Peak-performance life out of ten
It's all coming to an end in only a few weeks; The year and decade I mean. It will be replaced with a new one of course and I'll be turning 50 so the beginning of my sixth decade on this planet. I sometimes wonder what it will hold for my wife and I, although I have some idea as we have always planned ahead rather than move forward without a strategy. Of course, surprises happen right?
My working year concludes on the 20th of the month which I'm looking forward to. I only had two weeks off all year and went to New Zealand. You can check it out on the #aussies-newzealand tag if you're so inclined. A couple weeks of doing nothing looks pretty good right about now.
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I work as an executive in the property industry, commercial, industrial and residential. Despite often finding myself in some café or other, I work hard at increasing my performance, writing more business, consolidating the existing and of course leading my team.
I go ok, am pretty good at what I do and apply years of knowledge, industry and in general, towards peak-performance, efficiency and a consistently-improving business; It's my responsibility to the Directors to do so.
I have an annual budget to write and am held accountable for achieving it - I also get paid on a bonus-system when I exceed it, which happens each year; That happens through hard work and effort of course, not by waiting for it to fall on a silver platter held out in expectant hands.
My work year doesn't actually end with the calendar year though - My budget, or reporting year, runs in line with the fiscal year, the tax reporting year; This is 1 July to 30 June here in Australia.
I track my performance and results very closely and report monthly to the Directors; Otherwise I'm left alone. They do so because I am always ahead of the budget and doing the right thing.
An example? 1 July to 30 December is halfway through the fiscal year and as a guide I need to be sitting at around 50% of my annual budget...Today, on the sixth of the month, I'm at 68% of my annual figure. So yeah, slaughtering it. [I'm not sorry if I sound smug, I've worked hard for this!]
I also have about 12% more pending, just not reported on so...That brings me to 80% of my annual budget in six months of the year. That's why the Directors leave me to my own devices.
A happy accident? Nope. Handed to me on a silver platter? Nope. Worked for with effort, ownership and responsibility? You betcha!
I've been setting myself up for the run into the third quarter of the fiscal year, January-March and my goal is to have 100% of my budget written by the end of March. Maybe a big ask considering that I'll lose ground over the Christmas-New Year period although that's my goal. My stretch-goal is 100% by the end of February. Boom! Why the hell not?
I don't believe one needs to be in business, or a corporate environment, to aim at peak-performance. I mean, wouldn't a person want to live a peak-performance life? That doesn't mean you have to run everywhere, or always be chasing something...It just means living one's best life and taking the decisions and actions that will deliver that - Or give one the best chance of it anyway.
I always evaluate my calendar and fiscal year plus evaluate monthly, weekly and daily (3-hourly at work) aiming to understand the as-is situation and looking to improve it - You know, rating it out of ten and trying to improve the rating in the next 3 hours, day, week etc. This allows me to give the year an overall rating. Others do it differently, or not at all, and I guess there's no right way...Just different ways. This is mine.
Anyway, this is all super-boring to you probably. However my question is:
- How has your year been out of ten and what do you need to do next year to increase it by one?
I think my calendar year has been a seven out of ten and the first half of the fiscal year an eight out of ten...I'm working towards how I can make that and eight and nine respectively in 2020.
How about you? What's your 2020 strategy?
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default*
