Living the pleasurable end result

It pays you on your journey of achievement,

To regularly go to your pleasurable end result.

Taste your victory, sample your spoils, feel what it feels like,

It won't cost you a cent, only the time and effort it takes,

To vividly imagine a future of your design, moving in and  living in it for a short while,

breathing it in and letting your hopes and dreams grow,

Going back to your future is the thing to do,

regularly and religiously,

on your journey of achievement.

It's like smelling your own roses as you go along.

This is only the beginning. Get to know clarity. Email me, Mike Kennedy...

Values - Based Succession Planning

 It is estimated that the biggest transfer of business assets in Australian History will happen between 2005 and 2030 as businesses built on the shoulders of economic growth generated from the ‘greatest generation’ (those born between 1910 and 1944) and the ‘Baby Boom’ generation (born between 1945 and 1965) are transferred at death to their children and grandchildren.  

Most of the financial planning industry tends to focus on what happens to the "Fortune" rather than what happens to the "Family".

WILL YOUR CORE VALUES BE TRANSFERRED?

If you leave it to chance, probably not.

The Chinese have a proverb:   

"Wealth tends to pass through three generations. The first generation creates the wealth; the second lives off it; the third squanders it."

This tendency of "inherited wealth and business" is called "Affulenza" (the wasting of wealth)

How do you ensure that your business is valued, nurtured and grown in the stewardship of your children?


WHERE HAVE OUR CORE VALUES COME FROM?

Our "greatest generation" literally fought for our world in World War II and came back and embarked on a period of economic growth and baby making, with a strong push toward giving their kids a "better life" than they ever had.

These kids were the Baby Boomers - they had more opportunity and more privileges than their parent's ever had. They had plenty of time to experiment and they rode the technological and information revolutions, creating businesses that their parent's hadn't even imagined.


WHAT IS THE MOST COMMON MISCONCEPTION IN BUSINESS SUCCESSION PLANNING?

Every parent wants their children to have it ‘better’ than they did, and this is reflected in the examples they live and the values they teach – or fail to teach – their children and grandchildren.

 However, many sucession planners buy into the myth that business estate, retirement or financial planning is only about transferring
‘the Money, Assets and Business’ rather than  
'the quality of life and core values.'

Instead of starting with what they want their children and grandchildren to stand for and accomplish, many bypass these issues entirely and focus instead on the fortune rather than the family.

As a result,Business Succession Planning and Retirement become focused on trust documents, notarized signatures, coverage amounts and funding rather than how these useful tools implement the vision and goals of the parents. 
  
HOW TO MAKE YOUR SUCCESSION PLANNING 'COUNT'.

As a long-time practicing personal business coach and trainer, I’ve seen clients (and the professionals who should have served them better) in a rush to put their pens to paper rather than first discussing the client’s priorities and values.

Here are two quick & simple processes to help you create a more favorable outcome dealing with these people:

• Start with a thinking-and-valuing exercise that amounts to a quiet personal assessment of: 

‘What really matters?’

Honestly consider what kind of example and values you want passed down to your children.  Describe  the kind of steward you have been of what you have earned and invested so far.

Write down the core values, dreams and objectives that you want to matter in the lives of your children – and yes, your grandchildren!

The end result should be your own personal ‘Values and Vision Statement’. It should reflect what you and your children as adults will be known to stand for.  Email me for a template to help you do this.

• Next, is an exercise called: 

‘I Suddenly Died Today and Didn’t Get to Say Goodbye.’

Even though it may be uncomfortable, take about 30 minutes to jot down what would actually take place over the next two years following your sudden death today versus what you hope or guess or think might happen.

This is often a real ‘eye-opener’ if you own a business, have investments, are paying for a home, have debts, children or plans for the future.

Most of us want to die in our old age, at home in bed, without pain, still looking good, surrounded by our adoring family and with all our bills paid and our dreams attained. That may happen if we plan it for it.

These two steps can be done in either order. They are best done in private, but always in a relaxed setting. With these steps complete, Succession Planning has a context to help you plan your business succession and asset protection for your children and grandchildren.

In the end, Business Succession Planning is about legal and financial arrangements drawn up by accountants and lawyers, but they should always be based on a solid foundation of ensuring that your ‘core values’ are reflected in the planning and documents you sign.

This is only the beginning. Get to know clarity. Email me, Mike Kennedy...

Champagne Style on Your Income - Yes it's Possible! - We Show You How!

You have two visions of fulfilment: the ego's vision and the soul's vision.

The ego's vision is:
"I need to get everything I need to be comfortable, I am serene because bad things can't come near me. Through hard work, anything can be achieved. I measure myself through my achievements. I win much more than I lose. I have a strong self image. Because I'm attractive, I win the attention of the opposite sex. When I find the perfect love, it will be on my terms."

The Soul's vision is:
"I am everything I need. I am secure because I have nothing to fear in myself. The flow of life's abundance brings me everything. I do measure myself by any external standard. Giving is more important than winning. I have no self image; I am beyond images. Other people are attracted to me as soul to soul. I can find perfect love because I have discovered it first in my self."

The institutional-isers and marketers always feed your ego's needs, fears and desires.

They make you think that the Champagne Style costs you money - that's how you sell your soul for a life of misery.

Thanks to Seth Godin and Deepak Chopra for inspiring this post!

This is only the beginning. Get to know clarity. Email me, Mike Kennedy...

Distinctions of Vision, Purpose, Strategy, and Policy.

Vision is about desired ends.It is imaginal, a projected future where valued principles are preserved.

Purpose is about why the business exists. The business is defined in terms of what difference it makes in the world. It must reflect the values stated in the vision.

Strategy is about choices between desired ends. In this sense, strategy translated ends into means. It describes the priorities needed to achieve the purpose, while also being true to the stated values.

Policy is about operational means of achieving the desired ends specified by the vision, purpose and strategy. (Because policy is derived and interpreted from strategy, through the medium of various management styles, it is particularly vulnerable to misinterpretation and mismatching of values and practices.)


- that's it from me, Mike Kennedy,
Want to work with me? Email Mike...

Change in relation to Vision

Change can be expressed as the negotiation or the renegotiation of shared meaning about what is to be valued, believed in and aimed for.

Organisational change constitutes a renewal of parts or even the whole of organizational culture, structures, processes and relationships with the outside environment.

Vision represents a stable, future looking value system, which dictates appropriate and approved behaviours. The vision governs methods of doing business, methods of interacting in the workplace and methods of relating to outsides forces. The expectations are that the negotiated values will be upheld in daily transactional business. The role and function of visions statements are to make the organisation’s values publicly accessible.

- that's it from me, Mike Kennedy,
Want to work with me? Email Mike...

Some Really Cool Distinctons about Vision, Genius and Insanity

This is an exerpt that has some really incredible distinctions about Visions, Visionaries and the different positions of Genius and Insanity.

You will find lots more great stuff from this very interesting man, Charles Burke @

http://www.bullseye-living.com/

"Visionaries perceive a reality that’s “out there” in the vast ocean of possibility, and as they spend more time imagining it, it becomes increasingly real to them. (Please note that imagination and intuition are actually the same faculty, but we call it by different names depending on how it’s being used.) And that vision actually IS real from the beginning, even before the visionary intuits it. But to the rest of us it’s only real in potential. It’s still limited to just something swimming in one guy’s head.
Also notice I said that it becomes more and more real to THEM.

The insane person makes little or no effort to bring that distant reality into connection with the common reality. They just go and live there, and think that everyone should believe them that it’s real.

Well, it is real — out there in the unconnected distance… in the great potential, or what some people call the slurry of “quantum soup” that swirls everywhere and everywhen. But as a species, we’re not trained to believe that EVERY possibility is real, although they all are.

The difference between the insane person and the high-achieving genius is this: they both find fabulous new realities “out there” in possibility land, but only the genius makes whatever enormous effort it takes to bring their vision, their private reality, into the common reality.

I should also add the qualifier that some insane people choose realities that contradict “known” facts: “You can’t be Cleopatra… we’ve already had one of those.” Or “Aliens could not have planted a box in your stomach because our x-ray machines can’t see it.’

In general, to the degree that a genius fails, he’s just another nut case.
In other words, the difference — the only difference — is whether WE can perceive that reality of theirs. It’s our value judgment, not a hard “real” difference. The genius gets this, and works to share, while the person we call “crazy” usually does not.

Now, Let’s bring this down into practical terms, such as “how do I focus my mind on riches so that they come into my life?”
Short answer? You share your vision with others — not by telling them about it but by causing it to physically intersect with and impact their lives. And the more positive you can make the impact, the sooner other people will begin to join you in “believing” in that reality.

Example: You want millions? As you explore that reality in your intuition, find the ways that you provide value worthy of those millions. Of course you can’t perform at the million dollar level immediately, but if you keep after that vision of yours, you’ll tease from it the exact ways that you can begin giving value right here, right now. Remember, that distant “not-yet-real” reality is infinitely flexible in that state, and you can find ways and ideas and inspirations for anything, for any way to get from here to there. As you begin finding ways of transferring your vision from out there to here and now, your impact, your circle of influence will spread. And people will start helping you import your potential reality into the common experience.

This is what I mean by a genius making whatever effort it takes to bring his or her private reality into the common pool of existence.
You see, genius wants to actively bring change to the common reality. Insanity, on the other hand, wants to escape it. Genius engages reality, while insanity retreats from it. It’s literally a case of active versus passive, or stated more extremely, courage versus cowardice."

End of excerpt.

Speaking of courage - remember who paid with his life to bring his dream to the common reality:

Have you got a 30 year vision?

Recently, I wrote myself a thirty year vision.

I got the idea from the doctor telling me that my Downes Syndrome son is aging about twice as fast as a normal child and was probably going to have a 50 year life span.

This of course threw me into an emotional state and I went away to think about it and was looking for the opportunity in this.

Ever since my son was born, I was thinking about how I could care for him once I was dead. It's a parent thing - you just don't think anyone else will take care of your kid! I'd never thought about life after my death - in fact I never liked thinking about my death anyway! But I often worried about this - I hear that this is something that a lot of parents do.

Suddenly I thought - I just have to live longer than my son! I think this is possible! I'm 53 now, my son is 11 - I just have to live another 39 years and I've nailed it - he will be taken care of!

And so, I am planning to live to 92 years of age. My mother is gearing up for her 90th birthday next month and looks like she's going strong! So I have the genes! I also read recently that if you get past 45 in the western world, you have successfully avoided the big killers and have a good chance of living a long life.

I'd just read over Chrismas, a fantastic book called "Avoid Retirement and Live!" by David Bogan and Keith Davies - which had inspired me to develop some tools to help people create an amazing life after retirement.

I had built this fantastic tool that helped you write a thirty year vision, sitting in my tool file, awaiting a test run.

So I jumped into the process, turned it on and took it for a spin.

It took off - my hair was plastered back - my heart was pumping - this was an amazing process!

I raced thirty years forward. What state do I want my body to be in? I asked myself. I want to be fit, flexible and healthy I wrote - I quickly raced back to the here and now and made a mental note about starting yoga and seeing a naturapath. Having done this, I raced back thirty years ahead.

What state do I want my mind to be in? Absolute clarity - sharp as a tack - still learning every day - engaging people in challenging conversations - Wow! I raced back to now and made a mental note about ginko biloba and ginseng and mental disciplines. Having done this I raced back thirty years.

And so on through all the different areas of my 83rd year, I raced back and forth through time.

I started to notice, that I'd worn a track in time that linked my future with my now. I could recognise milestones, I could see into my future! This was amazing!!!

My life has indeed since writing this vision, turned from a sprint, into a marathon. I am seeing the challenges I face now in a totally different context. I never expected these outcomes.

But what I wanted has also turned out. I now have a map, a plan and a checklist of actions I need to make now and in the future, to create a future life that I love.

This is the power and the result that writing a satisfying and fulfilling vision can deliver.

If you want a copy of the process, ask me by email on addsvalue@xtra.co.nz and I'll send you one. You might even know someone who is freaking out about retiring - Clarity always leads you to your power.

And if this inspires you to write a 30 year vision, let me know how you go! I'd love to hear about it!