Sometimes, when I’ve had absolutely enough of Brexit (who hasn’t), I hand ownership of my laptop over to my dog, Charlie, who lightens the mood with a few posts of his own on Facebook. 

His spelling isn’t always what it should be, but his observations on life can be profound. ;-) Take today’s for example, when he posted these wise words:

“If a day can be measured in sticks, and I’ve yet to find a better measure, today was a good day!”

In case you’ve not realised by now, Charlie’s posts do get a bit of help from yours truly, but sometimes it can be good to look at life from a different perspective.

It struck me as I was considering Charlie’s tongue in cheek observation that, actually, he might be on to something. The amount of fun we had on the beach with a stick is probably a much better measure of 'success' than some I’ve applied to my life. Often, we’re too busy chasing deadlines, chasing status symbols, chasing our futures, chasing our tails, to just enjoy the simple pleasures that everyday life brings - every day. 

And so I’ve made a New Year’s resolution – ‘Be more Charlie’. 

A new year gives us all a fantastic opportunity to pause and consider these questions:

• What would success feel like to me (as opposed to look like to other people)?
• What gives me real joy?
• What will give me the greatest sense of achievement? 
• How will I know, when I look back on photographs and memories that I collect, that this was a good year?

Being more Charlie does not mean giving up on ambition, or on goals – quite the contrary. For me, it’s about using the limited resource of time more effectively to deliver my own personal version of success. It’s about working smarter and it’s about doing what counts. Part of that means focusing my energies on the areas where I can have the greatest impact and effectively delegating to other people, so that they can do the same.

The extraordinary thing I’ve realised is that by being more Charlie, I think my team and I will actually be able to deliver more for our customers in 2019 than we did in 2018, whilst having more fun. 

(By the way, if you would like to be more Charlie in 2019 too, then Trainers’ Library could be the key -  membership helps professional trainers work smarter, cutting the time it takes to design really engaging, impactful training by more than 80% - leaving them free to pursue other goals.

Until next time...