January is always a great month – it signifies new beginnings, a fresh start and excitement about possibilities of the New Year! Yes, this is an exciting year, even if the media and the stock market continue to indicate differently. Turbulent times provide tremendous opportunities depending on your perspective!

Perspective is a powerful force in how we manage our business and our lives. Do you see the glass half empty or half full? Based upon how you see the glass, you are either an optimist or a pessimist. Today, our perspectives are being bombarded continually by 24/7 information. However, in that fevered pitch, ask yourself about your perspective. Do you have an RE perspective or EX perspective?

RE is a Latin prefix meaning “again, back”.

EX is a Latin prefix meaning “out, beyond, forth”.

Here is a simple test to see if your perspective is more RE dominate or EX dominate.

When you think about your business or your life, which column best describes your perspective?

RE                EX

Review                Explore

Reevaluate            Expand

Reengineer            Extend

Recommit            Excite

Rework                Experience

Recover            Express

Resolve                Explain

Retain                Exercise

Refocus                Execution

Rebound            Excellence

Did you lean more toward the RE dominate or the EX dominate?

Just like the glass, you can continue to rework your business looking backwards with an RE perspective or you can expand your business with an EX perspective.

The opportunity for expansion occurs when we abandon our RE mindset and move forward into powerful EX thinking. Now is the time for innovative exercise, creative expression and expansion of thought. History has shown that great expansion occurs in great challenges.

Here is a great opportunity for you to begin your New Year embracing a new EX. An EX that hits the spot! An EX that guides your business to new levels of excitement, expression, execution and expansion! Have an excellent January!

Welcome to 2009!

“We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.” Edith Lovejoy Pierce

2009 marks the beginning of a new era for business as we know it. The days of incremental improvement, hit or miss execution and a reluctance to maintain relevancy have come to a harsh and painful halt. We are entering a period of profound business transformation. In this period of transformation, there are many new growth opportunities for those individuals and companies willing and open to innovation and expansion.

In this time of transformation there are many factors that will influence our lives and businesses over next several years, including:

1. Increased unemployment, particularly among white collar baby boomers.

    

2. Emergence of Generation Y en mass in the workforce and marketplace.

    

3. Continued expansion of women-owned and minority-owned businesses.

    

4. Continued growth in franchise development, even with capital limitations.

    

5. Implications from the Macro – Economic Environment.

    

6. More wide spread acceptance of the integration of technology in business.

Independently, any one of these factors can be perceived positively or negatively. The real opportunity is how you can leverage these factors in your business in new and innovative ways. The collective convergence of these factors also has the potential to create new paradigms for business. In this time of transformation, there are exciting opportunities to create new ways of doing business to address the needs of the marketplace. There are also excellent opportunities to leverage new opportunities in your career path too!

The New Year brings each of us a tremendous opportunity to transform our business and our lives. We can choose to write new words in the “book of the New Year” and engage in the new way of doing business.

As the New Year begins, take advantage of the opportunity to transform your business and your career to paraphrase Edith Pierce Lovejoy, “open your Book of Opportunity to the blank pages in the first chapter and fill it with your new words of success and transformation.”