Today we hear from Master business coach, Ray Hutchin of Action Coach www.actioncoaching.com.  Ray is a regular guest blogger for us here and we are really looking forward to his words of wisdom at the forthcoming WPE ’10.

Over to Ray:

I have just finished presenting a two day workshop for business owners, packed with great practical ideas to grow their businesses and a big learning for me from the attendees was, as usual, they will struggle to find the time to plan and put the new ideas into action (their words not mine).

Which is a huge shame as we all need to change, otherwise, as you know, if we keep on doing the same things we keep on getting the same results (if we are lucky, because now quiet often you don’t even get the same results, they tend to be worse).

I believe planning also has a big part to play in changing, I have spoken about planning before; check out the July Archive which covers the 9 Steps to Success. I will also be running through this at the Annual UKAWP Wedding Planning Excellence seminar http://www.wpe.ukawp.com/, with lots of practical advice and a fun exercise to lock in your learning’s, so don’t miss this event.

I also know that Bernadette has covered the importance of time and using a default diary (March 2009 Archive), which if you haven’t read or implemented I suggest you go back and read.

For me the biggest thing we need to do to change is to have a compelling reason to change, otherwise things conspire against us. Like staying in your comfort zone, not being able to break old habits, not being able to create new habits, not have the motivation to change, finding change too hard and not persevering, etc.

So we need to take time out every once in a while to understand what we want to achieve, what we need to change and what desire (compelling reason) we have to do it. The compelling reason will always be tied back to an emotional reason, so understand this and you will achieve far more.

And one last question regarding change, “have you kept your New Year Resolutions or didn’t you set any, because you knew what would happen?”

We can all change, we just need to understand ourselves better and have a compelling reason to change. So for me three of the key ingredients to change are Planning, Time and a Compelling Reason. Try it and see what happens!