Author: admin

The end is nigh! Run for the hills! Well….sort of. The current year is almost over, so now is the time to make a decent cup of tea, select a couple of suitable dunking biscuits (malted milk AKA moo cow biscuits for me please) and relax in a comfortably deep armchair.

Plenty of people take too few moments to reflect on past glories, personal brilliance, or thoughtful business success. This is a pity, because life is there to live and if we never stop and indulge in mindful biscuit dunking life can become a helter-skelter of mindless activity, only cut short by accident or death. I’m not being gloomy here….just making the point that a good life requires time to pause and enjoy the highlights.

Think about when you last took a moment to dunk biscuits and reflect on your business year? I don’t mean a formal review with a board, or an annual appraisal – just you and a cup of tea and a pile of digestives. No notes, just thoughts. You and your reflections, swirling round, trusting your subconscious to produce little gems for you to smile about…

This week our task is to take ten minutes, half an hour, an hour – we can choose – and to sit and sip and munch and reflect.

1) What went well for us this year in work or in business?

2) What did we do well?

3) What have we learned?

4) What is it about malted milk biscuits that makes them so moreish?

Enjoy your New Year celebrations and lift a glass for yourself. You’re amazing! Happy New Year, wherever you are.

Next week: Doing Different Dunking For 2014

If I offer you ice cream for breakfast will you readily accept? Or will a little voice in your head tell you I’m being foolish and that you should have something sensible instead?

Maybe you don’t like ice cream and would rather have a delicious curry?

You can choose and for the purposes of this piece we will stick with ice cream.

The point is to test how well you really think under pressure because there is nothing wrong with some ice cream and a wafer for breakfast, particularly if you compare it to a bowl of cereals. If you blended each bowl in turn and compared them could you tell the difference?

When we are in business we are under pressure and we have to make good decisions, based on evidence and reasoned judgement. If we make a decision based on what we ‘should’ do then are we really thinking, or are we just thinking that we’re thinking?

Starting your day with ice cream is about thinking clearly – you can have ice cream for breakfast and enjoy your day. Nobody is going to be harmed by eating ice cream, the sky won’t fall in and you might even turn up to work feeling great (having thoughtfully broken the rules and had some fun).

So this week think clearly and don’t listen to the voice in your head ordering you about. Instead your choice is either to have a bowl of ice cream for breakfast one day this week, or offer your partner or children a bowl! How much fun would that be?!! You can have chocolate sprinkles too!!

Clear thinking makes for great business.

Have fun and have a very happy Christmas!

Next week: 2013 Learning Review