A new day....

The sun's not quite up this morning, February 22, as I look out upon the snow and ice covered woods behind my house. The trees are bare reminding me that it's the dead of Winter. You know, that phrase is intriguing.....the dead of Winter. And yet, with the snow covering the landscape, I find an incredible beauty in that dead zone of late February. And I'm thinking, "How does this apply to anything other than wow, it's pretty, but really cold?"

In the movie "Being There", Chauncy Gardner is known for his remarkable and intelligent advice. Though his ideas are simple and come from limited knowledge, people interpret them to have many different meanings and they apply his sage "wisdom" to situations that reverberate about the world. In one scene Chauncy states, "You plant in the Spring and you harvest in the Fall." The interpretations of that simple statement have significant reverberation with world leaders.

So, listening to Chauncy, I realize that the dead of Winter, when trees are leafless and almost lifeless, when grass is brown or covered with frost, snow or ice and when snow crunches beneath each step, is the time for preparing what you will plant in the Spring. When cooking, food preparation can take longer than cooking or eating and, thus, it is true in business.

Winter, the dead of Winter, can be a very lively time in your business with planning and preparing for an adventurous and busy Spring. Planting seeds in business is a year-round activity, it's true. But there is significant openness to ideas when the flowers are beginning to grow and the sun is shining brightly. It's proven that people respond to life better when there is sunshine and natural light. As a result, people respond to others better as well. So, while the days are shorter, darker, grayer and the sun scarcer, prepare for the onslaught of energy that Spring brings. Prepare a list of people to whom you want to speak. Prepare your products or services for consumption. Prepare your presentations, both formal and informal, so that you communicate what it is that can be of value to other businesses.

Enjoy the beauty of the dead of Winter. Bring life to it with your planning and preparations. Prepare as well as you can and get ready to plant and begin to grow in the Spring!