Bill Nelson

The New Year

Wednesday 11th January 2012

January 9th 2012, the first day back and straight into the swing of things for another year. The Christmas/New Year break was a lot different this year. It was the first time in approximately 40 years our family has not been away.

Hang on, I had better explain that a little clearer. For many years we lived away from Newcastle, and when we didn't, we were usually holidaying away from Newcastle. However our families still resided in Newcastle and therefore, we would all congregate back here for Christmas Day.

This year we didn't go anywhere. Two weeks of being at home was certainly different in many ways.

Joanne has been and will continue to need a few more weeks to recover from a surgical operation in late December. So she needed to take it very easy.

And that my dear friends would make me 'Mr. Mum'.

However and to be honest, in between my domestic duties I surfed, rode my mountain bike, read and got my head around a few things for the New Year.

So the New Year, as always, has got me thinking. Thinking on a number of different levels.

1. Family
2. Personal
3. Business

Family

On the family side, our daughter Elle called us Christmas night from the US (10.30pm here, 3.30am there) to tell us that in her Christmas stocking there was an engagement ring from her beau, Seth. Fantastic! They now have to go through the process associated with all the red tape for an American (Seth) to marry an Australian (Elle).

So no doubt somewhere in the year ahead the Nelson's will be traveling to the US for a wedding. Come on the Aussie Dollar!

Personal

On the personal side. Nothing out of the ordinary. I need to work out the problems with my lower back so that I may continue to enjoy a lot of my time surfing.

People continue to tell me that age is a factor.

Me, I am not buying into that for a minute. But I do know there are some things I need to explore. Explore and better understand areas such as overly tight hamstrings etc. So stretching, massage etc will all be part of the road ahead.

And then we have my time mountain biking and to be honest, I am not sure if this helps or hurts the tight hamstrings, but it does loosen my back and hips and I do enjoy the exercise. I attempt to get onto the bike and out into the bush for a couple of hours most afternoons or evenings.

Jae, Elle and Kye gave me a set of clip-in pedals and mountain bike shoes for Christmas. Me being on a mountain bike is one thing, but me having my feet locked into the pedals! To simply put it...... a recipe for disaster!

However, I do realise that the more I have a go at it, the better I will get at removing my feet from the clips.

You see, I have no problems riding the bike with my shoes clipped in. I just want to be skilled enough to unclip when it is needed and to be able to do it in a period of time that will not see me crash to the ground with my feet still attached to the bike.

Let's just put that one down to a 'work in progress'.

The wonderful thing about these two hobbies is that I can spend time in the surf with our youngest son Kye and then with Jae (our eldest) and Joanne out on the mountain bikes.

Now there is always a downside to a New Year for me, it's not a big one, but none the less, it is always there when the calendar ticks over.

I always have the dilemma at this time of year, will the year ahead be writing year or a reading year? The simple answer would be both, but not for me. I either read and right now there are about twenty or so books sitting next to my bed.

Or I write.

And on the writing front, there is plenty to do.

I know I need to update Gold Teamwork as it has been eleven years since it was released. Time for an update as there is so much information and experience that could go into an update.

Also I have a personal performance book sort of drafted out (it has been that way for a while as well) so I need to get my head around what I am going to do with that.

Then there is the information I have put together to write a book on leadership. Yes, I know another one. But as they all say.....Mine will be different.

But all of this doesn't settle the mental wrestling match of, do I write or do I read?

Right now my head is telling me to plan my day so that I can do a little of both, and that is where I will start.

We will see how I go?

Business Focus

Well this isn't hard because opportunities abound. Which is fantastic.

Where do I start, on what we are looking at here?

Lets start off with something everyone seems to be involved with these days.

Social media.This is something Jae has slowly, slowly introduced me to.

So far we have:

Twitter
Tumblr
Linkedin
and of course to some degree Facebook

Each of these we approach differently.

With Twitter as a minimum I post four different ideas daily:

How will you find happiness today?

Your Choice, where I simply though up two different approaches to something so they become a point of discussion e.g. Your Choice window or aisle seat?

Thought of the day. Which is just something that I want to share with you

What I have learned from today. Once again a little insight that I have picked up through what I have been doing all day
Tumblr is a joint effort between Jae and myself I come up with little motivational piece and Jae finds an appropriate photo and each morning up it goes.

On my Linkedin page, I try and upload information that I believe will challenge people to think and understand different things. I don't just post ideas that I believe in, but ideas that I believe might be of interest.

Facebook is a collection of all of the above as well as letting you know when our podcast or blog has been updated.

But our business focus is way deeper than this and as we always have, Joanne, Jae and I will sit down and talk about where we are at with all of this and what may change and what might stay the same.

On the coaching side of things, it is alway an exciting period, on one hand we have our new clients who are gung-ho as to how we will be able to work with them and what will come about as an end result.

Then we have our current clients who are always ready, willing and more than able to start implementing new ideas, pursuing new goals and generally working with their teams to make things better for everyone involved.

Which then leads me to my speaking engagements, which are all handled exclusively by the wonderful team at ICMI. Right now ICMI is undergoing some major changes and we are part of those changes and I am very excited about what this change will bring.

One of the new initiatives is speaker videos. A quick insight so potential clients can get to see who we are, what are are about and what we talk about. We just finished the production of our 8 minute video prior to the Christmas break, so no doubt that should be up soon on the ICMI Youtube channel.

So we now move onto our radio show hosted by the fantastic crew at Webtalkradio.net . Our show Success Sessions comes out each week (Monday USA, Tuesday Australia) and you can subscribe to the show by visiting our host page.

Please join Jae and myself each week and listen in and if you have any ideas, feedback topic requests etc, please drop us an email at success@totalperformance.com.au

As an extension of our radio show, we are in the process of organising a working tour of the US with Brad Saul, President of Matrix Media.

We have begun discussions with a number of major companies on the various ways we could provide benefit to them. Some want to explore the workshop/presentation options, some are more interested in the coaching we do, where as other want us to come in for the day and facilitate various interactions with management and staff.

So whilst we are working through all of this, we are also doing an evaluation of 2011 and what we did and how it all worked out as well as starting to real break down, explore and understand our goals for 2012.

As you can see I have good reason to be excited as the year ahead looks challenging, eventful and rewarding.

But I just need to make sure we understand and we have our plans in place to deliver on the endless opportunities that sit before us. I wish the same for you.

But 2012, well all that can be said at this time is........

The Journey Continues!