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Change what you do

Written by: George Torok

Article Overview: January is named after the Roman god, Janus who had two faces - one looking back and the other looking forward. Now is a good time for you to do both. Review the past year to list and celebrate your accomplishments. Also review your setbacks armed with hindsight to crystallize the wisdom you gained. Looking ahead - set your goals and map your path. But don't expect to keep doing what you are doing and get more. Prepare to change your approach just to get the same results. If you want to improve - do something dramatically different.

Change what you do

"If you always do what you've always done you'll always get what you've always gotten." proclaimed Peter Urs Bender, keynote speaker and best selling author of five books including "Leadership from Within".

But Bender adds this warning, "If you continue to do what you've always done - you will get less. Just to stay even you must change what you do - and to grow you must change drastically how you do it." Bender spoke on communication and leadership skills. But his statement applies to most aspects of business and our career.

The rule for the future is to change what you are doing - to capture new markets, growth and profit.

January is named after the Roman god, Janus who had two faces - one looking back and the other looking forward. Now is a good time for you to do both. Review the past year to list and celebrate your accomplishments. Also review your setbacks armed with hindsight to crystallize the wisdom you gained. Looking ahead - set your goals and map your path. But don't expect to keep doing what you are doing and get more. Prepare to change your approach just to get the same results. If you want to improve - do something dramatically different.

You can approach change in any one of three ways - resist, follow or lead.

Are you still extolling the virtues of Beta over VHS or the superiority of the Avro Arrow? These make nice dinner conversations. The reality is, it happened, now move on.

You might notice everyone around you with an Internet Web site then decide to keep up with the Jones's. Following is not bad - but it is only maintenance.

Lead change by starting the day with, 'What can I change today?' instead of 'I wonder what change will do to me?' Where can I find a new market? How can I provide more value to my customers?

A local bowling alley decided to change by featuring glow-in-the-dark pins. Dim the lights, paint the pins, play loud music and voila - a new market, early teens. A mailing from Bell, complete with torn page and post-it notes, demonstrated their attempt to resemble the friendliness of a small company. They must change just to get back what they had. General Motors knew they needed change - and realized that they could not change fast enough. They spawned a new company - Saturn - with a new culture. A spokesperson from Saturn Canada told me, "The car is OK - it's the company that is different." Greyhound, well known as a bus company, changed to become an "inter-modal transportation company". You cannot survive if you keep on being the dependable company you've been for the last 20 or 30 years.

Massive government changes offer unimagined opportunities. Not long ago school boards argued over the sell-out to companies for sponsorship. Now school team-uniforms start to resemble those of race care drivers. The public sector is soliciting sponsors for libraries, school busses and even subway stations.

William Bridges, author of Job Shift, warns individuals that they should be looking for work - not jobs. Just to continue to earn a living you must retrain, learn new skills and change.

Is this the year you go global, outsource, or re-position in the market? Change, like life is not a goal but an ongoing process - and like life when it stops - you're dead.

Whenever you feel things are changing too quickly, think of Superman - after 50 years - he donned a new costume - no cape - no red and blue! In the words of Alvin Toffler - this is Future Shock. If Superman can change so can you.

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Article Tags: change, growth, leadership, motivation, success



Related Forum Posts
Re: Spellcheck? - [quote="TheAnonymousMan":2f894q6j]When discussing the majority of people I would definitely say that most people hit the "Change" or "Ignore" button without thinking too much about the correct spelling of a word. All bosses are concerned about is getting the report to the Directors meeting on time.[/quote:2f894q6j] That probably depends on what the "majority" are trying to accomplish. I have word set to alert me about misspellings and grammatical problems, so I fix most as I go. But I also add names etc to the dictionary because I get tired of seeing the red and green squiggles when I know the info is right. If you're only going to click "Change" or "Ignore" then why bother to take the time to use spell check????? Business people that I work for want the info compiled in a timely manner and they want it right - which is fine because that's the way I strive to do any project. Sending out a memo, letter, report etc with obvious spelling and grammatical mistakes makes the person and the company look bad as far as I'm concerned. Shri
Re: e-Commerce and e-Payment providers - Hi GT It is only fairly recently that people in South Africa have been able to get full use of Paypal as we were only able at one time to make payments but not receive them. Fortunately this has now changed. I have received money through Global X Change for one of the affiliate programs that I promote and have found them pretty good as the money is normally transferred directly into my bank account within 2-3 days and I have not had any problems with them. MichelleJ
Re: Obama Wants Social Security for Illegals - [quote="Alan Mater":3kaa8sg4] Obama WILL make changes... but they're not the changes we as a country need or should look forward to.[/quote:3kaa8sg4] Sad but this is exactly how I feel about it. Change is coming - but unless I'm really wrong, it is not a change this country needs. Amazing how much a good speaker with a good speech writer can do. If you paid attention to the things he said "off script" - much of it is frightening. Chris
Are you an Opportunity Addict? - 1) if you find yourself saying yes without thinking about how it will affect your other priorities 2) you have over 10 projects/inventions going on at the same time and this seems normal to you 3) you have spent hundreds and thousands of dollars on manufacturing, prototypes, etc. not to mention thousands of hours of your time....but you havent followed through on any of it 4) most of your projects are falling behind or have completely fallen off your radar....which is fueling your frustration The first step in recovery is to recognize this as a pattern of self sabotage. If you are clear in what your overall goals and objectives are, you should be able to create a lens through which you measure opportunities. You create your life, and your to do list. Change, Add, Remove, Adjust time-lines - whatever you like. But remember that every piece of unfinished business - stays that way J
You are too young - I don't really believe (I've been into web designing for 7 years now... I started in 2000) there is any web design laws. Besides the fact that you can't use copyrighted images on web design without permission from the original author. Also, any web designs you do you may want to have it copyrighted so other's can't steal your idea's or whatever... of course, you can offer a "Copyright Change" option for a bit more money that will allow you to be able to transfer the copyrights and give exclusive rights to the purchaser. All in all, don't worry about the laws... you should be fine, just remember that if your in the U.S. that if your making over $400 (or maybe its $600) in revenue, you'll have to pay taxes to the government... and please get a LLC, although its not a big thing with web designs, you could get into legal trouble somewhere in the business. Lastly, use contracts for when your selling or use agreements to clear the air so that you can have a safe business and you'll have some backing up if you ever are taken to court.


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