Perspective.....the ability to find perspective allows you to see things as they really are. It's that ability in any given moment to step out of yourself and have a birds eye view on a situation and assess it for what it is. Perspective allows clarity of thought and that mindfulness leads to better decisions, more creativity and greater satisfaction with life.
The greatest challengers to perspective are time and awareness.
In today's unrelenting modern lifestyles the time for perspective is seldom allocated. Secondly with our minds bombarded more than ever before with information at speeds never before experienced in human history our awareness of our feelings, of situations is challenged and ignored. We become expressions of that which we have knowledge of but not necessarily understood. And that knowledge without understanding applies to ourselves.
We all understand the problem. What's the solution? Awareness is the key. But to give awareness an opportunity to change our direction, our perspective we need to allocate the time to gaining perspective.
Our advice is simple: time block it.
1) Allocate to start 10 mins in the morning and 10 minutes at night to mindfulness. This may start as simply a quiet spot where initially you don't think of anything. So don't take your smartphone with you. Now if you can't find a quiet room at work or home, then multi task. In all seriousness this might be time spent in the lavatory or in the shower. If that's all you can grab then take the opportunity.
2) Move next to assessing your life and how you feel about it. Ask yourself how you feel about certain aspects of your life, rank it on a scale of 1 to 5 and then write about what you want in the future and how you want to feel. This is a great exercise to do as a couple. The areas you are assessing include : relationships, health, fitness, philanthropy, community involvement, friends, spirituality, hobbies, work, house and home, finances, personal space, education and personal development.
3) Identify the three most important areas for you and assess whether you are spending enough time and resources in these areas.
4) By now that 10 mins hopefully has moved to 15 now you need to start a dialogue with your self and significant others : try setting time aside and this may start as only once a week that you and your partner just talk about your world and perhaps it's just as simple as a download of the week. Take turns. Listen don't solve.
5) Start focussing on what's really important (identified in 3)
Check in with PCE after a few weeks and let us know how you did.
Showing posts with label balance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label balance. Show all posts
Tuesday, 29 October 2013
Thursday, 20 June 2013
How well do you look after your most important client?
It's an interesting question.
PCE found themselves needing to ponder this recently. We had neglected our most important client. The impact was dramatic. The realisation that was had taken them for granted was shattering.
We had lost the connection to our most important clients:
- current state of affairs
- mood
- concerns
- dreams
- level of satisfaction
We had not checked in.
And it forced us to ask the question how many of us, financial services professionals have really looked after our most important client, or is that client subsidising the time we spend on everything and everyone else.
From a financial planning and risk perspective are we really certain that our most important client has in place:
- well defined and executed succession planning both personal and business
- has a map of financial and personal milestones and we are up to date with the progression as well as actively planning for the next checkpoint on that map
- that the safety net of insurances is presently well structured and offering the best coverages with features suited to what is actually important for the nuances that the client possesses
- that we have and continue to engage our client on an emotional dynamic in that we are aware of how simply they are feeling about life, about daily issues, about the dreams long terms and more immediate for example the next twelve months
- and have we taken the time to plan out what those dreams actually are, how they will be fulfilled and what the plan is to work towards them
Simply : have we sat down and engaged, truly engaged our most important client, ticked of the basics and continued the journey.
PCE would argue that as we get caught up in the daily routine, as we battle with FOFA, FOFA implementation and the volume of information and work in our day that we do not deliver to our most important client anywhere close to what is desirable.
And the evidence is all around PCE when we visit advisers.
The most important clients do not have:
- buy sell agreements in place
- inadequate contingency plans for family in the event of business interruption
- other risk management measures adequately catered for
- balance between work and home
- a set plan for the year
- any set goals for the family that are being actively worked upon
- a set time that has been put aside to articulate how they are progressing on life goals : personally, family, business
And here's the worst part.
Exactly who is your most important client?
It's you. And it's your family.
PCE found themselves needing to ponder this recently. We had neglected our most important client. The impact was dramatic. The realisation that was had taken them for granted was shattering.
We had lost the connection to our most important clients:
- current state of affairs
- mood
- concerns
- dreams
- level of satisfaction
We had not checked in.
And it forced us to ask the question how many of us, financial services professionals have really looked after our most important client, or is that client subsidising the time we spend on everything and everyone else.
From a financial planning and risk perspective are we really certain that our most important client has in place:
- well defined and executed succession planning both personal and business
- has a map of financial and personal milestones and we are up to date with the progression as well as actively planning for the next checkpoint on that map
- that the safety net of insurances is presently well structured and offering the best coverages with features suited to what is actually important for the nuances that the client possesses
- that we have and continue to engage our client on an emotional dynamic in that we are aware of how simply they are feeling about life, about daily issues, about the dreams long terms and more immediate for example the next twelve months
- and have we taken the time to plan out what those dreams actually are, how they will be fulfilled and what the plan is to work towards them
Simply : have we sat down and engaged, truly engaged our most important client, ticked of the basics and continued the journey.
PCE would argue that as we get caught up in the daily routine, as we battle with FOFA, FOFA implementation and the volume of information and work in our day that we do not deliver to our most important client anywhere close to what is desirable.
And the evidence is all around PCE when we visit advisers.
The most important clients do not have:
- buy sell agreements in place
- inadequate contingency plans for family in the event of business interruption
- other risk management measures adequately catered for
- balance between work and home
- a set plan for the year
- any set goals for the family that are being actively worked upon
- a set time that has been put aside to articulate how they are progressing on life goals : personally, family, business
And here's the worst part.
Exactly who is your most important client?
It's you. And it's your family.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)