Sunscreen

There must have been something in the air last week. I was speaking with a colleague on the phone and he sounded rather flat, like the spring was missing from his step so to speak. When I asked him about it, he told me that lately he had begun to question his career and why he was doing what he does. Only a few hours later, I was speaking with another colleague who also told me that he just wasnít sure about what he wanted to do with his career from this point on. Now, both of my colleagues have been in their respective careers for quite a considerable period of time, they are exceptionally good at what they do and they have good reputations in their industries. I decided to offer them some input by reminding them that itís actually okay from time to time to question why we do what we do. Taking the time to remind ourselves of the value of our work and the rewards that we obtain from it is actually a healthy way to maintain incentive and motivation for what we do in life.

One of my colleagues said to me that he knew what he ìshouldî be doing and that he should just get on and do what had to be done and that reminded me of how much I hated the word should. When I have clients say to me that they should be doing this or they should be doing that, I always pose the question, ìWho says so?î So who is it that says that we should do this or that? I always encourage my clients to take the view that we either do something or we donít. And we do it because there is a reason for it, because it is part of a plan or because itís something spontaneous but attaching the word should to what we do for a living turns a career, profession or enjoyable employment into a task or a chore. So think about banning the word should from your vocabulary particularly if you are looking to maintain motivation for what you are doing. Viewing what you do as something you really should do as opposed to something you want to do is a surefire way to take the motivation, incentive and quite possibly even the enjoyment out of what you are doing.

As for the questioning of where you want to be, comments like that always remind me of a song from the nineties known as the Sunscreen Song. I love the lyrics from that song and have often used them with my teenage children as they were trying to work out what they wanted to do with the rest of their lives. The song is actually called ìEverybodyís Free to Wear Sunscreenî and I think it was written by Mary Schmich. The song in fact started as a newspaper column and was turned into a narrative song by Australian Film Director Baz Luhrmann and the line I always love from it is this ìDonít feel guilty if you donít know what to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didnít know at twenty-two what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting forty year olds I know still donít.î

Planning is always good and I encourage my clients to have a plan for the development of their business, to develop a timeline and to plan ahead but itís also very important to remember that plans donít have to be cast in stone and the very best plan should always leave the option open to keep an eye out for opportunities. Look at your dreams, set your goals, develop your plan and move toward it. It is what we at Red Monkey Coaching help our clients to do and itís what we love doing but we always remind them to keep an eye out for other opportunities that come along the way, whether they decide to take them up or not.

Questioning where you are now and where you want to be is a great way of simply reassessing the plan and re-examining your goals and once youíve done that and decided your goals are still fine then you can get back on track and keep heading in the direction that you seek.

Iím pleased to say that both of my colleagues took the time to do exactly that. They assessed where they were at, decided that their goals were still the same and jumped straight back into the plan. Reviewing your progress and reassessing your aims and strategies is an invaluable part of the goal setting and planning process so make sure that you take time out of your schedule to do it. Oh and trust me on the sunscreen!

Regards, Mark

Red Monkey Coaching Goes Purple!

We are trying to raise as much money and awareness as we can for Purple Day for Epilepsy on 26 March 2010. Please click here to visit my fundraising page to sponsor me (it only takes a few seconds) and try to spread the word to as many people as possible.

Thank you very much,

Mark.

Recovery and Optimism Returns in 2010

2009 saw most Australian businesses bear the biggest brunt of the global financial crisis. This crisis, like all other financial crisis before it, claimed some big scalps. Large businesses went into liquidation and closed their doors gaining extensive media scrutiny in the process. Unfortunately, some small businesses also failed to survive the crisis. Generally that didn’t get the media attention of the large failures but the pain and suffering caused to business owners, their families and their teams was just as real and is just as an important blow to the national economy.

2010 sees us in recovery mode. Optimism is returning and confidence is starting its climb back to its peak position. 2010, like 2009 will present some fantastic opportunities to small business operators. I feel very privileged to say that not one of my clients closed their doors or even contracted their operations during 2009. Some maintained status quo, but the vast majority actually grew.

Opportunities in recovery times, much as opportunities in recessionary times, will come to those who go looking for them. The reason my clients survived and even grew during more recent tough economic times and low business confidence levels was because they were always on the lookout for opportunities. They were brave but not silly. They took risks but not uncalculated ones. Where needed, they cut overheads, trimmed excess, eliminated wastage and ran as lean an operation as was sensible to do.

More importantly though, they were brave enough to push forward and to spend money on developing and growing their business, employing new team members and putting themselves strongly out in the marketplace. In many cases, this afforded them the opportunity not only to maintain their market share but to in fact increase their market share as competitors practiced more of a batten down the hatches mentality, such as cutting back on service delivery standards and making themselves less available to existing and potential clients.

As a result of that thought process, some of my clients’ competitors did close their doors and my clients were then in the box seat to pick up that additional market share.

You might have read our newsletter article on our website titled “It’s All About the Little Things.” It is concepts like that which have helped successful businesses maintain their position during the crisis and it is those same “little things” that will help them to continue to grow into the future. Coaching is very much about staying focussed on those little things whilst we continue to aim for the lofty goals.

Regards, Mark