I have just finished re-reading Arnold Schwarzenegger’s book titled ‘Total Recall’. A fascinating insight into his mind and how he made his business decisions (the book did not touch on the morally challenged ones!)
One of Arnie’s strict rituals was to set a few simple goals each year and write them down. He is a very goal-driven person and was always clear on his key goals.
It is a natural time of year for all of us to follow this ritual and set ourselves some goals. I’ve spoken about ‘context’ in previous blogs. Before setting your goals, it is always useful to be clear on your context first and allow the goals to flow from there.
What is context? It is an anchor. A ‘why’. A criteria to pass decisions through. For example, when choosing a meal at a restaurant, your choice will depend on whether you are running a context of tasty, healthy or cheap? You may have a few contexts but there is always a primary one on any given day and that usually determines the decision.
We were out with some friends recently and watching the various contexts ricocheting around the table was interesting. The ‘tasty’ people were devouring the multitude of options on the menu, whilst the ‘healthy’ people were disappointed with the lack of variety. When a ‘tasty’ person was reminded of his new year’s resolution (to lose weight) he quickly changed his context and turned to the salad options!
The trick is to be aware of your context before you make your decision. That way you’re making a conscious choice and not reacting to comfort food!
Being the start of the year is a good time to set a Business context for 2018. There are no doubt many things on your to-do list. Lift yourself above the ‘content’ and challenge yourself to identify your primary ‘context’ for 2018.
Is it to innovate new products/services? Grow existing clients? Push into new markets? Become more efficient? Enable your staff?
You may be tempted to choose multiple but challenge yourself to narrow it to one primary context.
Come hell or high water, what will 2018 be the year of?