The Last Post

WOW, just woke up (for the second time (daughter had to be taken to some ridiculous school evnt that required a lift to the MRT station at six am on a Saturday morning (what do the schools think parents are for "Oh goody, Saturday morning, after a hard week at work I would just love to get up at five thirty!") so I am back to bed by seven)), to discover as I check the calendar to book a talk somewhere that has just been requested, that today is the last day of the year!
How did that happen? It was xmas last time I looked!

So this makes this the last post of the year! Had to be done. Have I got anything useful to say? Probably not, except it reminds me of a coaching session with a client last week, where client was bemoaning the difficulty of procrastination causing a really bad week. We had a great session and client overcame the problems and has now reported a fantastic week. So I am prompted to ask you all: What are you procrastinating about? Write a list of five things you have been putting off; then beside each answer this question: What is stopping you from doing it?

A final thought for the year. Don't waste any time tonight on New Year Resolutions. All that goal setting stuff is a waste of time, and you know it. Unless you have figured out what your Purpose is.

Maybe a bit more tomorrow about finding your Sense of Purpose.

And if you feel a little help would be useful with that, watch this space. We will be launching a variety of coaching programmes in the New Year, ranging from email coaching, on-demand coaching as well as our more usual stuff. Dop a line to tony@reallybigimpact.com if you want to know more.
Happy New Year!

Are you a hare or a tortoise?

Singapore has been really quiet this week. Half empty car parks in the city, seat space on the MRT in the rush hour, somewhere to sit at lunchtime! STRANGE EXPERIENCE. Practically no clients around to talk to. So what are most sales people and small business owners doing? Well most of the ones I know are taking a break. "No one to talk to, might as well take a few days off and relax" they say.

But hang on. Take a moment to think about all those things you should be doing on the marketing and admin front. You know, the stuff you put off all last year because you were just "too busy" chasing business.

Here is your challenge. Sit down this morning and make a list. What are the most effective things you could be doing to increase your visibilty with your target audience for the coming year? What could you put in place as a system to make your admin easier and more effective?

Now go do it. You have a few more days before the hectic chasing of business starts all over again. The winners will be the ones who prepared for the race.

We have just started a new company to be the regional delivery mechanism for our work. New partners, new expanded team, new products. Even a new identity and new location. Just the same really different approach to improving your sales performance and a focus on making a Really Big Impact on our clients and their business results. I am having a great week preparing for next year.

Remember Aesop's fable. The hare sat back and relaxed, the tortoise prepared and started moving; slowly it is true, but he built up such a head start, the hare just couldn't catch him.

So in the race for success in 2006, which are you going to be? Hare or Tortoise?