This message is coming to you from sunny Brisbane where we’ve been acclimatising to jet lag for the last couple of days having arrived on Friday morning instead of Wednesday.
For those who read last week’s post we were due to depart for Australia on Monday….the freezing conditions and multiple cancelled flights into Heathrow put an end to that. The start to the week threw a number of challenges at us but in those challenges came great opportunities to teach life lessons to our sons.
On Monday morning our kids woke to a freezing house (our boiler broke down the night before) and to find their parents on the phone and internet to airlines, airports, train lines etc. The kids were being prepared for news that our actual departure date was now uncertain and a day back at school was on the cards rather than beginning their trip of a lifetime. In amongst the stress and pressure of that Monday morning my wife and I saw an opportunity and asked ourselves, “what can teach our kids by how we react to the situation, by being solution oriented, and how we conduct ourselves with customer service people?”
To cut a long story short, we used our extra 2 days at home to fix our boiler and finish off more jobs that were on the list before leaving. Ultimately we got to our destination after several delays, dipping into the pocket and a new connecting flight. We hope our example has been absorbed by our eldest boys, and since then we’ve been making memories at the theme park here.
This time of year also brings an opportunity for intelligent reflection- a process I learned a few years ago from one of my mentors Andy Drish. I’ll summarise the process for you here and but if you’re interested to explore further I think you may be able to catch a replay of Andy’s 2018 Vision Day Workshop, link below:
https://visionday.andydrish.com/webinar-registration-11118672
Quite simply, go through the entire calendar or diary for 2017 and for each month identify your highs, lows and lessons.
I was completing this exercise this week at home and on the plane. To give you an idea here is what one of my months looked like earlier in the year:
APR
HIGHS
● Completed on our Development Discovery site – a pub to convert to 11 apartments
● Secured and set up 2 new R2R for SA properties
● The breakthrough in our understanding of planning for SA by going in and making a real time application
● Hard grind paying off and making a contact that would generate to a new flow of R2R property
● Winning new contractor bookings for our SA units
LOWS
● Never felt more stressed with the pressure of running SA for contractors, wasn’t sleeping so well
● Letting work and stress creep into family time
LESSONS
● The GTD 5 steps 1) Collect the info 2) Process the info 3) Organise the info 4) Review what done 5) Do it
● How the rich get richer- 1) access the best coaches 2) connect to a ref group 3) know and use the strategies & systems of the wealthy and wise
● Must connect importance of getting admin done to my life’s why of life mastery
● JV concepts- 10% of net wealth, rate table and re-invest 0.5%
● The reason we grow is to have something to give
● Intrinsic drivers of motivation (helpful to apply to staff) – autonomy, mastery, purpose
● A reminder to grow income without growing outgoings and to pay ourselves 1st
There is a bit more to the exercise but I hope the condensed version is helpful for you. Have a great week.