Edition 435 – Deliberate Recalibration
In some ways, 2023 was a bit of a blur. Once we’d returned from our New Zealand cruise in early April, it was pedal to the metal. Lots of client work to get on with. Plenty of new assignments that we started on. Speaking to various groups locally and internationally. By the time Christmas rolled around, it felt like I hadn’t stopped all year.
Straight into January this year, it was the same. A full diary is great for business, but I could feel the wheels wobbling. Our planned driving trip around Tasmania in March was a hard stop point, so there was plenty to clear before we ventured south. Then COVID hit for the second time in late February and, as anyone knows that’s had it, it can knock you around.
After our return from Tasmania, I felt like I needed a holiday from our holiday. We’d enjoyed our travels, so interested in seeing parts of the world have I always been. However, that time away, enjoying a magnificent part of Australia that we’d never visited before, allowed me to stop, take stock, and consider “what’s next”.
The “what’s next” was a deliberate recalibration. I’d realised, at some stage in our travels, that the pace that I’d been operating at throughout 2023 and into the first quarter of 2024, couldn’t continue. In car talk, I was travelling a bit too fast, in the wrong gear, with the tyres not gripping that well when adverse conditions prevailed.
Since Easter, I’ve downshifted, slowed the pace and made sure I wasn’t hustling the body, and the brain, like I had been. I’ve prioritised what needed to be done. I’ve said “no” to some opportunities that may have been in my wheelhouse, but sounded like they might have been difficult to deal with. The habit of working some weekends, which had popped up throughout 2023, was banished to the waste paper basket. The aim was to do what had to be done, in the work week.
What’s interesting is that what, on the face of it, seems a deliberate ploy to “take it easy”, wasn’t that at all. The deliberate recalibration meant that by prioritising my own time, the obligations I had to the various clients and others in my life, and my work, I removed inefficiencies that I’d allowed to build up into my daily and weekly life. Those inefficiencies were leading to double and triple handling, rather than dealing with the matter at hand, at the time I’d allocated it to be dealt with in my diary.
Part of that deliberate recalibration was to also slot in another short break, this time at Avoca Beach on the New South Wales Central Coast. It was planned as a week of doing not much – walking, coffee, lunch and taking in a few movies at the lovely old cinema right beside the beach. What I’ve figured out is that, in terms of my health, and my ability to continue to be the best I can be, regular time away helps to top up the tank.
The end result of this strategy is that the June quarter ended up being one of the best in the history of my business, in terms of revenue. By slowing down, I’d sped up what was important to get done in business. As I’ve referenced previously, the former triple Formula 1 World Champion, Sir Jackie Stewart, makes notes of this in his fantastic autobiography, “Winning is Not Enough”.
Next time it feels like you’re running ragged in business, take a moment to reflect on what you’re doing, how you’re doing it and whether you’re being efficient about the way you go about it. Then, open up the diary and set aside time to spend a week away, somewhere, to reflect on whether this is what you really want to be doing with the next stage of your life.
This Week’s Tip
“To speed up, take the opportunity to slow down.”