What are you wishing for in 2012?
At this time it’s customary to wish people a "Happy New Year", however, the economic signs are that 2012 is not going to be happy for everyone, and all the best wishes in the world can’t change that.
How about New Year resolutions?
Every year millions of people, including driving instructors, make New Year Resolutions and millions of people fail to keep them.
How many resolutions have you stuck with in the last ten years?
This all sounds like a recipe for doom and gloom in 2012 – and that’s why we are not simply sending you a glib ‘Happy New Year’ message…
We genuinely want you to have a great year in 2012 – and we believe that we can help you to achieve it. That’s why, over the next few weeks we will be sending you some info to help you get 2012 off to a good start and then to maintain the momentum!
Starting off with your New Year’s Resolutions.
Three key reasons why New Year Resolutions fail…
- Lack of organisation and clarity
- Fear
- Lack of support
Get organised:
Write down your goals in as much detail as possible using positive ‘can do’ language. When you write things down they take on more power – but you must be specific. Studies at Harvard University in the USA showed that students who write out their goals go on to have more successful careers than those who don't.
Typical new Year Resolution example:
"In 2012 I will try to get more customers”
Many people condition themselves negatively when making plans – a goal like this is almost worse than no goal at all!
‘Try’? When we tell ourselves that we will try to do something we are already (subconsciously) setting up an excuse mechanism that we can use if things don’t work out – “Oh well, at least I tried”.
For your goals to work they need to be specific… For example:
- How many customers?
- What strategies will you use?
- What are the time scales?
Try this:
“By March 1st 2012 I will have gained eight new, additional, customers. By June the 1st I will have a minimum of twenty-five customers on my books. I will achieve this by adopting two new recommendation strategies, an e-mail marketing campaign to all past and present customers and a winter special offer campaign.”
There is still a lot of work to do on this Resolution but it is positive and specific and it gives you something to work with. Because it is clear and specific it is much more likely to succeed.
Turn your fear into power!
We are all subject to fear from time-to-time - it’s only a weakness if you fail to acknowledge it. In the current economic climate with bills to pay and families to feed only a madman would have no fears at all! But the trick with fear is to accept it - not to confront it.
Fear is the biggest factor that holds us back. You might know that you need to make a change on a logical, conscious level (e.g., “I need to change my business or the low price competition will beat me”) but still be resistant on a subconscious level because of fear (“But if I change things I might end up worse off than I am now”).
In order to make significant positive changes in our lives and businesses we need to align both our conscious and subconscious attitudes and beliefs. We need to turn our fears into power to motivate ourselves into action and to really believe that we can accomplish our goals.
In order to develop positive belief it's essential to program both your conscious and subconscious to seek out every opportunity to achieve your goals. Do this by writing out the key goals and sticking them somewhere where you will see them every single day – read them out loud to yourself at least once a day. You might even want to record them and then play them back to yourself at every opportunity.
Find Support:
Even with the best will and motivation in the world, you can only do so much by yourself. You will need support in terms of encouragement, information and possibly training.
There are lots of people who will tell you that it’s not possible to raise your lesson fees, or expand your business, or teach in different and more productive ways - you've met them! When you listen to these people you program yourself with the negative beliefs… Of course there is a certain comfort in the shared misery that often rears its ugly head during test-centre conversations or at some ADI meetings – but shared misery changes nothing.
On the occasions that you are not taking the free CPD opportunity of sitting in the back of driving tests, use the time for positive conversation – if those around you are not positive, walk away, use the time to work on your strategies and plans.
Seek out positive, supportive people who are also interested in improving themselves and you'll all benefit from the team mentality – how about a ‘positive instructor’s group’ where you meet regularly and only discuss solutions rather than gripe about problems? Many Tri-Coaching students keep in touch with each other by phone and e-mail and share ideas that are helping them to develop both themselves and their businesses.
In our next mailing we'll consider the question “What do your potential customers want?”
Call Graham Hooper on: 0788 919 4011 for full information about our one-day in-car courses and the Professional (Level 4) BTEC Qualification - email: info@tri-coachingpartnership.co.uk