Busy? Tired? Wondering what to do next? Looking forward to a bank holiday and some time out or wondering if you can use the quieter time to catch up?
Wherever you are I want you to ask yourself How would I score myself on a balance of work, rest and play?
Go on – give yourself a number. Out of 10.
And I’m asking you to score yourself for Q1 – not just on today . . . how would you score your balance for Quarter 1 – January, February and March?
We’re looking for your level of consistency in maintaining a good balance – as a business owner and a human being – do you have a life too? And do you get (enough) time to enjoy it with the people you love?
This is the time that we realise Quarter 1 is over. Ended. Finito.
So as we head into 2 weeks with bank holidays at the end and start – this is a great time to (re) gain BALANCE.
Especially if you’ve lost it and got caught up in all the day to day stuff of running your business and life. And even more so if you’re in head down powering away mode.
Let me share why this matters to me so much and why I want it to matter to you . . .
“The present is a gift”
I used to work with a wonderful man who was excited about enjoying his upcoming retirement with his much-loved wife. They’d worked, travelled, raised a family and were looking forward to having some quality time together at last, relaxing in comfort. He was a pretty successful businessman if you use money as the measure. They were redecorating their boat so they could go sailing more and their house was amazing. They had all the trappings of success.
And just as he was counting down just a few weeks to his actual retirement, she died. It was heart-breaking and he was devastated. All the plans for their fun and future – suddenly gone.
He could never get back all those times he didn’t enjoy the moments they had together. It was all about ‘the future’. And it hit him, hard. It hit all of us who worked with him too. We didn’t know what to do or say. What do you say?
Solution:
You know what I’m going to say – it doesn’t have to mad, crazy, manic, every week and quarter. You – like me – probably set up your business to have a life that you’d envisioned being very different to the employed/corporate/working for someone else model.
Of course you can make longer term plans but be sure to ENJOY NOW . . . LIVE NOW . . . there are never any guarantees. We have no idea how much time we actually have.
It’s why we love breaking all our goals and plans down into the 4 x quarters each year.
Because otherwise you can over-estimate what you can achieve in a year
and massively under-estimate what you can do a week at a time.
And not just with business goals. Make sure every 90days you’re looking at factoring in the work, rest AND PLAY.
Bank holidays, and every quarter should include time OUT too. And time WITH the people who matter to you. Take time now, as we wrap up Quarter 1, and reflect on that balance score you gave yourself above. Do you need to make some adjustments?
FIX THINGS BEFORE THEY GO WRONG
That’s a bit of a mantra of mine. One of my favourites.
You may already know that I had 20+ years in financial services – in the UK and The Middle East. I’ve also seen the devastation on families unprepared for losing a loved one. I’m practical and – as always – I want to make it easy for you when the worst happens – to you or to someone else. Too many people are totally unprepared and have no idea what they need to do, what information they should have, where to find things.
ACTION:
So if you want my ‘FUNERAL WISHES TEMPLATE’ to help give you an idea of how to be prepared instead of lost or confused, just reply with FWT or FUNERAL and I’ll get it to you.
It’s not morbid. It’s pragmatic. One day it will come to us all, or to someone close before our time is up. Be ready. Then you can be better prepared – the emotional impact is more than enough to deal with.
And I’ll finish with my mom’s answer to the question ‘do you believe in life after death?’ (I was 14 and everything was getting deep and meaningful.
She looked very serious, sat down and looked thoughtful. Then with a very big grin, she jumped up and said ‘Actually I do . . . . (pause) . . . but I blooming well believe in life BEFORE it!!’ (or similar words . . . hers may have been a little more colourful. She LIVED.
I reckon I can safely say that Mary Collin learned from Mary Ellen O’Herlihy – later Mary Ellen Collin. I hope so!
☺️
2 – YOUR MARKETING/LINKEDIN TIP
The other day, I sent you an email about how the “see more” button is a type of engagement on your LinkedIn content.
In other words, when people click on “see more” it’s similar to leaving a comment or a like.
It shows LinkedIn that they are interested in what you’re sharing.
Today, I bring you the perfect example of how to put this in action.
Here it is:
And here is what happens when you click on “see more”:
Do you see what Gav did there?
He wrote an intriguing hook about something that people want to know.
That hook got people into clicking on “see more”.
But then, he surprised them by completely flipping the script with his empty list of answers.
Not only was he able to get them intrigued and hooked…
But also, surprise them with an unusual way of sharing an idea that has been talked about many times before.
This is one of my favourite posts from this year.
I hope you liked it as well.
It certainly fits our theme of ‘BALANCE’ too!
Solution:
One of our most difficult things when it comes to posting regularly on LinkedIn is coming up with consistent ideas for content and what content works best for your business.
We’ve created a 32-page E-Book full of our collective knowledge on LinkedIn. What works best and what strategies will get you more leads from LinkedIn.
Want a copy? Click here: resources.90dayplanning.co.uk/Content-Secrets