The Full attribution for the quote is, “The secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda.” – John Maxwell – Make Today Count.

Another quote that gets right to the nitty gritty is this one; “Effective prioritizing is a major time challenge for most people, yet it is so simple. The hard part is disciplining yourself to stay with the current main thing” – Robyn Pearce – About Time.

As a solo dad – new to town, new to a corporate role, new to being father AND mother, it immediately dawned on me that time was going to be a precious commodity. I had my three young children to bring up by myself. They were 6, 8 and 10. There was no going back. The boats were burned and the bridges blown up – as the saying goes. This was the ‘real deal’ and if it was to be it was up to me. We know all those clichés are real easy to say but when it comes to walking the talk, well, it’s a whole new ball game.

Your great critics are your kids. I still get the ‘feedback’ about what I did wrong …

There was no grandparent or mother around, so rebellion and criticism was handled with a firm hand. It really was ‘my way or the highway’ – sergeant-major style. My kids enjoy reminding me of it from time to time but I note, with pleasure, that they come back to see me anyway. Before this truly traumatic event in my life in 1980; banking had taught me the need for efficiency. As a head ledger keeper of a major bank at aged 20, I either balanced the ledgers on a daily basis or I stayed at work until I did. Cricket had taught me analysis, discipline and teamwork. Shift work taught me how to relax, to rest and to sleep any time anywhere. 8 years of rotating 80 hours of shifts doesn’t do much for social life and working on weekends highlighted to me that every day is 24 hours and it’s what you do in it that makes the difference. The ‘inner grandfather’ has given me feel of better balance.

When teaching new aspirants to the profession of investment, insurance and financial planning and new clients to values based goal setting and investment based strategic planning, I realize now that that naturally comes from experience but ‘energy comes from passion’ in the field.

Prioritizing consists of 5 elements and remember prioritizing is the major time challenge we all face. The first one: Know the big picture. If you don’t know what really matters to you in life – i.e. your goals, principles and purposes – you will follow other people’s goals and purposes. You need to make that choice: driver’s seat or passenger’s seat. Next one: Understand the difference between urgent and important. Things that are really important are really urgent and the surprising number of urgent matters are not really important. Again, most often urgency is driven by third party. Next: Develop a pro-active focus so that every day you spend time working on something long term and important. Not urgent but anything that will make a long term difference. Just 5 minutes is enough. Education, finance, investment knowledge, business, health. Next: To plan your activities for the week. Do this on the same day in the same way. You must master this. It is my one key frustration in teaching planning. And finally: Every morning do your daily planning. Look at your planner.

Why it is in life that we most often change due to some traumatic event.

A health scare before we do something about diet, weight and exercise. A relationship scare before we do something about communication timeout mutual goal setting. A financial scare before we do something about our peace of mind and financial control. An employment scare before we do something about focusing to our real passion and competence. Death of a friend or a family member before we do something about our own mortality. Yes I am biased, planning is my profession and my life seems to be a progression of learning events. That is what we offer and planning is what we do.

So I am looking forward to being with my kids and their kids this Christmas. I will take their feedback on the nose. I am at peace. Age has withered the personality but not dented the passion.

John Killick
CEO, FSB4 Financial.

Our office will be closing on Friday 23^rd December 2011 at 12:00pm and will be re-opening on Monday 9^th January 2012 at 8:30am.

If you have any urgent queries during this time please contact your product supplier:

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