OK, it’s all easier said than done, isn’t it… but there’s often a reason for that. Most people setting out to make changes, on the journey to success, don’t know where to begin.
Here then is a simple outline of the steps to take:

1. Choose to Change
-time to get out of the quagmire
-TPR (we’ve covered this in a previous blog post- 13 May)
-Identify your Unique Talent (see Inspiration Room on website)

2. Identify your Values and Vision
Your Purpose and Mission, based on your Values…
This becomes your motive-for-action. Create a clear picture of what success is for you.

3. Create a Stunning plan
An outline strategy with key waypoints.

6. Allocate resources
Time, energy, money… focus these in line with the plan.

7. Sustain it
-a powerful system / structure – time plan/ regime
-Renewal and constant improvement - keep revisiting and polishing all of the above.

I suggested having an OFF day every month.
Here’s how it works:
We know when we are working ON our businesses, we know when we are working IN our businesses, and we know when we are taking time OFF. So that’s IN/ON/OFF… a concept I covered in the previous blog entry.

But many of the things which fall into the Time OFF category can’t be done at weekends, and we don’t necessarily get to do them during normal holiday time.
So schedule an OFF day every month. That’s one day in the month reserved as OFF time.
The OFF day is simply a scheduled day when you can fit in all those appointments, such as dentists, haircut, pick up all the birthday cards you need to send for the month ahead, have a coffee/ lunch with a friend without having to rush back to the office, do a bit of personal shopping as a reward for your hard work and exceptional results, and so on. It’s a day when you can place all these activities so that they don’t impinge on your Focus Days or Planning Days. It keeps the days when you need to be absolutely focused on business, free of distraction. It protects you from time drainage.

Many of you will be familiar with the IN/ ON enigma… Spending so much time working IN the business (doing the day-to-day operational stuff) prevents you getting time to work ON the business (doing the strategic work which actually grows the businesses into a saleable product). If you are not familiar with it, I recommend getting hold of Michael Gerber’s excellent “E-myth seminar” tapes, or his books on “The E Myth.”

Here, let me introduce my own further dimension which expands the issue beyond IN/ON to IN/ON/OFF. How much time OFF the business are you taking? You know, totally away from it.

For business owner-managers, I have always advocated 40 weeks work IN/ON and 12 weeks OFF. And yet, it really is so achievable. It’s achievable as long as
i. when you are ON, you are Fully ON
ii. when you are OFF, you are Fully OFF
iii. when you are IN, you are thinking ON

Because, when you are working IN the business, think ON. Think about how you can do the IN work better, more effectively… and that will create OFF time.

Example: when doing something IN, think: how can I make this easier to perform in terms of time and energy, and is there a system to be set up for all or part of this IN work which will make it easier to do next time (and therefore more time/ cost effective), and could I delegate it (work ON it, to devise the system, and delegate the IN work via the system).
Thereby creating time OFF… Freedom and Control, and Life Balance.

One of my favourite quotes:
“When you cannot make up your mind which of two evenly balanced courses to take, choose the bolder.” - WJ Slim. One of Britain’s most successful and effective Generals of the 20th century.

And, I’m sure you know that so many people find this the most difficult aspect of being a business-person… being decisive. Yet, it is the one aspect of being an entrepreneur which is most admired by others. That ability to take a risk, to go for a goal armed only with your courage and a belief in your own ability.

Being a business professional means being able to take bold steps. If this is something which you find difficult, and many do, start by modelling the best.

Those who are most professional/ best in any field of human endeavour, leave clues as to how to make bold decisions, and take bold actions. So in order to become the best, we can model our own thoughts, and our actions on them… and that’s in any field… so you can learn from the best in fields other than your own. It’s more to do with a certain approach, a certain ethos, than it is about the specifics of a particular industry, or a particular business.

So who can you model?
Who can you have in your head when faced with a decision… (and if you think you aren’t faced with that many decisions, think again… we all make more decisions than we think on a daily basis!).

Remember, if you want to be the best, ACT it. Act and think like that person. In your own field, I know that you want to be the best you can be. And in all your roles… as a partner, parent, business-person, member of your community… all your roles.

So act like the best
Model yourself on that one person you admire.

What will it mean to you to think and act like that person?

Will you be fearless? Will you have no worries or challenges? No! But you will have a way of handling them, rather than running away from them. Most people have this handling strategy built in, but they tend to squash it, because they allow the fear and interference to get in the way.

I have spoken before, and often, about Butterfly moments - those moments in life where you are about to make a bold move, and you get a butterfly feeling in your stomach. Those moments when you feel the adrenalin, and you want to make a decision to move forward. That’s your gut-feeling knowing it’s the right thing to do.

Many people mistake it for Fear, and they run and hide from it, and in business that can be crippling. They either make a retrograde decision based on fear, or make no decision at all… And as we know, more opportunities are lost through indecision than the wrong decision.

Seize those butterfly moments.

They often happen when you need to make a commitment/ a decision which will take you forward to new territory.

Learn to enjoy those moments, to revel in them, to know that based on your Vision, they are to be embraced as signs that you are growing, rather than feelings to be shirked from.

Believe me, whoever you have decided to model yourself on also has those Butterfly moments. No, really, they do.
Of course you knew that. We all know that… they are human. And their success is merely a reflection of this courage, this commitment to being the best, this ability to seize the opportunities.
And in modelling that by thinking and acting as they would, you will rise to even higher levels of success.

Start modelling right now, and build it as a habit.

Many people say that they get stressed and tired out by focussing on goals and targets and always living in the future. Why can’t we live a little more in the present?

I agree, entirely and absolutely.
And setting goals is not for just measuring the future and creating "beat you up" targets… it should be a way of making the present more powerful, more alive, more exciting and enjoyable. It is about being on the journey. And one of the reasons confusion (and stress) arises is in the way goals are set, and that people misunderstand the difference between a strategic goal and a by-product. People end up getting hung up on reaching the by-products.

Don’t beat yourself up about not reaching the by-products.
Doing so will damage your productivity and effectiveness.
Stay focussed on the strategic goals, enjoy the journey, and allow the great by-products to happen.

Famously, Martin Luther King said, “I have a dream.”

Actually, he said:  “I have a Dream, Today”. His Vision was very much in the present, not some long term goal. Most people misquote him, because they don’t see the power of that difference.

• Almost 4 million SMEs in UK (with less than 250 people)
• More than 99 percent of UK companies are SMEs
• SMEs employ 13 million people
• 97 percent employ fewer than 20 people
• 70 percent are one-man owner managers
• SMEs generate over £500 billion per annum (more than half the country’s GDP).
• 90 percent of all commercial innovations come from SMEs
• 500,000 people per year set up new businesses
• The major reasons they cite for doing so: “Freedom”, “Control”, “Be my own boss”, “Work-Life balance”.

• 95 percent of new businesses will fail to survive, let alone reach their full potential
• most business owners are working inordinately long hours, for very little reward
• and most sacrifice their Freedom, Control, Life balance at the altar of business survival, particularly in the early years, and increasingly for all time!

• can’t afford to take on someone else
• don’t have time to wade through the red tape surrounding employing others,
• can’t delegate, or are reluctant to delegate

• the average British worker is working longer hours than most, and is unproductive for a whopping 85 days per year!

This is deduced as being due to a number of key factors:

• lack of professional supervision
• ow morale
• wrong people in wrong jobs/ roles
• poor communication
• IT problems
• poor planning
• “poverty of expectation”.

And yet,
88 percent of workers have regular “brainstorming meetings”.
52 percent have meetings every day.

• They indicate a number of important motivators (freedom, control, life balance)
• If you are a manager they tell you what motivates/ de-motivates your team
• They tell us what to watch out for ourselves
• They indicate some areas which need to be worked ON, in order to prevent problems arising, in any scale of business
• If you supply to businesses, they indicate certain demographics and trends in potential markets for your service/ product/ brand
• They indicate where performance improvements can be made (meetings, time, energy levels, life balance, communication, and improved supervision and support).

As we start to reach the mid-year point, how do you feel your year is going so far?
• a stretching soaring success?
• an incremental increase on last year?
• a so-so normal- normal, business-as-usual kind of year?

Nothing worse I hope!

How often do you have a team meeting? (again, you might think this is just for big teams, but I advocate this for any size of team – even if you are a team of one, it’s essential to assess progress).

In business, team talks can have a huge impact. Yet so often I see poorly prepared team talks have the opposite effect, and some even degenerate into a whinging and whining session, a team talk that is so problem oriented that the team emerges in a worse state than when they went in!

Having a theme for your team talks allows you to use the analogy to explore from a new fresh angle…

If you find yourself here half way through the year, as leader/ manager/captain of a team which is the business equivalent of 2 nil down at half time, it’s time to make some changes.

• Re-energise and re-focus.
• Set goals for second half of the year… what needs to happen, and what you want to happen so that at the end of the year you’ll be able to look back and feel it’s been a success.
• Inspire and generate commitment to making it happen
• Focus onthe tactics to enhance performance to improve results
• Help you create the habits of success

• What’s the score at half time?
• What has worked really well in the first half… and who scored the goals
• How were these goals scored
• Tackling ourselves – what didn’t work so well, and why
• Who has been playing onside/ offside… what values/ behaviours do we need to remind are onside/ offside
• red/ yellow cards!
• What aspects of our performance need to change: Defence (the foundations – our personal effectiveness); Midfield (the business strategic development); Attack (the productivity/ results, finishing skills)
• What are the immediate goals for the second half
• How are we going to change the tactics for the second half
• Team changes and substitutions… who needs to change role, who else is needed to join the team (from internally or externally)
• Summary
  -well done on first have goals scored
  -Refocus on changes to tactics/ approach in second half
  -Re-energising
  -Focus on immediate goals to achieve “early doors” in second half

Other considerations for this football/ sporting theme might be…
Location/ layout – does it need to be different/ feel different for a half-time team talk?
Which division are you playing in?… and how can you become Champions League candidates?