Inbound Business Tips

What pattern are you going into in 2019?

It's time to reflect on 2018 and start to percolate for next year. How will you make meaningful progress for your business? Here's a tool to help plan for 2019



Pattern of stadium seats

What an exciting time of the year it is. We're coming to the end of 2018 with events and parties going on around us, but we're also starting to think about 2019 and what next year could look like for our businesses and families. My question to you is: how will you achieve meaningful progress in 2019? 

I had the privilege to attend an event last week hosted by the very witty and queries man Dr. Jason Fox, the event was called Percolate. A big shout out to our accounting firm and Paul Kearney from the Kearney Group for inviting me along – thank you. And a massive shout out to them on winning the Australian Practice of the year.

So the question is:  

Are you making meaningful progress?

IMG_0986.jpgLeft: Dr. Jason Fox, right: Paul Kearney


It's time to reflect on 2018 and start to percolate on 2019. Having been to a keynote of Dr Jason Fox early in the year, I'd attended one of his workshops and set a 'theme' for 2018. I chose 'expansion'. Reflecting on the meaning of that word is how Synx (and me personally) have expanded. We have tripled our revenue and client base; the team has grown locally and abroard; and we have become the third platinum HubSpot agency in Australia (the first in Melbourne). This is all very cool, but was expansion our meaningful progress or just a farking busy period where we were running around like mad chooks? I can confirm both. 

So what is 'percolate'? 

Let's take a look at the meaning of percolate. Liquid or gas is filtered gradually through a porous surface or substance'. To percolate is to think. But how deep are you going with your thinking. Are you actually solving problems and determining your next move? At the event, Dr. Fox did a great job of bringing a group of speakers together to percolate on the next year ahead. He helped us apply clarity to our thinking.

Here's how the day played out:

Clarity (the pursuit of)

The second part of the day helped us navigate the complexities of today:

Complexity (the navigation of)

Each speaker delivered some excellent content in their talks and it was a true privilege to be involved on the day. 

Set a word for 2019

The second day of the event was a workshop. Rohan Gunatillake kicked off. He's written many books and is the creator of Buddhify: a real modern-day leader in the 'mindfulness' space. Rohan gave us some simple tools and methods for meditating in a modern society.

But for me, the most powerful exercise we did was with Dr Fox on how patterns have shaped our lives, as well as how to break them to make meaningful progress.

Those of you who know me will know I have a tonne of energy. I love to do things differently (e.g., I love change and love to challenge why things are done in certain ways). You'll see how this would create some patterns along the way.

I'm going to run you through the exercise we did: 

  1. Grab an A3 piece of paper or an excel sheet and create the following table: x-axis 1–100 years and y-axis 1–52 weeks. 
  2. Now write the theme that you believe you've experienced for each year over the last 10 years. (Choose words that are meaningful for you.)

52-100.png

As you can see, my history has been to learn, grow and perform, then boom, experience boredom. So how do I stop that from happening for me in 2019–2018? 

My word for 2019: Performance

After deep thought, I have come to the theme for 2019 for myself and the business: performance. There are many reasons that it came to mind for me and I'm going to explain them now.

As a younger lad, I played a tonne of sport and was super competitive. I was a bit of a jack-of-all-sports and most likely a master of none, as I didn't focus on one sport. I did well in athletics events and I won state titles, and teams I played in won many grand finals. I became distracted and bored in this cycle. I tried more sports and went into that same pattern: learn, develop, perform – then, boredom.

The same things have happened with work. I learn a new skill, solve the problem, smash it through the park and then boom, bored.

So performance. It reminds me of training hard, competing and winning, eating well, making sacrifices, saying NO (which is massive for me). I've been challenged to set goals and achieve them. To make meaningful gains using this word is going to be very cool for me. I just need to always keep learning and reviewing my goals, so I don't get bored and fall into old patterns.

Hold me accountable 

So having spent the time to percolate my word for 2019, I'm excited to be raising my standards and planning an epic performance next year.

Writing this article and sharing it around is going to hold me accountable. I ask the following of you: if you see, hear or think that I'm not giving it my all and seem bored, then ring, text and share this post and say, "Charles are you running at optimal performance?"

It's my time to take myself and the business to the next level. I'm grateful for having you hold me to account and I look forward to constantly reviewing how I'm performing in 2019.

To your success
Charles

 


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