Author: admin

Phew it’s hot! How lovely and about time that we had some sun and can remove woolly hats, thermal vests and ski-mitts. I like the sun and always feel chirpier and more bouncy on warm days. I’m not alone in this and splendid sunlight and heat always seems to bring out smiles from people and a happier can-do attitude.

However, although the weather can have an affect on our mood we have to accept the lion’s share of responsibility for our own disposition. We can make choices and decide if we’re going to be grumpy, or smiley, thoughtful, friendly and so on. We sow our energy out into the world and reap a harvest from that. Sow the world with smiles and you do get smiles back. I know – I’ve been having a do-lovely-things week and have enjoyed some brilliant conversations with a host of lovely people.

We can set ourselves up for success in business too. Last week I had a tough piece of negotiation to sort out and my opening comment was ‘I am going to sign this and just need to agree some changes in order to do so.’

I made it clear that I wasn’t going to waste the other person’s time and that the prize was there for us both to share …as long as we worked constructively.

This clear and positive starting point set the tone for a level-headed discussion that ended up with us both agreeing to move our position on a number of points. I set out to be positive and as a result we had a can-do conversation instead of a can’t-do one.

So, this week when will you start a difficult conversation with a positive attitude?

It could make all the difference.

As for me, I’m going to enjoy the sunshine and start preparing ideas for talks, because I’m continuing my work as an international speaker, having agreed a great deal with an international speakers bureau. Yippee!

Or you could ask: how heavy is your handbag? Or your flight bag?

I was walking back to my car, after a great coaching session with a client, when two things occurred to me. Firstly, I realised that my briefcase was actually quite heavy and seemed to have put on a few pounds recently. Secondly, I realised I’d used one pad of paper, one pen, one diary and one client folder in the whole of the three-hour session. Which made me wonder what I was doing carrying something so heavy?

I like my briefcase. It’s been round the world with me (it likes business trips) and has never let me down or uttered a cross word. It’s a faithful companion, but it does seem to like swallowing bits of paper, pens and cables to charge things that now require a power source.

The problem here is that I carry these things around all the time, whatever the occasion, and I never stop to ask if I really need them that day.

So, I got tough and had a little experiment. I left everything behind and just took a diary and a day book out to meetings. Nobody died. This was great!

Then I had an idea…I could downsize my beloved A5 Filofax and buy a smaller daybook. Genius! So now I have a very lovely new slimline Filofax and a neat little daybook. I’m going to live dangerously and leave the spare pens and cables at home. How exciting and how liberating!

Having made the essential items smaller I can now fit into a slim laptop case what I used to squeeze into my bulky briefcase.

I may even leave behind my trusty Post-It notes, although we don’t want to get silly now do we?

So my briefcase now contains: filofax, day book, kindle, pencil and that’s it. The kindle is there because it contains reference books as well as reading books. The Post-Its may sneak back in, I’ll leave them on the desk and let them decide for themselves.

Take a look into the dark heart of your briefcase, handbag or flight bag? What are you carrying around that you could leave behind? What clutter is getting in the way of your business success?

Les is more: less clutter means more focus on the important things!

So, what can leave behind this week and how can you lighten your load?