Tips & Insights for Top Performance

1. Set Boundaries  Decide when and where you will check voicemail and e-mail. Limit your time and frequency of checking to one time a day. You are on vacation!

2. Business Cards  Take 100 business cards and pass out along the way. You never know who will be so thankful that your paths crossed. A great habit is to pass out 5 cards a day, and while you are on vacation let your journey take your card distribution into new territories!

3. Cd’s and Tapes  There are so many motivational and educational tapes you can listen to as you drive, fly and relax. This is a great time to soak in new information or review old information. You are on vacation, so don’t act on it; just savor it!

4. Books  Take one book and really get it read! Rather than packing five that you “hope to get to,” be serious about one and enjoy reading it.

5. Ideas  Before you go, pick something you would like to discover or get new ideas about. Take the questions with you as conversation starters and gather information from those around you. Pick their brains. They have great ideas and you might be able to glean new resources and information that will be greatly applicable when you return.

6. Perspective  Look at your business from a new perspective. Look at your business from the framework of relaxing on the beach, enjoying the breathtaking mountains, etc. What is possible here? What can you take from this view and apply to or bring into your business?

7. Explore  Look at phone books, ads, posters and businesses around you. Check out the needs and saturation of your market. Is your vacation spot your next target area?

8. Focus  Evaluate your goals and progress. Where have you been and what do you want? Revise your goals and set new ones. While you are away from the office it is a great time to do some longer “thinking” activities that you do not have time for when you are in the chaos and rush of normal schedules and business life!

9. Journal  Spend some time just writing down and capturing your ideas. What are you learning and noticing? What do you want to do differently when you get back? Brainstorm something new. Write a top ten to keep your mind sharp. Writing is powerful. Even if you never look at the entry again, there is an amazing connection in the act of writing thoughts down and remembering them later!

10. Keep Motivation Pieces  Look for an item (postcard, picture, souvenir, etc.) that is motivational to take back with you into your working day. Bring your trip and the inspiration from it back with you!

Christy Geiger, Executive Business Coach & Trainer, Minneapolis, MN

This is a great book that can be read in one sitting and then re-read over the course of 8 days or 8 weeks. Phenomenal MUST read. It includes 8 easy to digest mentoring sessions that one of the authors, David Cottrell, had sitting at the feet of a business master. Each chapter/session includes great reminders for every business person to remember and integrate into how they work personally and with others. Whether through work, volunteerism, family or elsewhere, these timeless tips are motivational and applicable for every person. He talks about many things we have shared before and also has some new tips. In the sessions on time management, one key statement I found motivational and true was from p. 63: “I’ve never found anyone who had two or three hours a day they could save by doing one thing better. But, I have seen many people find an hour or two a day they could use better by doing a few things differently.” If you want to make better use of your time, you need to be looking for the small increments of time… a minute here, five minutes there, etc. Add them all up and you’ll create more time for you to use.” There is much more. Get the book for your library!