I wish I was 13

This past weekend my wife and I had a sleep over with eleven 13 year old seventh grade boys.  We agreed for the second year in a row to be a host home for a group of young men from our church who were having a weekend retreat between church and our house.  I have certainly had my fill of pizza, chips, soda, cookies and any other food that would make a teenage boy stay up until the wee hours of the morning and clog the arteries of a "middle aged" guy trying to act like he's still a teenager.  They arrived Friday night and we took them up to church Sunday morning for services.  We ate a lot, laughed a lot, prayed a lot and slept very little.  Man, I miss those guys! 

Don't feel too sorry for me - I have three teenagers of my own to keep me company.  They came home Sunday afternoon from other people's houses where they spent the weekend.  There was a lot of napping going on Sunday afternoon during the football games. 

It wasn't that hanging around with teenagers was an unusual experience, as previously mentioned.  It is a little unusual to have eleven 13 year olds amped up on sugar and adrenaline spending the weekend.  Boy, did my house go from chaotic in the morning to tranquil in the afternoon.  As with everything, there were lessons to be learned from the weekend.  I will avoid any religious discussions and focus on the life lessons I learned.

I try to always be thought provoking and insightful with my posts.  This week, I have to confess I don't believe I am either.  I do believe, however that we can all learn from any situation we find ourselves in.  This weekend for me was no exception.  Here are the huge take aways I am focusing on this week and encourage you to do likewise:

• Laugh more
• Worry less
• Have fun

There you go.  Aren't you glad you read through a few hundred words to get to that?  It sounds so simple.  But I ask you, honestly, can you say that you have these things nailed down?  Not me.  It hasn't revolutionized my life this week but it sure has made it more fun by following these three little guidelines.  I still have pressures, problems and responsibilities.  I also have a much better handle on how to deal with them.

This weekend, go laugh a little.  Don't focus on your worries - count your blessings.  Among mine are my eleven new friends who taught me a thing or two.  I wonder what they're doing this weekend?

New Beginnings

Happy New Year!  I do love this time of the year having just closed out the Holiday season and then launching in to a New Year with a veritable clean slate an an opportunity to begin to grow in to new experiences and new goals.  I am not in to New Year's resolutions but I am in to renewing my thoughts, plans and directions in order to arrive in a better place at the end of 2013 than I was at the end of 2012.

I don't know about you but my business is completely different than it was just a few year's ago.  I talk to a lot of people in a lot of different industries and it is a common theme that competition is more fierce than it's ever been and there are seemingly less people to sell our products and services to.  It makes times like these incredibly challenging.  This year rather than hope I can get by for another year I am going on the offensive to change how I run my business and how I compete in the marketplace.  Maybe you're like me and for many years you could get by being a "nice guy" and someone who provided good (not great) customer service.  If that still works for you, good luck but I am going to suggest that you ratchet up your efforts because if your business has been affected yet by more competitors and less customers I suspect it's only a matter of time. 

Here are a few challenges that I have for myself.  I hope they'll resonate with you and cause you to change your course in the New Year:

• How often do you talk to your best customers?  Your most important vendors or suppliers?  If they're not talking to you, who are they talking to that's trying to take your business away from you?  Do you know what their goals are for the New Year?
• Are you focused on your company's needs or your customer's needs?  Just because your a well run company doesn't mean that you're providing value to help meet customer's needs.
• While you're busy building in to your business, service or product are you equally focused on building up your co-workers and employees? 
• Have you considered what you need to say "no" to this year so that you can say "yes" to the most important things that only you can do?
• Are you spending the majority of time working on areas of strength or trying to compensate for your weaknesses?  There's a big difference in your performance and satisfaction on the job, depending on your answer.

There's plenty more but that is hopefully enough to occupy your thoughts and plans for a few days.  Maybe it will create other ideas that you need to work on.  I can't tell you what's going to happen in the world or your industry the next 12 months.  If you get the right answers to the questions above I am convinced you will be better off this time next year no matter what happens.  Make 2013 your best year ever!