Thursday, January 7, 2016

Are you the same person you were as the New Year started a WHOLE year ago, but you WANTED to change?

Let’s talk a little about that issue. Same old, same old, different day! I’ll bet the year flew by and you ran out of time to make the changes to your life to become “who you wanted to become.” Life moves quickly, daily emergencies come up; insignificant tasks are on your lists, others use up your time and on it goes until the day is over. Then the week is over, then the month is over, and finally it’s a new year and you haven’t become “who you wanted to become.”
As a businessman, you have a list of things you need to accomplish each day you arrive at your business. That list could be on paper, on your cell phone, on your computer, in your head, or in a planner. Of course the list is long and daily you have a number of items you just don’t get to start or finish. Those items seem to keep rolling forward to the next day, the next week, or the next month. These often are the things we need to be doing to become “who you want to become.”

You also have a calendar with things scheduled for certain datesand times.These could be meetings, seminars, conventions, vacation, kid’s ball games, a social event or perhaps a golf outing. Most of these are based on outside influences and demands. When you take a close look at your calendar, you find that there is little or no time left for “who you wanted to become.”

Henry Ford

Schedule less about what to get done than who you want to become!
To become “who you want to become”, requires a commitment of time, energy and perhaps money. Let’s look at a couple of possible examples. We’ll look at a business related scenario and a personal related scenario.

You would like to grow your business but since you came up as a Technician, you really don’t really understanding of the financial side of your business. You have said you need to do something about that but another year has gone by and you’re not making any more that you did when you worked for someone else. Then another year goes by and the same thing all over again! Time for a timeout! Time to put a couple of hours aside (your business won’t fail if you do this). You need to analyze the options. You could go a local junior college and take classes in finance and accounting. You could take some online classes in finance and accounting. This is not the best option since it’s too easy to sluff it off and never get the financial understanding you need to improve your business. You could hire a business coach to work with you in your business and teach you the fundamentals of finance and accounting. These are just a couple of options. Surely there are more.

Now comes the hard part. You must change your life in some way to accomplish this goal no matter which choice you make to move forward. To truly become “who you want to become” you will need to put a much higher priority on understanding the financial side of your business than you might have in the past. If you take classes at a junior college, you will need to attend the classes (time), do the studying and assignments (energy), and pay for the classes (money). The same would apply if you took online classes with the exception that it would require a lot more energy to learn what is needed that a classroom setting. If you hired a business coach, time, energy and a lot more money would be involved to get the understanding that you need. The upside is there would be someone right there with you as problems and concerns arose. Change is required to become “who you want to become.”

There is one more issue to keep in mind and that is balance in your life. You still need time, energy and money for your personal life of family, friends, home, and recreation.

You enjoy playing golf with some friends and you’re able to play 9 holes 2-3 times a month with
them. Your handicap is 25 and has been for years. In fact a couple of years ago it was 23 so you have slipped a little. Some weekends you’re able to watch an hour or so of the PGA Pros play and deep down you would like to play more like them. You realize you’re a contractor and not a golf pro but a score in the low to mid 80’s would be a dream for you. For this dream to come true, you would need to commit a heck of a lot more time, energy and money to achieve that dream!

This will require ongoing lessons and coaching for as long as several years to change your game on a consistent basis. This is a real money, energy and time commitment. It would also require hours and hours at the driving range to practice what you have been taught, more time energy and money. And it will also require playing much more frequently to maintain the consistency and feel to shoot the lower scores and become “who you want to become.”

Here also there is another issue to keep in mind and that is balance in your life. You still need time, energy and money for your personal life of family, friends, home, recreation and your business. 

It's a New Year

So as we start a new year, are you going to become “who you want to become” or are you going to repeat last year and the year before and the year before that? You decide!
