Rich Kizer and Georganne Bender, “Two of Retailing’s Most Influential People,” and authors of PR Newswire’s No. 1 retail blog in the U.S., are back with three brand new Smart Tan Nashville sessions this year, including an all-day, pre-conference event. Click here for full details.

Things can get pretty intense in our office sometimes. Between clients, prospects, promises, and deadlines, it’s easy to get lost in the minutia of the everyday. And that’s not good for us, or for our business.

We painted a wall with chalkboard paint so we could keep track of our musings, rants, and advice to one another — you know, the things we try to embrace to make our lives richer. In no particular order, here are some of our favorites:

1. Do something out of the ordinary. Sometime you have to do things that break  your pattern. Do you know what we do? We go fishing. We never catch anything, but that’s okay because that’s not really the point. There’s something about sitting in that peaceful environment that sets our creativity on edge. Some of our best ideas have come while sitting with our feet in the water.
2. Start now. We can’t begin to tell you the number of people we’ve met who think that they can wait until tomorrow to do whatever is important to them. Don’t wait too long. That career opportunity will pass; your kid will only be little once; your spouse deserves attention; and your dog needs to be walked. Your business is important, but don’t let it be everything. No one on his deathbed ever said, “I wish I had spent more time in my business.”
3. Find what makes you happy. If you like creating email blasts, create email blasts. If you like playing with displays on your sales floor, then go for it. If you don’t like doing something then you won’t do it well. Hire or assign someone to do it for you.
4. Hang out with your friends. Start your day with fellow business owners at your local coffee shop. If there’s no time for that, then spend a few minutes catching up with friends on Facebook. Make dinner plans with friends at Smart Tan Nashville. Or better yer, go a day early and visit local tanning salons with your pals.
5. Own it. No more passing the  buck. If you did it, said it or bought it: Deal with it.
6. If your original path isn’t working, choose another. Your salon is a living, breathing entity; nothing about it should stay the same for very long. Shake up your sales floor. Add a new category or two. Nuke what isn’t working and find something that does.
7. Stop playing it safe. If you’ve ever heard yourself say “But we’ve always done it that way,” you’re in a rut. You can’t make big things happen if you’re not willing to stretch and learn. Don’t just put your toes in the water — jump in!
8. Toot your own horn. You are really wonderful. Did you know that? Does your community know it? Contact local media and pitch stories about your salon, product lines, services, events and promotions, your team, trips to trade shows — all the cool things you do. Eighty percent of stories in local media come from a press release, so send one for each legitimately newsworthy thing you do in your salon.
9. Change your self-talk. The things that you think and say to yourself have a huge effect on who you are, and how you are perceived by others. Change your self-talk and your attitude will improve. Really!
10. Partner up. As the proverb goes, a burden shared is a burden halved. There’s a lot to be said for partners, official or otherwise — colleagues, employees and friends work, too.

So, take a look at where you are today, and where you’d like to be tomorrow. In the movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” Ferris says, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” Sound advice.