Your personal inventory. I completely believe that we have mental inventories. Like any inventory, you have to buy stock, you sell / turn / churn that inventory; you empty the shelves and you have to restock.
What did you have on the shelves this year? I Your inventory is made up of the things you put in your head. Over last winter, you had ideas. You (hopefully) made plans. You gathered your people and resources. You worked hard to get ready. You got psyched! You stocked your shelves.
Turning inventory. Throughout this season your turned inventory. You brought ideas to life. You worked hard. You picked items off the shelf as you needed them and applied them to your daily life.
As things got busier, you probably noticed that you could restock as quickly as you were turning inventory. You ran that inventory of energy and ideas down. If you ran out of inventory, your supply chain of mental energy snapped. You felt burned out. You had to take a break, even just a small one, to survive.
Just like in retail, if your shelves went empty, you, temporarily, went out of business.
Time to restock. I know a lot of you are still going through the Christmas season, so your time is coming, but the fact remains that you have to restock the shelves. You have to rebuild that mental storehouse to get you through 2011.
Buy yourself something nice. You need to reward yourself for a job well done. Do not create financial peril, as that won't be relaxing, but get yourself something your WANT not something you NEED. If you don't have some reward for all your hard work, your mind won't be as willing to work with you to get through next season.
Go away. My wife plans our family vacation for the week after we close. After (for us) 26 weeks of 7 days per week, up to 18 hours per day, you need to get away. The Law of Diminishing Returns applies to you - you can stay and keep working, but your efficiency and your results will degrade. Go away. Step back. Get a change of scenery.
Read. During the season I reach a point at which I don't have the time or desire to read. I'm overwhelmed already and I can't put anything else in my head. By about the 3rd day of vacation, I start to crave books again. Listen to audio books or read the real thing. No matter how smart you are, you don't know everything and books help restock your shelves.
My great joy this year is re-reading the Harry Potter series to my 6-year-old, out loud in my best mimic of Jim Dale's voices (Mr. Dale recorded the audio books and is THE master.) Reading aloud is an often under utilized skill, but trains your mind in very different ways than reading in your head. Plus, the father/kiddo time is a great recharger.
Incidentally, one of my favorite people, Kristy Leads wife of Rob Leads many of you know them from NAFDMA, suggested starting a businesses-like-ours book club. I'd be more than willing to help her in this endeavor with a separate email list and use of our e-learning/presentation tools we use in our Maze Master Classes for MQ corn maze franchises. If you're interested, drop me an email with "Book Club" in the subject line.
Watch great movies. We limit screen time in our household to 1-2hrs per day, but engaging in good movies, translating the story to your own life is a powerful tool for igniting ideas.
Explore music. Music is proven to affect humans on a psychological level. As the Centre Presbyterian choir director, I get directly involved with making music twice a week, but listening can work wonders, too.
My newest experiment is with Pandora.com. You log in to listen to music for free on the Internet or mobile phone. You then setup your own radio "stations" by telling Pandora a song you like. It's Music Genome Project uses software to create a "Station" based on your music preferences. The stations get better and better to your liking as you vote songs up or down and add more artists you like.
My experiment is to make stations such as "Feel Good", "Traveling Music", "Sad and Lonely", "Angry", "Workout Energy", etc. to explore music without having to purchase it and guess which artists or songs I might like.
Exercise. You have time now, and fewer excuses. I'm a bit of an exercise junkie, but that wasn't always the case. Two years ago I weighed 185lbs at nearly 30% body fat (I'm only 5'6") and making it through a season was a struggle often ending in eating candy bars for "energy".
I don't know what came over me, but I decided I wanted something different for me, my wife and my kids. So I started working out with the stuff I had lying around, made progress and moved on eventually to P90X and other intense home workout programs.
My wife was supportive, but set the rule that it couldn't subtract family time in the evenings, so I had to workout at 530 in the morning. The mental discipline gained from working out like that has been a powerful force in my life and it can be in your life too.
The incremental results in energy and appearance have been a daily source of encouragement. I now weigh 158lbs at 10% body fat and I'm stronger than I was as a high school athlete.
Keep in mind this has been 2 years, year 1 was not as focused as year 2, but STILL. That's a lifetime of lessons in patience and perseverance. It's daily, mental restocking. Exercise time is your personal "me time".
Go to conventions. This is one near and dear to my heart. After my first year in business I was asked to speak at the NAFDMA convention and suddenly I was thrust into a world of other crazy people just like me! It was awesome! The interactions, the friends, the sessions, ideas at the trade show - conventions are a super re-stocker.
Here are some favorites:
NAFDMA - North American Farmers Direct Marketing Association. This is the granddaddy of them all. Maize Quest will be at the trade show, as usual, and I am presenting "A Goal Without A Plan Is A Wish."
For convenience, we plan our Maize Quest Maze Master Summit meeting for the Friday before, Feb 4 this year. Our corn maze clients get an extra kick-off day of sessions specifically targeted to building their businesses. If you want to attend, join the MQ team for 2011 and we'll get you into the Summit FREE.
Canadians - Ontario Fruit & Veggie Convention with Ontario Farm Fresh is a great event as well. This year OFFMA retained me for a FULL-DAY workshop, bonus session and panel discussions. If you are setting your 2011 plans for success, it will be a great day for you to leave with your year's plan nearly completed!
Make a restocking plan. You manage inventory in your business. You probably never place an order without a plan. Plan out your restocking strategy.
Schedule a vacation. Pick out something nice. Go crazy for exercise or just go for a daily walk. Register for a convention. Get some magazines you wouldn't normally read and pick out some books (if you need suggestions, I'm here for you:-). Listen to some music and rent a movie you've always wanted to see.
Restock the shelves. You need inventory for 2011. Your business and family need you to be restocked, too.
Have a great week.
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