Andrew Baird Blog

Welcome to 2010 - Here’s to another fantastic year :D.  My first post for this year is based around what we spent our New Years break doing - relaxing and chilling out.  And it’s something that is vital for us to do - life can be so hectic these days (whether you own a business or not) and it’s crucial that we create some space to step away from everything and rejuvenate.

We spent ours at Oreti which is a blissfully quiet resort beside Lake Taupo.  I had discussed with my Coach what we would do at the end of the year to know that we had made it and achieved so much during the year.   I got a clear mental picture of relaxing on a deck with both the kids asleep and us looking out over Taupo - fortunately Kim was able to find the resort that fitted my mental picture.

We intentionally set it up so that we did relax and renew ourselves - no TV, no games, just books and quality time together as a family.  I read Andre Agassi’s new book “Open: An Autobiography” - which is an amazing read and I know I’ll read it again - plus I’ll probably do a post on what I got out of the book.

We also spent some time working more on the Vision for Amazing Business and this has really helped us hit the ground running this year - and to know what to focus on and what to delete.  I realised last year that Vision was the big thing that was missing and holding us back, and given how inspired I have felt for the start of this year I know it’s building powerfully on the work on Vision we did last year.

So far it has also confirmed for me a theory that one of our clients (who has taken a new business from $0 to worth over a million dollars in less than a year) has - he believes that the way you start your year sets the tone and the energy for the year ahead.  Here’s to more of this energy because I’m loving it - how did you spend your New Years?

So I arrived back on Monday from a week in Australia, I had a good break and an exciting time both with the people I caught up with and the events I attended.  But this post is actually about what happened at home while I was away.

We often think that people stay the same and don’t change, of course this isn’t true - and if you’re hanging out with the right people it’s definitely not true.  In the case of kids though we all take for granted that they change over time, and boy was this true of my son Rylan (almost 3) while I was away.

I would call my wife Kim and Rylan while I was away so I kept up with what they were up to, on the Sunday before I came home I called them to see if they were ready for me to come home.  I spoke to Kim first and then she put Rylan on, I asked him “Are you going to come and pick Daddy up from the Airport?”  The reply came back crystal clear “Yes, but not Today, because today we’re going to see Vanessa and Jeremy and the Horsey and the Doggy!”

Wow, to think it was only a year ago he started putting sentences together, and my being away had given him a real concept of today, and tomorrow.  Which is great for managing our lives, but can cause us to be forever reaching for something that’s out there, instead of being happy with where we’re at today, right now.

When I was met at the airport it was Rylan who spotted me, “There’s Daddy!” and he ran up to give me a big hug.  Not only was he taller he was also more excited to see me than the presents I had brought - these changes just keep getting better and better!

Of course I let him know how proud I was of him, and how well he had looked after Mummy while I was away.  This is something we often forget with the people around us who are growing and changing, do you compliment them and let them know that they are changing for the better and helping make the world a better place.

I hope you do, and remember if you haven’t been you can change it right now by giving someone around you some positive feedback.  And if it’s you who’s been improving, then I salute you too!