There are a lot of techniques we can bring into our business from other areas of life. Each has the capacity to significantly shift the way we've been approaching business. For instance, once a year, every year, I have a personal day "off" - off from business, off from play, and off from my normal activities. It's Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of self-examination.

I make it my commitment to stop my automatic way of living and being with others. I try my best to look honestly as what my challenges have been, how I've dealt with them and what I'd prefer to do differently going forward.

This particular 'break' is actually very structured, and the structure is easily adaptable to using it for a business 'fasting' day and review your business. Here's how:

Do Your Prep Work

To have a really effective self-examination we have to start before the actual day itself. About a month ahead of time, I spend a few days thinking through how my year has gone. I make notes about what has had me stuck or where I've been less effective than I wish I'd been. Usually it's focused on my personal life.

I'm sure you can see how the same preparation is the set-up that's needed for reviewing how things have been going in your professional life. That means pull out the notes you made about your goals for the year, what you wanted to achieve. Take a fresh read through and see how close you've come to the mark and where you've missed your targets. Sort out what information or reports you'll want to use and get them ready before the day itself.

Schedule The Day

We're all living busy, rich and complicated lives. Whether for personal reflection or business review, you need to set aside the time and commit to it.

If you don't put it on the calendar... well, you know how that goes. It just won't happen. No matter which day of a week you select, weekday or weekend, you need to put it in your calendar and commit to sticking to it.

One of the wonderful aspects to Yom Kippur is that it starts at sundown. As a result I go to sleep already complete with my regular world, with my attention on how I'll use the next day.

Deflect All Your Distractions

For those of you may not be familiar with Yom Kippur, one of the central activities is fasting, from sundown through sundown, one full day. No water, no food. In a sense it's a deliberate halting of a person's daily activities to be undistracted, uninterrupted, and wholly focused on what matters most.

The same is needed for your time spent looking at your business. Let everyone know ahead of time that you will not be available on that day. Then turn off your cell phone - I don't mean put it on vibrate. Really, turn it off. Next turn off your email. Put your land-line phone on 'hold' or unplug it from the wall.

From the moment you get up in the morning, separate yourself from your 'normal' location and companions so that you don't fall into automatic behaviors. You could call this your version of a 'fast.'

Focus ALL Your Attention

Yom Kippur is usually spent in community surrounded by other people who have set aside their time for the same reasons. Prayer and meditations are used to guide the self-examination. And there is hours of material that help to keep my attention very focused all day.

That's the 'standard' if you will. In fact, sometimes people take the fasting to another level entirely and declare a 'speech fast' as well. That means that they have no other conversations besides the prayers and meditations until the day is over.

Personally, I've had profound insights come from the 'standard' day, as well as on the couple of occasions when I've done a speech fast.

It takes extra planning to take this idea into your business review. Pick a location where you won't be interacting with others, where you won't even accidentally have casual 'how are you' conversations.

Focus On Question.

This year my personal self-examination lines up with the deep looking I've been doing with my business. I have all sorts of questions for myself, including whether I'm focused on the clients I want to be serving, doing the work I dream of, taking the business to the level I want.

What are the questions you'd like to take into your review?

Copyright (c) 2008 Linda Feinholz