Why Start with Why Part two

Why, start with Why?

Colin J. Campbell

Part two - What -  Determining Goals

Armed with the information on your why, now you need to begin to establish your goals, you’re what.  In the golden circle concept what is the product, however when you are apply these principles to personal life, what is more than just a product or outcome it is the motivator, the reason for the why. It is the goals and dreams that we often keep hidden out of fear.

There are definite steps to take in determining your goals.  It is important to write them down in the present tense as if they have already been achieved. Use pictures and graphics to create a goal poster which can be viewed every day.  Write your goals as a positive affirmation which you read daily.  Goals need to be specific they need to be measurable.  You should plan to set short term; one year, mid- term; five year and long term; 10 year and 20 year goals.

The average person spends more time planning their next vacation than planning their career path.  Vacations are fun, planning a career or setting business goals is hard work and something we would rather avoid.  However success does not come without effort and effort needs to be focused, career and life goals do not need to be left to chance, proper planning and setting goals help to make success possible. Finding the right career path can be influenced by having a clearly defined goal.

When our son went off to school my wife found herself looking for something meaningful to do while he was at school. She had spent most of her working career in an architect firm designing schools and houses. She loved her career but had been away for seven or eight years. Rather than just putting out a resume she decided to research the various firms in the area that did home design and pick the three that she thought had the same approach as she did and where she would be able to express her creativity and enjoy the work.  Armed with that information she then applied to all three and was immediately offered positions at two of the firms. She got to choose the one she felt would be the best fit.  Over the next three or four years she enjoyed the challenges of her work and was well rewarded for what she accomplished. Simply by defining what her why was, focusing on the goal and approaching the firms, not with cap in hand, but with a resume that emphasized how she could contribute to the firm led to a career choice that was rewarding and beneficial to all parties.

We learned a lot from that experience and have applied those same principles to every business decision we have made in the last 25 years.  Peter Drucker once said that if you have a problem create a procedure to deal with the problem and it is no longer a problem.  Using the procedure of starting with why, setting achievable and measurable goals and defining how to achieve them will lead to success and the problems will no longer be overwhelming.

A significant amount has been written about goal setting and the value of writing down your goals, there is something magical about the process of putting thoughts on paper and the effects that this has on achieving the goal.   You will be amazed how many of your goals will be achieved when you go back to review the list in six months or a year. It is almost as if the act of writing down the goals ignites an unseen force that will make them reality.  Some authors define it as your subconscious mind, others suggest it is the forces of the Universe that will turn a dream into a reality.  Whatever it is it you have the freedom to tap in to this unseen force, all you need to do is define clearly, in writing what you wish to achieve.

Many of the men who have made significant contributions to business management, such as Peter Drucker and Jim Collins put a lot of emphasis on the value of goal setting from a business perspective. Much of what they have written can be used to develop personal goals and researching what they have had to say on the subject is worthwhile.

 Jim Collins in his books Good to Great and Great by Choice puts a lot of emphasis on how important it is for a company to have the right people on the bus and in the right seats on the bus. In Great by Choice, Collins identifies one of the key character traits of successful businesses to be the fact that their growth was a consistent 20% a year, rather than huge bursts of grow followed by equal retreats.  This is a concept that is worthwhile keeping in mind as you set goals, better to have steady consistent progress over a period of years, steady progress towards the goal helps to reaffirm the correctness of the goal.

Collins emphasizes the need to do a SWOT analysis of a business in the process of setting goals.  A SWOT analysis is identifying the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of the company.  The same principle can be applied to setting personal goals, knowing what your strengths and weaknesses are allows you to identify areas that need work to make the goals achievable. 

In her book The Power of Why, Amanda Lang sites the work of Rolf Smith a retired air force Colonel who now helps people and businesses come to grips with strategic planning.  Smith recommends that you mentally imagine yourself as Me, Inc.  With the mental picture of Me, Inc.  you compile a list of your SWOT’s and begin to analyze what you really love to do.  Smith recommends that you form a board of directors with three individuals who you are comfortable with and talk about what you really love to do.  This exercise tends to get you to think beyond the cliché and really drill down to find that which excites you to action.  Smith believes that this exercise will help you to recognize your innovation. 

Smith requires every seminar participant to write down 101 goals and wishes, at the beginning of the seminar.  Everyone is expected to sit down and write the 101 goals and wishes before they go to sleep the first night of his three day workshop.  This is a useful exercise to undertake as you start to work on your goal planning. Writing down 101 goals and wishes opens your mind to possibilities; it starts you thinking about how to innovate.  Take the attitude that you cannot fail, nothing that you can imagine and verbalize is impossible.  The first 25 or 30 will be easy, then it becomes a bit more difficult and some of them will be wild and crazy ideas.  It means you are getting out of your comfort zone and allowing your subconscious mind to think of the possibilities. Don't get discouraged, keep at it until you have 101 goals and wishes, they don't need to be long they can be even one word.  You will be surprised when you surpass 101 goals, it gets hard to stop.

Smith asks his seminar participants to then discuss the goals and wishes with the three person board of directors of Me, Inc. .  He encourages the use of blue post it notes to record good ideas as the discussion progresses. The mind map with post it notes.  Similarly you could use your lab notebook to keep a record of your thoughts and ideas.

Smith also poses this question at the beginning of the discussion, “Who am I?”  How would you answer that question? You may want to take time to think about that before you move on, remember be patient, you don’t get a prize for finishing first in life and today is the first day of the rest of your life.

When we approach issues and problems, whether they are career issues, business concerns or life style concerns what we are really trying to do is to become more innovative in our solutions.  Not accepting the status quo, not following the herd simply because we are afraid is to step out of our comfort zone.  Asking questions of ourselves such as Who am I? Seeking to identify our why are all excellent ways to begin to nurture our ability to innovate and find inspiring answers.

Lang also mentions the work of Claude Legrande the co author of Innovative Intelligence.  Legrande teaches seminar participants to find innovative solutions to problems.  Legrande points out that it is wrong to assume that the problem as initially presented or as we perceive it, is the real problem.   He suggests you must state the problem in the form of a question, and it must begin with How to….  Once the question is stated the task is to figure out the relevant word.  For example, “How to come up with a solution?”  The “a” is the relevant word, it blocks the solution by implying that there is only one solution when in fact there may be many solutions. 

This is an approach that once again conflicts with what we are taught. We are trained to solve problems ---it is part of our upbringing and schooling, solve the problem and get a good mark. However that may not be the real problem and we have not learned to probe for the real solution.  Learning how to do that is essential to innovation and determining what our goals are.  Many of the great discoveries of the past 150 years have come from men and women who might not have been the best educated, but as a result they were not hindered by tradition and were able to recognize the possibility of a solution that did not conform to convention. Learn to write down the problem using Legrande’s opening phrase, use the “what if” phrase to focus in the power of why.

Having clearly defined goals is essential. There are no unrealistic goals just unrealistic time frames. Once you recognize that  becoming comfortable with setting big goals is much easier.  Jim Collins suggests that  you need to have a big wild bodacious goal as one of your long term 20 year goals, you may even want to consider a 100 year goal.   Why not?  Consider the January 2015 issue of National Geographic which points out that it took 4,000 years to get from the Abacus to the iPad,  in the next 20 years technology will allow us to gain an equal amount of knowledge and innovation.   Technology could solve the problem of mortality in the next  20 years,  you may live forever.  In addition, every great family in history began with the dreams and goals of one individual,  Walt Disney comes to mind, his vision was greater than his own lifetime.

Setting goals takes effort, it is worth it, be patient with yourself, write down what you are dreaming about, think like you did as a child. Nothing is impossible and there is nothing wrong with failing along the way.  Impatience with ourselves can sometimes have the most debilitating effect on what we achieve, not allowing an idea to formulate and take root often leads to making snap decisions that accomplish nothing.  Learning to be patient and to take the time to allow an idea to develop and grow is essential to your success.  It is part of learning to have balance in your life, to keep your work separate from your family and your leisure. To live a healthy lifestyle you need at least eight hours sleep a day and you need to spend at least eight hours with your family and relaxing, that leaves eight hours for work. 

Colin J. Campbell, CFP, CLU, Ch.F.C. is Managing Partner of Guidance Planning Strategies Ltd. in Cranbrook BC  he can be reached at colin.campbell@gpsbc.ca

Why, start with Why? Part One

Why, start with Why?

A four part series on how defining your why can make significant changes to career paths and business decisions.

Colin J. Campbell

Part one – Why

Simon Sinek’s 18 minute Ted talk “Start with Why” has had more than 1.7 million viewers since it was first posted on You Tube in September 2013.  His simple message has struck a chord with individuals around the world.  Individuals searching for better ways to solve problems make better career and business decisions and bring more happiness to their lives.  Sinek outlines how the traditional method of problem solving begins with How, What and finally Why.  He proposes that a better way is to begin with Why, then How and finally What.   He calls this concept the Golden Circle. 

Several examples support his claims, the Wright Brothers and the invention of the airplane being one, he points out that their goal was not fame and fortune but the improvement of the lives of all mankind by the ability to fly.  Another good example is Steve Wozniak the co-founder of Apple and the guy who created the Mac. Steve will tell you that his burning desire was to build a computer that everyone could afford.  He would have willingly given them away for free; he did not do it for the money it was his Why that drove him to succeed. 

Sinek's simple change in thinking can be applied to every facet of our lives. It is particularly valuable when trying to choose a career path or settle on future education or deciding what business path to take.   Success at any endeavor depends on what the Why is, learning how to find that Why is key.   I would encourage everyone to take the 18 minutes needed to watch the Ted talk video.

To apply Simon’s concepts we first need to consider how we developed our current perception of How, What and Why and how to reverse our thinking.  Parents can relate to why, the first question every child asks shortly after they learn to talk is “Why?”   And the standard parent reply in exasperation is, “Ask your Father” or “Ask your Mother!"   It is the natural child curiosity about everything, that drives us to ask the question why.  We needed to know, it didn’t matter if we understood it was just our natural curiosity about everything.

As we grow older our concepts change, we not only want to know Why but also How. By the time we enter pre-school we are generally over the why phase, and ready for the how stage, how to read, write, add and subtract.  We also learn how to play games or the piano or other musical instrument. 

Our years of growing up and getting educated are all about How and What. Graduation from high school was an achievement, it is testament to our ability to learn and develop a basic knowledge of a number of subjects.  It is only natural to assume after spending so much time learning how, that when career or profession choices are needed we follow the same path with the focus on How and What.  In fact we really never give it a lot of thought; we have some idea of what career path we want to take and go to college or university to learn how.  We are again victims of how we have been taught to learn.  For the most part a public school education is about knowing.   We are taught that if we know the right answer we will get a better than average grade, better grades more recognition.  We learn quickly that failing to get good grades are painful, C’s and D’s on a report card  leads to interesting dinner conversation, for the most part conversations we would rather not have.

This is quite contrary to the real world, where most successes come from many failures, not being afraid to fail leads to experimentation and it is experimentation that creates innovation.  Ironically the really successful innovators such as Edison and the Wright brothers were not great students, they did not succeed in the education system and in fact in Edison’s case his mother removed him from the school at an early age and home schooled him instead. 
The Wright brothers although both graduated from high school and were well read they did not go to university and were not engineers. Their success may be because they had no preconceived ideas about how to solve the problem and were willing to try anything.  From the time of their first flight at Kitty Hawk until their first public demonstration of flight at Le Mans France, they had countless crashes and numerous failures.  It would have been very easy for the brothers to give up, but rather they persevered. Often when asked by reporters why they kept on, their reply was simply that progress takes patience and that failure was to be expected. They were very careful never to fly together; if one was killed the other could carry on.  This approach paid off, when Orville suffered a near fatal crash at Fort Meyer and spent a year recovering Wilbur was able to carry on and demonstrate their flying machine all over Europe.

When it comes to making career decisions and setting life goals, our fear of failure becomes a hindrance, we suppress our desires because they don’t fit the picture we have of what success in life should look like and out of fear we often don’t take the risk necessary to achieve real satisfaction.  Our natural curiosity has been stifled by the system.  Asking the Why question is part of the process of reversing what we have been taught. Why is the exact opposite of knowing. There is no right answer and you cannot fail the exam, it is all about uncovering what you want to achieve, what will make you excel.

You may have seen the Lexus advertisement with Steve Wozniak, if you haven’t Google it, although it is a commercial plug for Lexus it is an excellent example of how one man was driven by his Why to achieve outstanding results.  You may not decide to create the next evolution of the computer but your why could make a difference in the lives of others if you have defined it clearly. 

Unfortunately a university education today has become too expensive to spend time trying to figure out what one’s life goal is.  Taking courses with the hopes that something will tweak ones interest really isn’t an option. That approach most often leads to a mountain of student debt that may never get paid back and to add insult to injury the graduate often ends up in the same go nowhere job they had before they started. Sadly this leads to really bright people who have something to contribute never ever achieving their full potential.

Admittedly things are changing you can now go online and find free courses or courses with a very small tuition, that will give you credits and allow you to see if that is the direction you want to take without investing a small fortune.  A good example is MOOC, massive open online course. When you Google MOOC you will find lists of courses you can enroll in for free.  If you Google any major university you will find lists of free or very cheap courses.  This is just another example how education is beginning to change, technology has changed how we approach most everything in life and gradually the education system is moving away from the traditional methods of teaching out of pure necessity to keep up with the times.

Taking the time to think about Why is the beginning of the journey to a more fulfilling career and life.   It isn't an easy task and it does require concentration.  We have to start to ask the question Why again, not of our parents but of ourselves, what will motivate you to begin the journey? What is your why?  Take the time to think about this question, it doesn’t cost anything just time and contemplation.  Thanks to Simon Sinek and his simple method of reversing how we look at Why, there is a solution.

Turn off the cell phone, get up from the video game and find a quiet place to think. In the early stages it will take some discipline to stay focused, that is only natural we all have a tendency to let our minds wander off to what seems to be more important.   Stay focused, try to empty your mind of all the noise and just think about your inner self.  Once you get to that place of mental solitude you will begin to develop the ideas that form your why.

You may want to consider learning to meditate, it is not difficult and it can help you achieve your objective. One simple method is to sit in a comfortable position in a chair or on the floor relax and focus only on your breathing.  This allows you to empty your mind and not think of anything except the natural act of breathing in and out.  It takes time to learn how to do this, but it is progressive, if you only manage a minute today you may get to five minutes by the end of the week.  Each attempt will build on the past attempts until it becomes a natural occurrence.

Plan to mind map.  Mind mapping is writing down using symbols, pictures and words what you are thinking.  Get a large blank sheet of paper and  tape it to a wall use colored pens to separate your thoughts.  Start by putting “WHY” in big bold letters in the middle.  Write down everything that comes to mind, stick to the original question of; “What is my Why?” It is important  to get your thoughts and ideas on paper.

When you start with why you will begin to define what is really important to you. What you want to achieve is all that matters, no one else can determine what you want; you have to mentally challenge yourself to answer your why.  Is it worth your time?  Are you happy in your present circumstance? If not then you have no choice, you have to change, and that takes action. It has nothing to do with society in general, other people in your life or the past; it is all up to you.  It is all about your attitude and your why. You may find your why in a short span of time, it has been lurking in your subconscious waiting for you to drag it out, or it could take some time.  Either way it is important to write down what you are thinking all the time, use your mind map as a guide. Begin keeping a journal, you want a record of what you are achieving. Purchase a lined note book, spiral bound lab notebooks are inexpensive and quite satisfactory.  The lab notebook is the most important tool of every researcher, PHD student, or writer and as you are now researching your why you need to treat your efforts the same way, keep an accurate record of everything you think about.

One of the most difficult things to learn is that keeping an accurate record of what you are thinking and working on is essential to your success. Most of us are reluctant to put what we think on paper, we feel we have the ability to recall, however that is not the case. Clearing the mind by getting what you are thinking on paper means more capacity to think. Nature is not in a hurry, you need to take a lesson from nature and not be in too big a hurry, allow time to think things out.  Don’t make to do lists, they stifle your creativity and pressure you to do things in a hurry. The journal records your thoughts throughout the day as you have them and also allows you to clear your mind before retiring at night. This is essential, it allows you to sleep better but it also allows your subconscious mind to work on the problems while you are asleep.  You will be amazed at how many effective solutions you come up with early in the morning.

Make keeping a journal a habit you will not regret it. To prove the point; as researchers began working on building the first computers in the 40's and 50's there were several separate groups working on the problem at the same time. Later when these groups of researchers attempted to file for patents the similarity in the patent applications led to a number of very spectacular law suits.  The deciding factor in these law suits was the original lab notes of the researchers.  That is how essential a notebook of your thoughts can be, you can't remember everything so write it down.

The Wright brothers went to court over patent infringements nine times and won every case.  When they first began their quest to fly they did not keep lab notes however they soon learned how important their journals would become and began to keep detailed notes of every event.  When others made claims they had flown prior to the Wright brothers every claim was refuted by the evidence compiled in their notes.

Nothing comes without a cost; you have to invest time and effort to achieve great results.  A good example of how a huge effort over a relatively short period of time could make a significant impact on society is Bill Gates and Paul Allan’s work to produce the first operating system for the IBM PC. When IBM contracted their fledgling company Microsoft to write MS-DOS, Bill and Steve spent days writing the code, often they never slept. In the span of less than a year they created a program that launched the PC and launched Microsoft as the most successful software companies in history.  Their Why was clearly defined, they realized that if they could achieve the objective they would change the world and they set out to achieve that through dedicated effort over a short time span. 

Hopefully you have begun the exercise and you are beginning to identify your why.  You’re burning desire, how you want to serve your fellow man and what you want to achieve in life.  Thomas Edison once said when asked where all his good ideas came from, “They were in the Universe just waiting for him to tune himself in.”  Your purpose is waiting for you too; you just need to get tuned in to your why.

Starting with why is a very important exercise, figuring out your why, is the ground work on which you  build your career goals, business goals and your life goals.  As your why becomes clear in your mind all the other issues that are hindering your progress will begin to disappear.  Figuring out your why is defining what your real purpose in life is, what excites you and that gives you satisfaction. It will become your life purpose. Keep your why clearly in front of you as you consider the next phase.

Part two will talk about the what, that is what your goals are and how to define them based on your why.

Colin J. Campbell, CFP, CLU, Ch.F.C. is Managing Partner of Guidance Planning Strategies Ltd. in Cranbrook BC  he can be reached at colin.campbell@gpsbc.ca

Things to do every day that will improve your life and your business

Things to do every day that will improve your life and your business

Kevin Murphy in a recent column listed 17 things that extraordinary people do every day.  I thought he must have read my notes, I use many of these ideas daily to improve my productivity and have for years.  Here is my list:

1.       Review your long-term goals  -  Do you know what your long term goal is?  Do you know "why" you are doing what you do?  If you do you need to review your goals daily, if you don't then take the time in the next week or so to define your why and what your long term goals are and write them down.  It doesn't have to be a book, in fact a few lines is all you need. 

2.       Make daily plans - Plan your day either before you go home the day before or first thing in the morning. Use the top five idea, list out the five things you want to accomplish and prioritize them.  Now when you sit down at your desk you know exactly what you are going to do. Do number one and cross if off. You will be amazed at how much you can accomplish in a short time when you know what it is you are going to do daily.

3.       Ask for help - Just having someone to talk to is enough to change the course, if you don't have a mentor find one, make it a priority.  Someone who has more experience and who is impartial and willing to listen. You are never too old to have a mentor and in fact your mentor may not be as old as you are, that is not the point.  Having someone to discuss ideas with is essential to your success.

4.       Engage in mentorship - if it's good enough for you then you should be engaging in mentorship with others, either in your own field or in another field where you can be the listener.  You will be amazed what you learn.

5.       Give yourself a break -  Think about this in the context of a lumberjack for a moment. How many trees do you think he would have cut down if he never sharpened his saw?  The preparation time he spent making sure his tools were as sharp as possible was as important as the time he was actually cutting trees. The same principle applies to your business, if you don't keep yourself sharp and alert you will not perform to your potential.  Time spent at leisure or attending a seminar or  taking a course is just essential to your success as the hours you spend on the job.

6.       Keep a Journal - Probably the most important thing you can do is keep a record of what you did daily. 

7.       Develop confidence in yourself -  Believe in yourself.  You gain confidence by doing, take up the task and go forward, failure is not a disaster it is learning what doesn't work. The fear of failure is usually the fear of the unknown, destroying that fear is best accomplished by doing. Public speaking is the number one fear of most people, there is a good chance you fall into that category --  facing that one fear can do wonders for your confidence.  Join Toastmasters or take a course in public speaking it will help you to achieve greater confidence in all facets of your life.

8.       Express gratitude - Be grateful for all you receive, even if it is only the air you breath and the life you life. It is a fact that expressing gratitude begets more abundance, don't wait to receive express gratitude first.  Use your journal as your gratitude journal write down daily what your are grateful for.

9.       Write thank you notes -  You should be sending five thank you notes a week.  It doesn't matter to whom, it does matter that you say thanks or compliment someone on a job well done.  It is magical how you will benefit from this simple  task.
10.   Focus on others, give back through service -  Jim Collins while occupying the leadership chair at West Point was astounded to learn that the three keys of the cadets were; 1. Service to others, 2. Growth through failure , which led to 3. Success as leaders.  If it is good enough for the elite that graduate from West Point should it not be good enough for you and me?  Join a service club, volunteer in your community, do it because you want to be of service not because you want to promote your business  the rewards will be a hundred fold.

11.   Exercise -  Do something physical every day, if you don't want to run or go to the gym, take up Yoga.  Buy a Yoga book and start on your living room floor.

12.   Deep Breathing exercise -  Learn to do this daily, it rejuvenates your body adding much needed oxygen that makes your brain function more efficiently.  Do this for five minutes every day.

13.   Give something up -  Learning to focus on what really works sometimes requires giving up what doesn't work but which has become comfortable to do.  Take the time to examine your daily procedures and decide what you can eliminate.

14.   Delegate -  Micro managing kills more businesses than any other management mistake.  Sometimes the hardest thing for a business person to do is to let someone else do it.  The problem most often is that the manager is not happy with the results performed by the person he or she delegated the task to.  You have to decide that you are willing to accept the results you get when you delegate.  Nobody's perfect,   learn to be content with the results you get, you may be surprised how effective someone else's concepts can be. More importantly the next time the results will be even better.

15.   Laugh - Especially at yourself and laugh often, it is an elixir, the antidote to unhappiness and a healing agent that doesn't cost anything and gets amazing results.  There is nothing that is so critical that you can't see the humour. 

16.   Sleep -  There are 24 hours in a day, 8 of them should be used for sleep, it is essential to  your success, you cannot rob from yourself and succeed.  No matter what you think about sleep it is essential to get the eight hours you need and don't be afraid to catnap during the day, it refreshes the soul.

17.   Continue learning -  You are never done learning, take courses, use on line education services, attend seminars, read good books.  If you have never read the works of Malcolm Gladwell, Jim Collins, Simon Sinek, or Jack Canfield now is the time to start. You can get all these books on Kobo or Kindle or at your local library.  Do it today.

18.   Share ideas with others -  Freely give and freely receive, what you give away will come back tenfold, share your good ideas with others.  You get to feel good and what you learn in return will amaze you.

19.   Focus on Why -  There is nothing that you can do that is more important to your success than to focus on why you are doing what you do and clearly define it.  Watch the Ted talk by Simon Sinek and use this as the basis for  your approach to this topic.  It is far more important than the few lines I have written.  When you grasp the importance of your why, you will no longer have to worry about customers, they will find you. 

20.   Learn to use the five Why's to solve problems -  The founder of Toyota Machinery Corporation used this questioning technique to solve every problem that occurred, he taught his sons and his managers this method.  It forms the basis of the management principles at all the Toyota companies today.  This simple method will work for you too.  Whatever the problem you ask the question (Why?) five times, invariably you will find the solution before you get  to the fifth why.  Nothing could be simpler and it works.

21.   Measure results -  What you keep track of grows.  That simple, write down daily in your journal what you achieve in quantitative terms, i.e. if you sell something write down how much you sold each day in dollars.  If your goal is x and you keep a daily record of what you achieve you will be surprised how soon you achieve your goal. It is law that you can apply to anything, measure results and the results will grow.

22.   Build relationships -  It is easy to get caught in the trap of thinking that your goal is to generate sales or revenue, but in reality the only goal you have is to build relationships with people.  If you build relationships the people will come back and do business with you again and again. If your goal is to make a buck and get on to the next one, there is no relationship and you have to work twice as hard to find the next customer.   There are few industries today where there are so many customers that customer relations are not essential to success.  If you don't focus on building relationships with your customers, they don't need you, they can find what you sell on the internet..  The only thing that will distinguish your business from the next one is what you do to make the experience memorable to the customer.

23.   You don't have any competition -  This one may be hard to accept for many of you but in reality the only competition you have is yourself and your own apathy towards your business.  The way to combat this is to work daily to be better than the day before at every facet of your business or your job. 

Wow!  Twenty three, far more than I thought.  There are probably a few more but implementing these will take some effort.  Add to the list if you like and don't hesitate to send me your ideas, I love new concepts and suggestions.

Colin J. Campbell CFP, CLU, Ch.F.C. is Managing Partner of Guidance Planning Strategies Ltd. in Cranbrook BC  he can be reached at colin.campbell@gpsbc.ca

OOPS! The Credit Card Bill Arrived!

OOPS! The credit card bill has arrived. Summers over! We're all back to work, the kids are in school and the Credit Card bill for the summer fun has just arrived. OOPS! Are you paying off the total bill when it comes dues or making the minimum payment? At Current Credit Card interest rates of 19% paying the minimum can take years to get out of debt. There has to be a better way. Learning how to manage debt and getting out of debt sooner should be a priority of every Canadian. Unfortunately, making an appointment with a financial planner to discuss debt management is about as much fun as making an appointment with the dentist or having a colonoscopy. Just like going to the dentist meeting with a financial planner is a necessity. Making that appointment can save thousands of dollars in interest payments, make getting out of debt sooner easier and provide a level of peace of mind that will actually let you relax and not be driven by the stress of your debt load. Being better informed allows you to make better decisions about how you get into debt and how you are going to get out. A lack of knowledge or poor advice often created the problem in the first place. Fortunately it is not an incurable disease, it just requires getting the right information and applying it effectively. Reducing interest payments by 90% and paying off debts in less than half the time is not out of the realm of possibility. If you are stressed by debt and don't know how to get a handle on it, why not consider calling a financial planner and asking for a consultation. Here are some criteria that may help you make the right choice in a financial planner. The first visit should be free. You need to ask for credentials, i.e. are they a Certified Financial Planner in good standing with the FPSC. That is the governing body for CFP's in Canada. Ask what their fees are and get it in writing. Do they have the expertise to assist with all facets of financial planning, i.e. debt reduction as well as wealth accumulation, estate planning and risk management. If you get satisfactory answers to these questions you can safely move to the next step. It's never too late to start, take the time to do it now, it could be the most important step of the rest of your life.