Looking ahead 2

Its 5.45am. My alarm starts its irritating sound and as I rolled on my bed I heard the torrential downpour – yes heavy rain on a cold winter morning. Not again! As I reached for the alarm to shut it off I thought to myself, ‘must I get up now’?, I barely slept 5 hours ago, ‘What if I reset the alarm to get just 15 more minutes of sleep? I asked myself a few more questions in the space of 60 seconds, and then I jumped out of the bed. Yes I did!

Its so amazing that even though it’s a daily routine for most of us – sometimes we struggle to get that resolve to get up early to do ‘what we’ve got to do’ or ‘what we’ve chosen to do’ - which is even better. Either way you must have a bias towards action to achieve anything worthwhile in life.

Recently I’ve been giving more serious thoughts to those 2 categories of action and everyday I ask myself if I’m consistently moving towards what I’ve chosen (or chosen to do) and not just stuck in what I’ve got to do to survive or feed my family. As I looked through my wardrobe to find my Oswald Boateng suit – yes I’ve got to dress up today! I thought about my meeting this morning with a Senior Manager in probably the largest entertainment business in the UK & Europe. I’ve just been introduced to him by a friend and we’ll be discussing what I’ve ‘chosen to do’ (for now) – Web Analytics and Online Optimization. I looked back at when I started taking interest in the web and digital media and how I have helped blue chip companies improve their capabilities to sell online and also provide improved customer service – I thought to myself I haven’t done too bad but I need to take bigger strides in 2009. I need to improve my competency level so I can increase my level of impact in my family, in business and society.

There are a few things I have identified that will help you move from where you are to where you should be and they will be the basis of my approach to personal development this year. The first is to Know What you’re about – hone your skill. Be an expert in it. The second is to communicate what you’re about – learn and apply innovative ways to express what you do or who you are. Thirdly, its very important to build solid networks. To excel its not just what you know, who you know is also a big part of finding your voice. The fourth point is pretty obvious - Ask-Seek-Knock, look out for opportunities – if you don’t ask, you don’t receive.

So what are my plans for the year? I think if I can practise the above 4 things consistently in all my endeavours then I’ll consider myself ready for the next level.

Have a wonderful year!