TOMORROW?

 

“It’s the first blank page

 

of  your 365-page book.

 

Write a good one!”

 

Thanks to Brad Paisley for the quote, and to my old friend Tony Emanueli, the very finest New Jersey Realtor, for sharing it <www.TonyEmanueli.com>

It has been commonly reported in the publishing world that more than 80% of all people believe they have a book to write. Keep in mind that:

A) Books don’t write themselves,

B) Your “Resolution ” to write a book (or even a 7 words-or-less billboard!) will never happen without a plan, and

C) NO plan (book-writing, business sales and development, professional practice growth) works without all five of the following criteria…

1… Your plan must be REALISTIC.

You cannot plan to write a bestseller that will also be the basis for an award-winning film. You cannot plan to price your book for $139.95 and think you’ll make enough money from sales to retire, or spend the rest of your life in luxury traveling the Mediterranean. You cannot plan to write exactly 327 and 1/2 pages or have a genuine leather dust cover. In your business or professional practice, or book, your plan must fit the reality of what you are TRULY capable of doing, not what you dream of doing. It is NOT “a wish.” It is an approach to taking action.            

2… Your plan must be SPECIFIC.

Don’t allocate 10-hour workdays to uninterrupted writing time unless you’re a hermit. Having a goal to sell a million units a year or “paint the Brooklyn Bridge” or to “clean the house” will never be as effective as an agreed-to-in-advance monthly sales goal , or a goal to paint each girder (or clean each room), so you can check off daily/weekly sales –girder or room at a time– what you are in the process of achieving, and gain a sense of realistic timing to complete the goal.

3… Your plan must be FLEXIBLE. 

Nothing is in concrete. Goals need to be changed to fit the reality of changing circumstances. A plan is meant to be edited and changed according to life circumstances. You can always keep the target and change the dates or the methods to use or the steps involved… or you can even change (enlarge/expand/ reduce/move the target to best accommodate the flow of people and changing events involved.

4… Your plan must have a DUE DATE.

Figure the hours and days and weeks and months, perhaps years, involved. If you approach the due date and see it won’t happen, regardless of whether the reason (There will A-L-W-A-Y-S be interruptions in life!), simply move the due date or reduce the desired results and get back on the horse. Remember #3 above and don’t berate yourself. Remember your due date is what you seek to achieve. It’s a target that you’re free to move or expand as circumstances dictate.

5… Your plan must be IN WRITING.

Electronic keyboard entries don’t cut it! There’s a physiological response that handwritten plans produce by sending the message from your brain, through your neck and shoulder and arm and wrist and hand to your pen into the ink, and onto paper that adds up to genuine commitment.

Have a happy, healthy, productive 2019-2020

filled with accomplishment of realistic,

specific, flexible, due-dated, handwritten

plans (not empty Resolutions) for your life,

your business, your professional practice

. . . and, yes, your book!

Watch where you’re going!

I watched a blind man’s golden retriever thread his master through the parking lot and into the giant retail outlet, through electronic doors and deftly around an oblivious woman who appeared cast in stone, at one with her shopping cart… surely not about to move.

The man and his companion worked their way around obstacles, displays, counters, other shoppers. They passed so briskly and so seemingly self-assured that only a few passerby even noticed just one pair of color-blind canine eyes leading three pair of legs.

But I did. And in a mere matter of seconds after the man’s best friend and the man were devoured by store traffic, my mind snapped to attention from its visual tracking trance and realized I had been witness to a man with no eyes. Mine began to fill with tears. Maybe it was being sad for him, or grateful for me, or simply the season, but…

All my weaknesses, complaints and woes went quickly off into space as I closed my eyes and considered for just a moment what my life would be like without ever again seeing a crepe myrtle in full bloom, the ocean, a blue heron following with its body its spindly silent legs as it creeps along the shore, a laughing toddler, deep woods, a frolicking litter of puppies, snow-topped mountains, my family, a book, works of art, lightening, swooping seagulls, my toothbrush, a roaring fireplace, faces, a Christmas tree…

Who could possibly want a Christmas present, who has full use of vision, after seeing someone who does not?

So, I am left to conclude

that Christmas is truly not

about either giving or receiving.

Christmas is instead about consciousness-raising, celebration, self-renewal, and setting out once again on our annual trek to make the most of what we already have, to better ourselves and the lives of those around us.

Christmas is a gentle wake-up call to remember we are here to make a difference on this planet, one day at a time, to focus on making what’s possible actually happen. Christmas is a time for melancholy, yes, but also for introspection. We remember that we have within each of us the ability to choose the pathways that make existence on Earth as worthy as what lives in the riches of our souls.

Here’s what I’ve learned (often the hard way, mind you) so here’s what I have to share: In both business and in life, watch where you’re going, but always think about where you are. Be grateful for all that is yours, and continue your work to grow your business so you can help others from a position of strength… because the greatest gift of all is love wrapped up in charity.

# # #

God Bless You One And All

And Merry Christmas To You!

# # #

Hal@Businessworks.US    

1-931-854-0474

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Make today a GREAT day for someone!