If it's been done...

I spoke to a group of builders about The Breakthrough's 7 foundation habits for success recently. One guy kept arguing the point, saying it was all easy to say but the reality was different. He complained that clients expected him to take calls and meetings in the evening and on weekends. Sometimes the business had to come before everything else. He couldn’t possibly limit his hours because it all depended on this and that etc etc. It just wasn’t possible for him to adopt these habits.

A good discomfort

Comfort zones are okay if you need a rest. Actually, that’s a bit snide. You should harvest what you’ve sown, get the benefits of the expertise and momentum you’ve created, leverage your expertise. In fact, you should spend 95% of your time and attention focusing on doing what you know and do well, as opposed to spending most of your time flitting about like a blue-arsed fly. But to create a better and different result – to grow – you need to spend some time being uncomfortable.

Burn your boat

The subtle variation on that is the story of the Vikings. When they invaded a new land (by the way, I loved Norsemen on Netflix, outrageously funny in a very Nordic way), they would burn their boats on the beach. This meant the only way they could get home was to pillage and colonize the territory so that they could build replacements. They added a little twist by taking their firstborn so that the only way the children would see their mothers again was if they were successful with said pillage.

Dr Mike's BlogDr Mike AshbyMarch 12, 2019business advisors, business growth, business strategy, comfort zone, personal growth, riskComment

What to do when you're beyond tired

I'm tired.

It's been a big week. Not busy, I don't do busy. If you measure busy-ness by the number of phone calls and emails, I'd be declared clinically dead.

I've had a lot of big stuff to do this week. Not stressful, but pressured, which is good.

What it takes

He made absolutely the right decision. You hear people say “Follow your passion and the profits will come, do what you love and the money will follow”. It’s garbage. I’ve advised a few people to leave their passion for outside working hours because not enough people share it sufficiently strongly to make it economically viable.

Dr Mike's BlogDr Mike AshbyJanuary 29, 2019business advisors, business coaching, business growth, business owner, business plan, coachingComment

Boost your energy

Getting clarity about what you want is where you find your energy and how you can get more energy. The other side to it is that you need energy to drive your business. This is not just a good thing to have, it’s critical to being able to make change happen.

What we don’t change

I recorded the final modules for the first year of our Active Manager Programme last week, and one of them was about making better decisions.

One of the mistakes we make is that we can remain locked in the past, using the same old data or the same old processes. Even more important, we have outdated assumptions.

Dr Mike's BlogDr Mike AshbyDecember 17, 2018business advisers, business advisors, business growth, business ownerComment

What do you need to unlearn?

You need to let go of the idea that working harder is going to make your business more successful, along with working harder means working longer hours. Instead, you need to learn that working fewer hours on a small number of important things will take you further and faster. And to do that, you need to get clear about where your efforts will get greatest return.

Dr Mike's BlogDr Mike AshbyNovember 27, 2018business advisors, business advisory, business coaching, business growth, business ownerComment

Confidence games

Business confidence stays in the news. The latest GDP report shows the economy growing at its normal rate, though in my experience GDP figures are 3 months behind the SME economy.

No one knows whether the loss in confidence will impact growth. Generally, expectations of slower growth are a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Priority order

I was having a conversation with a Breakthrough member and another guy at our Challenger workshop the other day. The member was talking about how valuable the Breakthrough programme has been in terms of business growth (oh alright, I prompted him). But then he spontaneously said, “Actually the most valuable part has been the effect on my relationship with my wife.”

Dr Mike's BlogDr Mike AshbySeptember 3, 2018business advisers, business advisors, business coaching, business growth, productivityComment

The zone of sensible excitement

A couple of weeks ago I ran into a client from my time as a partner in a large business consulting firm. Rieny Marck and I worked together 20 years ago, and he was reminiscing about the Lumley Insurance journey.

I did some work with them over the space of about a year, starting with a vision and strategy session and then working through a detailed opportunity assessment and priority process. He still recalled the methodology I used, and my reference to something I called the “zone of sensible excitement”.

When coaching, practice is perfect

My youngest son is a wonderful musician, already better than I will ever be. He was born with musical talent (he owes me for that), but he learned to be a musician, and he owes a great teacher and a determined mother for that.

Mrs T said he had to practice for 30 minutes a day and every night his mother made him practice for at least that (sometimes with a timer and often with a lot of resistance).

When it happens (as it does)

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but sh*t happens. Often. All the time, to varying degrees. We’re rolling along happily, and then avvompha! We get knocked off our stride.

Last year we were working on a big initiative. Great opportunity, wonderful relationship yadda yadda yadda. The great opportunity got smaller and smaller until it was whatever the opposite of opportunity is.

Dr Mike's BlogDr Mike AshbyFebruary 16, 2018business advisers, business growth, business owner, Challenger workshop, mindset, personal growthComment

Your best intentions will fail unless you do this

Good intentions, we all have them. We begin the new year full of vim and vigour and a whole lot of resolutions to do things better, differently and with more conviction. But it is normally a matter of weeks (if not days) and we are right back to our habits of 2017.

We’re working too many hours, feeling stressed, eating the wrong things, skipping workouts, missing time with the kids, cancelling date nights, and so the cycle continues.

Make it work

It’s all very well to set Most Important Goals. They establish what we rationally consider to be our priorities. They represent our beliefs about what’s important – they're our convictions.

But priorities are only meaningful if they involve choice and sacrifice. In those moments when honouring the priority involves inconvenience, disruption, additional effort on the part of yourself or others, then your commitment to priority is tested.

Give yourself a break

We played our last gig of the year last night – it was really great. The crowd loved it, we played pretty well and the energy was high. I got some very nice crowd response to some of my solos on the guitar, which always feels good.

Interestingly, I still feel that my guitar work is not where I want it to be.

Dr Mike's BlogDr Mike AshbyDecember 18, 2017business advisers, business and personal, business growth, business owner, personal growthComment

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