Your best just got better

Medical Illustration - High drama inside a cell, on TED.com

If you have an extra 10 minutes to be amazed - and explore the issues of "truth and beauty" - check out this TED Talk:

One way to keep track of New Year's Resolutions

Someone in my network sent me a link to this site earlier today... here's what some people are cooking up to help us stay on track past the famous "February 1" mark (the day most people decide to forget that/those resolutions they made one month before!).

Link: Digital New Year's Resolutions.

For those of us who need a little help, our friends at Accenture's tech research labs have come up with something that's both ingenious and disturbing at the same time: A personal coaching system that—in theory—can assist users with everything from better managing business conversations to controlling diet to flirting at your local watering hole.

As creator Dana Le describes it with a smile on her face, "It will make you smarter, funnier, healthier, sexier, productive and give you superhuman powers." (Alert the producers of "Heroes"; their monopoly is about to get broken.)

I'm in New York, but...what skyline is THIS?

Ok, here's the "travel trivia" for the day...

What skyline is this??? (click on the picture for a close up!)

No New Things on Race Day!

Any athletes out there NOT taken this advice?

It seems that every event I attend, there is someone I hear say, “I am so excited, I just got this/these new ____________ yesterday. I hope they help me during the race!”

There is advice I have read in every book, every magazine, and have heard from every coach I work with: No new things on race day.

Here is the thinking: I spend hours (literally) preparing for a multi-sport event. One year I tracked my exercise to race ratio, and it was about 20:1. For every 20 hours of training, I raced about one. Now, during those 20 hours of training, I used certain training tools, ate and drank certain nutritional items, and practiced certain affirmations thoughts and self-beliefs.

So, the coaching goes, whatever you do during those 20 hours, do during the race. And, if there is something you DO NOT do during those 20 hours, DO NOT do it during the race!

When we stopped at Starbucks on the way to the City of Angels Half Marathon earlier this month, I had the opportunity to “taste test” the peppermint mocha samples the barista had made up for all the customers. (*Note, I do not drink coffee before a workout, therefore I do not drink coffee before a race. We stopped for a Starbucks so Jodi could get her morning latte!)

I was waiting off to the side of the bar, when Jodi came over with one of the mocha samples. “I just wanted to try the something new,” she said. “I knew you would not want one, remember, no new things on race day!”

What follows is a special note to anyone reading this who is thinking, “But I do not race!”

You are a professional, a knowledge worker, an executive, a entrepreneur, an employee or a leader. Every day, you have routines you adhere to. There are the first few things you do when you sit at your desk. The meetings you regularly attend. The one of three places you go to for lunch, etc.

When you think about YOUR preparation to production ration, what would it look like? Do you work for 5, 10, or even 20 hours to every one hour of being “on?” I’m thinking about the training executive who presents information to a group of people every few days. Her or his one hour presentation comes in the midst of meetings they must attend, functions they must plan, emails they respond to, phone calls the have to take. So, when they “stand and deliver,” how ready are they?

When you stand and deliver, how ready are you?

In my coaching programs (as a high school teacher, I coached varsity baseball and mock trial), I always reminded my students:

How you practice is how you play.

So, today, what do you need to practice? And, how can you replicate that on “game day?” (Oh, and any advice I could share: No new things on race day!)

Setting AND achieving goals in 2008

Nathan Womack will present “Set Achievable Goals for 2008” Dec. 17.

How great to see my brother out there presenting ideas for groups of people doing great work...Go Nate!

The Womack Annual Century Ride is on! (Meet on 22 December 2007)

Well, we're planning our "annual" (this will be the 5th!) bike ride around Marin County, CA to celebrate the ending of another year...

We start from San Jose Middle School at 7:10am on 22 December 2007.

The mileages below are approximate, but this is the route we'll take. Wanna meet along the way? Great!

7am    Meet at San Jose Middle School
7:10am    Leave toward the Cheese Factory

Mile 10        Cheese Factory
Mile 18        Petaluma Blvd. / Washington Street
MIle 26        Bodega Ave. / Petaluma Valley Ford
Mile 36        Valley Ford
Mile 41        Ride toward Tomales
Mile 58        Pt. Reyes (Coffee Stop at the Coffee Shop!)

Mile 74        Stinson Beach
Mile 78        Up Panoramic Highway
Mile 83        Mt. Tam / Fairfax Road
Mile 93         Fairfax
Mile 10???    Ignacio, back to San Jose Middle School!

View Larger Map

Wow, what a year! 2007 was indeed wonderful

As a part of our most recent workplace performance newsletter, we put together a (short-er) slide show of meaningful pictures. If you have a favorite song hand, turn it on and watch the show! (Click here to see all the photos...)

Oh, and here's a link to Jason Womack's newsletter so you can stay "in the know..."

Luling Land Lab - what IS the connecting between education and community?

Long ago (seems like a lifetime, actually!) I was a high school teacher. Showing up to the same room, every day, to work with the same group of students, for 10 months a year, provided me with very special and memorable memories. I committed myself to find ways to connect their educational experience to the "real world." Dozens of ways I worked to do this stand out, here are just three:

* The time I led a 6am course, over 8 weeks, teaching the principles of productivity and time management in a course called: Pathfinders: Action and Ambition Management for Teens

* The night we hosted "History Night" in the cafeteria of the high school, with over 30 students (and hundreds of audience members) performing skits, monologues or interpretations of their favorite historical events

* The morning we coordinated a well-known, local musician and her band who arrived to sing, talk about, and discuss cross-cultural communication, travel and creating life-long opportunities

Thinking...or doing, what are you doing?

Which do you prefer: thinking about a project or doing something about the project? Well, it’s an interesting prompt, one that deserves 60-seconds or so of thinking. Read on…

I use the following quote in seminars and in many of my articles: “Think about what you have to do, and do something that you have to think about.”

Of course, each day you’re doing both – thinking and doing. However, when you sit down at the beginning of a day, or at the start of a meeting, you need to have already thought about what you need to do.

The three keys to "sustained productivity"

Habit

Accountability

Structure