Best Year Yet

by Cindy Bostick, Certified Best Year Yet Partner

I live in the High Desert area of Southern California, and a few weeks ago I attended a conference in one of my favorite cities, Santa Monica.  I grew up near there and spent many summers at the beach and on the pier. I most effortlessly connect to a place of peace within me when I’m near the ocean ~ no matter what’s going on in the world and in my life.

Thought leader Bill Cummings paints the picture beautifully. He says,

“There is nothing like the sound of the open ocean crashing against the rocky coast…  Listen for a minute and you will hear the rhythm, the pace of the seawater as it hits the shore.  Day in and day out that water comes in and goes out, in cycles as regular as anything on earth.  Two high tides and two low tides each day, predictable years in advance.  At anything but the highest of tides, you can see the tidal marks of the water at last high tide.

There is something so regular, powerful, beautiful about it, that in this one place, I sense the entire ordering of the universe, the incredible gift we’ve been given – life – is impossible to miss in this place. Almost anything can be going wrong, crisis upon crisis and in this place by the ocean, I am, in the midst of chaos at peace.”

Life happens and change is as predictable as the high and low tides, whether it be a job change, illness, debt, a new love, death or ______ ~ you fill in the blank with the hurdle you’re facing.  Know that you have everything you need to prevail, if you know what it is you really want. More later about this, but first I want to share my story.

Two years ago, I made the decision to leave a leadership position I had outgrown with a large real estate company in order to free myself up to focus on two key areas of my life:

• Developing my coaching business, and
• Helping take care of my mother who had Alzheimer’s disease.

I proceeded with a clear sense of purpose, knowing I didn’t want another “job” to go to. Spending more time with my mother was important to me as well as developing an exceptional skill set as a coach. It didn’t matter what the stock market was doing or what the unemployment rate was or what was going on in Europe. I learned to say No in a way that was empowering. Rather than making me feel guilty, I’m now serving others and myself at a higher level. 

Gay Hendricks describes changes like mine in his book, The Big Leap, saying, “Discovering your Zone of Genius is your life’s big leap. Everything up until now has been about hops, not leaps. Hopping, though it seems safe, is actually hazardous to your health. If you confine yourself to hops, you run the risk of rusting from the inside out.”

What I’m learning about making more money in the middle of the recession is this:

Now is the best time to stop, exhale, and examine how you are connecting 

with that which makes your heart sing and your spirit come alive.

As author Michael Neill discusses in his “Effortless Success” CD series, “what’s the biggest WOW you can imagine? Not the logical next step if you followed the path you’re currently on.”

How do you connect to that place of peace inside?  For me, it’s the ocean. My hope is that wherever you are, you become crystal clear about your destination and have the courage to leap to your greatness!

How? The Best Year Yet tool is a perfect place to start. You’re a click away from making the next 12 months your personal best!

All the Best,

Cindy Bostick
Mobile:  760.953.1269
Website: www.cindybostick.com
Email: cindy.bostick@bestyearyet.com

by Mike Burge, Certified Best Year Yet Program Leader, Executive Coach and Publishing Consultant

‘You know, Mike,’ a client said to me recently,  ‘I now insist that anyone I deal with on a professional basis in business, is at least aware of the Best Year Yet system, and what its PRO (Producing Results Online) component can do.’ He owns a number of very successful businesses, as well as being a sought after business mentor.

I asked him why, and his answer was filled with the sincerity and transparency that only comes through the tough real world experience of setting up a business, being close to the edge of disaster, only to come through it having learned life’s lessons – both personally and professionally. He continues to thrive from the learning. I will share his lessons, which I use in my business, in a moment.  First, a sporting metaphor…

I remember reading about Sir Jackie Stewart telling Nigel Mansell — the 3 times Formula One World Motor Racing Champion, but who at that time had yet to win a Grand Prix  – that the secret to winning a Grand Prix was a bit like having this massive bunch of keys in your hand, and only one of them unlocked the door to success – in this case, victory. Nigel went on to 31 victories, including a World Championship, and the Indy car World Championship.

Sir Jackie Stewart continued by saying that you keep trying, but you needed to keep learning the lessons, and know that if one key didn’t work, remember it and choose another. Eventually, if you had faith in your own ability and the wisdom to learn from your experience, you’d unlock the key to success. You just had to keep learning and keep taking action.

Nigel did find success. I was thrilled to be at Brands Hatch in 1985 when he found the right key to success and won his first Grand Prix. What’s interesting to note is that having found the ‘magic key’, he then put it to good use by winning the next Grand Prix in Kyalami two weeks later. Success breeds success.

Back to my client, mentor and friend – and his words of wisdom and my words of experience.

Firstly, he said, ‘what a successful business needs are the following’:

1. Offerings or services that fulfil a genuine need in your market place or niche.
2. Offerings that are priced appropriately for both your customers and you. Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity, and cash is reality!
3. Offerings and services that are targeted, marketed, promoted and publicized to your market such that they are authentically acknowledged as being at the very least good, if not great, value for money, and hence their reputation is high.
4. Offerings that are easy to purchase, be it an online or offline offering or service.

To manage a business successfully so you can focus on managing the business and using your unique strengths, you need, he continues to say, good and timely management information, regular reviews, and focused meetings with your key people. You need lagging and leading indicators to show you what needs to happen now and in the future to ensure key targets or goals are met. He then shared that a guided missile or space rocket is never on the direct straight line between its launch and its destination. It has built-in lagging and leading indicators that are constantly making minor adjustments to keep it on course.

“I’ve learned that running a business,” he told me, “is just the same. Just as that space rocket has its ‘Intel Inside’ making those corrections, Best Year Yet’s Producing Results Online (PRO) software has exactly the same. Work with the finance department or your bookkeeper/accountant to supply you with the hard facts. But use PRO to make any corrective course changes, to recognize them, and then track that they do!  Instead of policing people (or myself) – it liberates both them and me.’

Last year in a relatively short space of time, I lost some very dear friends who had made a real difference and enhanced my life and my business, especially in my early career. The impact of these losses began to make itself felt on my business. But I learned that there are times in life when you just have to allow yourself the time and space to mourn and grieve.

Soon my friends and my coach, helped me through the tough patch and by reconnecting with one of my Best Year Yet Guidelines, ‘Ask for help’, I was able to get back into the frame of mind to start taking corrective action, and get my business and myself back on track.

A short postscript. Nigel Mansell and I share the same birthday. I haven’t brought so much pleasure to so many – nor made his millions yet! However, the lessons I’ve learned from so many and the Best Year Yet PRO App and all the resources it contains, helps me to find that ‘magic key’ again and again.

Here’s to your success!