Author: admin

I tend not to like the whole New Year celebrations too much, feeling that having just got the hang of the current year I now have to consign it to history and begin again. Generally I only have 11 months too, as it takes 4 weeks to stop writing the old year on cheques and letters and so on.

Having just watched Star Wars, Episode VII: The Force Awakens (jolly good fun and no spoilers here) I was reminded that the original blew into town way back in 1977, when trolls lived under the trip-trap bridge, a net was something useful to catch fish with and a smart phone was a sexy green Trim Phone, with sharp lines to its design (we never had one). How times have changed since the demise of corduroy, cheesecloth shirts and my short lived time as a spy, complete with a homemade periscope, which was just long enough for you to see the top of my head over the base of the hall window. However, some things always remain the same, namely:

At the end of every year we have a choice; we can repeat the mistakes of the previous twelve months, or we can learn one lesson and put it into practice. There is no point in writing a long list of ‘New Year Resolutions’ as that is just wishful. Instead we can focus on one thing that we can do differently, do more of, or do for the first time. And perhaps the ‘doing’ we need is actually to do more thinking, or to spend more time noticing our feelings. Time spent reflecting is never wasted – just ask a cyclist at night.

So, wherever we are over the last few days of 2015, we can take time for ourselves and enjoy the highlights of our own year. We can be our own HM The Queen and think about what would be in our annual broadcast to our family. Then we can raise a glass to ourselves and toast our new learning. Well done to all of us and happy 2016.

As for me…I’ve really learned that kindness is what counts and the more of it I put into the world, the more the world seems a happier and more rewarding place to be. Oh, and that my next periscope needs to be a bit longer….and that sometimes you have to stop work and go and see Star Wars and be 9 years old again.

Next week: Setting A Personal Goal

When life gets complicated we can lose sight of the essence of what we are about. We can forget what the core of our business is and be diverted by new schemes and complex multi-party opportunities. It is tempting to say ‘yes’ to all comers and we think we are being more successful as our project portfolio gets fatter.

This is dangerous ground for us and if we are consumed by the fog of too much opportunity we can let the core of our business wither away and not service our regular clients in the way we used to.

The solution is simple. Taking a leaf out of the big book of Lean Process Improvement we can make a list of all the things cluttering up our business and indeed our life. Then we can take a marker pen and, with relish, choose some or all of the following options:

a) Simplify our list – sort items into ‘do now’ and ‘do in six months’.

b) Combine items – where there are natural overlaps we can work on one project and avoid repetition of our labour.

c) Stop the project – it’s healthy to call time on a project and we can trust our intuition here. We don’t have to justify our decision, we can say to ourselves ‘I know all the facts and I’m doing what’s good for me, and this isn’t it!’

We can apply the same logic to Christmas. More crackers and extra presents don’t make for a better time. What counts is that we share love and kindness with people who are close to us and people who need support. Have a wonderful Christmas, or holiday season, and thank you for being part of the Better Business blog. If there are topics you would like covered during 2016 do let me know and I will add you to the list! Go well!

Next week: Reviewing the Year That Was 2015