I saw Alan Austin-Smith speak at the Learning & Skills exhibition last year and he was there to talk about his ‘Fantastic Revolution’. It was the second time that I’ve seen Alan speak and I suppose I was drawn in by the fact that I know Alan is an excellent motivational speaker and I knew his talk would be enthusiastic and full of energy and passion – fantastic even, and I would leave with a spring in my step.

I love his fantastic revolution concept where he believes there are 7 characteristics which make people fantastic:

1. Passion – they have a burning passion for what they do and how they are
2. Create – they are creative, full of ideas, inventive and inspirational
3. Delight – they aim to delight people they come into contact with – colleagues, customers, friends
4. Perform – they perform, life is a stage and we are all on it, if you have fears or lack confidence then perform
5. Alive inside – they feel alive inside, are excited and courageous
6. Always learning – they keep learning, they try new things and take in new information
7. Fun – they have fun, they love what they do and are passionate which fuels more creativity

If you think about all these things and apply them in all that you do, in your job, in your hobbies, in your relationships and friendships then just think what a positive effect this will have on your life.

The values we created when starting Optimus Sourcing are featured on this list.  We didn’t know it at the time, we just strove to provide a great (fantastic) service by being passionate about learning, delighting our clients, being creative, always learning and having fun.

So if we bring this back to learning, and I’m pleased ‘Always Learning’ is one of the 7 characteristics, we need to continually develop ourselves as individuals and professionals if we want to improve, be better, be more knowledgeable, be more effective and be more fantastic!