A Perfect Year with Magic Fairy Dust - Really?

Make 2013 Your Perfect Year

Well here we are at the start of another year and I’d like to thank all my readers and followers for their support in 2012, it’s humbling how the page views have increased throughout the year.  Also I must wish all the perfect 2013, I hope you really do get the year you want. 

That said just wanting it would not be enough to get you it, not by a long way.  The intent with this Blog is to give you a New Year message that is robust, but equally valuable throughout this year and in the future.

You may well have already spotted a number of messages; direct or indirect, targeting you and suggesting that the person, or organisation, sending them can help you achieve your perfect year.  I know I’ve seen them; on Facebook groups where I’m a member, in e-newsletters and Tweets and on Linked In.  Many of them good marketing messages, well presented and with interesting proposals, but……..

You know deep down inside you that despite this being the Pantomime season here in the UK there isn’t really any magic fairy dust.  It is you, not somebody else, that has to take charge of your life, take responsibility for your actions and be open to changing what you have always done in order to get a different result.

Now I’m not saying these offers are fraudulent, far from it.  Like most people you and I can always benefit from the input of others.  Their experience, their knowledge, their connectivity, their perspective could always positively change you and your business, but only if you are willing to take ownership of the actions and changes that the input may require.

So before you sign on the dotted line for that self-help programme, that coach or mentors New Year offer you should ask a lot of questions of yourself and of the person making the offer:

• What makes the offer(s) right for me?
• What have I got to change first before I can really benefit from them?
• What’s the likely return on any investment of time and money?
• How much time and money do I need to invest?
• How practical is any guarantee offered? (Watch out for the wording traps)
• What might I have to stop in order to create a new direction?
• Do I know where I need to make changes before I start considering more changes?
• Who else do I know whom I could talk to, or may have taken up such an offer?

That’s not a definitive list, but a starting point.  Every year I speak with business owners and managers that have purchased such offers only to be disillusioned.  Every year I find out that it is often the purchasers failure to recognise what they need to change and how big that challenge will be, that reduces, or even negates, the positive impact of the external support. 

The use of one, or more, coaches, mentors, trainers in a business is a great way to grow yourself and the company, maximise your investment by thinking through what you need, researching what you’ll get and matching the two.  This way 2013 really could be your perfect year, but it's YOU, not the magic fairy dust, that will make it so.

Thank you for dropping in, please leave a comment and/or check out some of my past Blogs.