An uphill struggle
Had a sticky moment with our car today. We were off to Penzance to do our banking and it decided that it couldn’t cope with the hills. Not a brilliant state of affairs in our hilly part of the world. We managed to turn around and make it back home, accompanied by the smell of burning rubber. Our local garage is now tending to it.
It has got me thinking, though. If we had the choice we would do without a car entirely. Unfortunately the combination of our remote location and the fact that we’re running a business means that a car is essential. The thing is, why is it it that turning up to a client meeting by bus would somehow appear less professional? It’s true, isn’t it? OK arranging a suitable time would take a bit more thought because it would have to coincide with a bus but shouldn’t the environmental issues count in our favour? I think some work needs to be done on changing attitudes (including my own) – that it might be worth taking a bit more time getting somewhere if the impact on the environment is less.
By the way, I drafted this while on the bus to Penzance to make a second attempt at the banking.
How to Be a Complete and Utter Failure
It doesn’t have such a structured approach as How To Be Brilliant, however you could easily note down the various steps and devise your own plan from it. What I really like about it is that it makes you look at things differently and pushes you to try things that you might have dismissed otherwise – I have to own up to being a bit too comfortable in my comfort zone at times, but this book reminds me that I need to push past it.
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Exercise and relaxation all in one
The only criticism I have is that sometimes she does talk a bit too much. She can get you into a position and then go rambling off into an explanation when all you want to do is get on with it before your arms/legs etc. give out. Sometimes the hardest thing is to just hold a position! Still that’s just a minor thing and definitely doesn’t put me off doing the workout.
The final position is complete relaxation, which is brilliant (though it would be nice if she would just shut up and let me relax). I finish the workout feeling more flexible, relaxed and ready for the day – a really good feeling.
The DVD also includes a bonus intermediate workout but I haven’t felt brave enough to look at this one yet. A few weeks of the basic and I’ll give it a go.
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Off to a good start
Well, I think it’s fair to say that I’m off to a good start with my 90-day plan. I was up at 6am this morning and did my yoga DVD … not very flexible at all so definitely need a bit more of that. Apart from that I’ve got most of the things ticked off my list for today, which is a good feeling. All that’s left is a bit of reading, doing my relaxation cd (brilliant people know how to deal with stress apparently) and to phone my ‘buddy’, which I’ve got booked in for 7pm.
I’m generally feeling motivated and keen to keep going. Well you’d hope so after just one day, wouldn’t you?
Start of another 90 days of brilliance
One of my favourite ‘sorting your life out’ books is How to Be Brilliant by Michael Heppell. I’ve mentioned it before and I’ll probably mention it again. The book helps you plan out ’90 days of brilliance’ to help you achieve or work towards achieving your goals. It’s a brilliant motivator.
Last week I came to the end of a 90-day period, which started well but kind of petered out into unbrilliance – though I did manage to get through my planned reading list, so it wasn’t a complete wash-out. So, I’ve spent the weekend working my goals and planning my next 90 days. This time I will stick to it! Helping me along is my good friend Sparkatrician, who is going to be my ‘brilliance buddy’. He’s also starting out on a 90-day plan so we will egg each other on and generally provide support. Have got our first phone call booked in for tomorrow night.
It’s been quite an intense weekend doing the prep, but I now have 90-, 30- and 7-day plans printed out and in my ‘brilliance folder’. Despite intending to limit my goals to a manageable amount, there’s quite a lot on there. Still, got to aim high! First step will be to get up at 6am tomorrow and do yoga.
Five Star Service, One Star Budget
Some of the advice may seem like it’s common sense in a ‘I already knew that’ kind of way, but as the author points out – it’s not the knowing, it’s the doing that counts. If nothing else the book acts as a reminder of what you should be doing. You can use it to dip into when you feel your business needs a boost, or as a manual for transforming your customer service if you work through it a chapter at a time. Well worth a read.
A truly brilliant business book.
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Taking my own advice
After feeling a decided lack of oomph when I got up this morning I decided to take my own advice and did Tip 10 from my 10 tips for staying motivated – I gave myself a break. I decided that if I got through as much as I could before lunch time that I could take the afternoon off. That in itself was a great source of motivation and I actually got quite a bit done. Then when I stopped for lunch I turned my pc off and enjoyed a work-free afternoon. What did I do with it? Slept mostly, then watched a DVD and did some reading. Lovely, could get used to that! Of course I won’t though. Tomorrow it will be back to work and hopefully feeling a lot more with-it.
New article: motivation for home-workers
Another article is now in place: 10 tips for how to stay motivated when working from home. This is a particularly relevant one for me today as I haven’t been feeling brilliantly motivated. Will start tomorrow afresh having reminded myself of the techniques that work for me.
Is there anything that you do differently? A brilliant tip that could make all the difference. Leave a comment below, I’d be delighted to hear from you.
Project Management for Dummies
Part of the problem is that it’s obviously aimed at someone working in a large organisation but I’m not lacking in imagination so much that I can’t apply the examples to our small-scale setup. For example, I can easily substitute ‘go and see a solicitor’ for ‘consult the legal department’. However, I’m still don’t feel like I’ve been getting much benefit from it. It annoyingly combines a considerable amount of detail with very little in the way of practical examples, so half the time I don’t have a clue what the author is going on about.
Do I sound too harsh or just incredibly whingey? Either way the book will be winging it’s way back to the library tomorrow and I’ll be on to something (hopefully) more enjoyable.
Anyone know any good project management books?? Suggestions gratefully received, especially if they take into account that not everyone works in a large multi-department organisation. Even projects run by a two-man band such as us need some form of management.
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Another online networking site
Following on the theme from yesterday, I’ve also joined up on a site called Workology. Looks like it might be an interesting one – social networking but for people who don’t necessarily work regular hours. The reasoning being that you can find people to work with or get work from. Again, I haven’t had much of a chance to do anything on the site besides sign up and start entering my details but it’s a nice looking site and I think it might have potential.
