Transactions are what business is all about, right? Business is all about trading – exchanging one thing you value for something you value more (i.e. money for goods) – and every trade is a transaction.

There are work transactions with your colleagues, sales transactions with customers, marketing transactions with prospects – most everything can be boiled down to a transaction. By the way, the same is also true at home, especially around this time of year: keeping the kids off the streets and off the screens, deciding on meals, where are we going for Christmas, who did we lend the tent to, didn’t we have your family last year – there’s a lot going on.

It’s easy to slip into the habit of doing business and doing relationships with a transaction mentality. A transaction is a familiar, almost habitual process. It has a start, an activity, a resolution, move on, repeat. We don’t really have to be fully there for a lot of these transactions, our minds can be somewhere else entirely. The transaction mentality works pretty well for maintenance mode, but it doesn’t work for growth and development.

The Breakthrough programmes are an opportunity to grow ourselves and grow our business. We do that by stepping beyond the transaction and into transformation. What’s the difference? In a transaction, something gets processed. In a transformation, something gets changed.

In 2015, 95% of your activity will be transactions. But create a space in your head for the opportunity for transformation of a process, a customer relationship, a team member’s confidence.

We think 2015 has the potential to be a great year. People are finally leaving their caves where they’ve been recovering from the greatest financial crisis of our generation, and there is a sense that it is now time to invest in growth. There will many good opportunities in 2015. But they’ll be transactional. There will be only 1 or 2 great opportunities, and they’re the ones to be looking for and then to act on. Double down and roll the dice!

At Christmas, 95% of your activity will be transactional – avoiding drying out the turkey/lamb/ham, keeping an eye on Uncle’s alcohol intake, making sure Gran gets some advice on Christmas presents (second hand is not cool Gran), all the usual chaos of Christmas crowds.

Save some time and mindspace this year for the transformational – the moments of child wonder and joy, the sense of togetherness with family and friends, the peace that comes from putting work aside and entering fully into the spirit of Christmas, however you experience it.

From The Breakthrough Team – Dr Mike, Donna, Jack, Wendy, Ryan, and Milena – make it a Christmas to remember, and we look forward to helping you make 2015 your best year yet.

All the best,

Dr Mike