Announcing a New Loyalty Program with a Single Member: You.

With all the talk of loyalty programs here on Loyalty Redefined, I’m proposing a unique new program to kick off the new year. This new loyalty scheme is for a market that’s often under appreciated, overworked and overlooked—you, the loyalty marketing professional.

The fact is as we move into 2011, you’ve probably set up specific business-oriented goals for the year ahead, as well as personal goals. But a funny thing happens to the predominantly Type-A personalities who occupy the loyalty space—as the year progresses, your personal goals get squeezed out as business picks up.

The solution? A program that rewards your hard work, not with miles or points, but with the more valuable reward of time. And for the program strategy, I turn to one of the masters of business and life management, Napolean Hill.

You may recognize Hill as the author of the classic Think and Grow Rich. First published in 1937, the book’s message about gaining monetary success through visualization, hard work and a positive attitude, still holds true today.

Even more compelling than that book though, is the sequel to Think and Grow Rich which was published 40 years after the original. In 1967, an 84-year old Hill had come to a slightly different conclusion about the role of work in our lives and what success truly meant. The sequel’s title: Grow Rich—with Peace of Mind.

It seems that after a lifetime of fame, riches and service as an advisor to three presidents, the elderly Hill began to whistle a different tune: be successful—but have a life, too. Hill’s not pitching a 4-hour workweek here, but suggests that one of the best ways to achieve peace of mind is to “make a time budget”.

Spread out over a 24-hour day, his time management program looks like this:

o 8 hours a day for sleep and rest
o 8 hours a day for work at your profession (but as your success grows, work less than 8 hours)
o 8 “particularly precious” hours “devoted to things you wish to do, not have to do.”

Hill’s suggestions for the final 8 hours include: “play, social life, reading, writing, playing a musical instrument, tending a garden, or just sitting and watching the clouds or the stars.” You can add to that, quality time with the family, prayer, exercise, cooking, sex, or whatever activity makes you happy.

Hill firmly believed that all business could be taken care of within an 8-hour time frame, and that the key to success was to consistently take advantage of the “8 precious hours”. He amplifies this point by stating: “Do not let a day go by without taking some time for yourself — some time you spend in pure pleasure, as you see it.”

The bottom line is this: sure, we all need to make money. But in the year ahead, let’s have a plan in place to reward and take care of ourselves. After all, success is measured by more than the money in our bank accounts. It’s also measured by the richness of our lives.

This post is by Tom Rapsas and originally appeared on the blog Loyalty Truth, January 10, 2011. You can reach Tom at tomrapsas@gmail.com