Making a change

Words: 329
Reading Time: 1 minute 5 seconds

Today I came across a solution to an issue that has been facing me for a while, but has been unresolved until now.

Some while ago I made a decision to write a book on business in conjunction with a business partner. Both of us made a start, both of us are well-intentioned, but neither of us has consistently put in the work needed. Consequently, the timetable has slipped and continues to slip.

I took on yet another suggestion, just this week, which involves simultaneously writing a second book. This one will be a simple guide to finding material for speeches, writing and delivering them.

I am anticipating both books being stalled in the starting gate. I know I can write at the office. I also know I do not write at the office.

Sometimes these things are about the person; sometimes they are about the situation. Whichever it is, something – often just one thing – has to change to make a difference. For me it was the offer of a very economical hot-desk at a close and convenient location.

There I have a bare desk, bare walls, fast internet access if I want it and free tea and coffee. Here I can go with just one mission: to write. This will be my writing space. I will do nothing else there. And if it is not the solution that I think it is I will have lost very little.

If I sound pleased with myself, it’s because I am.

As I a business coach I have clients that also recognize the need for a change, but fail to find it. I will now have a story to tell that they can work with to move on and develop their own version of my hot desk.

Suggestions:
1) If what you are doing isn’t working, then stop;
2) Make a change, any change;
3) Test to see if the change has brought an improvement;
4) If not, return to 1).

Brain Training

Words: 198 Reading time: 0 minutes 40 seconds

Just thinking about our business, either as it is at the moment, or how we intend it to be, can prompt us to conceive a whole catalogue of problems. Some of those problems may be real; others are merely imagined, or even manufactured by us. And, with those obstacles in mind, we allow ourselves to be deterred.

However, obstacles are opportunities to grow, not indications of failure.

If the obstacles have been fabricated by ourselves, or are simply the result of our fertile imagination, such manifestations give us the opportunity to see them for what they are and thereby grow beyond them. If we are creating our own confines, making our own monsters, it would be sheer relief to stop, wouldn’t it?

Even if the obstacle is genuine, all is not lost. After all, obstacles are a feature of the path chosen, not a divine judgment on the eventual destination. So, meeting obstacles can certainly be seen as a welcome event, both as a temporary diversion and as a challenge to our creativity.

And the time we spend working through our business obstacles can go towards reducing the time we spend unnecessarily “Brain Training” on our Nintendo DS.