Sizzle! Sizzle!

Everyone likes excitement. When people bubble with personal energy, others enjoy being around them. Business firms like to hire a staff that brings zest to the establishment. Some national restaurant chains, for example, train their staff to form an impromptu ensemble and sing "Happy Birthday: or "Happy Anniversary" to their customers on special occasions. It produces more than noise. People keep coming back.

One restaurant, knowing how people respond to excitement, devised a special plan. When a customer ordered a steak dinner, the chef placed the meal on a hot steel plate. Then, just before the waiter left the kitchen, he would drop an ice cube on the platter.

The waiter was instructed, "Walk slowly to the table. We want everyone to hear the sound of that hot platter." It wasn't the steak that was sizzling, but the ice. The plan worked like instant advertising. If customers were in the process of ordering, they'd hear that sound and choose a steak. The sizzle produced the sale.

Today, think creatively. Ask yourself, "How can I add some excitement to what I plan to deliver?"

by: Neil Eskelin, Source Unknown

Make it a great week, it's your choice.

My best

Séamus

2008 - Your Best Year Yet

Make 2008 Your Best Year Yet

Welcome back to Your Best Year Yet. How have you got on with the first set of discovery questions? You will probably have found that they have asked you to think a little differently and that is a good thing. Making change is like flexing and building up your muscles. An element of discomfort is inevitable. It is essential however, if you want to move outside your comfort zone and get get better results in your life. This also involves effective preparation. New Year's resolutions are oftentimes so short-lived, simply because they weren't given enough thought. The real solutions you are planning for need a healthy environment in which to grow and flourish. It's never too late, it's always early enough to begin.

Here is a review of the first set of questions that we looked at in our previous post, All Year Real Solutions.

• What did I accomplish in 2007?
• What were my biggest disappointments?
• What did I learn?
• How do I limit myself, and how can I stop?
• What are my personal values?

So now, let's move on.

• What roles do I play in my life?

This is an important step as it allows you to consider the many aspects of your life and ensures that you include each area in your 2008 plan. You might even have a new role or two that you would like to begin to play. At this point you might also want to refer back to an activity we looked at recently called ‘The Wheel of Life’. This supports you in making sure that you have balance in your life and from there allows you to open up what you plan to have as main focus over the next twelve months. Think of at least one thing that you want to accomplish in each of your roles. You will find it useful to think of yourself as the manager of your own business and that your different roles are different members of staff reporting to you. The other advantage of clarifying your roles is that you can more effectively orientate yourself around your core values. You will want to imagine yourself acting in each of your roles in a way which will demonstrate what is most important to you and in alignment with how you would like to be seen. This will give you the critical momentum you need to make to make telling and decisive changes in your results.

• Which role is my major focus for next year?
  

Before you make some final decisions on this, go back to question five and think again about your personal values. As we said in the last section, it is important to keep these in mind. You will have already seen from your ‘Wheel of Life’ activity where your life might be out of balance and this will help you to decide which role you want to make your major breakthrough in. If you are not sure which one you should focus most on, trust your intuition. You probably do know what role you want to focus on and if you don’t, ask yourself the question ‘If I did know, what role would I choose?’ and see how that works.

• What are my goals for each role?

People who clearly articulate their goals achieve more in their life. We spoke in an earlier post about how you can make sure that your goals are more achievable by making sure that they meet the S.M.A.R.T. criteria. Here we are referring to making your goals ..

• S – Specific & Simple
  
• M – Measurable & Meaningful to your values
  
• A – Attainable, As If Now & In All Areas of your life
  
• R – Realistic
  
• T – Timed, Tangible & Toward

Plenty of preparation work will be useful here and you can begin by asking yourself the question 'What would I need to achieve in each role for it to be my best year yet?' Once you have finished, review your list of goals and make sure that they are in alignment with any of your values. If you find anything that you feel less committed to, scratch it off your list.

• What are my top ten goals for next year?
  

Before you select your top ten goals again you will find it useful to review your answers so far and remind yourself of what is really important to you. Choose the goals that are most exciting for you. Select the ten that, once you have already begun to achieve them, will make the most difference to you. Prioritise your list, starting with the goals for your major focus and work your way down. Visualise your dreams and dream big.

• How will I stay constant and be sure of my success?

So how are you going to make sure that your best year yet doesn't get lost amoung the sometimes crazy world of day to day life. Well surprisingly enough, you have certainly come a long way already. You now have a clear plan and mission statement for yourself. You have exploited time, energy and a lot of motivation to get this far. first of all, stop and congratulate yourself. Then, each month set yourself new Monthly Goals to help keep you on track. Now that you are already in the rhythm, you will find it so much easier to set Weekly Goals to progress to those monthly goals. Consider working with a coach. Remember that coaching will support you in getting the results you want faster and more effectively. You will also want to consider that when assessing your success, focus on your roles and your personal values rather than the individual tasks that you achieve. This will help you to get a panoramic view of how your life is changing.

If you are interested in finding out more about making this Your Best Year Yet, check out the book by Jinny Ditzler. You can order the book from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

Here is a short quote to finish.

People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. The people who get on in this world are the people who look for the circumstances they want and if they can't find them, make them.
George Bernard Shaw

Make it a great week and continue making it a great year, it's your choice.

My best

Séamus

Dream Big

A Song for the Non-Conscious Mind

This song was sent to me as a gift some time back by a good friend and colleague of mine. It works well with what we were looking at in the post on Michael Flatley last month as well as with your plans for making your new year's resolutions All Year Real Solutions. We will have more on how you can successfully make 2008 your best year yet in our next post.

and when you dream, dream big

as big as the ocean blue

cause when you dream it might come true

so when you dream, dream big

Ryan Shupe & The Rubberband

Dream big and dare to fail.
Norman D. Vaughan

More soon!

Make it a great week, it's your choice.

My best

Séamus

New Year's Resolutions or All Year Real Solutions?

Make 2008 Your Best Year Yet

Yes, the new year is here. 2008, a leap year, designated the United Nations International Year of Planet Earth and "European Year of Intercultural Dialogue" by the European Parliament. 2008 promises a host of interesting events including, the Expo in Zaragoza, Spain, Presidential elections in the US, Russia and China, general elections in Spain and New Zealand, the UEFA Euro 2008 football championship in Austria & Switzerland, the summer Olympics in Beijing, China and much much more.

It is especially at this time of the year when people think about how they plan their life to be different and make their New Year's Resolutions. Funny that, they way we call them 'New Year's Resolutions', because that's often how long they last, a couple of weeks and if you are lucky, until the end of January. Well, what do you expect? I mean they are only New Year's Resolutions after all. So, what we need then are All Year Resolutions? Well, not quite. When you think about it, a resolution is only a re-solution, a repeated solution to an familiar problem or issue. How often do you find yourself with the same resolutions every new year? Therefore, what you will want to find are real solutions, those strategies and techniques that can support you in reaching your goals and making 2008 your best year yet.

To help with that we are going to look at a series of questions that you can ask yourself to enable you to clarify and achieve what you want to most focus on for 2008. These initial questions will allow you to build a solid foundation for you to move forward.

• What did I accomplish in 2007?

Before you look ahead and decide how you want to make the most of this new year, you will find it useful to look back and remember the good news from last year. Remember where you were this time last year, give yourself some appreciation and focus on your successes. You can also take the question forward and as you go through 2008 use it on and get into the habit creating a track record of the things that go well for you.

• What were my biggest disappointments?

This is an important step. Here you make the opportunity to tell yourself the truth about what didn't work for you and let it go. Once you bring it to the surface and get it all down, the failures and negativity lose their value. This allows you to travel forward without any excess baggage. It more effective to a good friend to your successes than to be seduced by your failures.

• What did I learn?

Here you have the opportunity to focus on the learnings you made over the last year. When things didn't go so well for you, what did you take from those situations. Write the lessons down for yourself as simple rules, reminders or instructions. Maybe you learnt some new skills and abilities. If so, make a list of them. Also, when you think of the things that went well for you, ask yourself questions such as

• How exactly did I do that?
• What was the secret of my success in that situation?

Based on all that you have observed, what tips and advice would you pass on to your family and friends?

• How do I limit myself, and how can I stop?

This can be quite a challenging area to focus on, but you will find it useful and it will prove to be a key area in your road map to success this year. Think about the areas that you are not getting results in and begin to figure out how you are limiting yourself. What roadblocks are you putting in your own way? What do you hear yourself saying to explain away your failures? What is it that you can't see that maybe others can see from the outside? How can you recycle your can'ts into cans? Remember that your thoughts and feelings help to shape your results and just imagine how really different 2008 will be once you change your negative paradigms into positive statements of possibility.

• What are my personal values?
  

An important element of success is being congruent in how we think and act. Reflecting on this question and becoming more conscious of what is most important to you, will allow you to empower yourself to make real changes in your life. Once your goals and plans reflect your personal values, these values will act as strong and vibrant motivators as you work to get improvements in your behaviour and performance. So again, make yourself a short list and remind yourself of what really matters most to you.

In the second part of this task and in the next post we will look in more detail at where you want to be this time next year and what you will already have achieved by the end of what you plan to be your best year yet.

Make it a great week and begin to make it a great year, it's your choice.

My best

Séamus