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Daily one-pagers about AI, leadership, technology, and being human.

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March 13, 2017 5 minute read

Focus on What YOU Can Control: Will You Ring the Bell?

MindsetPurposeSuccess

Focus on What YOU Can Control: Will You Ring the Bell?

This post is a continuation of the series and theme of Focusing on what YOU can Control.  This theme is critical for the side and home business entrepreneur because the one of the biggest mind and time sucks is worrying about, and then mentally and physically chasing things that you can’t control.

The topic of this post is Your Level of Commitment. One of my favorite personal development authors is Stephen Pressfield, and specifically I will be highlighting a section from his book entitled, “Do the Work”.  There’s a great section in this book where he’s talking about the fact that as an entrepreneur, or as somebody who’s got a vision for their life, the reality is that you’re pretty much on your own. You can build your community and certainly that’s important, but the reality is that its only YOU that can have the level of commitment that is necessary to accomplish your vision.

Navy SEAL Training

Mr Pressfield has this great analogy between entrepreneurship and Navy SEAL training. The way Navy SEAL training works is that the purpose of the training is to BREAK the candidates.  Maybe that seems harsh, but the thought process behind this is that we (yes, the collective we of the United States of America) would rather that a candidate break in training, rather than in the field when the stakes are for real. Consequently, this training is as mind-blowingly difficult as it could possibly be, both mentally and physically (here’s one candidates interesting account). The candidates are pushed to their limits with physical tasks on top of mental tasks.  Many times they are never given any clear direction on milestones and purposes, and are asked to repeat tasks for no apparent reason.  They have no idea whether they are moving in the right direction, or not.

Here’s the thing…you’re allowed, even encouraged as a candidate, to quit at any time. Its actually an honorable out.  The method for quitting is you simply walk up to the bell, ring it, and you’re done.  Ten minutes later you can be enjoying coffee and donuts, and really no one faults you.

Why You Need the Commitment Level a Navy SEAL

Navy Seal training is team oriented in many ways, but ultimately, it is an exercise in personal commitment, just as your entrepreneurial journey and vision for your life is.  Many times your journey is personally just as difficult as Navy SEAL training in that you are alone, and ultimately you success or failure is totally dependent upon yourself and your level of commitment. Many times in your journey, there will be no clear objective milestones to indicate that “Yes, you ARE on the right track!”.  Many times you feel like you are just fumbling around, trying to figure out how to get your business going. You can’t tell whether you’re doing great or whether you’re failing. There’s no one feeding you, there’re no fellow sufferers, and even if you “finish”…if you actually accomplish your goal, there’s no party, no champagne, and there’s not necessarily any fanfare from the masses.  In fact, if you “make it”, you may actually have more detractors than if you fail (remember the crabs?).

You are going to reach a part of whatever project, of whatever goal you’re trying to accomplish, when you’re in the VALLEY.  When you are in that valley, where you’re not going to want to do it. Steven Pressfield calls it the big crash. You’re going to crash at some point and when that happens, you’re not going to want to do whatever it is you need to do.

How to Be Committed

How do you keep going?  It comes down to focusing on what you can control, which in this case is your personal level of commitment to your goals.  Here are some tips and methods to control your level of commitment and keep doing the work:

  1. Awareness: Simply understanding that valleys are inevitable is a start.  You will have tough times along that journey.  Know they will come and be mentally prepared.
  2. Your WHY: Keep your WHY in front of you at all times, especially during the hard times.  Focus on it daily if needed. When you started this journey, you felt compelled, so has anything changed to make that vision less compelling?  Of course not, you just have to keep reminding yourself.
  3. Vision Casting: Along with your WHY, keep casting your vision for accomplishing those goals.  Imagine and feel what it will be like to have made it happen.
  4. Your Circle: Yes, this is a personal journey, and your level of commitment is a personal choice.  However, keeping the right company and seeking out the advice and fellowship with the right people can do wonders for your state of mind.  Get around those who have done it, who encourage you, and who share the vision for you. Also, many times your WHY will be tied to those in your circle (your family, friends, Church, etc), so make sure you are around them as much as possible.

Summing It Up

Here’s the thing..the only person that can keep you moving is you. And the only thing that will keep you pushing through those valley is your level of commitment.

The only question left to ask here and left for you to answer is, are you going to ring that bell or are you going to keep going?

I hope you’ve received some value from this message.  If so, please comment below and share with others that you think may get some value.

March 7, 2017 7 minute read

Real-Time Communication: Productivity Igniter or Productivity Killer?

ActionActivityProductivity

Real-Time Communication: Productivity Igniter or Productivity Killer?

In today’s world, we can effortlessly be in real-time communication, all the time, with…everybody.  Or at least everybody to whom we have access via text, Facebook, Twitter, email, Slack…Oh, yeah, that’s just about everybody.  But, is this a good thing or a bad thing?  This post explores this question.

For starters, I want to distinguish between constant communication and real-time communication. Granted, these terms are related, and sometimes interchangeable.  However, there is a subtle distinction, and I think it’s important here.  By constant communication I am referring to our choice to be in communication all the time, 24x7x365.  That is essentially a lifestyle.  But by real-time communication, I am referring to the ability to immediately communicate with people with whom you are not physically with at that particular time.  That is essentially an ability.

Let’s start with some pro’s and con’s of real-time communication.

How Real-Time Communication Ignites

  • Collaborative, global work environment – I personally benefit from this everyday.  I mainly work from my residence in Pennsylvania, my current day job office is in the Boston area, and I have a team all over the world. Today’s technologies and the ability to have real-time communication absolutely allows us to work almost as if we are sitting across the table from each other.  Same is true with my network marketing business.  I can be in real-time communication with potential partners and customers just as if we are in the same room.  Twenty years ago, this doesn’t happen.
  • Emergencies – When there are TRUE emergencies (I emphasize this because most of what we consider emergencies are not actually emergencies), the ability to have real-time communication can sometimes mean the literal difference between life and death.
  • Changing Plans – OK, this is more convenience than anything else, but isn’t it awesome?  “Hey, I’m at the restaurant a little early and the line is out the door, let’s meet over at such-and-such instead.  See you there”.  I love that.  Same applies when moving kids around and tracking their whereabouts.  How convenient is it when they are old enough to have a phone and you and they can change plans in real-time on the spot? I think back to when I was in high school, with pay phones, and “set-in-stone” meeting times and places, etc…UGH.

How Real-Time Communication Kills

  • Allows others to control our time – Because we CAN be in real-time communication, many times we think we NEED to be in real-time communication.  We act like Pavlov’s dogs when we get that Ding! or Buzz from the gadget in our pocket or hand.  This is a YOU problem, not a THEY problem.
  • Distraction (friends, sports, news, etc) – This is how we sabotage ourselves.  We allow our ability to be in real-time communication to always know exactly what’s going on right at the moment with our favorite sports team, or in the news, or even where our social media “friend” is having lunch.  It’s really procrastination, and it’s a killer.
  • Contributes to not making plans – Now I just spent a paragraph discussing how awesome having the ability to change plans is…BUT, I’m more focused here on the fact in order to make progress in anything (especially your side and home business), you MUST PLAN out your work, and then commit to those plans.  I have honestly worked with people who have no plan for their work day.  He/She just shows up and let’s the email inbox or the Slack feed rule their day.  If you are a Helpdesk worker, this is likely a great approach to your day, but if you do almost anything else, you will get little to nothing IMPORTANT done.  You must maximize your time in Quadrant 2 of the Eisenhower Principle Matrix.

An Example

Here is an example that is really more of an etiquette problem, but I think it completely illustrates the problem that many of us have with the distraction of real-time communication when we are working.

How many times have you been having a conversation with someone standing or sitting in front of you, and he or she pulls out their phone and starts answering text messages while you are speaking?  How many times have you done that yourself? Most of us do it ALL OF THE TIME.  This is actually very socially rude, but it happens so often, in some ways its subtle, and we are so conditioned to it that I think most people don’t even really pay much attention to it anymore.

However, think about it this way…What if you and I were speaking to each other at your desk, and out of the blue, another person (the buttinski) walks over, and literally just starts telling one of us about the amazing lunch that they just had.  Any person with any level of understanding of social etiquette would be horrified, and would likely even implore the buttinski to kindly wait their turn. Regardless of the social implication here, what has the buttinski done to the conversation and your train of thought?  They’ve completely derailed it!

This is exactly what happens when we allow email/text/social media messages to impede on our time of focus.  Shift the scenario to instead of you and I having a conversation in person, to you solitarily working, but working on something of great importance and effectiveness to your business: reaching out to people, marketing, content, etc.  Now you get the DING! of the text message, or social media alert, or email alert…and now you’re off.  You’ve mentally switched to answer or browse, and now you’ve lost valuable time.

Realize that the problem is NOT that the other person has sent you a message or tried to contact you. How would they have any idea what you were currently in the middle of?  The problem is that YOU ALLOW the ding, or the buzz, to completely derail your focus to answer what just came in.

Oh dear! I literally just did it myself while in the middle of writing this section.  I just answered a message that dinged in from a colleague.  Why?  Apparently, because even if you have the awareness and the conscious discipline, sometimes the lure of the ding is too great.

We confuse our ability to have real-time communication with our lifestyle of being in constant communication.  The constant communication lifestyle is fine, but YOU must be in control over the real-time aspects of it.

Focus on What YOU Can Control

How do we handle this?  It’s all about focusing on what you can control. You can’t control the fact that somebody is trying to get in contact with you, but you CAN control your reaction to it.

For this issue, there are 2 main strategies and tactics to employ:

  1. Awareness and discipline.  This takes time and effort because most of us are conditioned the other way.  Start with awareness.  Once you are aware of your actions, you can start to make changes. I’ve already just admitted that sometimes this isn’t enough, but it definitely starts here.
  2. Turn Notifications OFF! At least during the important, focus times.  Whether its your phone, tablet, or computer, all of the modern day operating systems allow you to configure the notifications settings.  Plus, you can simply put these devices in “Do Not Disturb” mode.  There are always ways to setup exceptions for those incoming messages that are truly important (mainly by person).

Remember, technology is a good servant, but a BAD master.  Don’t let the ability of having real-time communication actually make you less productive.

If you got some value out of this, please comment below and share it with others! Also, if you desire to go into more depth on this, and many other topics related to “Focusing on What YOU Can Control”, this course may be just what you need.  In this course I go into depth on a great many of these topics.

October 24, 2016 8 minute read

4 Tips to Help You Escape a Valley

Personal Investment

4 Tips to Help You Escape a Valley

Life is certainly not always one big high.  Even the most successful, or happy, or content people you know have all weathered tough times.  Our journey is series of peaks and valleys, as well as left and right turns.  It’s a rollercoaster, and although we know intellectually that we need to embrace it, let’s face it…it’s rarely easy.

In this article, I provide you with 4 tips to help you escape a valley or rut in your life.

Resistance LOVES The Valleys

What is the valley?  It’s that time, whether its days, weeks, or months long, when your energy is low, when you’re uninspired, and when you are questioning whether you can do it, or even if its all worth it.  Maybe the valley has occurred because of a forced transition (lost a job…medical issue…relationship?), or maybe you’ve sunk into a low point gradually, it doesn’t really matter, but you are there.

Resistance LOVES and feeds on our valleys.  Resistance brings all of its tools to bear on us: fear, lack of faith, lack of activity, DISTRACTION.  When you’re in that valley its tough to be consistent, to be positive, to see the vision, to have faith, to be thankful.

How to Escape a Valley

So what to do?

One important concept is to recognize the valley for what it is: a temporary condition…a season.  It may not seem temporary, but just as winter lasts only for a time, so too will this valley.  Look back over your life, and you will see both peaks and the valleys, so you know intellectually its just temporary.

But you may be saying, “OK, great, I see that, but how do I shorten that time NOW? How do I get out of it NOW?”  It’s a process, but the key is in your activity.  Escaping a valley is about doing.

Here are 4 excellent activities that help you escape a valley:

  1. Help Others
  2. Engage in Daily Intentional Gratitude
  3. Get Yourself a New Fitness or Health Plan
  4. Take Consistent Action

Let’s look at these in detail…

Help Others

One of the best ways to break out of the slump is to simply help others.  Help someone else and you are helping yourself just as much. Here’s why it’s helping you also:

  • Provides perspective – Let’s face it, its really easy to become inwardly focused, and then start to dwell on all of the things we don’t have.  When we help others, we start to break that mindset because we realize that we are fortunate.
  • Sense of purpose and making a difference – There is a deep psychological need that most people feel, and that is that we want to make a difference in this world.  When we leave it, we want to have made an impact.  Helping others feeds this need because we feel that purpose.
  • Meet new people and gaining new opportunities – New opportunities usually come through people.  It’s that simple.  Many times the thing that propels us out of the valley is a new opportunity, and meeting new people by helping them is a likely path to new opportunities.

Helping others, and receiving personal benefit doesn’t have to be a grand gesture.  You don’t have to donate enough money to build a new wing onto the local school. Nor do you have to spearhead a campaign in your community to bring awareness to the plight of the homeless.  Although these certainly would be awesome ways to help others.

You can engage in some very simple gestures, and they can be personal or anonymous.  You can help others simply by making eye contact and smiling, or holding a door for a stranger.  Think about the last time a stranger smiled at you…How did that make you feel?  It likely brightened your day just a bit.

Next time in line at the coffee shop, tell the attendant that you would like to pay for the person that is 3 back in line from you.  It’s anonymous, and you’re likely to be gone by the time that the person realizes that you did that for them.  But how will that person feel?  How would it make you feel if you were the person whom had the bill paid by a random stranger?  You might have an extra bounce in your step.

Be that person.

Intentional Gratitude

Intentional gratitude has similar perspective altering benefits that helping others does.  It keeps us grounded, helps us to understand that we are indeed lucky, and keeps our mind focused on the positive rather than the negative.  “Intentional gratitude” means that you are intentionally applying thought to that for which you are thankful.  When you do it everyday, it changes your perspective.

Here’s a couple things you can do to be intentionally grateful each day:

  • Make a list of 20 things for which you are thankful – Look at it and read it to yourself everyday.
  • Start each day with a prayer or meditation in which you consciously find several things to be thankful for in the day ahead.
  • Add at least 1 new item to your list everyday – Take your list of 20 and add at least 1 new thing to everyday.  You will NEVER run out.
  • End each day by looking back and being thankful for at least one thing that happened – Rounding out the day with a look back is an excellent practice for being grateful.

New Fitness or Health Plan

Sometimes the best way to escape a valley is to simply make some personal changes. A great place to do it is with your fitness or health plan.  The benefits to our mind by having good physical health are well documented and undeniable.  Especially when we start to age, our physical condition makes a bigger impact on our ability to think as well as our emotional state.

Here are some tips for helping you to change up the health plan:

  • Set a new endurance or fitness goal – Put a 5k, 10k, 1/2, or full marathon on the calendar.  Find a powerlifting meet and sign up.  Sign up for a Spartan Race.  Buy a fancy, expensive bike and get on it.  Decide you want to start doing triathlons learn how to swim.  Then, most importantly, commit to the training.  The magic is in the daily training.
  • Change your diet – Notice this is NOT “go on a diet”.  This is a commitment to make a real change, not take on a “diet plan”.  Real health comes from doing the right things for your body on a daily basis, not for a period of 30 or 90 days.  If you need help in this area, please contact me, I can help you get started on the right path.

Take Consistent Action

The magic is in the action.  When you are slumping its so easy to not do the things that have moved you forward until then.  It may because there are lots of things you don’t like to do.  It may be because of the Resistance.  Regardless, at the end of the day, its the action that moves you forward.  Here are couple of tips for you

  • Find a new, or rededicate yourself to a daily routine – Each and every day you must be doing the things that move you forward.  Having a defined routine is a powerful way to make sure you are doing the right things.
  • Turn your brain off – What?  Yup, sometimes the reason you’re not taking action is because you’re inside your own head. And sometimes, you’re so worried about thinking your way out of the situation, that it hinders you taking the action that is necessary to get you there.  Thinking may be important to help with direction, but its the action that will make it happen.  Stop over thinking and over analyzing and Just Do it!

Some times, maybe not every time, but definitely some times, you will start to actually be THANKFUL for those valleys.  You will start to realize that those valleys have actually helped you move forward.  Those valleys have spurred you on to take ACTION.  Action that you weren’t previously taking, and that action has led to the next PEAK.

And here’s the great thing about those valleys…When you look back, you realize its those valleys that made you what you are today.

I hope this helped you in some way, and if so, please comment below, share it with others, and please connect with me.  I would love to hear your thoughts and the experiences you’ve had as well.

Have a great day!

September 12, 2016 5 minute read

The Aha! Moment for Me in John C Maxwell’s Top 10 Reasons Why People Fail

FailureMindsetSuccess

The Aha! Moment for Me in John C Maxwell’s Top 10 Reasons Why People Fail

Change…Is it good?  Is it bad?  Are you willing to change?  Does change have an impact on our success?

In this post I share some more wisdom from John C Maxwell’s Failing Forward. Specifically, I will discuss the AHA! moment for me during the chapter where he describes his Top 10 Reasons Why People Fail.

That AHA! moment for me is….

Unwillingness to Change

This is another “look in the mirror” moment.  Especially for me…I certainly was (and likely still am sometimes) guilty of this on many levels, and I had to come to grips with the fact that in order to progress and move forward, maybe I did/do have to change.

Here are 2 great quotes that hit home here.  I can’t find an original reference for the first one:

If you change nothing, nothing will change

This 2nd one has been attributed to Albert Einstein, but I’m not sure he said it, or just implied the concept with his definition of insanity:

If you do what you always did, you will get what you always got.

You see, our path is determined by us, and by our actions.  If we are unwilling to make a change, even if the path is not working out, then we can count on not reaching our goals.  It’s that simple.

There are 2 basic types of change, and one is easier than the other.

Willingness to Change Procedures or Methodologies

This is usually the easiest.  It means something like, “I tried this, this isn’t working, now I’ll try that”, or “Let’s try this new procedure from so-and-so because the one I’m following isn’t working.”  Many times, we actually embrace this type of change, because this type of change is not likely to make us feel inferior.

For example, let’s use changing the oil on your car as an illustration.  Assume you’ve changed the oil on many cars and know what has to be done, you just haven’t done it on your particular car.  You start by simply opening the hood and trying to dig in with some level of confidence.  You do this because you know WHAT has to be done (i.e., old oil drained, old oil filter removed, new oil filter installed, new oil installed), and you think there’s a good chance you can just figure it out along the way.  Let’s say you hit a snag in trying to get the old oil filter off due to its placement. So you go to YouTube and check out some “how-to” videos on your particular car and realize you have to (___________) first.  You likely have no emotional problem whatsoever just changing your approach and following the new procedure given by the video.  You don’t consider this change an affront to your ability, or your moral character, or your belief the “right way”.  You simply make the change.

Willingness to Change Beliefs and Self Awareness

Here’s where it gets interesting, but also where real growth comes.  You must be willing to revisit things that you believe in, or things you believe about yourself.  This can be hard, because unlike changing how you removing the oil filter in your car, you must look in the mirror and do some soul searching.  This type of change, or at least the act of revisiting these topics, can be VERY UNCOMFORTABLE.

Here’s an example from my own journey…Network marketing has been around for a long time, and there are many successful people who are very happy to coach and train others on how to be successful.  And there are just as many new network marketers (ahem….) that think they have a different (possibly better) way because the taught way is uncomfortable, or “not me, or (_________).  You may believe that you can do it your way, and possibly you are right, but if you would just look in the mirror, and realize that change is necessary, then progress would start.  Everything else is mostly spinning in circles.  You may never enjoy showing up cold to a networking meeting, or a social gathering filled with people you don’t know, or reaching out to people you haven’t spoken to in a while, but the magic is in making the change that allows you to do it anyway.

You must confront your belief, which is really just fear and resistance, and be willing and open to a change.

Very successful people typically subscribe to the tenet that you have to become COMFORTABLE being UNCOMFORTABLE. You don’t have to love change to be successful, but you have to be willing to accept it and take action when it makes sense.  If you are not regularly doing things that make you uncomfortable, then you are not likely moving forward.

Sometimes the “change” is started by a change of environment.  Many times that geographical or vocational uncomfortableness sparks a change, even a minor change, that pushes you forward.  How many times have we seen a professional athlete or coach simply change teams, and then start to have success.

So embrace the concept of change…take a look inside yourself…get uncomfortable…reach for the sky!

I hope this helped you in some way, and if so, please comment below, share it with others, and please connect with me.  I would love to hear your thoughts and the experiences you’ve had as well.

Have a great day!

September 7, 2016 6 minute read

3 Tips for Conducting your Home Business or Side Project so it Actually Progresses

BusinessMindsetPurpose

3 Tips for Conducting your Home Business or Side Project so it Actually Progresses (After the Initial Excitement Wears Off)

Has your side business progress ground to a halt?  Was it awesome in the beginning, but now you’ve reached a point where you can’t seem to get it moving again?  Or maybe it’s actually started going in the negative direction?

Whether you already have a side/home business, or you are looking to start one, here’s some important information to help you make actual progress past that initial time when the excitement wears off.  When we first get started, usually all we need is our enthusiasm to make progress.  That’s because you are excited and you’re happy to put time into the project.  It doesn’t seem like work.  Your vision is fresh, and your motivation is at the surface of your mind.  You like (or at least joyfully tolerate) doing ALL of the things you need to do (making phone calls, researching and reaching out online, scheduling and administrative work, etc).

But then it hits…either like a lightning bolt, or more often a bit gradually.  You find that you don’t look forward to doing all of the things you NEED to do.  You start taking shortcuts or only doing the tasks you still LIKE to do.  You start adding some of those distractions back into your life.  Then, inevitably, progress starts to slow…

This post provides you with some tips on how to conduct your home or part time business so it actually keeps progressing, especially once you’ve fallen off the excitement cliff.  The KEY to continuing, or restarting your PROGRESS is to realize you must treat your business like a PROFESSIONAL.  In a previous post I gave you some tips on the mindset and big picture stuff on the difference between an amateur and professional.

So if you are reading on, I’m assuming you’ve made the decision to be a pro.  Excellent…because that’s what it takes.  And just because you’re a pro, doesn’t mean you’re gonna kill yourself by working every hour of every day, nor does it mean you have to give up going to your kids’ baseball games and dance recitals.  You have to be efficient and focused with your time, sure, but there is likely room for improvement there. These tips here are really just helping you understand that your side business is a BUSINESS and if you conduct yourself professionally, that’s how you will make progress.

1. Get in the professional work mindset by committing to the work every day

You’re a pro, you want to grow a business.  That means you must commit to doing the work every day.  You cannot do it only when you feel like it or when you have the inspiration…that’s a hobby. Hobbies are awesome down time activities, and can serve as useful “productively unproductive” activities, but they are rarely income generating activities.  If you see this work as a hobby, that’s fine, just don’t kid yourself about the production.

Dr. J has an excellent quote on this subject:

Being a professional means doing the things you love to do, on the days that you don’t feel like doing them.

Commit to it every day…ESPECIALLY on the days when you don’t feel like it.  This is mindset, nothing more, and it makes all the difference.  If you don’t let yourself off the hook on doing the work, you will do the work.

2. Schedule time to do the work

Whether you’re full or part time, you must schedule the work.  Each day, find the time on your calendar during which you will be focused on this work.  It may be the same time every day, or it may be different times depending on the day.  Regardless, put it on the calendar, at least your mental calendar. For example, maybe you are writer and you know that everyday from 9-10 pm is your writing time.  Excellent, just DON’T schedule anything else during that time!

Here’s the next part of that:  during that work time, be 100% focused and committed to the work.  You are fitting work in and around other stuff in your life, you will have to focus.  And sometimes you must do this at the expense of fun or social time like going out to lunch or coffee.  Yes, you need downtime, but you must take an honest look and prioritize social engagements against your work.

3. Conduct yourself like a professional

Yup, even if you are working in your basement, or garage.  What does “conduct yourself like a pro” mean?  Well, its certainly dependent upon what you are doing, but I think you know what this means.  Here are some suggestions:

  • Dress and get ready as IF you are going to an office – OK, maybe you’re working in your basement specifically so you can work in your underwear.  Understood…but don’t under estimate the impact on your mindset and ability to focus if you have PREPARED yourself procedurally for the work. When you work at your day job, you likely get ready: shower, dress appropriately, coffee or tea, eat, commute, etc.  This procedure subconsciously prepares your mind to work.
  • Make your list for the day – Whether you have a fancy electronic app or system, or if you simply use pencil and paper, the daily list is critical to helping you stay focused, and prioritized, on the proper tasks.
  • Take notes – Be diligent about your note taking.  You are likely to be accountable only to yourself.  For some that’s the only accountability they will ever need.  For others, you are softest on yourself.  Note taking, other than the obvious benefit of helping you remember and organize information, will provide concrete metrics for you to look back on and see what you’ve actually done.  Part of knowing what has to be done, is knowing what you did.
  • When talking on phone or sending emails/messages, use your company name – Again this helps you be in the mindset.  If you are sending emails with your official business signature, from your official business email address, it reminds you that this is for real.  If you don’t have an official business email or signature yet, get one.  When you introduce yourself on the phone, use your business name:  “Hi, this is John Macdonald of johnmaconline”.
  • Apply daily routine concepts to your side business – Here is a post about how to have a successful day.

These three tips are simply helping you get in the proper mindset and routine.  You are pro, so progress will depend upon you acting like a pro.

I hope this helped you in some way, and if so, please comment below, share it with others, and please connect with me.  I would love to hear your thoughts and the experiences you’ve had as well.

Have a great day!

 

August 12, 2016 5 minute read

How To Handle When You Don’t Reach Your Goals

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How To Handle When You Don’t Reach Your Goals

Many of the messages and mindset training I’ve been sharing have been extolling virtues of failing fast, failing often, and failing forward.  I’ve also shared with you the importance of the racing mindset and setting goals.  Ultimately, wandering through your days without specific objectives setup to help you achieve your vision will rarely allow you to move forward towards your vision.  So you have goals and objectives, and you are taking the action, and then of course…inevitably, frequently even…you won’t be reaching your goals, because we are pushing for FAILURE.  Maybe it happens with a daily, weekly, or monthly goal, or maybe its one of your long term goals.  Regardless, you will miss the mark sometimes, and maybe frequently.  But that’s OK, as long as you know how to handle it.

As a quick aside…Remember that for daily goals you should be focused on your work and your activity, not your results.  Results are part of your big vision and the objectives that are stepping stones to reach that vision. You think about your vision, set objectives that mark the path to that vision, and then focus on the ACTIVITY that is required to reach those objectives, and ultimately your vision.

So how do you handle it when you DON’T reach those goals? How do you handle all of these failures and shortcomings, get your mind set straight, and still move forward?

Ask yourself 2 questions

The first thing to understand is that these are not ultimate failures unless you personally label them as such.  As long as you are failing forward, then there is no ultimate failure.  So how do you fail forward?  You ask yourself these 2 questions:

  1. Was my expectation unrealistic?
  2. What can I learn from the situation?

Was my expectation unrealistic?

If you determine that your expectation was indeed unrealistic, then simply reset that expectation.  Set new, more accurate goals, and then start working towards them.  Here’s an example pulled directly from my day yesterday.

I had set a goal of reaching out to and connecting with 20 new people on social media.  I had set that goal in the morning (as I do most of my daily goals) after looking at my calendar and thinking about the time I could allot to this activity.  I arrived at 20 because I was fired up, and ready to roll (see this post for why).  My method for reaching out and connecting is very personal in that I am not simply sending out form or copy/paste messages.  I am thoughtful about with whom I try to connect and the message that I send to each person.  The moral of this story is that it takes time.  If it takes an average of 10 minutes to reach out to each person, that equates to needing over 3 hours of time to hit the goal of 20 people.  I had not really worked that part out when I set my daily goal of 20.  Well, as it turned out, I only had about 45 minutes of time that I could spend on this activity, which should have been 4 or 5 people.  In reality, it was 3.

Looking back, my goal was unrealistic.  I wasn’t going to have over 3 hours, no matter what kind of day I had.  So I’ve reset my goals for today.  Today’s goal is 5.

That’s NOT to say that you shouldn’t be shooting for “unrealistic” goals.  You are a dreamer, you are shooting to make an impact, you can only become what you think you can, therefore, think you can be GREAT!  Sometimes, however, adjustment is necessary.  It is indeed an internal negotiation.

That’s how its done…reflect upon the realism of the expectation, and adjust accordingly.

What can I learn from the situation?

The cycle of ACTION -> FAIL -> LEARN -> REPEAT is the magical cycle that pushes you forward to your vision.

action-fail-learn

So learning is a big piece of this, and that’s all you do here.  What can you learn from the situation to help you make adjustments for tomorrow?  Take my situation above, for example. Not only did I need to reset my expectation, but I learned that given my method for reaching out, 20 in a day is only realistic on days on which I can commit over 3 hours to the activity.  I don’t have many days like that.  So what I’ve learned is that I either need to figure out how to be faster, or set my expectations according to the time I will have available.

I’ve learned how to improve my goal setting and what I need to work on today.  I’ve reset my expectations more realistically.  I’ve recommitted myself to reaching those new goals today.  That’s how its done.

I hope this helped you in some way, and if so, please comment below, share it with others, and please connect with me.  I would love to hear your thoughts and the experiences you’ve had as well.

Have a great day!

 

August 11, 2016 5 minute read

The Most Important Mindset Training for Achieving Your Goals

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The Most Important Mindset Training for Achieving Your Goals

I had a mind bending “Aha!” moment today.  It was in my car on the way to the office as I was listening to an audio version of the book, “Go For No!”, by Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz.  The concept itself wasn’t really new, and it’s something that I’ve been learning and putting into practice for some time now.  But the UNDERSTANDING of the concept was the “Aha!” moment because I realized that the training of the mind is IDENTICAL to the training of your body when it comes to FAILURE.

Training Your Body to Reach New Goals

How do you train your body to get stronger?  Faster?  Go farther?  You train and push to FAILURE!

If you are trying to reach new goals on the bench press, you create training sessions in which you do sets of bench press (and ancillary exercises) at a weight and number of repetitions at which you will FAIL.  And better yet, if you have a spotter, you actually go BEYOND FAILURE.  You use the spotter to help you push through that failure limit.  Then, with proper recovery, your next training session you do it again, and your strength has increased and your failure point is just a bit higher.  You are stronger than you were before because the pushing to the failure point of your muscles caused them to break down and the recovery period causes them to rebuild themselves.  When that rebuild occurs, they rebuild stronger!

The same is true for endurance.  When you are trying to increase your distance, you create training sessions that push you to and past your present endurance limit.  A training plan for a beginner marathoner takes place over many weeks and months, and it has you increasing your distance week over week.  You push yourself to your failure distance this week, and then next week, that failure distance is just a bit further.

Your body already knows and understands that the magic is in overcoming the FAILURE.

Training Your Mind to Reach New Goals

Achievement and success, especially if your goals are above your “current self”, is an exercise in overcoming your mind.  Sure, there are likely new skills you must develop and investments you must make and other procedural kinds of things to do, but ultimately its about your own mindset.

Successful people have been talking about the importance of your mindset and the need to embrace failure since the dawn of time.  Abraham Lincoln was by all accounts a huge failure before becoming one of the most influential men our country has ever seen.  Business icons, innovators, and leaders such as Henry Ford, Steve Jobs, Thomas Edison, Bill Gates, and John C Maxwell are all on record discussing the critical role that failure had in their lives and projects.  In my opinion, one of the main tenets of Christianity is failure.  Christ’s purpose is to redeem us from our failure.

So its perfectly clear that failure is the pathway to success.  HOWEVER, its one thing to intellectually understand it from other’s points of view, and its quite another to get the concept on the basic, guttural and emotional level that it takes for you to BELIEVE IT.  Well, that moment happened for me today when I put together the analogy that training your body is just like training your mind when it comes to failure.

This resonates with me because I’ve been an “athlete” my entire life.  I’ve always been physically training, and I understand and believe from my own experience that training to your failure point is how progress is made.  So it makes PERFECT SENSE that your mind would work the same way.

If you start training your mind by pushing to your failure point, the following occurs:

  1. You get mentally tougher:  The more you fail, the better you get at handling it, the less you are afraid of it, and the more wisdom you can pull from it.
  2. You set yourself up to push farther next time: Your mind gets stronger, and when it gets stronger, your failure point is beyond what it was.

A New Paradigm for Measuring Yourself

For whatever reason, we seem to have been conditioned or trained to avoid failure at all costs.  Certainly this is my problem.  I don’t know if that’s due to external influence and training, or whether its inherently part of me, but its there.  Fear of failure is one of my deep inhibiting mindset issues because it feeds my fear of what others think of me.

So the new paradigm will be to seek out the failures…Fail fast, and fail often…Embrace the failure.

Embrace the Suck!

Success awaits on the other side!

I hope this helped you in some way, and if so, please comment below, share it with others, and please connect with me.  I would love to hear your thoughts and the experiences you’ve had as well.

Have a great day!

 

August 9, 2016 5 minute read

The Difference Between Knowledge and Learning

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The Difference Between Knowledge and Learning

There’s a difference between knowledge and learning?  Yup…At least connotatively in practice.  The purpose of this post is to help you understand the difference and why learning is what is going to help you have success.

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Definitions

(provided by New Oxford American Dictionary)

knowledge: noun

  1. facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject: a thirst for knowledge | her considerable knowledge of antiques. 
    • what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information: the transmission of knowledge.
    • Philosophy true, justified belief; certain understanding, as opposed to opinion.
  2. awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation: the program had been developed without his knowledge | he denied all knowledge of the overnight incidents.

 learning: noun 

  1. the acquisition of knowledge or skills through experience, study, or by being taught: these children experienced difficulties in learning | [ as modifier ] :  an important learning process.
    • knowledge acquired through experience, study, or being taught: I liked to parade my learning in front of my sisters.

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Very subtle, for sure.  The main difference in the formal definitions is that learning uses the term knowledge in its definition, and also includes the term skills. The acquisition of knowledge or skills.  It appears that looking for the subtle distinction in the formal definitions is an exercise in splitting hairs.

The Real Difference and Why It Matters

However, CONNOTATIVELY, there is an important and profound distinction between the two.  To illustrate this, we’ll use some practical wisdom from a couple of superstar leaders and teachers.  Here’s what legendary coach Don Shula says about learning in his book “Everybody’s a Coach“:

Learning is defined as a change in behavior.  You haven’t learned a thing until you can take action and use it.

And here’s what legendary personal development teacher and leader Jim Rohn has to say about the subject:

Don’t let your learning lead to knowledge, let it lead to action.

The difference between knowledge and learning is action!  This was an extremely important concept for me to understand. I love knowledge and I love to learn.  I’ve been reading and “gaining knowledge” for all of my life, but it wasn’t until not too long ago when this distinction hit me.

Why is it so important?  Because when you are trying to move yourself forward, and achieve goals, LEARNING is what moves you down the path.  Learning is what can push you forward.  Knowledge may be useful at a dinner party conversation, but learning is how progress is made.

My Personal Journey and Results

What has been the results for me once I understood the difference between knowledge and learning?  This entire blog is filled with the things I’m actually learning.  These are the concepts that i’m putting into action and learning them.  They are not simply theoretical.  You can literally pick any and all of the posts in this blog, but some good practical ones that you may find useful are the following:

Conclusion

To achieve, to succeed, to move forward, your GOAL is to engage in LEARNING, not just knowledge.  The difference between knowledge and learning is simply action.  When you put your knowledge into action, that’s what puts you on the path to success.

I hope this helped you in some way, and if so, please comment below, share it with others, and please connect with me.  I would love to hear your thoughts and the experiences you’ve had as well.

Have a great day!

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August 6, 2016 8 minute read

Are you Racing or Participating?

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Are you Racing or Participating?

Whenever you take part in or spectate at a 5k, marathon, triathlon, Spartan race, or any type of endurance event, there are two kinds of people that are contestants:
  1. Those that are participating
  2. Those that are RACING

OK, So what? Does it matter?  Why do I care? Isn’t participation what’s important here?  There are only a few people in each of these races who actually have a chance to place.  Isn’t it just as important to get out there and do it, even if you have no chance to place?

Well, that depends.  The concept of racing vs participating in an endurance challenge services a great model for life.  The distinction that I’m drawing here has little to do with the results of the race, it’s MINDSET.  You may indeed have no practical chance at “winning”, but that doesn’t mean you, and many others, aren’t RACING!  No matter what activity you take part in, you are always RACING against YOURSELF, and the RACING MINDSET is exactly the mindset you need to move forward, and progress, and achieve the life you want.

What’s the difference?

As I already mentioned, it doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with your results on the scoresheet, i.e., it doesn’t have to be about “winning” or “placing”.   It’s all about comparing your results with your vision and goals, and the effort you are putting forth leading up to and during the event:

  • Your goal could be performance.  It could be performance in comparison to others (i.e., winning or placing), or it could be performance compared with yourself.  Maybe you are looking to set a personal best, or do better than the last race, or maybe you’ve been injured and you are looking to get back to a time that may be no where close to your best, but will be an accomplishment.
  • Your goal could be mastering the activity.  Maybe simply FINISHING means you’ve been racing, regardless of the time.  For example, I’m a runner and triathlete, but the races in which I participate are short: 5k – 1/2 marathons and sprint and olympic triathlons.  If I ever set a goal of competing in a marathon, just FINISHING will be a HUGE ACCOMPLISHMENT for me.  I will be racing simply by finishing.  The same would be true if I set a goal of 1/2 or full Ironman triathlon.  If I finish, I will have been racing.

The RACING MINDSET can be applied to everything you do:

  • Your business
  • Your career
  • Your health and fitness
  • Your family
  • Your life
Successful people…people that are moving forward…people that have set goals and are working towards them…they are the ones who are RACING, everyday.  At least racing in the areas that are important to them.  People who are racing are inspired, they’ve prepared and trained, and they are giving maximum effort during the training and on race day.
Sometimes, however, we’ve given the effort and we’ve trained, but don’t meet our goals.  At least not initially or at the time we wanted.  BUT…that doesn’t mean you aren’t racing.  It just means some adjustment is needed…either to the goal, or to the work and effort that has gone into the training and preparation.  In either case, make the adjustment and keep moving forward!  RACING is NOT just about RESULTS, its about MINDSET. Change your mindset about failure, and keep moving.

How to apply the RACING MINDSET to your life?

It’s actually very similar to the concept that I put forth in “Are you amateur or a pro?”.  It takes vision and goals, intentionality, discipline and effort.  Here is how to get the RACING MINDSET:

  • Find the inspiration and the vision
  • Have a goal or goals associated with that vision
  • Make a plan to reach that goal
  • Work the plan…everyday (the Slight Edge!)
  • Maximum effort, don’t let yourself off the hook…during your preparation and especially on race day!

This is how it’s done.  Find your vision, make the plan, and start racing.

A Case Study

Recently, I was at a Spartan Sprint race in which my oldest son was participating.  He’s a college student who is a good runner and in fabulous shape, but had never done an event that combined endurance plus strength obstacles.  On our hour long ride to the mountain for the race, I could sense his nervousness of the unknown, but I knew he was trained and ready.  He had no idea what to expect (except for the limited advice and coaching that I could give him from my previous experience), but he did have a definite time goal set of under 2 hours.  That was his goal since the time he signed up.

Now we’re at the mountain, all registered, and checking out what we can see of the course.  His start time: 12:30…the hottest time of the day.  Now it’s 12:15, time to slam the Preworkout and get into the cattle shoot and test himself against his physical and mental preparation!  As the 100 or so contestants in this heat were shuttled into the starting area, there was plenty of high-fives and fist bumps, as well as more than a few anxious faces as they stared up the grueling ski hill that was their first challenge of the race.  The announcements were made, the “Aroo!!’s” were yelled and he was off! He took off up the ski slope and I lost him over the first ridge.  I was so excited for him!

Unfortunately, the only way I could follow him was via sparse text updates until he got towards the end.  The updates were agonizingly slow, but finally I got news that he was heading to the buckets challenge, so I scampered across the mountain to see if I could catch a glimpse and get some pictures.  Sure enough, just before he got there, at about 1 hour and 35 minutes after his race start, not only was I able to watch him, I actually met him with some much needed water and Energy.  We spoke briefly as he rested for just a couple minutes and then he was off — “Gotta beat 2 hours!”

Now I was able to follow his progress in person over the last couple of obstacles.  The last tough obstacle was a mud slicked, ring traverse.  He got up on them, slipped off…tried once more and slipped off again.  His hands were simply spent, and could no longer hold on. So he ran to the burpee zone to get his 30 burpees in.  “How much time?….about 3 minutes”.  Burpees done…sprint to the mud wall to slide under and then sprint to the fire jump and the finish line.  I was so proud!!  Now spent, with hands on knees, medal around neck, and his hapless father bungling toward him, I hear, breathlessly: “Hey Dad…I think I may have done it…What’s my official time”? So we headed over the tent with the results…1:59:36….BAM!  He did it!

IMG_3734 IMG_3746 IMG_3751  IMG_3754

On the ride home, we stopped for some much needed nourishment.  As we got out of the car and closed the doors I hear, “Wait, Dad…can you unlock the doors again?”.  “Sure, what did you forget?” “My medal!  I’m wearing this the rest of today, to work tomorrow, and maybe all week!”.

You see, he was RACING!  He earned that medal and he had every right to be proud of it.  Regardless of how he did against the other people (he actually did quite well and came in 3rd in his age group), he had set his own goal, and he accomplished it.  If he had not set that goal, its likely that:

  • He doesn’t sprint in between the last couple of obstacles.
  • He doesn’t keep looking at the time to see where he’s at.
  • He doesn’t push himself beyond what he normally would.
  • He’s not nearly as proud of that medal.

That’s how its done.  You set the goals and then your mind helps you and pushes you.  Sometimes even beyond what you think you can ever do.  Now he already has new goals set for the next race.  He’s figured out that he could easily shave 10 minutes off that time with no change to his training, plus he knows for what he needs to train better.

Setting goals…making a plan…giving maximum effort.

I hope this helped you in some way, and if so, please share it with others, and please connect with me.  I would love to hear your thoughts and the experiences you’ve had as well.

Now get out there and RACE!!

 

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July 26, 2016 7 minute read

The 3 Areas in Which You MUST Invest in Yourself

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The 3 Areas in Which You MUST Invest in Yourself

Are you investing in yourself?  Are you placing a high enough priority on helping yourself grow and be healthy?  Do you know how to invest in yourself?

The one guaranteed positive return you can ALWAYS count on is if you invest in YOURSELF.  The INVESTMENTS you make in YOURSELF may be the most IMPORTANT you will ever experience.  Whether you have definite goals, or are simply trying to move forward in the best way you can, investing in yourself is absolutely critical. It is one of the most critical tools of being of becoming a pro, yet many of us simply ignore it as a selfish act, or worse, not worth our time.

The first step here is to be aware that it is NOT a selfish act.  Investing in yourself ultimately results not only in the betterment of your life, but in the betterment of the lives of the people in YOUR WORLD.  When you get better and move forward, you help others be better and move forward.  That can be literally materially, but it can also be socially, relationally, and spiritually. You give off this “betterment glow” that affects those around you.

There are several ways to be investing in yourself, and here I give you my top 3 ways.  In my opinion, these are the critical areas of self investment to help you become the person you want to be.  These are the areas in which you should place a priority for your time and financial resources.  When you do, the returns can be astounding.

Gratitude

Gratitude, an investment?  Yes, gratitude.  When you are mindful of the blessings you have, you are grounded and less inclined to be critical of yourself, or question your motives (although checking yourself and your motives is a good occasional exercise).  Being thankful helps you stand on solid ground when everything else around you may be unsure and unstable.  Understanding where you are presently helps you recognize and be even more thankful for the progress you make.

Do these 2 exercises everyday:

  1. Make an actual list of all of the blessing for which you are thankful.  Look at this list and read through it every day. As the days go by, add to it if you see fit.
  2. Every day find something new for which to be thankful (and write it down or not…it’s the thinking that counts).  It can be one thing, or maybe you have a flood of new things that day. What matters is you took some explicit thought time to find something new. Some days are easier than others, but you will see that you will find something new each and every day.

Education

Be a perpetual student.  What?!  Maybe some of you are saying to yourself, “I couldn’t WAIT for school to be over. I’m not going through that again.  That part of my life is over!”  OK, school or formal classwork is only one small way to continue being a student.  Investing in your education doesn’t have to mean “school” at all.  But continuing to learn is a critical self investment area.  You need to further your education and develop your skills regardless if your motivation is:

  • Current career
  • New or side business/career
  • Fitness and health
  • Hobby
  • General personal development

All of these require you to continuously develop your skills and knowledge.

What does being a perpetual student actually look like?  It’s actually quite varied, and the great news is you can pick the best method for yourself and the way you learn. It generally just requires a SOURCE, and then putting the information from the source into PRACTICE.  The source can be as simple as continuously watching and taking physical and mental notes of someone you are trying to emulate. Or it can be as formal as classwork or training.  The key is it requires actual practice and participation.  The learning occurs during the action of putting what you have SEEN into PRACTICE.

Here are some sources to kick off your self investment in learning:

  • Traditional Classwork: Self explanatory
  • Books, Online Courses, Video Series, Blogs, etc: This is the Do-It-Yourself approach and with today’s technology and ubiquitousness of source material, this is an outstanding option for the self-motivated.
  • Seminars and Training Events: An event at which you physically show up and participate.  If you’re not as self motivated, get around those who are, and you typically find them here.
  • Masterminds: Groups that get together specifically to discuss and brainstorm each others projects.  The projects are mainly business related.  Here’s a tip:  find a group where you are the “least-skilled” in the room. Then suck up all you can from the others.
  • Hire a Mentor or a Coach:  Sometimes the personal one-on-one is just what you need.  This is a very popular and effective approach in the business and health and fitness worlds.
  • Experience:  That’s right, your own experiences can be a platform from which you learn and move forward.  But you have to understand that the “failures” you may encounter are the KEYS to moving you forward.

I can’t stress enough that real learning occurs when you take the source material and apply it by putting it into practice.  The more you learn, the more equipped you will be to accomplish your vision and goals.  Life moves forward, and for you to keep up, you must move forward as well.

Health and Fitness

As I discuss in this post, you may have all of the money, and all of the time you need, but if you aren’t healthy, those don’t really matter. Your health must be good enough to do the things that you want, and therefore, you must absolutely invest accordingly.

Your overall physical health is made up of genetics, diet and nutrition, and your level of activity.  You are born with your genetics, but YOU can control your nutrition and your level of activity!  Do as much as you can. Most of us have ups and downs with our health, but be aware that your investment in your own health is always worth it.

Here are some of the ways to invest in your health:

  • Shop around the outside of the grocery store.  The reality is that the food that is BEST for you is the food that is closest to its natural form.  You find this food in the produce section, the meat department, and the dairy section. Sure, there are debates about meat and dairy, and these are healthy debates, but that is not the point here.  The point is to basically stay away from the middle of the grocery store because that is where all of the PROCESSED and PREPACKAGED “food” is found.  A general rule would be “the more processed, the less healthy”.
  • Take the proper nutrition supplementation. Even if you CAN get all of what your body needs from your food, 99% of us don’t from a practical standpoint because we don’t actually eat all of what we need.  Plus, if you are using regular prescription medication, there is almost a guarantee that you are depleting some of your nutrients.  You can make up for a nutritional deficiencies by taking high-quality supplementation.  If you would like to learn more, please contact me anytime, I can help.
  • Schedule and commit to exercise.  Put it in your calendar every day.  It doesn’t have to be Ironman training or power lifting, but it needs to be something.  It helps not only your physical well being, but it helps your mental sharpness and creativity as well. 

Investing in yourself is a GUARANTEED RETURN.  And make sure you are investing at the level of where you WANT TO BE, not just where you are today. That investment shapes not only who you are today, but who you will be in the future.  It can literally be the one thing that makes the difference between living the life you want, or not.  So invest for the future, invest for the now…do it!

I hope this helped you in some way, and if so, please share it with others, and please connect with me.  I would love to hear your thoughts and the experiences you’ve had as well.

Have a great day!

 

 

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