Focus on What Really Matters: YOURSELF

As we turn the corner from 2014 and enter 2015, many of us will use this moment to clear the decks and think about changes we want to implement personally and professionally in the year ahead.

To help everyone set their year up for success, here are ways you can keep the right level of focus on yourself in 2015.

1.   Set attainable goals

Set both near and long-term goals. If you think about where you want to be in six months, what do you need to do in the previous months to get there?  You can’t eat an entire steak with one bite. Goals are the same way. Give yourself a chance to make “bite-sized” progress. Share your goals with others and set check-ins to keep yourself honest. Provide plenty of transparency, so they can help motivate and calibrate your progress.

2.   Try to live in the present

If you can find a way to maximize each day across the things that matter most like family, health and work, you will find yourself in a happier, more productive, and more fulfilled state of mind.

Manage your day so you can make the most out of it. Set routines and give yourself the flexibility to live within a schedule. Give yourself more credit. Not every day will be perfect. Maybe you don’t have time to go on a five-mile run. If you can find time for a 30 minute walk instead, great. Give yourself credit for establishing good habits and behaviors.

3.   Make your health a priority

Think about the areas you really need to focus on. Perhaps it is diet, exercise or getting more sleep. The best thing you can do is to get educated. For example, don’t jump into a hardcore diet. Instead, try and meet with a nutritionist to develop a program that is tailored to you. Don’t try and do too much too soon. Doing so may create setbacks that not only hamper your progress but demotivate you.

4.   Leave behind negative influences

You know people who are negative, always complain, are overly skeptical and generally don’t support an ongoing positive attitude. Ignore them. Don’t spend your energy with them. Learn your triggers and deal with them. If you can zero in on your triggers, you can make immediate and impactful changes.

5.   Pace yourself and make all 365 days count

Leverage the seasons. For example, if you are focused on your health make the winter a time when you focus on diet. Leave the spring to get into running shape, so by summer you will be rolling. Think about the principles you want to reflect every day. Write them down and read them every day. If you can give yourself regular reminders, by the 365th day of 2015, you will have turned your desired changes into permanent ones. 

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Keys For A Happy Financial New Year

For many people, the New Year signifies a fresh start. The mental and spiritual batteries are recharged after the drain of the hectic holidays. We’re more optimistic. We’re open to new possibilities, new strategies, and new aspirations. New Year can be a time to think about personal and financial goals and the “new” commitments you plan to make. Yet, for all the initial enthusiasm, keeping yourself motivated, committed and moving toward the accomplishment of those goals is often tough. Here are personal finance tips that can help you toward a happier new year.

1.   Set clear goals. 

We’re talking any goal you’d like to work toward or achieve in the New Year that has financial consequences. For example, perhaps you want to work less so you can spend more time with your family, or you want to change to a career that excites you more but that pays less.

Setting specific, realistic goals—and writing them down—is such a powerful financial tool for realizing them. It not only clarifies what you have to do financially to achieve the goals, it motivates you to achieve them within a specific timeline. Saving for something provides much more financial incentive than merely following the standard advice to save 10 or 15 percent of your monthly pay.

2.   Discuss the goals with your family. 

They can help you clarify the goals, motivate you to make changes, and aid in their achievement.

3.   Create a financial plan. 

All financial actions (or inactions) affect other financial actions. If your financial left hand doesn’t know what your financial right hand is doing, one may undermine the other. For example, lack of adequate insurance for home, health, and other aspects of your life could decimate your retirement savings and investments if something goes wrong.

You may need professional advice at this stage, or you may feel you can do it yourself. Regardless, the key is creating and following through with the plan.

4.   Review the last year. 

Life is continually in flux and change can have a profound impact on your financial plans. For example, during the past year did you get married or divorced, have a child, change jobs, or change short-term or long-term goals?

5.   Establish a spending plan. 

Achieving financial goals is built on a single principle: spend less money than you earn. First, list your regular, dependable sources of income. Then track how much and where you spend money every month (including cash). Average out on a monthly basis periodic expenses such as car insurance or property taxes.

Subtract monthly expenses from monthly income and…do you have a surplus, are you in balance, or are you spending more than you’re taking in? Are you skimming 5 or 10 percent right off the top of your income for savings and investing? If not, what expenses can you reduce or income increase in order to save toward goals? Automate savings to make it less painful.

6.   Reduce debt. 

Resolve to lower debt this year. As interest rates rise, every dollar of accumulated debt becomes a heavier and heavier drag on your entire financial life.

7.   Diversify your household assets. 

You know not to put all of your investment eggs in one basket (such as high-tech stocks). Apply this advice to your overall financial household. If possible, working spouses should be employed in separate companies in separate industries in order to reduce the possibility of both of you losing jobs at the same time. Go easy on company stock and industry stock where you work. If your employer or the industry suffers hard times, you might lose not only your job but also much of the value of your investments. Avoid investing in a single business or industry that dominates the economy where you live. If the company or industry suffers, so might your home values along with your investments.

8.   Educate yourself financially. 

The more you understand about finances—from budgeting to investments to insurance—the more confident and motivated you’ll be to take the right financial steps this year.

With 2014 behind us, don’t feel pressured to make resolutions because you feel you should. Instead, open yourself to the possibility that setting concrete financial goals can be the start of some truly positive changes in your life. Remember, the clearer your goals are, the more confident and motivated you’ll be to take the right financial steps in 2015 and beyond. Best to you in the New Year, and happy goal setting!

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Future Business Leader

Besides the traditional hard skills of accounting, marketing, and finance, the business executive of the future will be a leader and a visionary rather than merely a manager, he will have a global outlook and be knowledgeable of information systems and technology, he will capitalize on diversity and be a master of teamwork, he will be creative and show initiative, he will be able to discern patterns and opportunities in apparent chaos and have the ability to synthesize information rather than just analyze it, and, above all, he will be strong on interpersonal skills and be able to communicate effectively. In short, being smart and well trained in traditional business areas will no longer be enough for the business leader of the twenty-first century.

Specifically, the ideal business leader of the future must be cross functional, or have the ability to combine disparate skills to solve problems. He must be a visionary and a leader; that is, he must combine hard work and a deep understanding of the business in which he is in with the ability to inspire others to also work hard to make the vision a reality. He must work effectively on teams, be accepted by others as the person with the best sense of the challenge confronting the group, and be able to break problems into manageable, status-free tasks that others are willing to focus on. He must have a deep understanding of global issues and the ethical aspects of her business decisions. He must be familiar with and be able to use information technology and be comfortable with technology in general. He does not have to be a scientist, but he must understand in detail how the technology incorporated in the product or service that the firm sells works and avoid calling the experts every time he has to make a decision. He must have some experience with excellence – in whatever field – so as to recognize it and encourage it in others when he sees it.

Sounds impossible? Maybe it is, but those who come closer to this ideal will rise to the pinnacles of business leadership in the future. Having an M.B.A. from a good school is important, but in today’s world no one is automatically impressed. The business leader of the future must sell himself and above all must perform. Today’s corporations have enormous expectations from its newly minted M.B.A.s, often expecting them to have talents and abilities that few chief executives possess. Most of the 700 or so business schools, from Harvard to the most modest, understand this and are striving to reengineer the training of M.B.A.s to reflect the qualifications that the future business leader must possess for the new, competitive, dynamic world of the twenty-first century. The difficulty is that many of the new required skills are hard to measure and teach in the classroom, and that is why many business schools are taking in students who already have some business and real-world experience. 

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