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Success from Baby Steps
Posted Sep 14th, 2011 By Andrew Horder in Clarity & Focus With | No Comments

My friend and mentor Nick Williams is always reminding me about taking baby steps, one small imporvement at a time, to get to whatever goal I set myself. He’s right, of course, and a recent e-mail from Mike Litman got me thinking – Mike was saying that we shouldn’t be trying to make massive laps, we can aim for improving our performance just 1% a day.

I did the sums: 1% improvement, 365 days in a year, and suddenly we’re 3 times as successful as we were. Good, eh? Except it gets better! Each day, we’re going to be aiming to be 101% of the day before; so by the end of day 2 we’re going to be 101% of 101% of day zero – that’s 102.01%. Doesn’t sound much, does it, not much more than the 2% you get by just adding the two days together?

But compound all those little increases together, and at the end of the first 30 days you have an improvement not of 30%, but almost 35%; by the end of the first 90 days you’re not 90% better, you’re 145% better – over twice as good. And by the end of the year, you get a whopping … wait for it … over 3600% improvement, or 36 times as good!

To be honest, you might not manage the full 1% each day. Just make sure there’s an improvement every day – it’s all about consistency. And you can’t be consistent if you’re trying to do half a dozen things all at once. But Focus on one thing, create all your easy little wins in the same direction, and these small improvements, these baby steps, really can create the progress you’ve been looking for!
Our greatest fear …
Posted Oct 14th, 2008 By Andrew Horder in A Better World With | No Comments

Quoted, I believe, in Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, Marianne Williamson famously said:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Actually, my greatest fear is not that I’m powerful beyond measure – I know I can be; we all can, if we’d just let it loose. My greatest fear is that I’ll miss the opportunity to use that immeasurable power to create a better future for mankind. That scares me beyond measure – so every day I’m guarding against it. Sometimes I get it wrong; mostly (I hope) I get it right.

What’s your greatest fear, and what are you doing about it?
Are you focusing on abundance?
Posted Sep 28th, 2008 By Andrew Horder in Clarity & Focus With | No Comments

Opportunity Matrix™ – how NOT to be a Busy Fool

After quite a heavy few weeks work-wise for both Daniela and I, we decided to take some time out from tidying up the garden & go for a walk in the country this afternoon. As we strolled along the edge of a field, enjoying the open space and the sunshine, we noticed that the long grass by the hedgerow was trampled in a number of places, and wondered what could have caused it.

It was only when we looked higher that we noticed the masses of juicy blackberries on the bramble. As we treated ourselves to handful after handful of the delicious fruit, I found myself wondering how could anyone remain focused on lack with so much of nature’s abundance all around us? Then I realised that we’d walked nearly all the way down one edge of the field before we’d seen it!

As we walked back, I started to take note of all the other fruit on offer in the hedgerow – rosehips, elderberries, hawthorn berries, and a whole load of other berries I couldn’t name. All of which I’d completely failed to notice when we first passed them, yet there they were, all just waiting to be plucked. It wasn’t until I started to focus on them that they became apparent to me – you really do only see what you sort for.

It made me think, there are lots of areas of my life where I don’t take the time to slow down and notice, and appreciate, the abundance available to me – steady income from my regular clients, good advice & support from my network colleagues, referrals from my network and customers, my travel to exotic places (paid for by other people), and most of all the care and support I get from my wonderful wife .

Of course, it’s not just slowing down and appreciating the abundance that’s important, it’s also important to notice it so that you can take full advantage of what’s available to you. By being in too much of a hurry to get to the other end of the field, I nearly missed out on a tasty treat – I wonder how often I do that in business, missing opportunities in my urgency to carry out “the plan”.

Maybe I’m not alone in missing a whole load of opportunity by not focusing on the right things; others might also be so intent on getting somewhere, they’re passing their abundance by.

What do you need to stop and appreciate?