Ten things to make 2014 a world-class year

1.    Provide outrageous value every year: People do business with people they like and trust, so make it your goal to go beyond the call of duty in all of your interactions with customers. In a world that has become low touch-high tech, the best thing you can do is make people feel really special. Whilst other providers will talk price and benefits, they won’t be able to duplicate how you make someone feel. Prices, benefits and terms are always forgotten but not the way you have made them feel.

2.    Think 80/20: Focus on the 20 per cent that generates 80 per cent of the revenue. Don’t get caught up in being busy doing the things that don’t matter.

3.    Write a 'not to do' list: What are you wasting your time on? What are you doing that is not income producing? Keep a 30-minute log of your work day for five days and this will provide you with a cat scan of your life. Cross out everything you do that does not lead to a result driving you forward.

4.    Take the 30-day fitness trial: Exercise every morning for 30 days. Do something you love. Run, walk, bike ride, swim or go to the gym. Make your decision after 30 days on whether to continue. Don’t decide before you do it because you will be lying to yourself as to whether this has worked for you. If I was a betting man, I would bet the fact you will have more energy, feel more alert, sleep better and feel extraordinary so you will never go back to waking up late, feeling tired and lethargic and going through the motions.

5.    Become a student at everything you do. Be curious about becoming an expert in your field. Read books. Listen to audio books. Ask questions of experts and mentors. Attend training. Do a self-audit and identify areas of self-improvement. Once you have found those areas go into ‘renovation mode’ and start fixing. By the way, your car is a university on wheels and you can choose to listen to stuff that is motivating and inspiring, or you can choose to listen to talk back radio and the fact that interest rates may go up, and that Madonna has adopted another baby.

6.    Write your 100 thing bucket list: On a clean paper, write down 100 things you want to do before you die. Go crazy, go wild. Watch the World Cup football final in Europe, take your family to Disneyland, snorkel in the Maldives, skydive, run the New York marathon or write a book. By the way, go and watch the movie The Bucket List.

7.    Other people’s opinions are none of your business: No need to worry what everyone is thinking of you. No need to please them. As Bill Cosby says: “I don’t know the key to success, but I know the key to failure is trying to please everybody”. It’s not what people say or think that’s the problem, it’s whether we give permission to these things to upset us.

8.    Make Sunday schedule day: Spend one hour on Sunday scheduling your ‘big rocks’ into your diary. Put everything in, including health and fitness, personal development, business meetings, and family time. What gets scheduled gets done. Before you know it, your weeks will be world class and the habit of being super productive and living your best life will be realised. All by that ‘hour of power’ on Sunday.

9.    Build a world-class environment to support your success: Do an audit on your environment, from your office to your friends to the food you have in the fridge. For instance, if being around certain people makes you feel discouraged or drained, limit your time with them. If having chocolates in the fridge is too tempting, replace with healthy protein bars or fruit. What’s in your CD player? Is it inspiring like great music or a brilliant book?

10.    Self-renewal: Have a mini vacation every week to regenerate yourself. It might be something as simple as having a massage one afternoon or taking time out to connect to nature. You will find that you will have more clarity, make better decisions and feel a lot more energetic in doing your business.