Your best just got better

Heading to Guatemala

I'm not sure how much blogging I'll do this week, we're headed to Guatemala to do some seminar facilitation and coaching there.

My bags are packed, and I'm looking forward to an "extra day" to be a tourist in Antigua!

"Whatchya lookin' for?"

Seek and...

Test the theory tomorrow. Look for evidence of people driving recklessly on the way to work. On the flip side, look for evidence of happiness in those around you.

Joe wrote a up a short piece to get me thinking over here...

After completing a series of seminars this week on interpersonal communication skills, I'm constantly reminded at how important a factor "focus" is during the entire process.

No matter what is going on (like making lunch for example!), it's important to be "present and accounted for" during the entire process. Thanks, Joe, for giving me some ideas on what to look for!

Dean Karnazes Interview (Outside Magazine)

Link: Dean Karnazes Interview | Outside Online.

But you obviously need to have the self-confidence, or conviction, that you can do it. I think that's a belief more than anything else. A belief in yourself that you can do it. I believe that's a learned trait. And that's what I think the symbolism of ultra endurance running is, that you prove to yourself you can do things you never thought you could. If someone had said to me, before I started doing this, you're going to go out and run 100 miles through the mountains, I would have said,

"No, a human being can't do that, let alone me." And then when you actually achieve that, it teaches you that you're better than you think you are and you can go further than you think you can.

A nice testimonial from someone reading

I love hearing from people who read this blog! It makes me feel like a lot of this falls on fertile soil, and slowly - but surely - things begin changing. Here's a note I found in my inbox today...

Hi Jason,
 
Your articles inspired me to start riding to/from work last year (for a few months) until it started getting too dark on the way home. Then I moved the workout into the gym. It feels great to be active again.
 
THANK YOU!
 
- Mervin S. / North Carolina

Is your presentation effective?

Tips to Glue Your Ideas (and Products) to the Public.

"Business managers seem to believe that, once they've clicked through a PowerPoint ... they've successfully communicated their ideas," write the authors. "What they've done is share data."

The Heaths call this the "Curse of Knowledge." The more executives understand a concept, the harder it can be to explain. Execs who use the phrase "maximizing shareholder value" may know what they mean when they say it, but employees have no idea how it applies to their everyday work.

In a recent workshop on "interpersonal communication," I presented theories, statistics and practice exercises as managers worked together to learn some basic skills they could use at work and in life.

Goals for '07

My plans for change in the New Year are somewhat drastic: 2007 will be the last year that I start the year working for someone else.  It will also be the year that I get my green card, buy my first house, and have my first 7-figure year.  In many ways, 2007 has been the year that I have been preparing for for each of my first 30 years on the planet... multiple irons in the fire are heating up to the right point to be taken out and used in this calendar year.  I can't possibly be more excited.

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WOW!

Wow is what I thought after reading this from someone in my small network.

Some more coaching via self-care

Last weekend, I met Tricia at an NSA (National Speaker's Association) workshop. I was immediately interested in her story, and her results. Not only professionally, but personally she "walks her talk." I asked her to write a brief bio so I could share her ideas with this community...here's what she sent!

After overcoming her own lifetime battle with emotional eating and weight - without the use of diets, pills, medication or excessive exercise-Tricia Greaves founded Be Totally Free!, a non-profit organization that offers a unique and permanent solution for overcoming emotional eating and all other addictions. She is also a “Self-Care” coach, for those desiring maximum weight loss results with “self-care” instead of self-control. For more information visit www.betotallyfree.com.

Clean up the “inbox.”

I presented a seminar last week at UC Berkeley, and touched on a nerve...that ever-filling e-mail inbox.

As you become faster, and better, it's more important than ever to clear the clutter. In too many cases, the e-mail in box is a storage bin of items old and new, urgent and nice, pressing and overdue.

Multi-minding (forget multi-tasking; have you ever listened to a voice mail and read an e-mail at the same time? Can't be done at 100%…) only serves to distribute your focus. Instead, you want to engage and perform every time you open the inbox.

What is it *really*?

In a workshop a while back, a participant raised her hand and asked:

"What are we really managing, when we're managing time?"

Well, I thought for a moment, and decided to explore the question with the entire audience (more than 80 people!). I walked to the flip chart and asked, "What are we really managing, when we're managing time?"

Are you sleeping, or are you resting?

 

I'm noticing a difference in the morning when I wake up. The question I'm asking myself is, "Did I sleep, or did I rest?"

On the surface, it might sound like the same thing. However, I'm interested in taking a more scientific approach to the "study."

I'm trying different things. One is this: Before I fall asleep I'm writing things down. Specifically, I'm filling in a very small calendar page (actually, all 7 days are on ONE page, so I only get 3 lines per day!) with the main acknowledgments for the day.