photo credit: alexkerhead

The end of December is always full of parties and year-end lists. This one is no different, except, well, there are decade-end lists, too.

It’s a good time to stop and think about what you accomplish this year, and what you want to accomplish next year.

Did you have goals for your business and for yourself? Did you accomplish them? Do you have goals for next year? Are they aggressive enough, or are you sandbagging? Can you push yourself to do more?

Was 2009 the year you took a risk? Made big changes? Got laid off? Figured out next steps? Went back to school?

Is 2010 the year you’ll make a big change in your career? Start a business? Go back to school?

A year is a long time while you’re living it, but easy to compress into a snapshot in retrospect. What you take away as the memorable moments from 2009 will define what the year meant in your life. You have a chance to influence what those will be in 2010. What will you remember?

Happy Monday! Go get ‘em, tiger.

photo credit: Ange Soleil ( a.k.a Tweng )

Next time you’re feeling down about your job, peek at this list of Top 10 Ancient Jobs That Sucked Big Time and maybe you’ll look at your to-do list with renewed enthusiasm.

You don’t even have to go back to ancient times; there are plenty of jobs today that pretty much suck, and if you’re here reading this, they’re probably not yours.

Sometimes we all need a little perspective.

Happy Monday! Hope this turns out to be a great week for all of us.

See? Good stuff. Just the kind of thing to make you look at your work in a fresh light.

Happy Monday! Make it a great week.

photo credit: Betsssssy

What? Play at work?

It sometimes seems like only the humorless are promoted to positions of power and they expect everyone else to be just as humorless. But play is linked to creativity, and without creativity, we would all be humorless drones.

So tackle your next task with imagination and wonder, and see what fun you can have even with mundane routines.

You might find a new way of doing the same old thing that saves time, produces better results, or saves money. Or all of the above.

(And by the way, if you get those kinds of results and they aren’t appreciated, maybe it’s time to find another job. One where you can work hard and be playful at the same time, get good results, and be appreciated.)

Don’t ever lose your spirit. Happy Monday!

photo credit: Pylon757

Have you ever worked hard on a project only to find that parts of your work were thrown away, or the whole project was cut for lack of funding or any other reason? Of course you have – it’s an experience nearly as common as encountering an empty coffee pot in the break room.

I bet it’s tempting to feel irritated or even angry when your work is “wasted.”

But thinking about it further, when is our work ever really wasted? Don’t we become better at what we do with each effort we make, and more apt to do it better the next time? Doesn’t that knowledge make us better at estimating how much projects will cost, how long work will take, how well we can expect the results to come out, and so on? And isn’t there often a chance to reuse and recycle some of the core pieces of that work into something else down the road?

Keep striving for excellence, and keep seeking the good in every situation, and guess what? You will find both.

Happy Monday!

photo credit: Furryscaly

Often when we talk about risk in the business world, it’s a Bad Thing. As in “minimizing risk.” “Managing risk.” And so on.

And sure, when you have an idea where you want to go and how you want to get there, risk is anything that can keep your plans from succeeding.

But let’s be honest: in our personal lives, risk can be kind of fun, too. Risk that isn’t out of proportion with potential reward is what makes life fun.

So why aren’t we more excited about taking risks in business? Why isn’t there a “risk advocate” instead of a “risk manager”?

I suppose it’s because predictability is key to efficiency and we think of efficiency and all kinds of other attributes like profitability and scalability as being nearly the same. In truth, they’re not. They may well relate, and there may be strong correlations between companies that have predictable results and those that are profitable, but there are some big, profitable companies that have taken some pretty huge risks, too.

But I’m not even advocating huge risks. I know people’s jobs can be jeopardized by bad decisions. But even little everyday risks can be rewarding. Like answering your phone when you don’t know who’s calling.

Sure, when you’re deep in the process of meeting a big deadline, it can be beneficial to tune out things like phone calls, emails, and so on. But when you emerge, it may be time to reconnect with the outside world.

The benefits that can come from an unexpected connection with a sales prospect, an unsolicited job candidate, or even someone who called the wrong extension are too random to predict, but they do happen.

We don’t often get to have serendipity in our business lives, because we don’t often allow ourselves the unpredictability.

This week, why not take a small risk or two, and see what happens?

Happy Monday!

photo credit: optimal tweezers

It’s easy to get so caught up in the process of getting things done that we don’t stop to celebrate what we have gotten done.

This week, why not take a little time to review what you have accomplished in the past week, past month, and past year? Make a list if you like, or just browse through your calendar and remind yourself of all the little beginnings, or maybe even some big beginnings, your tasks have added up to.

When you see your work in context, it’s easy to feel motivated to get back to it and do the most important things: the things that will be worth reflecting on next week, or next month, or next year.

Happy reviewing, and happy Monday!

photo credit: Sarah G…

Routine can be a helpful mechanism for getting repeating tasks done on a regular basis, but it can also trick you into blind cooperation with the past. Do all of your repeating tasks still matter? Are there others you’re doing only sporadically that could be scheduled for better reliability and efficiency? Should you be delegating some of those tasks, if you can?

Why not use a few moments this morning to review your to do list, your calendar, and your mental checklist of habits for anything that might need some freshening up. I just read through mine and noticed that I don’t have a time scheduled regularly to review our client list and projects and make sure we’re not overlooking anything we should be doing. I’m going to go schedule that now.

In other words, perhaps: don’t let the everyday craziness get in the way of a stable routine, but on the other hand, don’t let routine get in the way of your creativity.

Happy Monday!

Nicholas Holland and Jackson Miller, pictured here, launched gpsAssassin, a location-based multi-player iPhone game, after developing the company and product at last year's Nashville Startup Weekend

photo credit: tmgstudio

This weekend I participated in Nashville Startup Weekend. That’s right: the idea behind this event is to start up a business in a single weekend.

My team (which ranged over the course of the weekend from as many as 8 people at the beginning to as few as 3 people still going at 5:00 AM after Saturday’s work session, and back up to 6 when we presented our new company on Sunday evening) successfully scoped, designed, and built a prototype of a web-based application dealing with group food ordering. We also developed the business plan, marketing plan, and financials for both a bootstrapped and an invested approach all between Friday evening and Sunday afternoon.

This is not merely an exercise; this is a viable business that we will be launching in the coming weeks. Our presentation even garnered investor interest.

In short, over the course of a weekend, with the help of pizza, beer, coffee, and Red Bull, a new company was developed with a marketable product and a business model that is cash flow positive in month 1, profitable in month 3, and can either produce dividends for its creators or become an attractive acquisition target in the months and years to come. And that was only one team: several other companies formed this weekend, too.

The big takeaway from the weekend is this: it doesn’t necessarily take a lot of time or money to do something awesome. What it takes is focus and determination to get it done.

The next time you question whether something can be done, or whether you have the time or resources to do it, maybe try figuring out what you can do. And then do it. And then figure out a way to make the next step happen. And then do it.

It sounds simple enough, but inertia can be hard to overcome. Making that first step is challenging, but incredibly rewarding when it leads to a finished product.

Happy Monday! Here’s hoping your week is full of focus and determination.

photo credit: tyger_lyllie

Most employee handbooks probably don’t forbid being too serious on the job… but maybe they should. Then again, they also probably don’t explicitly forbid humor, unless it’s of the “inappropriate” variety. But a laugh among colleagues can relieve tension, deepen relationships, and make dull days seem brighter.

In short, it can make the workplace fun. And what’s more motivating than a job you actually like doing?

There’s definitely a way of taking it too far. I’m not recommending anything that risks crossing the line into harassment, although I have worked in some environments where there was almost a sense that unless you were risking HR wrath, you weren’t pushing the envelope hard enough. But that isn’t most workplaces, and that isn’t necessary for a healthy release of tension.

And it needn’t be distracting. Spending 15 minutes of every 30 minute meeting cutting up is probably a bit excessive unless you write comedy for TV. But a light comment now and then, a shared laugh with colleagues, or a running gag the whole office is in on can be the kind of thing you wake up in the morning with a smile thinking about, eager to go to work.

Is there much humor in your office? Share a laugh in the comments.