everything.  I also have trouble saying “No” when someone needs my help no matter how over committed I am.

I continue working to bring my commitments down to a manageable level to ensure I can fulfill them well.  I am keeping my priorities in front of me on a regular basis.
 
Now your turn –

How many things have you taken on that work to split your time, attention and efforts?

How much of your time and effort is spent on activities that directly contribute to achieving your goals, business and personal?

Are your priorities, your goals and the way you spend your time in alignment?

Lesson 2

I am at great risk when I try to operate as a one person show.  While we often must start our businesses by doing everything ourselves, in order to grow we must build our teams to take on many of the day to day operational activities.

I delayed creating my team and as a result I had extended periods where virtually nothing happened in my business as I dealt with my Dad’s death and the death of my Father-in-Law just a few months later.  When you are a one person show life events can bring your business to a virtual stop.

Your turn again –

If you were unable to work for a month would you have a business to come back to?

Is your team trained to conduct your business the way you want to be represented?

Do you have documented procedures your team can refer back to for guidance?

Lesson 3

As I fell behind after stopping to deal with deaths in my family I became more reactive and less proactive.  I believe in most cases we create our own opportunities and they usually come from our proactive efforts.  We must have an action plan and we must actively work our plan.

Back to you –

Looking back at your activities over the last week, write them down in two separate lists, one for reactive and one for proactive.  Which dominated your activities?

Do you have a conceptual plan, an action plan or both?

Are you doing something positive from your action plan every day to move closer to your goals?

The best thing about a new year is the way we mentally reset and give ourselves a fresh start.  Have you taken advantage of this opportunity to develop or revisit and refine your goals?  Have you set out the next step for each goal in writing?

If you haven’t taken these actions yet, do it now!  Once you have this in writing let’s move forward and have a fantastic 2009!

I would love to hear some of the lessons you learned by looking back at 2008.  You can share these with me through email at B.Collins@TheGrowthCoach.com

“A year from now you may wish you had started today.”

- Karen Lamb