As most people do around the start of the year, I made the typical New Year’s Resolutions…be better at something, stop doing something else, be nicer to someone, etc. I also made the typical, “I’m going to lose weight and exercise more” resolution. Well, I’ve kept that one, and to date I’m 25 lbs lighter than I was on Jan 1. Not a huge change, but enough that my pants don’t fit for the right reasons.

While there are many different diet & exercise plans out there, many fairly extreme, mine was fairly simple. I needed to eat less, eat more balanced, and get more physical activity…the basics. I charted my day, kept track of what I ate, measured the calories (there are great, easy to use tools for this, and they’re free), and tried to get an additional 30 to 45 minutes of physical activity a day.

I wasn’t always consistent, and I definitely had my off days, but I began to get in a rhythm of what to eat and when, and how and where my exercise was going to happen. I could begin to tell what type of a day I was having. I began to understand more fully what foods worked for me and in what portions. My body began to adjust, and my attitudes and activities changed ever so slightly.

So here I am, 25 lbs lighter than I was at the start of the year. As should be expected, my weight didn’t just continue to drop, rather it was a bit more like a roller coaster. However, the overall trend line moved down.

So what does this have to do with business? I’ve read a number of business and learning books over my career. I’ve read about smart business practices, case studies, top companies and their executives, how to “do anything in 30 hours,” and so on. Many of these books can be a help to some and a hinderance to others. I have known individuals during my career who freeze up because of information overload. They cannot make a decision for fear of making the wrong one. They have forgotten the basics of their business and ultimately their success.

You can be successful in business keeping to the basics. One shouldn’t have the expectation that they will sit in their office and have ground breaking, world changing idea after idea. Those moments may come, but making the small course corrections is what keeps things rolling. The details may change from industry to industry, or job to job, however one thing that should be constant is giving an honest effort. I’ve managed thousands of people in my career, and I’ll take a less educated, less experienced person who will give me an honest day’s effort over a more educated and more experienced individual any day. Skills and knowledge can be taught & learned, however true, honest effort comes from a desire to work…to build something. That level of effort comes with integrity. They know when they are giving their best, and they don’t compare their effort to that of others.

The other constant is learning your business. I recently read the autobiography of Larry H. Miller, titled Driven. It’s a very interesting book detailing his work in the auto industry, ownership of the Utah Jazz, and his personal life. Early in his career in the parts side of the auto industry, he was determined to know everything about the parts he sold. He wanted to know how they fit on the car, why one part worked better than another, what the right combination of parts were to fix a problem, where everything was in the store, and how the business was run. He worked tirelessly to know the business.

In order to be great, we have to take one step at a time. We need to know our business, all the little intricacies, and how all the pieces fit together. When we get too comfortable with where we are, we lose sight of where we are trying to go. People, process, technology all pass us by. When we finally do look up we realize that much of what we do is obsolete.

Back to my weight loss for a moment. I had lost that 25 lbs by the end of May. Here we are almost at the end of June and I haven’t lost anymore. As I reflect on the past month I’ve become lazy again. I haven’t been careful with what I eat, and I haven’t been getting my increased physical activity. Thus, I’m stuck. Luckily I haven’t gained it back, but I’m not losing more…and I still have 50 lbs to lose.

A career is the same way. I have found at times in my career where I’m not giving my best effort and have stopped learning about my business. I do the same things every day, and usually fall into the misnomer that I can manage with email and from behind my desk. Usually, some measure of job dissatisfaction creeps in at this time, and I start thinking about the grass on the other side of the fence. However, once I “wake up” and start putting in my honest effort, and trying to see what I can improve, build, who I can develop, etc., the satisfaction returns. I begin to truly contribute to the success of my company, and I typically begin to have one or two of those great ideas to try and implement.

business · personal development · work