And here we are, transitioning into December, and with it the final big push for 2017. What a week of activity, how was yours? Here’s a quick few highlights from Chris and I:
- Soft furnishing and finishing touches to our latest 3 SA units
- Several training/onboarding sessions with our new team member
- A group breakfast presentation listening to a business coach talk through ‘Realising Growth in Uncertain Times’ – fascinating and I’ll perhaps share more on that another time
- A mastermind breakfast meeting with 2 other business owners
- Securing new contractor bookings across some of our SA portfolio
- Meeting with the Scottish VIP group one last time (fantastic group shares and brainstorming were had in our mini mastermind session).
Whilst I was raking up leaves in the garden this weekend I tuned into a podcast – it was one of those episodes that just cut right through the noise and resonated with what’s front of mind for me right now. It was a very timely and common sense message that instantly struck me as one to share. This episode from Young Entrepreneur Lifestyle touched on things that many of you may have heard/read before in different guises, and I’m going to summarise the key take-aways so it may help those who read the post and in doing so embed the steps for myself.
These summary points are all about how to make the most of the last 4-5 weeks of the year and build massive momentum going into 2018.
Podcast host Peter Voogd suggests that how you treat the last leg of 2017 will determine everything for you in 2018. He says, most people think that 2018 starts after the festive season, but it really started a few weeks ago. The more you think things through now the less you regret and the more you give, the more you get. It’s time to think things through to the end result. Intention and strategy rather than hope and ambition
5 STEPS TO MAXIMISE THE END OF THE YEAR:
A smart person learns from their mistakes but a really successful person learns from others mistakes so they cut their learning curve in half and don’t have to make the same mistakes as everyone else. So, by taking on board these learns it can save you a ton of time, frustration and energy as you go into the final stretch.
Step #1 AWARENESS
- Age and experience is irrelevant, it’s all about adapting to the environment you are operating in and being willing to change, being willing to become more valuable. Being willing to do things differently.
- It doesn’t matter how many bad decisions you made in your business during the year, you are always one decision away from making right the decision. Too many people let their past dictate their future, and base their future off their fears and insecurities rather than their potential. That’s why this final stretch determines 2018, but it requires a new YOU!
- Everyone has a next level they are capable of, no matter whether you are earning £1K a month or £100K.
- Peter gave some fitting analogies about the final stretch i.e. in NFL, the most points are scored in the final 2 minutes of each half, in retail 25-40% of sales happen in the final 45 days of the year. In other words, he’s saying the race for the year is won or lost in the final push.
- During the push you have to focus on ‘breaking the tape with massive momentum’.
- Do the opposite of others i.e. at this time of year, most people are starting to eat unhealthy, drink more, take the foot of the work pedal but if we want to differentiate ourselves we have to do the opposite – step up the exercise, keep the diet in check, plan effectively, don’t sell yourself short
- In summary, have full awareness with what you’re doing and how you’re operating in the final stretch of the year.
STEP #2- STACK UP MOTIVATION WITH WHYS
- Reasons come first, results second
- Figure out WHY you want to have an amazing end to the year AND build MASSIVE MOMENTUM going into 2018, and write the reasons down.
- This will serve as the fuel to pull you through the hard times.
- Look at these reasons regularly and use them to push you through while others are easing off.
- Pressure makes or breaks people so you need fuel to get past that
STEP #3- WRITE DOWN EVERYTHING AND PRIORITISE
- Best way to get rid of the overwhelm and fuzzy thinking is to write everything down. Get it out of your head and onto paper.
- 90% of things you stress about won’t be there in a year.
- Whatever you focus on you get more of.
- Write out what’s most important to you, i.e. is it wealth, health, family and plan in when you will be putting time into those priority areas.
- What GETS SCHEDULED GETS DONE i.e. plan in all your workouts for the end of the year and schedule into your diary, write out when you’re going to be with family, your personal growth commitments etc.
- “Your schedule is a reflection of your integrity” – I love that quote.
- Write out clear expectations for your business for end of the year and clear tasks for each person, whether it’s just you or if you have a team – it’s about working more strategically and intentionally rather than doing loads of hours so we can all be more present with our family.
- What are your profit producing activities, what are non negotiables in business to move things forwards? Write them out and schedule them.
- What are 5 potential distractions that might come up in these final few weeks? – if we take care of them before they come up we won’t get the interruptions. Ruthlessly eliminate distractions.
- If you open an email, either respond, delete or delegate in that moment, don’t let it sit there and weigh on your mind.
- De-clutter as much as can – we’ve all heard a tidy house leads to a tidy mind.
- The difference between winning and losing is often ‘just a little bit more’.
- Make a promise to yourself not to be distracted and semi-tuned into work when with your family.
- Have a prevention plan to eliminate distractions.
STEP #4- CELEBRATE WEEKLY PROGRESS
- Celebrate weekly progress rather than focusing on perfection or living in ‘the gap’ i.e. focus on what completed or how far you’ve come in the last year, be grateful what done rather than living in the gap of where you think you should be”.
- This next bit of advice is gold, and my favourite quote of the podcast – “You are exactly where you need to be, to learn exactly what you need to learn, to get the lessons that you need to get to build an amazing future”. Don’t beat yourself up, bet on yourself.
- Celebrate what went well in the week, get strategic about what can make the next week better, and by sticking to that it’s impossible to have a bad month.
STEP #5- WHAT IS YOUR GAME CHANGING HOLIDAY ROUTINE
- The ritual you create to solidify getting back in the zone.
- It’s hard to build momentum when you take breaks, but at this time of year you need to, and when you do you’ll want to be fully present. So to allow yourself to be fully present during down time, maximise what you do leading up to the break. You’ll then feel amazing taking time off with your family.
- Have a result ritual to get you back into flow after down times (love this one and I took a few moments to write one out straight away).
- In advance of taking your time off, think about and write down a ritual to get you back in the zone.
- Some ideas to get back in the zone – changing your work environment, calling a mentor, getting physically active, listening to something that inspires you, look at your most compelling reasons (i.e. your WHYs).
- Think back over the last few years, when have you been in the most productive state and been the most fired up? What helped that happen, how can you re-create it? Words, phrases, songs, videos?
I hope that from reading this you have either learned something know or were reminded of something you knew but will now put into action.
Have a great week ahead.