Your best just got better

On to another day of seminar-ing in Europe

On my way to work, I'm reflecting on a wonderful day here in Zurich yesterday!

After spending a good 7 hours out-and-about, including a wonderful, local lunch and a movie (in one of the most amazing movie theaters I've been in ever!), we even got a little snow late in the day!

This is an amazing town, and with a month before the big Christmas holiday, the streets and stores are already in full swing; decorations, sales, and shopping is going non-stop! (Though, I have to admit I was surprised by how many stores were closed yesterday...I mean, I know they all close on Sundays, but...it would seem like with the economy and all...)

So, off to the office at St. Peter's Place!

Social hour - London: Marriott West India Quay

If you're anywhere nearby tonight - Thursday, 20 Nov 2008 - come on by at 6pm for a quick "hello" while we're in town.

I am presenting seminars, while Jodi is meeting with coaching clients...spreading the word about Mastering Workplace Performance! It's busy times, and we're happy to be working in London. See you tonight!

Send an E-mail or give me a call on my UK mobile...contact info here...

What a room to work...here in New York!

Do you know when you're at your best?

The Middle School Parent Resource: Show #31 - "I am at my best when...

Those of you who have attended our seminars know we talk about "being at your best." Well, in this less-than-5-minute-interview, Joe asks me about that philosophy. So, get a piece of paper and pen, and get ready to have some more ideas about how you can live and work in a more balanced way...

...by being at your best!

What if you could get back to balanced "on call?" One of the things I've learned over the years, from teaching full-time in a high school classroom, to moving my "classroom" to teach courses in 42 of the 50 states and a dozen countries is that good days are not accidental.

It takes a bit of "front-end" effort to create a better day, a balanced day. In this interview, I talk about one of the things I do to remind myself what I need...I hope you get an idea or two!

By the way, do me a favor. up in the top of this link, you can pre-order Joe's new book,

Parents' Guide to the Middle School Years.

If you are raising, mentoring or coaching a teen-ager, you NEED this book!

Tags: JoeBruzzese, Thinking-Forward

Inspire. Innovate. Dream. Taking notes at the Grand Californian Hotel conference room

How cool is THIS! These are the note pads in front of everyone out there in the audience! I'm going to use these three themes throughout my presentation!

Getting ready for my next presentation!

Yea-hoo...2 hours until I take the stage!

When are YOU at your best?

Personal productivity is going to come down to just a few things on a consistent and sustainable level:

How much energy do you have to apply?

How much focus do you have to give?

Of course, it's easy for me to say...the author of this blog, and speaker to hundreds of people a week. "But, Jason, how do we get the energy we need, and utilize the focus we have?" That's a question that I hear often, and I like to remind people that it's not an accident.

Productivity - which I define simply as: Doing what I said I would do, in the time that I promised - doesn't just "happen." There is a lot that has to be in place for us to experience more productive days...more often.

I like to remind people (myself, really) that I need to start and end the day "right." What do you need to get your head clear and clean at the end of the day? What do you need to have done in the early part of the day to set yourself up for more success?

There is an activity we recommend all of our coaching clients go through (and sustain in the weeks following our work together) which we call, "I am at my best when..."

Every now and then (about once a month), I like to write a new list in my journal. I use that list for the next little while as a daily check in against my own productivity practices.

Off to the right of this post I've placed a digital picture of my own last list. I'm working with this inventory through until the middle of December. My goal is to achieve a 70%-plus self-rating...I'd like to do these things at least 70% of the days between now and then.

I keep it really easy...after I make the list, I review it for the first 4-5 days regularly. Then, from there I made it a part of my weekly debrief. That is, I stop once a week, and simply review the list of what it is I need to DO to BE at my best.

Notice, each one of those things is at least 5-% believable, and 100% in my own self-control (at least subjectively...).

The fact of the matter is: I can generally achieve EACH of the items off the list on a daily basis!

QUESTION: When are YOU at your best?

Mentors, colleagues, peers and coaches

How is your goal-setting to goal-achievement ratio these days? Have you identified a few things you want to have, or places you want to go, or ways you want to be? And, how are you making noticeable, consistent progress on those outcomes? Unfortunately, too many people wait to engage in the goal-setting process until it's either a reaction ["oh, no, things are terrible, they gotta change"] or an outside-in, imposed event ["performance reviews are coming/the new year will be here, let's set some goals"]. I prefer looking at the goals-setting and goal-achievement process as a day-to-tday and especially weekly process of engagement with my life and my work. As we create the networks we need - whether they are the neural networks of experience, learning and accomplishment, or the physical networks of meeting and spending time with people who can help us along the way - we improve upon the chances, the possibilities, of achievement. I have found the single most important factor in increasing my ratio of ideas to implementation is to ask for help. We're too smart, have too much going for us and have too much to do on the planet in our short time here. So, pIck a goal, and pick a person...reach out to them, share where you are, where you're going, and the support you'd like to receive. And...if this works, please leave a comment below!

Just a little bit more...one side or the other

Recently, a colleague of mine asked if we could meet over coffee up in Carpinteria, CA and discuss the elusive concept of "Work-Life Balance."
Driving the 30 or so minutes up there last week, I found myself wondering about how many hours I have spent working on "balance" in my professional, personal and athletic lives. I have focused on making "to-do" lists, attending personal development seminars, meeting with coaches and mentors, reading many books and watching videos of other expert speakers and authors.
Over coffee, we talked about a few things...one of the topics we discussed is the importance of defining exactly "what" W/L B means to each person. My thesis is that seeking balance is elusive and will prove to be difficult (if not impossible) for most people.

Instead of focusing on what we don't already have (in this case "balance") I recommend people focus on what they want to experience more.
Occassionally, people have shared with me the desire to be able to have more time to do "nothing." Now, as much as I understand the "concept," I gotta say:

I don't think you want time to do nothing. I mean, if you had time to do NOthing, you'd do SOMEthing, right? I mean, with an extra 30 minutes of time to do NOthing tomorrow, would you read a book, play with the kids, watch something you recorded on TIVO, write a card or a letter, or...

As soon as you finish reading this, consider taking out a pen and a piece of paper and just writing for a while. At the top of the page, write down, "If I had an extra 30 minutes, I'd like to..."
Then, over the next week or so, see if you can add a few of those into your day-to-day experience. Who knows, you just might end a day or two next feeling a little more "balanced!"

"I don't know who I would be if I changed."

Thank you, John Francis.

What would you hear, if you stopped long enough to listen?
What would you think, if you slowed enough to hear?

These were questions I asked myself as heard from someone I had only read about before. Several months ago, I learned about Dr. John Francis. I read an article, about how he witnessed an oil spill in the San Francisco Bay back in 1971. I'll let you watch the video, so you can hear about how he stopped driving in cars, and stopped talking for 17 YEARS!

Of course, as a "speaker" at TED, you can assume he did start speaking again. And, I feel his ambitions are noble.

Enjoy...this TED Talk is worth it!

*The title of this post was the one sentence that I wrote in my journal while listening to John speak...wow!