Perspective

I watched an inspiring movie last night. "Soul Surfer" is the story of Bethany Hamilton, a girl living in Hawaii, who surfs every day and is an aspiring professional surfer.  At age 13 Bethany looses her left arm in a shark attack.  Unbelievable she is surfing again within a month of the attack, learing how to stand up on her board with the use of only 1 arm.

Soon after she finds that she no longer has her previous skills and falls into despair believing she has lost everything.  However a trip to help victims of the 2004 Tsunami, helps her to take a step back from her own loss and gain new perspective on her situation.

It is very hard to see the big picture of our lives, given the fact that we are head down involved in them full time. When we loose our temper over the little things in life, we need to step back and take a wider view.  If we do this we may become thankful for what we have, rather than being frusterated by little things.

The same problems arises in business life.  We sometimes take a very narrow view of our business, because we are busy working in our business rather than taking a step back and working on our business.  Some strategies that I have found has helped with our business and clients business in order to get a wider perspective are:

• Plan regular strategy meetings. Monthly or quarterly. These meetings should involve all decision makers within your business, and focus not on day to day management issues, but rather longer term strategy.
• Include an external advisor on your board of management. Someone with a different set of skills, without the baggage of working in the business day to day, can provide fresh ideas.
• Speak to other successful business people about business.  Having a business mentor is a great to have someone who you can trust to bounce ideas and concerns off.
• Keep up to date.  Attend seminars put on by your industry. Look for seminars outside of your industry. Read books or listen to audio books if you hate reading.

After Bethany Hamilton came back from the Tsunami zone she trained hard and realised her dream of becoming a professional surfer.  She also has become an inspiration to others who have had life changing moments or faced a traumatic event. 

All from gaining a new perspective of her situation and a hard work ethic!