Are you excited, or exhausted?

Are you excited or exhausted about this year and what has happened? Are you just "hanging in there” or waiting for January 1st to press reset?

In the mix of multiple pressure points, we can often feel exhausted and overwhelmed. This has been a year of pressure points. Several of my clients have had some November trading figures that have not only been the best monthly figures all year but equal to or greater than their best trading figures ever! While it is fun to see some spending return to the economy, coming out of lockdown there was a bit of “Economic Entropy” to be overcome.

Today I want to share 3 essentials in business:

1. Must Do’s,
2. Must Have’s, and
3. Attitude

This is an excerpt from the “5 Keys to Successful Business Planning.” The new version will be released in January 2022.

Must DO’s

The must do’s in our character development are to continue to grow and learn. One of the best pieces of advice I received early in business was to keep educating myself and love learning. I was told, “5 years from now, half of what you learn you will forget, and the other half of what you know will be obsolete. So, if you don’t continue to learn you will become a forgetful, obsolete person.”

The older I get and the more technology changes, I understand the full truth of this saying! I have a choice to keep up or be left behind.

We must also fight for what we believe in and stand strong against compromise. The person who stands for something will be less likely to fall for anything. If we fall over with every breath of wind that comes against us, or we let every bit of bad news, innuendo and gossip derail us, we will never get from where we are, to where we want to be. If a client leaves, a staff member resigns, a sale falls through or a job doesn’t come off, we need to learn to handle this bad news without falling to pieces.

Resilience is a key to maturity.

We need to be the shock absorber to reduce the resonance and bring still and quiet confidence to our minds first, and then in turn to our team.

Our actions must align with our purpose and goals.

We must walk the talk and do what needs to be done when it needs to be done. All we do and the decisions we make must be moving us closer to and keeping us in line with our goals. We cannot let laziness or distractions take us away from our objectives. Keep decisions congruent to goals. Keep the main thing the main thing.

Our values are verbs. Until our values are lived out, they are just good ideas.

Our ethics and moral code must be lined up with our “values in action.”

Must HAVES

We must have a clear purpose, be others-centered, and be generous with our resources of time and money. We must have big picture thinking. We must seek support and work as a team. We will rarely see our goals achieved without the support of others.

True success happens when we don't just achieve our goals, but in the process, we see others have their goals become reality. We must have patience and grace as we work with others. To see our team succeed as we are reaching for our success, is the best success.

We must have something clear in our minds that motivates us towards success. We must have our primary goals broken down into short, medium- and long-term goals that let us test and measure that we are moving closer toward our success.

To thrive in business and life and not just survive is our aim. We need to have a wide range of goals and not just narrow business goals. We do not want to be the richest person in the cemetery or wealthy enough to afford our own divorce because we neglected what was the most important area of our life, family.

A range of different goals allows us to have more than enough in many areas of life and give back to enrich those who need support. Our aim should never be just to meet all our needs, but also to meet the needs of others.

Attitude

Years ago, Zig Ziglar declared, “It is your attitude, more than your aptitude, which will determine your altitude.” No matter how smart or how much knowledge and abilities you have, if your attitude is not right, you may never realise your full potential.

Our attitude will always determine our response to life. Our attitude is essential to stop a conversation from being reduced to a conflict by choosing a response to an unplanned event, rather than reacting with self-justification. Our attitude to life is chosen and will set us apart from others. It is not what happens to us that matters, it is our response that matters. Many expectations are broken before they are spoken, and potential conflict can always be looming. Our approach to life and its challenges will always be determined through our attitude and whether success will fall our way. A positive and pleasant disposition is not just for the Pollyanna’s of life - it is helpful for all.

Remember to Planalife you want to live in, through a Business on Purpose.