Sunday, May 5, 2024

10 Lessons From Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life




1. Find what you love, what you are good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for. Your Ikigai lies at the intersection of these four elements.

2. Pursue your passions wholeheartedly. When you engage in activities that you're passionate about, you naturally feel more fulfilled and energised.

3. Keep your body and mind active. Engage in physical activities, mental challenges, and lifelong learning to maintain vitality and cognitive function.

4. Build strong connections with family, friends, and community. Surround yourself with people who support and uplift you.

5. Life is filled with ups and downs. Cultivate resilience to navigate challenges with grace and bounce back from setbacks stronger than before.

6. Strive for balance in all aspects of life—work, relationships, leisure, and personal development. Avoid extremes and seek harmony.

7. Practice mindfulness and savour the present moment. Let go of worries about the past or future and focus on fully experiencing the here and now.

8. Take care of your physical and mental well-being by prioritising sleep, nutrition, stress management, and self-care practices.

9. Cultivate an attitude of gratitude. Appreciate the blessings in your life, big and small, and express thanks regularly.

10. Stay curious and open to new experiences by continuously learning, growing, and evolving as an individual.

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Thursday, May 2, 2024

20/80/20 rule



80/20/80 as it relates to your business 

If you look at your business Profits

Do 20% of your clients (A grade clients ) will bring in 80% of your Profits with 20% of your energy  ?


 If that’s the case - 80% of your clients  (B grade clients ) bring in 20% of your profits from 80% of your energy? 


 What are the things you need to do to get b grade clients to A grade clients? 

If you look at your employees 

This principle can also be applied to many other things.  

Replace “Clients” with “Employees”


Do 20% of your employees (A grade employees ) bring in 80% of your Profits with 20% of your energy  ?


 If that’s the case - 80% of your employees  (B grade employees ) bring in 20% of your profits from 80% of your energy


80/20/80 as it relates to your life 

If you look at your life 

For non business related issues - replace “profits” with “enjoyment” 

Do 20% of your friends (A grade clients ) will bring in 80% of your enjoyment  with 20% of your energy  ?


 If that’s the case - 80% of your clients  (B grade friends ) bring in 20% of your enjoyment  from 80% of your energy? 


Do 20% of your exercises (A grade exercises ) will bring in 80% of your results   with 20% of your energy  ?


 If that’s the case - 80% of your exercises   (B grade exercises ) bring in 20% of your results  from 80% of your energy? 


 What are the things you can do to turn B grade clients  to A Grade clients  ?

  1. Managing Expectations :- In our business  we've found that it's about managing expectations from the first contact via an Engagement Letter and reminding them of "how we work here" through our “hello pack” . 
  2. Educating your clients on how you work and what is expected of them 
  3. Focussing on “flow 
  4. Continually “Fill the funnel”- every year get rid of bottom 20% to make room for the top 20%

What else?


John Lees - who coined the value gap gave an excellent talk to our #bbgforum - it’s all about performance!!!! The 2nd gap 

Sunday, March 24, 2024

A players or Systems for a scalable business?



We all know that the secret to a business that is scalable and  sellable is all about having systems and processes.


The goal should be to make yourself or your A players the least important people in your business so you can work ON your business – rather than  IN IT.


If you were to step away from your business for 90 days – away from your customers, your tools, and your team, everything – what would happen?


Would you feel confident that your customers are receiving the great service you promise?

The Danger of A-Players 

If your business is reliant on A-Players, it will crumble when they leave, reach capacity,  demand higher pay, or get headhunted. 


An A-Player is not scalable. 


A-Players allow the business to grow extremely quickly and usually haphazardly, with people doing their jobs how they see fit rather than following a production-line process designed for scale.

 

A-Players are great, sure; however, they are not what we need – first, we need control and predictability during growth. 


Therefore, A-Players are not the secret to scaling – SYSTEMS and PROCESSES are.


Documenting every process and just hiring someone to do the work is easier said than done!!


It’s more than checklists, handbooks , wikis, a Google Drive folder, or a screen recording .


It’s about your ordinary people - doing exteaordinary things 


For ordinary people to do extraordinary things, a system is absolutely necessary in order to compensate for the disparity and natural variation between skills that people have, the experiences they've encountered, and the skills your business needs. 


You don’t want your business to  rely on the team’s energy, whims, moods, and memory.


It is literally impossible to produce a consistent result in a business that depends on extraordinary people. 


How can you shift your business to where your results are predictable and systems-dependent rather than people-dependent? 🤔


The secret

When you intentionally design your systems and processes to be operated by anyone—even Grandma—then you have a money-making machine that can generate predictable results for your customers—regardless of who is at the helm that day.


A system should achieve 3 goals.

 Remove room for assumption.

 Remove room for interpretation.

 Solve the problem before the team encounters it.

 

If we meet these 3-line items, the business becomes predictable at every level.


Here’s a simple question to discover if your business systems are up to scratch. 


When a team member goes through a process that you’ve built, do they have a question? If yes, then your process needs improvement. 

 

A process should solve the problem before the team encounters it. A process should result in correct work without any questions, not because we don’t want to answer the question but because everything has been addressed inside the process.

 

How do you achieve this?

With 

💥quality control triggers, 

💥delivery processes, and

💥fail-safe protocols to check the fulfillment. 


If you do NOT have those systems built (or if you don’t know what they are), all you have is blind reliance and chance, and this is not a great foundation for business owners wanting to scale and remove themselves from the day-to-day operations.


A-Players cannot be cloned. 

 

And you, the business owner, cannot be in all places at all times if you hope to actually build a business that thrives without you.


When you have systems like these built, you can use that free time to spend with family and friends, with work that’s done right the first time around, and with customers singing praises for your business and referring everybody in their network to you. 🥰


(Plus, you will feel confident taking on all those referrals because you know your team can handle it.) 

 

Thursday, March 21, 2024

Are you a manager or a leader ?




An organisation needs leaders and managers - both have very diffferent but necessary skills 

Are you a manager or a leader? 

Leaders

Managers

Leads people

Manages people

Set destinations

Navigate the roads to get there

Cultivates change

Cultivates stability

Inspires

Comforts

Appeals to the heart

Appeals to the head

Set direction

Sets plans with details

Works on a system

Works the system

Has vision

Reaches goals

Focus on effectiveness

Focus on efficiency

Has followers

Has subordinates

Take ownership

Take responsibility

Shape culture

Enact culture

Are proactive

Are reactive

Accomplish achievements

Accomplish compliance

Break rules

Make rules

Use conflict

Avoid conflict

Set new direction

Follow existing roads

Go inward

Work outward

Does the right thing 

Does things right 

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

9 strategies to prevent procrastination and save time




Are you a guru at wasting time!! 

Are you a specialist at procrastination?


This personal productivity sheet identifies 9 strategies that will help you just get things done - help you prevent procrastination,efficiently manage your time, energy, and resources to be more focussed on achieving your goals. 


Thanks for the post David Sim Smyth  - with credits going to  Andrew Lokenaugh



Here are some key aspects of personal productivity:


👍 Give this post a thumbs up

💬 what are some of your procrastination tips ? 



#productivity #personelproductivity #maximieyourpotential #potential

Saturday, February 24, 2024

31 classic quotes


I came across my favourite quotes from 13 years ago 
There are a heap of new gems that have been added to the list :)
What are some of your 💎 gems ?
  1. “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”– Peter Drucker
  2. “Winners never quit and quitters never win.
  3. “The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.” 
  4. “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” “Winners never quit and quitters never win.”                                   - Vince Lombardi
  5.  "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. - Steve Jobs
  6. "My biggest motivation? Just to keep challenging myself. I see life almost like one long  University education that I never had - everyday I'm learning something new."- Richard Branson
  7. "Every time you state what you want or believe, you're the first to hear it. It's a message to both you and others about what you think is possible. Don't put a ceiling on yourself."- Oprah Winfrey
  8. "It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure."
  9. "Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning." - Bill Gates
  10. “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” – Warren Buffett
  11. “One of the huge mistakes people make is that they try to force an interest on themselves. You don’t choose your passions; your passions choose you. – Jeff Bezos
  12. “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
  13. ”Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration.” – Thomas Edison
  14. “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”– Albert Einstein
  15. .“As long as you’re going to be thinking anyway, think big.”– Donald Trump
  16. “Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
  17. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”– Mark Twain
  18. “If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.”
    “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.”
    – Napoleon Hill
  19. “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”
    – Bill Cosby 
  20. “Success is not what you have, but who you are.”
    – Bo Bennett
  21. “Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t so you can spend the rest of your life like most people cant.”
    – Warren G. Tracy’s student
  22. “To win without risk is to triumph without glory.”
    – Corneille 
  23. “There is only one success- to be able to spend your life in your own way.”
    – Christopher Morley
  24. “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”– Albert Schweitzer
  25. .“What is not started will never get finished”
    – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  26. .“When you cease to dream you cease to live.”– Malcolm Forbes
  27. .“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”
    – Jim Rohn
  28. .“The most valuable thing you can make is a mistake- you can’t learn anything from being perfect.”
    – Adam Osborne
  29. “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”
    – John C. Maxwell
  30. .“The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.”
    – Ralph Nade
  31. “Choose a job that you like, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
    – Confucius
quotes from 13 years ago 

Monday, January 22, 2024

Secrets to 10X your coaching influence

I have just read a great email fro Christine Michelson  - on the 3 steps for a coach to 10X their influence 
As John Maxwell says - Leadership is about being able to influence - nothing more - nothing less! 
He has written a number of books on leadership - start off by reading the 21 laws of leadership! 

Anyhow - this article reminded me of a pneumonic mt mentor Allen Pathmarajah shared with me 
LEADER 

In order to  accelerate positive change you need to be a good LEADER  


Listen 

Empathy


Connection - being able to authentically connect you need to 

  • listen - listen and silent have the same letters 
  • and have empathy - you need to understand and care how the other people feels - people don’t know how much you know until they know how much you care 


Attitude - your attitude will determine your aptitude and altitude. It’s your attitude that will determine how you feel . Is the jar half full or half empty ? 


Determination  - the power of intention is massive - have a mission , have a vision , have a goal - break these down into strategies and smart tasks - (much like cutting a loaf of bread into slices before eating it - tasks that are 

S - Specific 

M - measurable 

A - achievable

R - realistic

T - timeframe 


And then “eat the frog” - do the hardest task first - the rest will be easy . 


A few years ago I joined a group of amazing humans 3 mornings a week from 6-7am for boxing and fitness - this group is a not for profit called tribal warrior - led by an inspirational Shane Philips with a view to educate, upskill, inspire and enthuse aboriginal kids and help give them a sense of purpose . 


More than 50 aboriginal kids are there and at the end of the session - they go in a circle - and express gratitude for what they have and then say in their mother tongue and English “if this is the hardest thing we do today / it’s gonna be a good day! “


Engage, Enthuse and Inspire to do things that will help you achieve your goal while helping the other person , people achieve theirs . 


And 


Resilience!!! How to cultivate a mindset of  resilience . In business and life - everything goes in cycles - know that if you are focussed and have a clear direction with strong values - at low times - resilience is the spring that will boost you up