Quick question: how many business days are left in the 2017 calendar now that Labor Day is fading from view in our rear-view mirrors?

Answer: about 70 when you factor in the slow-downs around Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Now that summer has past, many people are beginning to assess progress against the business goals they set for 2017. Are you on target?

Einstein famously defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results.” When you got to this point in the calendar last year, did you start making promises to yourself or others on your team that next year you would do things better or differently? And did anything change for you? Did you somehow find the extra time for proactive public relations, effective marketing and real business development that you said you would?

If you found that a variety of things – customers, priorities, your team, the economy, etc. – got in the way, and this year is starting to look eerily similar to last year, you are not alone.

Allow me to suggest that things CAN be different next year. Consider closing the one deal over which you have full control: Close yourself by going from “I should do this” to “I’m going to do this.”

Summer’s over. I hope you enjoyed it. If you are finishing this year strong and you have a plan in place to make next year even better than this one, then congratulations, you are way ahead of most. If not, perhaps we should have a chat.

Seventy days. That’s it.