Just as with Wikipedia, the value of having so many people contribute is the vast range of experiences and ideas that you can tap into, including:

• Cyclists have 40% less risk of dying from diabetes, certain cancers etc. (life insurance companies take note)
• Why women cyclists are more likely to be killed than men (although cycling is actually safer than walking and gardening)
• Tips on how to avoid having your bike nicked (e.g. paint it a horrible colour) and tactics used by bike thieves, from an ex-thief
• The legal position of drunk cyclists
• The legal status of cycle lanes
• The great Red Light Debate
• The ’shower in a bottle’
• Avoiding punctures, and imaginative repair ideas
• The world’s worst cycle lanes (www.gu.com/p/2cxn5)

Also (inevitably) lots of slagging off of the enemy (road users with four or more wheels).  One of the more creative suggestions in the book is that cycling should be made a religion, so that abusing cyclists becomes illegal!

The blog/comment format makes it a very easy book to pick up and put down.

Every cyclist, road users especially, should read it.

Attention all cyclists - let’s try to get our own cycling top tips together. Please post a comment below with your no. 1 tip.

The amazing thing is that this is true for even the richest people – i.e. the wellbeing of the (very) rich in unequal societies is less than that of the rich (but not as rich) in more equal countries.

‘Wellbeing’ covers things like: mental illness, obesity, teenage pregnancy, violence, interpersonal trust, self-esteem, life expectancy, literacy and much more.

The reasons are complex but rooted in the deep but conflicting human needs for status and social integration. We measure our self-worth against other people and so want to do better than them. This is stoked up by marketing and media that are designed to set aspirations artificially high, and make us feel inadequate unless we have the latest material goods.

The book talks about how greater equality can be achieved. In countries such as Sweden it is mainly by using fiscal policy (e.g. taxes) whereas in Japan incomes and wealth are more evenly shared to start with.

At K&H we are heavily involved with the Employee Ownership Association and it is interesting that the book focuses on this model as a way to achieve a fairer sharing of wealth. Technology is also likely to provide a levelling off of how resources are shared, and these are very positive signs for the future.

The prizes for more equality are well worth aspiring to. For example in the UK we would have 75% fewer murders and seven weeks more holiday every year if we could get to the position of the more equal societies.

Do you agree with this book, and do you think it should influence our government’s fiscal policy?

To see all the books I have read and recommended over the last few years, see my reading list on my LinkedIn pages.

These thoughts were prompted by this little parable, which illustrates the point perfectly (with thanks to Steve Mills for sending it to me):

The Tiny Frog

“We must stand guard at the doorway of our minds”
Once upon a time there was a bunch of tiny frogs who arranged a climbing competition. The goal was to reach the top of a very high tower.

A big crowd had gathered around the tower to see the race and cheer on the contestants. The race began.

Honestly: No one in the crowd really believed that the tiny frogs would reach the top of the tower. You heard statements such as:  “Oh, way too difficult!” “They will never make it to the top.” “Not a chance that they will succeed.” “The tower is too high!”

The tiny frogs began collapsing one by one – except for those who kept a fresh tempo and kept climbing higher and higher.

The crowd continued to yell, “It is too difficult!  No one will make it!” More tiny frogs got tired and gave up.

But one continued higher and higher and higher. This one wouldn’t give up.

At the end everyone else had given up climbing the tower. Except for the one tiny frog who, after a big effort, was the only one who reached the top.

All of the other tiny frogs naturally wanted to know how this one frog managed to do it. Another contestant asked the tiny frog how he had found the strength to succeed and reach the goal.

It turned out… the winner was deaf.  The wisdom of this story is: Never listen to other people’s tendencies to be negative or pessimistic. They take your most wonderful dreams and wishes away from you if you let them– the ones you have in your heart!

Be deaf to the people who tell you that you cannot fulfil your dreams, goals and aspirations.

Author unknown

Lynn Copp, Managing Director, The Worklife Company

“Andrew Gray is excellent at offering sound advice and helping us drive our business forward – I regard him more a business partner than an accountant.”

Lynne Copp set up the Worklife Company in 1998. The Worklife Company is an organisational development and training company that is in business to support clients to create the workplace of the future by implementing innovative ways of working: both psychological – such as worklife balance, gender difference and wellbeing; and physical – such as space and colour. They are experts in worklife balance, flexible working and employee wellbeing.

Lynne met Andrew Gray of K&H three years ago. “I needed to work with an accounting firm that would offer us good advice on our business direction, as well as the usual accounting services like book-keeping and tax. Andrew has lived up to this expectation by continually providing access to sound business ideas and coaching me to approach my business goals differently.”

“I also like the synergy in our working styles. Andrew recognises my creativity and passion for the work I do, and he works with this to ensure a positive outcome.”

Consistency is another quality that Lynne values in K&H. “They provide a consistent service, consistent professionalism, and I have faith that they will continue to provide a consistent flow of sound business consulting to us in future.”

Visit The Worklife Company website.

At K&H we have also taken the concept of exercising one stage further. I’m not sure how I got talked into it, but 8 of us are going to be running the Reading Team half-marathon. Not quite as bad as it sounds – we have two teams of four and each person runs about 3 1/2 miles – but that is more than enough for me. It is a great way to get fit though, improve team spirit and have fun at the same time. Why not try something similar?

When the pressure is on it is even more important for you to look after yourself.

Sitting at the computer all day is not exactly good for the body. If you have to be at a desk all day long, doing some simple things can improve your posture and health.

Why not try out some of the suggestions here.

If you would like to discuss this article further, just contact me – details below.

Pauline Williamson
email: paulinew@kandh.co.uk
direct: 0118 923 5817

This also coincides with the decision of Feisal Nahaboo (MD of the Probiz accountants network that K&H are members of), to enter into a partnership with the UK’s exclusive Heartmath provider (Heartmath is stress relief and personal performance enhancement system that uses breathing and visualisation techniques with huge scientifically proven benefits).

So, here are 7 (why is it always 7?) ways to boost your personal performance and money making capabilities, based on my own experience:

1. Eat healthy food
2. Take regular exercise.
3. Don’t eat/drink anything that just gives you a short-term boost because when the effect wares off, you will suffer a proportionate decline eg coffee, alcohol and similar stimulants and drugs.
4. Explore natural supplements- e.g. Ginkgo Biloba, Ginseng and Omega 3/DHA.
5. Meditate or use similar techniques (such as Heartmath – see above)
6. Explore alternative health remedies when you are ill, instead of just taking the pills that your GP prescribes.
7. Associate more with people who practice the above (“You are the average of the 5 people closest to you” from the Slight Edge book).

I will talk more in a later blog about my personal experience of Heartmath and some of the effects on me of making changes in the 7 areas above.

One thing that is becoming obvious as I work with clients and see who is successful and who is not, and that is the fact that “the key to success” is actually several keys. These keys are about much more than just accountancy and business advice in the traditional sense, and I believe it is crucial that we at K&H take a holistic approach to the advice we give to make sure our clients get value from us. This includes thinking about their physical and mental wellbeing and in some cases helping coach and support them in these and other areas.

Do you agree? Please tell me.

In other words, will having goals make you happy (assuming that happiness is everyone’s ultimate aim, for ourselves and for others)?

A book I have just read called “Happier” (by Tal Ben-Shahar) examines this in more detail and draws some interesting conclusions that all of us who are involved in giving business advice should, I believe, keep in the back of their minds when giving that advice. In a nutshell:

• Happiness as a result of pleasure and purposefulness in life (just one or the other of these is not enough)
• Purposefulness can come from striving for goals (not from achieving them!)
• BUT the goals must be “self concordant” ie consistent with our own personal values and beliefs
• When we are working towards a goal, we can get into a state of “flow”, where the balance between boredom and stress is just right and when time passes very quickly
• We have more of these “flow” experience at work than during our leisure time.
• Money does not create happiness (except in so far as money is the measure by which you judge your progress towards your goals).

The conclusion from this is that should be happier working than playing! This is contrary to all the received wisdom about what “work” is and the anomaly is caused by the fact that there is a deep rooted prejudice in our society against work (including school work and studying). This prejudice creates a barrier that prevents us expected (and therefore getting) any enjoyment or happiness from our work.

Other business writers (including David Maister) have long talked about the fact that financial success inevitably follows from doing work that you enjoy with people that you like.

To me the actions that come out of this are:

• First, read the Happier book yourself
• Then find work that you enjoy doing, and happiness and financial success will follow.

Let me know what you think.

The excuse we use to justify this is that we need the energy to do our jobs and we do not have time to tackle the problem in any other way.

This is particularly relevant to business owners. When I ask business owners how many hours they work each week, the average answer is about 60. In other words, they are doing the equivalent of nearly two full time jobs. And that doesn’t include the mind-time and sleepless nights caused by the innumerable stresses inherent in most peoples business.

The article explained that in reality, the “energy” we’re chasing is simply mental alertness and included 3 tips to get more energy naturally and improve your job performance by 15% in the process:

1) Exercise – It doesn’t matter what time you exercise, just be consistent. Fit it in based on your schedule and personality. If you have to do it first thing when you wake up, just do it. Don’t even let yourself think about it. Just get started. Focus on intense strength training for 20 minutes followed by a brief interval training session to boost your metabolism all day long.

Exercise is a drug. Like caffeine and nicotine, exercise causes the release of many chemicals into your blood, resulting in mental stimulation and an improved sense of overall well-being. Exercise just makes you feel good.

2) Eat smaller, more frequent meals. Skip the cycle of starving and feasting characterized by no breakfast, a high-carbohydrate lunch, and a huge dinner. Instead, eat breakfast and then continue to eat every 3 hours for the rest of the day. Research shows that a high-fibre breakfast helps control appetite and increases mental alertness all morning, and improves your ability to process information. Do not skip breakfast and rely on a coffee to get you through the day.

Got no time? C’mon! You’re an adult, you can get up 10 minutes earlier to have a protein shake, some almonds, and an apple. You’re not in high school anymore. No excuses!

3) Eat only whole, natural foods, such as fruits, vegetables, organic proteins, raw nuts (not roasted in oil), Green Tea, water.Trying to run on processed foods is a recipe for an energetic disaster. Stick to whole, natural foods during the day, snacking rather than binging on big meals, and you’ll never feel like dozing off. If a food is from a bag or a box, it doesn’t deserve a place in your nutrition plan. Avoid all added sugars. Surely, you’re already sweet enough!

Bonus Tip! Take mini-breaks during the day to work on your mobility. Work environments zap our ‘energy’. From poor posture, to eye-strain from computer screens, your office, cubicle, and car seat will suck the life out of you.

According to Men’s Health magazine…”British researchers recently found that when people exercised during their workday — regardless of the duration or intensity of the movement — they were less likely to feel fatigued, and that translated into a 15 percent improvement in job performance.”Daily exercise breaks are essential to not only boost energy, but mobility. Each day, as your computer sucks you into its visual vortex, your upper body becomes rounded forward and tense. You need to reverse that movement.

Here’s how…Stick up Stand: With your back to the wall and feet about 4 inches from the wall. Place the back of your arms against the wall with upper arms parallel to floor and forearms at 90 degrees. Stick up your arms over head while keeping your arm against the wall at all times. Slowly return to below the starting position tucking your elbows into your sides and bringing shoulder blades together. Repeat for 12 reps. Do this every 60-90 minutes. In addition, get outside into natural light whenever possible.

Let me know how you get on!

This seems to “prove” the point about the link between diet and serious illness and (in my interpretation) our ability to perform at our peak, in every aspect of life, including business.

The numbers that this will help change are things like: life expectancy and the percentage of maximum physical wellbeing that we experience. It has already changed (reduced) my weight and waist size!

The subject is diet and how most of us are (put very simply) poisoning our bodies with bad foods and then using other poisons (medicines) to disguise the symptoms. In a bit more detail: the reasoning is that the pH (acid/alkaline) balance of our bodies is thrown out by consuming acid forming foods (like sugars, fat from processed foods and animal sources etc). These are the underlying causes most of the ailments that are usually blamed on viruses and diseases.

The good metaphor is that the diseases are like the mosquitoes on a stagnant pool of water (our bodies) and that to get rid of the mosquitoes we must clean the pool and not simply try to deter the mosquitoes.

This metaphor is used by Anthony Robbins and his audio programme Living Health.

The same message is in the book The pH Miracle and for a more punchy version of a similar message also have a look at Skinnybitch.net (thanks to Caroline Eveleigh for this recommendation).

Why is this relevant in a business blog?

Anthony Robbins view is that without a sound body (our temple) we can never achieve our potential in business or any other aspect of life. It is not good having a great, profitable business if we sacrifice other aspects of our lives to achieve it. We must have balance in the wheel of life.

I personally have lost count of the number of clients who have told me they work double the normal working week, 60 to 70 hours or more.

I agree with Anthony Robbins about the need for balance. What do you think?

Why not come to the next Business Builder Forums, the title of which is, coincidentally, based on the Benjamin Franklin quote “Business Planning – Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail”. This is on 13.2.08.  I hope to see you there so you can tell me what plans you have to sell your business.