Have we ever meant “Happy New Year” quite as much as we do at the start of 2021? Yet, we’re also starting 2021 a little unsure what it will bring … because 2020 blindsided all of us, and we can’t quite relax just yet, can we? So, it’s hard to know what to say to you here as a way to welcome our analytical souls to the dawn of 2021.
But I will try.
Here’s my New Year wish for you: Forget 2020 to the degree you can and bolt the door behind it. Onward to 2021. A new start. A fresh page on which build/grow/scale the practice you want … based on the life you want.
The tagline for my coaching business is Turn The Practice You Have Into The Practice You Want!TM. I thought a lot about the tagline over the holidays, and it occurred to me that you can’t have the practice you want until you first have the life you want. The latter determines the former.
But we’ve been conditioned to think the reverse is true. That work comes before life and that we need to shoehorn our lives in and around our work. But what if we thought differently. What if we conditioned ourselves to shoehorn our work in and around our lives?
From Untamed by Glennon Doyle, a book I read over the holidays:
I looked hard at … my entire life and asked: How much of this was my idea? Do I truly want any of this, or is this what I was conditioned to want? Which of my beliefs are of my own creation and which were programmed into me? How much of who I’ve become is inherent, and how much was just inherited? How much of the way I look and speak and behave is just how other people have trained me to look and speak and behave?
Wow. And ouch. But how does this affect us … now?
Well, different people are in different stages (ages, income, kids, etc.) of their lives. And THAT should dictate the kind of practices they have … at that moment.
Yet, stages of life change (that’s why they are called stages!). But how many of our practices adapt to our stages of life changes? And how many of our practices look exactly like they did 5 or 10 or more years ago? Because that’s the way everyone else we know has done it. Because that’s what we were all taught.
We are all copying each other. But no one has bothered to check if the original was a counterfeit.
I try to practice what I preach. The practice we started in 2000 was a traditional tax purpose BV practice in center city Philadelphia. It made sense for 10 years based on the stage of life we were in. Until it didn’t.
Things shifted. So we sold three properties and just about everything else we owned. We said goodbye to family, friends, and neighbors. We moved into the RV and created the practice we wanted based on the next stage of our lives. We shoehorned our work in and around our life (and lifestyle).
At the beginning of December 2020, we closed on some land in Colorado. A new stage of our life together is percolating. A different practice model will follow.
Are you happy with your practice? Is it meeting your needs at this stage of your life? If not, your discontent may be your imagination nagging you about what your life could be, were it not for some collective thought that says what it should be.
You can’t have the practice you want until you first have the life you want.
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Tool
Cliché Finder Avoid clichés like the plague. Or, at least, only use them once in a blue moon. LOL. This is a free self-editing tool you can use to check your writing.
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Group Coaching Program
People have been asking for a Group Coaching option. Voilà!
The sessions will be on the 2nd/4th Mondays of the month, starting January 11.
There are some other goodies/benefits in addition to the actual coaching.
Are you interested?
Email me, and I will send you the details.
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Where I will be Zooming in
If I’m coming to you, let’s meet up! (Covid permitting, of course.)
> May 21: NYSSCPA Business Valuation Conference
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RV Shenanigans
Amy and I have moved on from Phoenix to Tucson but are uncertain how long we will be staying or where we might be heading next. Like many of you, much of where we go and what we do is governed by Covid caution. Our bubble is the RV and, thankfully, it is mobile. FWIW, Tucson seems to have better Covid policies and practices in place than Phoenix.
On a lighter note, every morning during the slower-paced times of the holidays Amy and I started a 15-30 minute practice of sitting in the front of the RV … looking out the window at whatever view we had … drinking coffee … and talking about life. It’s something we’ve vowed to continue doing even though the faster-paced times of normal working days have returned.
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Don’t be good. Be great.
I’ll be back on January 20.
PS – Whenever you are ready, here are 4 ways I can help you build/grow your BVFLS practice:
1. Join Practice Builder ROUNDTABLE
It’s a Facebook community for BVFLS professionals who are collaborating on how to turn the practices they have into the practices they want and sharing their ideas and expertise on how to do that.
2. Download this Find Your Niche infographic
The riches are in the niches, as they say. But what’s missing is a process that can help you identify your niche. This infographic is the missing process.
3. Take a free Practice Self-Assessment
I have 10 quick questions, and your answers will help you get a sense of how well your practice is working for you.
4. Work with me privately
If you’ve hit a time and income ceiling and want to level up, email me and tell me a little about your practice and what you’d like to work on together. Then we’ll talk.