How to achieve your best year ever

Nigel Risner, a respected author, television presenter and a prolific speaker joined the leaders and managing directors at a past MD2MD meeting to explain how, they could have their best year ever and get the life they have always dreamed of.

He spoke with authority; his own life having veered perilously away from comfortable norms at times.  He has learned – the hard way – that positive results can come from negative experiences, and that we often learn best from situations which are unfamiliar, and even uncomfortable.

After taking the groups through the process of goal planning, he invited them all to explore and consider their Vision and Mission in life.

A vision, he explained, is something that is possible to achieve within a lifetime – but you may not know how you are going to get there.

A mission, on the other hand, is so huge you are never going to get there in your lifetime, but you can always take little steps to get closer.

Nigel then asked the group to think back to a time when they were having a great day! And asked them to think about what it was they were doing.  Conversely, they were asked to think about a not so great day – and what they were doing.  This exercise focused the mind on what it is we are good at and enjoy, and therefore what we should see more of in our lives.  It also encouraged us to question why we are doing things we don’t enjoy – and how we can get rid of them.  If analysed, these are invariably actions that do not correspond with our values or passions, and can be applied to our working as well as personal lives.

To achieve our best year ever, we need to be doing what we enjoy and what links in with our vision, mission and values in life.  For the business owners present it proved to be a provoking, motivating day.

Many of Nigel’s tips and strategies can be found in his books The IMPACT Code and It’s a Zoo Round Here.

Written by Bob Bradley, founder of MD2MD.