Today it is Ash Wednesday, the first day of lent, a period
of 40 days when traditionally Christians would spend time in extra prayer, penitence,
and serving others or in self-denial;
that is either starting or doing more of one thing or stopping or doing less of
another. For many people lent has become a time when having overindulged with
the pankcakes on shrove Tuesday they commit to give something up for lent, this
could be chocolate, meat, swearing or something else.
There is an expression that you can only eat an elephant one
mouthful at a time. And this is true of any achievement you can only succeed by
taking one step at a time towards your goal. When someone wants to lose weight,
this is achieved one meal at a time and fitness is improved incrementally one
trip to the gym at a time. The same holds true for your practice, you will
achieve your goals and targets one step at a time.
What could you commitment to either starting or stopping for
the next forty days that would make a significant improvement in your practice?
When I asked this question of some business owners this
morning I was shocked to discover that over 50% of the group did not generate
invoices immediately after they had completed the work, which was leading to
severe a cash flow crisis in their businesses. After some discussion they agreed
that for lent they would allocate time each day to raise invoices that were
due. Other people in the group recognised that they wasted time on facebook,
kidding themselves that they were being strategic in its use, another realised
they waste a couple of hours each day watching brain dead TV, for lent they
will be giving up inappropriate use of facebook and not watching TV at all for
lent.
I invite you to consider what you and your team can start
and stop until Easter and notice what significant and cumulative improvement it
has in your business.
For me I am committing to start tiding my desk and putting
everything away at the end of the day and to stop drinking any alcohol for the
next 40 days.
I will start … I
will stop …
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