Jason Womack

There isn't just one (it takes more to be the best)

There's an organization based in Santa Barbara named Catalyst for Thought. Today's event (a lunchtime "salon-type" discussion revolved around entrepreneurship, organizational growth and the essentials of running a successful business. The speaker: Steve Cooper, of High Tech CEO Advisor.

Looking back over the pages of notes I took ("brainstorming means you're willing to write any and everything down," Steve said) I have in front of me some amazing lessons that I would pay money for. In fact, he did! Steve shared that some lessons-learned DO cost money, that's just part of growing.

Here is something I wrote in big block letters...

1. Identify the Problem.
2. Find the Need.
3. Provide a Solution.

As easy as it seems, I'm challenging myself to go through this process for every one of my products (ie: solutions).

And you?

Location:Santa Barbara,United States

The "purpose" of purpose

Good day to you... Question: What's your own "So that..."? You know, the reason you do it all...your own raison d'être...your purpose.

I'm in Ojai, CA today (all the way through next week, in fact) and Chapter 7 of my next book is the hot topic of discussion. Everything I'm writing, all the articles I'm reading, even when I'm on my mountain bike in the Los Padres National Forest above my house...it's on my mind! This next chapter of "Your Best Just Got Better" is all about "Improvement...and purpose."

In 1995, I decided to go to graduate school, in education, and learn how to teach. In 1996, I graduated and immediately joined a high school (here, in Ojai!) as a teacher in several departments; I taught US and World History, Spanish I and Spanish II, ESL, Mock Trial, SAT Prep, and I coached Varsity Baseball.

I had a strong "So that..." all the way back then. I wanted to continually improve my teaching skills and content knowledge so that the students I worked for were as prepared as possible for their next steps...whatever those turned out to be.

Now, some 15 years later (phew, really???) I'm still at it. My "So that..." is crystal clear: "To equip clients with the mindset, practices and tools to make their best even better." The book I'm holding in the picture above was given to me by Mrs. Frances Hesselbein, President and CEO of the Leader to Leader Institute. She's a mentor to me, someone who has been interested in leadership and professional development since long before her tenure as CEO (1976-1990) of Girl Scouts of the U.S.A.

We had a discussion one morning over a cup of tea, the month her most recent book was published, and spent an hour talking about students, schools, coaching and leadership. I walked away feeling inspired, honored and "tasked" to go and step further into my own "So that..."

What's YOUR "So that..."? Please do share in the comment area below!

How is your idea generation routine generating ideas?

Are you on the path to make your best better?

If you are, in fact, how far along are you in that process? If you're starting, or halfway there, or thinking you've made it...try this out: Lay out a blank piece of paper, get a pen, and set a timer for 12 minutes. Yeah, just 12.

I coordinated this activity 6 times in the past week, here in New York City, for audiences as small as 20 and as large as 37.

With a blank piece of paper in front of them, a countdown timer on the large screen in front of the room, and "quiet time to think," I invited the participants to think up as much as possible.

If you had this opportunity what would you write down? Do you think the items would be short-term, task-y kinds of things? What about the bigger picture? Would your vision, direction or dreams show up? What about other people...that is, what would you think other people would encourage you to write?


So, with that experience behind me, I stopped by the front desk of the hotel I'm staying at this week in the city. My friend there asked, "Jason, do you have a minute?"

She gave me a list of topics that included: Commitment. Planning. Organization.

Then she asked, "What other things come to mind when you hear those words?"

You can guess what I did, right? I asked, "Can I have a blank piece of paper?" I wrote down her three words, and then I looked up and asked, "What other words come to mind when YOU see those three?"

(It turns out, she's working on a speech, and was asking me to help brainstorm some of the topics...)

Would you believe that in less than a few minutes we came up with 4 more words, a "draft" of an outline, and a great quote she might use in her speech? "How did that happen so quickly?" I hope you're asking yourself that question right now...

She wrote more down.

I dare ya... what do you think when you see this?

Ok, all, for years I've maintained that the number one cause of procrastination is self-talk. I think it is the most limiting factor we face. Why?

Simple: Talking to ourselves keeps us safe. When we have an idea, and then the other voice kicks in, we re-think, re-prioirtize, re-view that idea.

However, with where YOU are heading, making your best better, isn't it a fact that you're going to have to start thinking differently? Acting differently? Doing things differently? Yes.

And, it's going to start with your thinking. I have a challenge: Watch and do this video. And, as you do it, ask yourself, "What am I thinking?"

via www.youtube.com

Save 5-10 minutes a DAY using your BlackBerry

Yes, I’m one of those guys who reads the instructions to the toys/technology I purchase and use. The may seem slight, but combined over a day, these kinds of speedkeys really, REALLY make it worth it!

http://na.blackberry.com/eng/support/blackberry101/tips/blackberry9000.jsp

PS: If you use Microsoft Outlook, ya GOTTA see http://www.OutlookDashboard.com !!!

Do you know what you think? Listen to what you say...

Do you know what you do? See what gets done.

Develop a clearer picture of your own personal productivity and professional development. Keep some record of your performance. Best done (at a minimum) weekly, this "review process" gives you significant information you need as you continue making your best better. It's as easy as writing something down or taking a picture. It does NOT take a lot of time and the cumulative value of this kind of weekly assessment is clear after just 8 weeks of practice. What have I learned by doing this? Two things:

1. I do more than I think I do.
At the end of a 5-10 day cycle (yes, I try to do this weekly but sometimes it just works better to stop "from time to time" and think) of work, I look back and reflect on what I've worked on lately. This gives me semi-objective information and allows me the time to assess the balance between what I intended to do and what I actually put my attention on.

2. I do not always work on the Most Important Things (MITs).

(To read the rest of this entry, please do click here...)

You don’t always want what you get. Look around: recycle, return, redo, or reduce one thing in your space.

You don’t always want what you get. Look around: recycle, return, redo, or reduce one thing in your space.

Me: “Yeah, me too.”
You: “You too?”
Me: “Uh-hu, I’ve got extra stuff lying around.”
You: “What do you keep? What do you get rid of?”

Mastering workplace performance means a lot of things to a lot of people. To some, it means being productive, effective and efficient enough to leave work at the end of the day and KNOW the right things got done.

To someone else, it might be the key to such an awesome increase in productivity they can stay at work a little bit longer and get that much further ahead of “the game.”

Here is a question I hear from time to time:
“Why would anyone want to be a master at work?”

When I was young, my mom, my teachers and my coaches used to tell me, “Practice makes perfect.” Well, now that I’m a little bit older, I’m much more prone to say, “Practice makes habit.”

I had a mentor of mine (thanks Kevin!) tell me to test THIS theory:
“how do you do anything is how you do most things.”

Please, do not just take that advice blindly. Give me a call, and invite me in for two days of coaching. Side by side, we will study, question, assess and address the results you’re experiencing.

No, I don’t start looking at the actions, tasks, projects or long list of things you have yet to do; we start by acknowledging your results. Why? Because in the RESULTS are the HABITS.

As soon as we both understand the habituated (behavioral) processes you have perfected, then we can talk about the new results you’d like to achieve…then, we’ll identify the to-dos, the projects, and the requirements to get there.

This year is about starting new discussions. After we do that, we will have a new conversation based upon engagement, and ideas on how to improve your workplace performance.

That's a C-47 over Omaha Beach, 7 June 2011

I had about 30 seconds to line up this picture while standing out on Omaha Beach last week; we heard the roar of the engines, looked up and saw the plane lining up to fly along the bunkers you can still see in the bluffs on the hill.

Thinking back on 67 years of history, I realize just how much of my life - my personality, outlook on life, livelihood, and profession - calls on very similar themes to what I learned about while studying D-Day from the perspective of "being on the beach."

1. Plan, Plan, Debrief the Plan, and Plan Some More. In almost everything I read, saw and talked about, the fact remained that the actual "day" of the landing was preceded by hundreds of days of planning, thousands of hours of training, and countless sleepless nights by organizers wanting to be as prepared as possible.

2. Trust In The Process. The first hand accounts, whether reading my new fav book by Ambrose or getting a couple of questions in to one of the 7 veterans I got to meet while I was there, all brought this to bear: People trusted one another...with their lives. When I said, "Thank you, Sir, for what you did for us," one Ranger looked me in my eyes and "reminded" me that in his time, people listened to orders, followed commands, and did what needed to be done for the common good. "A different time," he said at the end.

3. Believe It's Possible. Ok, so if you've been following along with my writing over the past 9 years that I've been blogging, you know that I'm a bit of an "optimist." And, I don't mean to say I'm a "Pollyanna-ish" thinker, instead I simply direct my focus to what's possible, what could be, what I believe could happen, if I did what I could to make it so.

That's what I'm writing about, every day, every day, every day. That next book that comes out in January is all about taking the best you are, the best you have, the best you do...and up leveling it just one or to levels. Wouldn't that be cool?

From atop the castle at Caen

One of the only buildings spared during allied bombing during World War Two, this chateau was constructed after 900... Talk about history. As I sat upon the sentry wall, I thought about how many different scenes had played out on the streets below over the centuries!

From your vantage point, what are you seeing these days?

From the American Cemetery, near Omaha Beach

Three times this week I visited the American Cemetery, before, on and after the 67th anniversary of the Allied Invasion on and behind the beaches of Northern France.

Today, I will drive back toward Paris, with notes, ideas, pictures and videos to begin to piece this trip together. As I sip on the last drops of French-pressed coffee (here as the only guest of a magnificent B&B) I am contemplating my own next steps...

Yesterday, I met a guy (I'd call him a gentleman, but I think he'd correct me..."Young man, I was a private doing what I was told to do, don't you say, 'thank you, sir' to me!") yesterday who told me about carrying a 40-pound machine gun from Omaha Beach, to the Battle of the Bulge, on through Belgium, and ultimately in to and throughout Germany. ("Thank goodness I was only 18 years old, 130 pounds of muscle," he said with a laugh.)

Now...he's a docent and greeter at Niagara Falls! He said, "I gotta do somethin', so I make people laugh, tellin' 'em about this great country of ours."


In 1994, my life-long dream became: Learn, Teach, Change. I moved to Ojai, California and did just that: teaching high school history, Spanish, baseball, ESL and mock trial. I then went on to become the senior trainer of the Getting Things Done (a book by David Allen) seminars. In 2007, my wife and I started our third business together, and next year (2012) I have another book being published.

I knew i needed to get back to the root of it all; I wanted to revisit my dream. This trip, just 90 or so hours, has renewed a hunger, a need, and a purpose in me.

How about you?

What's your dream, and how can you renew it?

Location:Omaha Beach, Normandy, France