It’s That Time of Year, Again.

We are about to enter the final month of the year and before we do perhaps you would benefit from taking a little time to reflect on the year about to draw to a close. Have you done the things that you wanted to do? Have you accomplished the things that you set out to accomplish? Have you ended the year in a better place than you started the year? Only you can make that judgement, nobody else. And when you are thinking about it perhaps you can consider the same questions in respect of your family, your business and your general well-being. A natural break like a holiday, a birthday or a year end is a really appropriate time to reflect on such things and this is a suggestion that you start your reflections early. It would be a good idea to go into the next year with a very clear idea of where you intend to be at this point next year and a clear plan of how you are going to get there. Take some time to figure out for yourself what has worked for you this year. What hasn’t worked for you this year and what falls into the category of acceptable underperformance? In other words what are you doing that might be OK but certainly is not great but you just don’t have the motivation to put in enough effort to turn it into world class? Those things that are damaging your brand? I was reading an article about the worth of setting goals recently and to me it is very straightforward. If you are not very clear on what you want to accomplish how will you ever know how to get there or whether you have had a good day / week / month or year. How will you ever feel satisfied? How can you ever do anything other than drift? I don’t believe we were created to be mediocre. That doesn’t serve us, our forefathers or the world. So what does good look like, for you?  How well are you progressing in that direction and what specifically will you be doing to speed up the progress in that direction in the coming year? It starts with reflecting on the current state of the nation. Start that process now so you have time to refresh your plan before a new year begins. It will be here soon enough.