Time management - the buzzword of the 90's. We all have the same 24 hours. Spening time vs. spending QUALITY time. If only we were more organized, we'd have more time. Its time to STOP!
We already spend our time doing what we want - whatever is easiest, whatever keeps us out of trouble - whatever gives us the highest reward with the lowest output of energy. Of course, one person's 'lowest output' maybe practicing for a marathon while another's is getting a faster time on flipping through the channels on the remote.
We've spent time trying to get ourselves in Time Management shape - writing down our goals, building to-do lists, even dedicating blocks of time to certain activities.
But what about PURPOSE? Why do we do all these things? Why must we accomplish the list? To feel good? To provide security to our family? To ensure we live longer? To have fun? When we understand our purpose, or create a purpose that means something, time management becomes easier. We know everything we're doing is leading towards not just a greater goal, but fulfilling WHO we want to be.
Sometimes that means cutting out some items on that list, or reassessing how important certain goals are. By defining our purpose, we will be able to better determine not just how to manage our time, but to enjoy it as well.
What is your Purpose?
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Total Commitment
The New Foot Smell means total commitment.
How often, when faced with a decision, do we waffle from one choice to the next? Cover our bases, and try to create a fallback position?
We justify this thinking by saying "if we're wrong, we need to minimize the damage". A lack of commitment, however, can often cause more damage.
To have one foot in and one foot out of a relationship rarely leads to a better relationship. Instead it builds mistrust, creates an easy out, and allows one to focus on other things.
If change is necessary, but we always carry a reset button, can we truly commit our financial and emotional resources to the change, or are we always looking for the problem to arise so we can go back to a more comfortable position?
To truly create lasting change, commitment is key. True sacrifice will create transformation. If it doesn't go as planned, eliminating the fallback position doesn't eliminate your safety net - it forces you to create new solutions, propelling you to lasting change and greater creativity, and preventing you from languishing in the status quo.
How often, when faced with a decision, do we waffle from one choice to the next? Cover our bases, and try to create a fallback position?
We justify this thinking by saying "if we're wrong, we need to minimize the damage". A lack of commitment, however, can often cause more damage.
To have one foot in and one foot out of a relationship rarely leads to a better relationship. Instead it builds mistrust, creates an easy out, and allows one to focus on other things.
If change is necessary, but we always carry a reset button, can we truly commit our financial and emotional resources to the change, or are we always looking for the problem to arise so we can go back to a more comfortable position?
To truly create lasting change, commitment is key. True sacrifice will create transformation. If it doesn't go as planned, eliminating the fallback position doesn't eliminate your safety net - it forces you to create new solutions, propelling you to lasting change and greater creativity, and preventing you from languishing in the status quo.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Tiger's Feat
Did you see Tiger Woods 25 foot birdie on the 18th hole to win Arnold Palmer's Tourney yesterday? It was the equivalent of a 60 yard field goal with no time left. A halfcourt heave as the buzzer sounds. A no look, length of the ice goal with .01 seconds left.
On top of that, he tied Ben Hogan with 64 PGA wins - a feat he's accomplished in 11 years vs. Hogan's 21 - and he doesnt play more than 20 times a year.
What is Tiger's New Foot Smell? What could a man with millions of dollars, a supermodel wife, the world at his beck and call be sacrificing?
His practice regimen is fierce. His devotion to his craft unparalleled. But his sacrifice began as a child - when he reached an age of accountability and continued to choose the path his Father had put him on from age 2. He didn't rebel, but embraced the dream, internalizing beyond living up to his father, so he now lives up to himself. A standard higher than any other golfer on tour. A standard that appears higher than .0000001 percent of the world population.
Have you embraced your dream? Do you spend every moment taking action towards it, or do you bring it down to dust off, admire for an afternoon, and then return to the shelf?
Embrace your dream - make an exceptional choice - and enjoy your New Foot Smell!
On top of that, he tied Ben Hogan with 64 PGA wins - a feat he's accomplished in 11 years vs. Hogan's 21 - and he doesnt play more than 20 times a year.
What is Tiger's New Foot Smell? What could a man with millions of dollars, a supermodel wife, the world at his beck and call be sacrificing?
His practice regimen is fierce. His devotion to his craft unparalleled. But his sacrifice began as a child - when he reached an age of accountability and continued to choose the path his Father had put him on from age 2. He didn't rebel, but embraced the dream, internalizing beyond living up to his father, so he now lives up to himself. A standard higher than any other golfer on tour. A standard that appears higher than .0000001 percent of the world population.
Have you embraced your dream? Do you spend every moment taking action towards it, or do you bring it down to dust off, admire for an afternoon, and then return to the shelf?
Embrace your dream - make an exceptional choice - and enjoy your New Foot Smell!
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Sign Up For My Newsletter!
I have finally taken the Leap to offer a weekly (hopefully) newsletter that discusses how we can Leap From Acceptable to Exceptional, delves deeper into the concept of Your New Foot Smell, as well as sharing various offers and deals available from me and those whose experience I value.
To sign up - hit the button on your left, near the top!
To sign up - hit the button on your left, near the top!
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Focusing on Your Goals
It is amazingly easy to get distracted - as I have been distracted from my blog posting goals. Every few months, I 'decide' I'm going to go back to posting every two days, and within a month, I get distracted.
Currently, I post in 3 different forums on a daily basis. Why is this easier? Because I usually get immediate feedback. Let's face it - unless you are Seth Godin, getting massive traffic to your blog isn't easy, and one can feel a bit isolated and ignored no matter how often they blog.
How does can we stay focused, even when we don't see an immediate payoff? Create one for ourselves that we control. Set a concrete goal - I will write every 2 days, I will do 10 pushups a day, I will make 50 phone calls daily - and set up rewards you know you can follow through on. Maybe its going to a movie, or buying a book, or taking a walk. Something that is important enough to inspire you to action.
Or, go the other way, and set up huge consequences for not fulfilling your goal. Promise to scrub the toilets, or make a home-made dinner, or repaint the living room. As long as it inconveniences and annoys you, you are more likely to do the easier of two choices. Always inspire yourself to action.
I intend to stay focused, and meet a few lofty goals in February. And if I don't, well - lets just say my wife will wonder why I'm cleaning toilets and wiping down shower stalls!
Currently, I post in 3 different forums on a daily basis. Why is this easier? Because I usually get immediate feedback. Let's face it - unless you are Seth Godin, getting massive traffic to your blog isn't easy, and one can feel a bit isolated and ignored no matter how often they blog.
How does can we stay focused, even when we don't see an immediate payoff? Create one for ourselves that we control. Set a concrete goal - I will write every 2 days, I will do 10 pushups a day, I will make 50 phone calls daily - and set up rewards you know you can follow through on. Maybe its going to a movie, or buying a book, or taking a walk. Something that is important enough to inspire you to action.
Or, go the other way, and set up huge consequences for not fulfilling your goal. Promise to scrub the toilets, or make a home-made dinner, or repaint the living room. As long as it inconveniences and annoys you, you are more likely to do the easier of two choices. Always inspire yourself to action.
I intend to stay focused, and meet a few lofty goals in February. And if I don't, well - lets just say my wife will wonder why I'm cleaning toilets and wiping down shower stalls!
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Do You Have All The Pieces?
Today I spent roughly four hours at the kitchen table with my 10 year old son, and varying combinations of the other 5 kids, putting together one of his birthday gifts - Techno Gears Marble Mania EXTREME - with over 330 pieces.
It's one of those gifts Grandparents buy to exact revenge on their kids - or in this case his son-in-law!
"Over 330 pieces" means they don't really know how many pieces, I suppose. Like every good father, we looked at the instruction book, and began to count out the pieces - and came up 3 short. But with "Over 330 pieces" all over the table, there was no going back.
Throughout the afternoon, the masterpiece was built - corkscrews, ramps, levers, gears, and so much more! Up and up it climbed, until we were almost done, almost perfect, and the piece we needed wasn't there. The final ramp, the coup de grace, cannot be installed. We can still put marbles on the next level down, and it works. It's still cool - just not as cool as it's designed to be!
When you speak, do you have all the pieces? Do all the stories fit together to drive your points home? Does your humor mesh with the audience, and not take away from your content? Is your close as strong as your opening?
Sometimes, like my son's Marble Mania EXTREME, it's the small pieces that can take away from the ultimate "coolness" of your presentation. Gestures, eye contact, movements on stage, poor outfit selection - even these 'small' things can take a great performance and knock it, and your image and profit potential, down a notch.
I've got to wait a few weeks for replacement pieces - but after a quick inventory, you can fix your speeches in seconds!
Friday, October 19, 2007
What IS Your New Foot Smell?
Among other things, its a book I am working on of compiled stories that illustrate the benefit of being willing to let go of something for something better.
In both our personal and professional lives, there are portions that are good, but not great (my apologies to Jim Collins). Sometimes issues that bug us, but not enough to do anything about them.
Last year, my left ankle stopped bearing my weight. I was given several options - keeping the leg and using crutches or a wheelchair for the rest of my life, surgery with a low probability of success, and no chance of LONG-term success, or the most extreme: amputation.
I didn't HAVE to cut off my leg. Plenty of people live in wheelchairs and have a great life. I didn't have diabetes or any other condition that would have spread the pain to the rest of my body. I could have lived with it, and stayed whole. Having surgery seemed like using fix-a-flat - temporary at best. Amputation, while extreme, has given me greater freedom than I've had in a decade. No pain, and the bonus of wearing regular shoes!
I traded in something that I could have kept for something better. I could have lived with it, I could have kept hoping it would get better, but by being willing to let go, and being willing to wobble before I walked, I have improved my quality of life tremendously.
Do you have something in your life that you just "live with"? Something that you wish worked better, but it doesn't annoy you so much that you MUST deal with it? If you run a business, do you have employees, departments, or methods of doing things that don't work incredibly well, but don't work badly enough for you to do something about them?
We spend much of our lives attacking life and death decisions - reacting quickly to ward off certain destruction. But when life is calm, take a look at what you are settling for, and just living with. Consider letting go of something in favor of something completely new - even if you have to wobble for awhile. Even rose bushes need pruning to allow branches to grow stronger, and new branches to appear.
When you become willing in life to let go of the acceptable in pursuit of what is exceptional, you will find you OWN new foot smell!
PS: Have a great story? Send it to me and you might be published by February!
In both our personal and professional lives, there are portions that are good, but not great (my apologies to Jim Collins). Sometimes issues that bug us, but not enough to do anything about them.
Last year, my left ankle stopped bearing my weight. I was given several options - keeping the leg and using crutches or a wheelchair for the rest of my life, surgery with a low probability of success, and no chance of LONG-term success, or the most extreme: amputation.
I didn't HAVE to cut off my leg. Plenty of people live in wheelchairs and have a great life. I didn't have diabetes or any other condition that would have spread the pain to the rest of my body. I could have lived with it, and stayed whole. Having surgery seemed like using fix-a-flat - temporary at best. Amputation, while extreme, has given me greater freedom than I've had in a decade. No pain, and the bonus of wearing regular shoes!
I traded in something that I could have kept for something better. I could have lived with it, I could have kept hoping it would get better, but by being willing to let go, and being willing to wobble before I walked, I have improved my quality of life tremendously.
Do you have something in your life that you just "live with"? Something that you wish worked better, but it doesn't annoy you so much that you MUST deal with it? If you run a business, do you have employees, departments, or methods of doing things that don't work incredibly well, but don't work badly enough for you to do something about them?
We spend much of our lives attacking life and death decisions - reacting quickly to ward off certain destruction. But when life is calm, take a look at what you are settling for, and just living with. Consider letting go of something in favor of something completely new - even if you have to wobble for awhile. Even rose bushes need pruning to allow branches to grow stronger, and new branches to appear.
When you become willing in life to let go of the acceptable in pursuit of what is exceptional, you will find you OWN new foot smell!
PS: Have a great story? Send it to me and you might be published by February!
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