THE NUMBER ONE TREND TO JUMPSTART YOUR NEW YEAR

As we embark on a brand-new year, inevitably, the surfeit of new year’s resolutions starts flooding our hearts and minds with our unbridled passion and commitment to change. We are super excited to effectuate positive transformation within our lives by selecting areas that will receive our undivided attention e.g., join a gym to improve our health, sign up for a seminar, learn a new language, or work on a business plan to start a new company. They say that 80% of new year’s resolutions fail by the second week of February. That is a staggeringly high percentage of failure which is drastically working against us on our path to experiencing or reaching our aspirations.

So, WHAT IS THE SECRET to achieving positive momentum with your desired results? I found out through “empirical data” that by committing to read one book (from cover to cover) in the month of January, I started developing an easy to adopt habit of establishing my benchmark for the rest of the year. Today, I started reading The Salt Fix: Why the Experts Got It All Wrong--and How Eating More Might Save Your Life by Dr. James DiNicolantonio. The book contains 272 pages and with 31 days in the month, I only have to read 9 pages per day to finish the book by the end of the month. When broken down by the day, the herculean task of reading a 272-page book in one month does not seem so daunting anymore. The good news is, many books contain fewer pages which makes it even easier to finish within the month.

I have been performing this accretive strategy for the past two decades where I have surmised that with the incipient energy that I create from this one conscious choice, I can easily surpass my desired goal of reading one book per month. I am a voracious reader by nature and I love to constantly learn new idea’s, contemplate alternative perspectives, and immerse myself in divergent viewpoints. Many successful leaders commit to reading at least one hour per day to further their knowledge.

I have learned that through this one successful habit, my dedication and execution augurs well for the remaining improvements I aspire to achieve throughout the year. It is akin to the speech called “Make Your Bed” by Admiral William H. McRaven where one habit can have positive reverberating consequences on your entire life. I leaned heavily upon this stratagem when I first started writing my new book The Ultimate Retail Manual: Strategies for Retailers to Thrive & Succeed in the Digital World which took seventeen months from inception until completion.

My purpose for writing this manual was to share the knowledge I have acquired throughout my thirty-year career within the retail sector. I would often ruminate periodically, how much further along would I have been in my retail career if I had received one book (instead of haphazardly attempting to gather retail information from numerous sources) that had amassed a cacophony of leadership pillars. This would have afforded me with an opportunity to assimilate from ONE SOURCE a culmination of tangible, poignant, and hands-on knowledge that would immediately increase my retail acumen exponentially.

"In addition, the retail manual has an international presence that is resonating with readers in Germany, Mexico, UK, France, Italy, Ireland, Canada, and Australia."

I am feeling immense gratitude today for my first book sales in France and Italy. What an honor to share The Ultimate Retail Manual with other countries around the world. In addition, the retail manual has an international presence that is resonating with readers in Germany, Mexico, UK, France, Italy, Ireland, Canada, and Australia.

I have always felt that it is our responsibility to "help others" through our knowledge, perspective, and experiences. It brings me great joy to assist retail leaders and business leaders with the knowledge that I gleaned from my thirty-year tenure in the retail sector.

Intuitively, I was yearning for one book that was an amalgamation of successful retail constructs, paradigms, and protocols. This would assist retail leaders in providing a unified and congruent business instrument that would align all of their managers with the knowledge they needed to become servant leaders while drastically shortening the time for them to achieve their career aspirations. This retail manual was created to assist any new or experienced retail leader (department manager up to the C-Suite executive) with acclimating to an experiential environment while supplementing and enhancing their existing retail acumen.

I have been approached by numerous aspiring authors asking me how I completed my manual in only seventeen months. Many of these individuals have been toiling away with their manuscript for four to five years with no end in sight. I completely understand the maelstrom of fear, uncertainty, and time constraints they are facing. I always offer them the best practices that I gleaned throughout the process of writing a book: set a concrete deadline for completion, commit to writing 4-5 days per week, remain flexible with your concept without deviating from your main theme, read at least one book per month to keep your mind in writing mode while improving your vocabulary, seek out different authors on LinkedIn to assist you, and believe in yourself as everyone has a story to tell. There are many more points included, however, that discussion is for another article in the future.

I wanted to THANK Donna Serdula who is a fellow author that was a major influence on my new book. She provided me with an abundance of advice that drastically shortened the time it took to finish my book. I have always believed in sharing the knowledge I have learned with others and it is my pleasure to assist individuals whenever I can. I wanted to wish everyone a healthy, happy, and prosperous New Year. I look forward to interacting with you in 2019.

EMBRACING CHANGE IN THE RETAIL SECTOR