Even if your last 12 months were spectacular. The next 12 months would be even better.

Would you want to know the process?

Hi I’m Coach John,

Imagine an executive or business owner, returning home from a long business trip, he lands at the airport, gets in a cab and instructs the driver to drive to his office.

While he’s riding in the back seat he calls his wife to let her know that he has arrived safely.

As he’s speaking to his wife, he hears a siren. It’s a fire engine.

Every second the siren is getting louder.

It becomes so loud that his wife comments. And he says “yeah, it must be a some big fire”.

He gets closer to his office and sees smoke billowing up into the sky.

He makes the last turn to the office and realizes that the fire is on his street.

As he gets closer to the office, he sees people standing out on the street.

He recognizes some of those people as his employees.

And then he realizes that it is his office that is on fire.

He gets as close as he can, gets out of the cab, walks up to an employee and asks “Is everyone is safe”.

The answer is “yes” but the office is destroyed.

Thank god the people are safe.

He begins to think, how am I ever going to get started again?

He’s back to square one. Right at zero.

By chance he looks across the street and sees a sign that says building for lease….

An idea begins to form.

He begins to think about how he could start up again.

And he asks himself:

What’s the least amount of space I need to get started.

Who’s the first person I need on my team to get started?

What’s the first equipment I should acquire?

Who’s the first customer I need to contact and bring back online. And on and on.

This is zero based thinking. What if you started all over again? What would you do first?

You’d look at your most successful endeavors. The projects, products, people, service providers and customers that gave you the quickest and best results.

You wouldn’t even remotely consider doing any of those things that didn’t work out again. You would avoid all the past failures and apply the lessons learned.

Look to all those activities and events that we’re successful.

What should be done first?

This is zero based thinking.

This is how you make your next 12 months better.

Here’s your move…

Look back at your major strategic accomplishments from the past year and make a list.

This is the starting point for determining your focus in the next twelve months.

Do this one thing, make this one move, and you’ll set yourself up for greater success in 2020.

When you make the right moves, winning gets a lot easier.

If you’d like the process for the next steps write “best year ever” in the comments below.