Read your way to Success!

Firstly, a huge thanks to the 2,000 people who subscribed to this Newsletter in its first week. Great to have you all onboard and I promise to share as many nuggets as possible with you so that you find it useful. I will also level with you in paragraph 1 - its all about Atomic Habits!

Its 29th December, like all great Finance people those of you with Year End on 31st December have the laptop back on, its the calm before that proverbial storm where you get set up to tackle it. You don't want to be bothered this week, your getting yourself sorted, your head straight, your own personal plan ready, your to do list!

Emails will be cleared, Year End instructions drafted, redrafted and circulated as you aim to get ahead before WD1 looms large in your inbox. This week you will get ready and you will succeed! We got this, we are Accountants! We have done this...before!

Finance Transformation Magazine was launched in April 2021 in a flurry of nervous energy, we faced our fear of the unknown and put it out to the World to see what the World would say,? Scary I must admit but not as scary as repeating it every Quarter from now until the Financial Times make us an offer...

The Transformation 'stuff' that's no problem! We've been doing that since the days of the Punt, Y2K and Man Utd winning Trebles but the 'other' stuff the performance, inspirational, challenging, awe inspiring stuff??? That's the challenge, where do we find the best?

The Format is simple, we have 8 Finance focussed topics and 3 curveballs, 3 stories that have nothing to do with Finance Transformation but they grip you and influence your Year End like you wouldn't believe!!!

Influence our Year End??? Don't make me laugh, I'm a Finance Pro., I don't need any help, I know what I'm doing! Well, we don't doubt you know what your doing, but are you winning or is doing it the same old way driving you one step closer towards the great Accounting Retirement Home..?

To produce more than one Edition of Finance Transformation Magazine required learning many new skills and acquiring some Atomic Habits, after all who wants to be a one hit wonder? Nope not us!

We set out to find stories that would inspire you, teach you something new and help you be more effective. In short to prove what we have always known, that Accountants think way outside the Box that life put us in.

Where did we find these stories, simple, we read Books by people with great ideas and all we want to do is share them, because you may not have seen them yet. In Q4 we featured Will it Make the Boat Go Faster!

A performance consultancy lead by Olympic Champion Ben Hunt-Davis, who assures me he knows nothing about Year End, but he knows a thing or two about setting and achieving Crazy Goals to help you to reach the top of your Profession.

I read about WIMTBGF in a Book called Winning Mindset, some years back, by Professor Damian Hughes, whilst I was flying to a Conference hosted by Ellen Leith. I had not heard Ben's story but by the time I landed, suitably inspired, I had my speech sorted. I remembered that Book when I went looking for the Q4 X Factor and thankfully Ben answered my call and agreed to feature.

I gave only one instruction - Put the readers in the Boat!

The WIMTBGF story graces the Cover and shows that its not all about Accountancy even if at heart we are all Accountants. The Q1 Edition will feature inside and on the Cover one of the most inspirational ladies you could meet, so stay tuned to next week on WD4...when I tell you who it is.

I have now reached that point where I listen to all my Books on Audible. Whilst listening to Professor Damian Hughes latest Book on High Performance I diverted, based on his recommendation to read/listen to Atomic Habits by James Clear.

I won't ever take the credit for anyone else's ideas, I will merely aim to share with you where reading a story can help us tackle the challenges that exist for every Finance team. Naturally, I will deploy some Irish arm twisting to aim to get such talented people to contribute to the Magazine so that we keep growing one Quarter at a time.

However, in the meantime folks, its only WD-3, so go check out Atomic Habits and see what habit stacking helps you achieve!

Happy New Year to all our current Subscribers and our new ones who will join us for 2022!