It was July 3, 2003 and I just hired Sharon Hoover as my business coach.
Sharon asked me to write a note before our first coaching session.
My assignment: Explain where I wanted to be in a year.
Assume that everything worked out just the way I wanted. What did that look like? Here's what I wrote:
It's July 3, 2004. I wake up and work out for 75 minutes with my trainer, a blond 30-year old in a pink Danskin tank-top.
I take a cold shower.
I work in my home office from 9 till noon, writing and editing.
At noon, I have lunch with Mindy on the deck, having just completed the renovation of our kitchen, den, and my new home-office. Mindy complains that the pool will not be finished for another month.
I go into the office at 1:15. I have a few phone meetings, assign stories to a staff writer, and meet with a new client. At 5:30 I leave.
The note went on for about three pages and the exercise was a real eye-opener. The old cliché, "all roads take you where you want to go when you don't have a destination," was true. All I had to do was articulate my goals and then I could drive my business and my life in the direction I wanted to go.
Of course, it's never as simple as that. My wife and I ran out of money and never got the pool done. Worse still, I never hired the trainer. But I did join a gym and start working out. And I did start working less by hiring writers who could help me.
But Sharon's advice was good. "Start with the end," she had told me. It was the first of many lessons she would teach me over the last six years.
Let's try it out right now.
Imagine that it's Friday, March 6 at 4 p.m. EST, the end of another bad week. The market lost further ground, a client fired you, and you didn't ever get to the chores you promised your spouse that you would attend to. Life's lousy.
Then, imagine that you show up at the Financial Crisis Webinar Series and hear Sharon Hoover offer advice about some of the problems you're facing. And next week, instead of being overwhelmed by the crisis, you start doing some simple things that you've always known you should but never take the time to do. Suddenly, you're not feeling as overwhelmed. All you needed was a reminder.
Sharon isn't a miracle worker. You probably already know many of the things she says. But she will reinforce ideas that will empower you to take control of your fate. She will help you pronounce the words out loud that explain the challenges you face and find the solutions you must implement.
Join us this Friday at 4 EST to hear Sharon Hoover speak about the most common problems advisors are now facing and solutions for managing them.