Firstly Keiko my eclectic parrot laid 2 eggs, which brought on a whole series of questions as to how to deal with a broody bird and what is the correct thing to do for her. A series of calls to bird experts and the good old internet research gave me the information I needed.

Belle, one of our cats, has been very sick this last month and for a week she didn’t eat anything. Yes we went to the vets, and I tried all kinds of different foods in different ways to entice her into eating. I spent many hours thinking of new options and creative ways to encourage her to eat. It wasn’t until I spoke to another animal expert who gave me some other ideas that eventually I managed to get her to start eating a little bit of food.

A great BIG thank you to Robyn Kesnow Animal RN for her expertise in providing me with some other different options even when I thought I had tried most everything. It took a lot of time, patience, persistence and sheer determination with lots of love to keep our cat alive, we nearly lost her.

These challenges made me reflect on entrepreneurs with their businesses. When we are passionate and love what we do, we have a lot of enthusiasm, creativity, energy, and we try all kinds of different things at the beginning to make it work. But do we truly persist, day after day in the same way that we would for someone we love, a pet or even a child, family member or friend for that matter, if things aren’t going the way we want them? When do we give up? How often do we reach out to experts for advice and guidance and not just one expert, maybe two or three as each one has a different perspective on what you’re trying to achieve.

With Belle, the vet had given me tablets, examined her, and given me some guidance, Robyn, however, also gave me some other options and ideas to try as well, and it took both experts as well as much commitment and persistence on my part to bring Belle back to health.

It is important if we are truly committed to our businesses and love what we do, to take it seriously and monitor the health of our business, reach out to experts, mentors and accountability partners and truly persist in what we are trying to achieve.

Do we know the tell tale signs of sickness with our business as we would for ourselves as humans or for our pets? Is your business “off color”, and how would you know? Only by doing this will we gain success.

Next time you are at the beach or swimming pool, observe the quiet effective strokes and smooth water line of the person swimming with cupped hands and good technique, placing their hands deliberately and quietly into the water. Then notice the swimmer splashing and making ripples and waves and the effort that it takes them to reach any distance, you may have even had the swim lane by the side of them while doing laps in the pool, lifting your head, only to get a face full of water from the awkward swimmer’s tidal wave!

This got me thinking, this is exactly what can happen in business. If you were running a business with spoon actions, how would you know? What would we measure? How would we know that our business was running with spoon activities rather than with fork activities? What would be the noisy activities of a business swimming with fork like activities?

14 spoon and fork activities of a business

6 Fork like activities to avoid:

• Unhappy employees: Employee retention, hearing people say they are looking to change companies or moaning about their boss.
• Business owners, managers and staff members unable to complete their duties in a timely manner. They are unable or struggle to get to the other side of the pool, it takes too much effort and energy. There’s too much red tape in the way.
• Lots of activity yet sales are down or the client base is declining. Lots of splash and no motion forward. Busy work with little results.
• Missed opportunities slip through the open fork like fingers of the business processes and system.
• Lack of follow up causing a decline in client retention, from poor swim style and technique
• Lack of product or service knowledge, a lack of education from an instructor to learn how to swim with spoon activities.

8 Spoon like activities to Develop:

• Good sound product knowledge, to know when and how to place those orders, or gain the clients at the right time.
• Appreciation of employees, to acknowledge a good job well done and give strokes of appreciation.
  Excellent leadership skills to know when and how to deliver the spoon like motion and follow through on tasks
• Customer service-Know how to swim with the big fish and retain the clients and customers.
  Keep fit, and up to date with new techniques- who knew that wearing a swimming cap would make so much difference to speed!
• Know when to leave the water, say too much, over sell and loose the sale
• Wait for the whistle- if you dive in too soon without listening for the whistle to sound you are in for a false start and disqualified- no client for you today!
• Good spoon like activities are silent and run smoothly, no ripple effect or repercussions

Remember spoon like activities are easier on the business, with a little training your efforts make much more impact on the direction you take and allow you to compete with the big fish.

I know there are many other exciting things to come, these are just some of the big ones, and I’ll share with you about the others during the course of the year.

Reflecting over 2011, I can honestly say it was a very good year for me; I achieved most things that I set out to do. One of my favourite goals this year that was accomplished was going to the Bahamas; it has been on my radar for several years and yet had always eluded me.

It wasn’t really a high priority more of a wish, until something just brought it to the top. I realized I had been saying for many years that I wanted to go and yet, always chose to go somewhere else instead. How often does this occur where we say one thing and find ourselves distracted into doing something else?

Not wanting to sound like a stuck record, repeating myself over and over again, I figured out when was going to be the best time and where we wanted to go, the rest of the how took care of itself so to speak, and it frequently does when we make a definite decision and put our minds to something.

We did get to swim with dolphins and that was a real treat and very special, they are truly amazing animals. For those of you who remember Flipper, we visited the island where Flipper was filmed and learned about the dolphin center. The Bahamas was such a lovely change to just sit back, relax and sunbath.

Business goals, I intended to launch 2 new workshops and 2011 did see the Build Your Business Plan and How To Get Things Done workshops come alive, both had significant positive effects on the participants and are scheduled on the calendar again for 2012 along the long lasting favourite Plan It, Do It, Finish It.

Make sure to take a peek on my website or call me if you, or someone you know is interested in finding out more. 2012 will also see some new programs come into effect which I am very excited about, watch out for these around the corner.

As Poet Laureate I felt my biggest challenge (other than getting my video camera to record properly) was writing new poems for events which I had done previously, how could I get a similar message across in a different format with new meaning and emotion. I was pleased with the outcome and also had several new poetic experiences including meeting up with many other fellow Poet Laureates from around California. I can’t say I have a favourite event or poem, each one has a special meaning as I create them. If you know of a special event that would enjoy a special poem email or call me.

My BIG project for this year is Senior Moments poetry book, I’ll keep you up to date with this over the next few months, there will be plenty of opportunity for you to help me.

I have continued to write on a regular basis and in 2011, I was a contributing author to Amazon Best Seller The World’s Worst Networker. I have more writing on the agenda for this year too. My favourite book read was Think & Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, we are currently still reading this in the Business Action Group, there is so much to pull from this book and definitely a book you can read over and over again.

I can’t say how many times I have read it, and each time I learn something new or find a nugget that I had forgotten about. The most surprising book I read was Switch by Dan Heath. I learned some ideas around looking for the simple things that make a significant difference, thank you to Jim Ott for bringing this book to my attention.

Again, 2012 will see me as a continual learner as always taking classes, reading books and most importantly, applying what I learn and sharing with others. I love sharing through speaking engagements and for 2012 I would love to do more, so if you know an organisation looking for an energetic speaker, let me know.

As my business grows, I am enjoying delegating many tasks to other people so that I can do what I do best. I look forward to sharing 2012 experiences with you all and wish you a very prosperous 2012, may you accomplish all you set out to do.

Let’s use the mouse to scroll some more.

Like glue my hand is wrapped and fixed,

My eyes on the inbox are sooo transfixed.

Junk email spewing out my ears,

Receipt required box soon appears.

Now I’m late, I’m out of time,

But if I speed I’ll get there fine!

Just one more, what does it say?

I wish my inbox clear today.

I have no idea what they have said.

Time to read these, can’t be had,

Which makes me feel, so very mad.

Your opinions I do not need,

Send it just to one to read.

Mindful manners and email sense,

Will stop each other getting tense.

So if you’re thinking on the ball,

Reply to one instead of ALL!!

Yes ‘stuff happens’ and before you know it another month or two has flown by. For me it was the passing of the favorite uncle and traveling to and from England as well as catching up, more travel etc., etc., etc., you know how it goes right? There is always something that puts some of the tasks to the bottom of the list and we have every intention of getting around to them (note the plural as there is usually more than one task).

What have you been intending to do that the summer, kids, vacation or some other reason has delayed or stopped you from doing something you intend to do? How important is it and what is it costing you to not do it? For me, not writing my newsletter was making me invisible to those of you who I don’t get to see on a regular basis and it was also not allowing me to share valuable information to help others succeed.

There’s no real magic secret, there really is no magic wand, it still comes down to focusing on those skills of planning and prioritizing, making a list, figuring out what is most important, and then the key is to schedule it into the calendar.

8 action steps to get back on track:

1. Grab a glass of water, a cup of tea, coffee or something else that you prefer to drink. Take a clear note pad and pen and find somewhere quiet to sit with no distractions.
2. Write down all the things that are on your mind, it doesn’t matter how random they may be. Errands that need to be run, jobs that need to be done, items that need fixing, letters that need writing, calls and appointments that need to be made, whatever is burning a hole in your mind and causing drained energy. The list will probably be a mile long!
3. Now by the side of each item write down the level of importance on a scale 1-4. If there is a cost involved what that might be so you know if it needs to be budgeted and saved up for. Last but not least the approximate time you think it will take to do the task.
4. Decide is this something you absolutely have to do, or can somebody else do it? Sometimes a shared task is a time halved.
5. Look at your list, place the tasks in order of importance and pick the 3 things that are most important. Decide which one you will start first and break it down into smaller tasks.
6. Go to your calendar, day planner, whatever you use and schedule the time in for each activity. Are you going to do it all in one day? Is it a project to be done over a series of weeks? Either way calendar it in, task by task. If you are not sure how long a task will take assign a time frame to it and then at the end of that time frame decide whether to continue on or schedule another time for this particular project.
7. Make sure to have a ‘plan B’ list of activities just in case you finish something early or realize that you need something else to continue on.
8. At the end of the day, sit down and evaluate how far you got with the projects or tasks and decide what needs to be done the next day.

The good news is that with this kind of focus, your tasks will be managed accordingly and before you know it there will feel a sense of achievement. The bad news is there’ll be a myriad of other tasks that turned up on the bottom of the list! Rest assured while ever you are alive, you will always have a ‘to-do’ list!