Welcome back - to Blue Monday

Richard Winfield - editor Apparently today is called Blue Monday, the most miserable day of the year! Obviously, the good news is that every day in the rest of 2008 is going to be better.

Blue Monday marks the start of the final full week of January and is seen as the time when people experience a series of combined effects. According to stress expert Dr Cliff Arnell, six external factors collide to create the problem, including the weather, the festive holiday being over, the impact of over spending at Christmas, failing to keep up your New Year's resolutions, low motivational levels and a feeling of needing to take action.

Obviously this is a northern hemisphere problem, but it is always good to sieze on something that implies that the future can only be better.

So, how has it been for you? Did you set any resolutions? Have you been keeping them up? What about your clients?

My year has been really good. Perhaps it is because I set some very simple resolutions. I am recording what I do with my personal time. not only so that I use it better, but so that I realise when I am doing so. My sense last year was that I was working hard and not getting enough time to myself - partly the result of taking on so much personal and business development and expecting to do it all outside office hours. I have also re-arranged my office to include an area for 'casual reading'.

I am also monitoring my business time to ensure that I achieve at least one thing a day - it doesn't matter how small as long as it is specific. Instead of feeling that time just flows away, I am now able to congratulate myself at least once a day - sometimes several times!

I understand that John Grinder, co-founder of NLP, aims to learn/do something new every year. This includes things like taking up ice climbing - not my style! However, last year I booked to go whitewater rafting, which caused me to join the local gym to ensure that I was fit enough. I have kept up my membership activity and probably average five swims a week and normally two weights session. I have developed muscles that I did not have and am definitely fitter. This year I have booked to go on a cattle drive in Montana and have therefore started riding lessons. It is more than 15 years since I last had lessons and I never felt confident. However, I now making great progress after only three lessons and it has done much for my morale.

What steps could your clients take which cause them to change a habit for the better, something more than just a resolution?

One of the things that I have been developing is a relationship with Buy1GIVE1Free™. B1G1 is a global service that matches businesses with worthy charitable causes right around the world so that every business transaction makes a difference somehow, somewhere, every second, every day. The matching is designed so that every transaction is linked to a very specific outcome. Collection and distribution of funds is automated so that, unlike many international charities, the administration costs of fund raising can be kept to between 3% and 8%.

B1G1forCoaches.com is a dedicated gateway to Buy1GIVE1Free™. By bringing together partners with similar businesses and interests, we are able to simplify the matching process. Instead of identifying and negotiating with a specific charity for every partner, we select a small number of charities from which partners with similar interests can choose. This means that the cost of joining can be kept low.

We have already selected UnLtd India, which provides microfinance and mentoring for social entrepreneurs, as one of our worthy causes and I am appealing for suggestions for others. Ideally they should be on different continents, especially Africa, and for different purposes, still related to coaching, mentoring or training. For example they could include a local charity which feeds children at school or provides schooling, or one that coaches or trains village women in health or nutrition.

The objective is to deal with local charites that administer their funds directly at grass roots, which do not have large bureaucracies, but which as a result might lack regular income.

If you have a suggestion, please contact me.

In the last issue before Christmas I recommended Andrew Halfacre's new guide to setting up a small business. I am very impressed by it and have persuaded him to offer another discount for a limited period. In addition, for the first time I am including an 'advertorial' Coaching Notes.

Richard Winfield is founder of Brefi Group.

An international facilitator, he coaches and

facilitates directors and boards in transition:

helping them to make progress by

bringing structure and clarity

to their thinking.