Archives for May 2014

Do Not Take Your Health for Granted (or being healthy helps your business!)

We all know this. But until or unless something happens to you or someone close to you, we all tend to put on blinders and move on our way.  Given it is a holiday week, traffic is light and a good amount of people are out doing something more fun than sitting in their offices, I thought I would veer off of my normal topics this week.

As some of you know, I hurt my knee back in March.  I unfortunately had to have surgery three weeks ago today, which is why you haven’t heard from me in a few weeks.  While this obviously affects me, it also affects my wife and kids, and the people I work with, both at my office and clients.  From being out of the office, working remotely or having to leave during business hours to go to physical therapy, getting hurt has required others to accommodate my physical issues and schedule.  I don’t know about you, but I personally do not like to put people out because of my issues.

It also has prevented me from conducting the normal marketing and networking activities I do regularly, which cannot have a positive effect on my business.  I know I will work through this, but it sure reminded me that I take it for granted that I will be in my office everyday other than when on vacation.

So the whole point is that, as we head into summer, it is as good a time as any to think about your health and what you can do to maintain it or improve it.  Don’t only think about this when coming up with New Year’s resolutions!  Whether changing your diet, exercising a bit more or starting for the first time by taking short walks around your neighborhood, do something.  Invest in yourself.

It will be worth it because then, even if something happens like what happened to me, it makes your recovery shorter and easier.  At least that is what my physical therapist tells me…

No Comments

Values v. Behaviors

Do you have values you live or work by?  Do you ever stop to consider the behaviors needed to meet your values? Have you considered the difference?

Values are abstract concepts. Think quality, timeliness or integrity.

On the other hand, behaviors are concrete.  For example, I pride myself on producing quality legal work in a timely manner.  I can draft a quality legal brief or contract when due to court or within the time frame I have given to my client only if I set behaviors to allow me to meet these values.  It may be calendaring when to start work on a project, not just the due date.  It may be blocking time to focus only on the project by closing the door, ignoring emails and putting my phone on do not disturb (I know this goes against the multi-tasking world we live in, but be honest, can any of us truly multi-task well?? Or, another topic for another day.).  If I take these type of actions it is more likely I will meet my values.

It is a worthwhile exercise to spend time thinking about the values of your business or how you work.  Once you come up with the values you need to spend time on the behaviors that will help you meet each value you identify.  And when you do, keep a list or document where you can review it often, which will help you focus on your chosen values and behaviors.

If you want help on listing your values and coming up with behaviors that will help you meet those values, let me know.

No Comments