Jason Womack

The (*Lost) Art of Letter Writing

Some people say I write a LOT of letters. 

The letters I write have an opinion. I like to acknowledge the people I write to. And, it’s really easy to find people to send these letters. When I look out at my world and see an action, a movement or an event and have the thought, “Wow, I’m grateful,” that’s my indicator to take out my journal and write.

Just about everything I do begins as an idea in a notebook. Or on a white board. And, every now and then, on a restaurant napkin (hopefully, a paper napkin!). This gives me the chance to write a “rough, rough draft,” knowing that if I really do ultimately write that letter that I’m thinking it’ll have gone through a few revisions.

Many times, I keep the original letter I send. It’s easier than you think…all I do is take a picture with my Smart Phone, and add that jpg as a note in my digital filing system. I label the photo with the name of the person I’m writing, that’s it. All the meta data (when I wrote it, where I wrote it) is saved in the file itself.

As you can see from the picture below, I’ve been doing this for a long, long time!

 

Over time, I’ve experimented with different formats for my letter writing exercises. For a while now, the letters I write follow a loose format which includes responding to the following prompts:

1. I call out in 4-7 sentences exactly what I saw (or learned) that person did. 
2. Next, I describe how “what they did” makes me feel.
3. And, I include what I’ve learned from their action.

Now, that’s all a loose suggestion, and I’ve only been practicing writing letters like that for a few years. I can imagine in a decade or so I’ll have changed it up again, but that’s not the point. The most important thing is that you ask yourself THIS question:

“Are there people in my world I could write a letter to?"

If the answer is anywhere near YES, open your Momentum Journal and write that person’s name on the top of the page. Over the next couple of days, add a few lines, ideas or paragraphs as you begin to respond to the three prompts above.

Want some help? I write and talk a lot about “Journaling” in my books. Click here.

Notice the opening

There are three visual distances I talk about in our coaching practice. One isn't better than the next, all three are required. If you're going to move from where you are to where you want to be...know all three.

Clear

Blur zone

Over the horizon

Out for a bike ride around Lake Casitas, in Ojai, California this morning, I came around a corner to see this opening in the sky. Light raining down over a horizon I couldn't see; light calling us forward to a "next thing."

Clear: At this level, what you're working on, what you're responsible for, what you're accountable to is all known. Your to-do list is current, your inbox is under control, your backlog of projects is exactly what you've agreed to complete. (Promises made to yourself AND others.

If you feel stress - at this level, in this present moment - it's because something from your past or future is pulling on you; perhaps even weighing on you. The stress you feel CAN be minimized by spending an extra "Focus Session" on gaining clarity.

Blur zone: Here, your intuition is in full gear. You've experienced it... for some reason you look off to the right, when you could have looked left. There, you notice something, or someone. You have a thought you'd never had before. Or, you stop thinking about something not serving you.

Open up, let yourself be uncomfortable in the blur. Because you don't know everything that's going to happen, you've got to be ready for anything that COULD happen.


Over the horizon: And, that magical place that Rumi described... Not right. Not wrong. Beyond all that is a place I'm willing to go.

Will you meet me there?

Out there, there is more for us to see. To find. To do. And, to BE.

Emotional Intelligence- a three part series

Hello from Manhattan Beach!

Update and invite:

Via GetMomemtum, we are coordinating Three sessions to discuss #Emotional #Intelligence (free).

Anyone can register, click here...

If you know one person who might be interested, please share!

Present Like a Pro - GET MOMENTUM Master Class recap

Around the world, members of the GET MOMENTUM Leadership Academy tuned in to this month's Master Class titled:

"Present Like a Pro"

As you can see in this short introduction video (scroll to the bottom HERE), there are two VERY specific goals for this month's theme:

1. Practice identifying key points in EVERY presentation.
2. Utilize ALL the resources you have access to.

The Master Class is a 45-minute executive summary of the GET MOMENTUM Course Work:

Immediately after the program, I heard from THREE members about the impact and importance of this month's Master Class:

"I get it now, everything is a presentation."

"I learned that I can present the same thing in different ways to different people. Easier."

"I need to video record myself presenting. Not to show anyone else or publish, but to watch and study myself."

(We do have ONE big announcement, read all the way to the bottom to find out!)

Now, some of you may be thinking, "How is 'presenting' a leadership skill?" Think about what you could do, if you were more effective at bringing your ideas to the people you hope use them the most. You're presenting all the time, you are!

+ On a stage in front of dozens

+ In a conference room of just a few 

+ Across the table from your family

+ On the phone with a friend, client or vendor

Over the course of just one month, you'll learn to "win over" the people you're speaking with. You'll practice organizing your main points that are backed up with and by research, as well as have some call-to-action. Finally, you'll practice lining up your message with the facts with the stories with the suggestions that make it easier for people to believe: "Your ideas matter."

Who is GET MOMENTUM for? I always look to our current members to help us answer that question. So, here is a list of the most recent leaders to join:

• The co-founder of a recently-sold communications company in Tennessee.
• 19 Associate Professors at a university in Alabama.
• A designer in Australia.
• 3 recently-promoted Directors in New York City.

Are you a member? If so, log in here and watch the recording (or, download the audio as an MP3 to listen to in your car or while you're exercising). Would you like to see the Table of Contents for the Master Class? Here you are:

• Introduction and Welcome
• Get the Most From Your GET MOMENTUM Membership
• Practice Makes _______ (be careful here!)
• MEMBER Spotlight "Kinds of Presentations"
• Everyone Has a Story
• Jodi's Perspective: "The Energy Flows Through Me."
• 1: The Ingredients of a Presentation
• 2: Resources at Your Fingertips
• 3: Going Beyond the Basics

Not (yet) a GET MOMENTUM member? It's ok, Start Your Membership here, we're ready to serve you as your coaches!

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT:

As a GET MOMENTUM member, you get access to the Video AND Audio recording of the Master Class. Well, NOW you can see we have transcribed and closed captioned the presentation...you'll love it!

Related articles

What is it you ALWAYS have time for?

So, you think you're productive?

Excellent managers do THESE 12 things

Good news: EXCELLENT time managers do 12 things.

You'll learn all 12 this month during the online AND in-person executive coaching program we're teaching titled:

Advanced Time Management

Get Momentum members in more than 10 countries and as many different industries will learn to:

• Save time.
• Direct focus.
• Get Things Done.
• Have better work/life balance.

The APRIL Get Momentum theme is ready for you.

Members, it’s time to visit Get Momentum, sign in and download this month's Course Work.

Excellent time managers do 12 things.

Not 120 things. Not even 60.

Just 12.

Not a Get Momentum member yet?

Would you like to see how you compare?

Take the quiz, if you dare...

Take the Self-Assessment Here

The "Advanced Time Management" self-assessment will show you EXACTLY what to focus on to manage time well.

Wishing you all the time in the world.

 

NOTE: I am going to buy coffee for 5 people who aren't Get Momentum members yet!

Read about it here.

2 questions 1 change

Here's my ADVICE because you can use it!

Before you close this email, PLEASE these answer TWO questions:

1. "How do you start your day?"
2. "How do you decide you're done at the end of a day?"

I facilitate discussions for leaders (click here) on workplace productivity and performance. If I were to train your team, I would begin with THIS question:

"How do you start your day?"

Sharing the Stage - coauthors and cofounders

We met in the front row of a California History class at UC SB (Santa Barbara). Within a year, we'd started our first business together - importing Merino wool sweaters from Florence.

We graduated, moved, started our careers, got married, bought a house, got a dog...you know, normal life stuff. Until we did not-normal things.

Quit our jobs.
Started a company.
Started another company.
Coauthored a book together.

Until one day, we were on stage together.

At UC SB.

When you think you have a dream that's too big, just keep chipping away.

We just don't know where we'll be a year from now. Much less a decade from now.

Go, Get Momentum.

Why We Focus On Our Health

When was the last time you thought: “I need to call a doctor?”
Was it when you were sick?

When was the last time you thought: “I need to change my diet?”
Was it when you realized your pants didn’t fit?

When was the last time you thought about ANYthing related to your health and wellness?
Was it when you were not healthy? Or well?

This month’s theme at Get Momentum is all about gaining The Wellness Advantage.

(Click Here to take the #Wellness Self-Assessment.)

"Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."
- Benjamin Franklin, Inventor

Last month, we spent 4 days at Canyon Ranch, a health and fitness resort in Tucson, Arizona.

Why We Focus On Our Health

No, we’re not sick, our pants aren’t getting smaller and we feel very healthy.

We invested 4 days and nearly $8,000 on ourselves for two reasons:

1. It was time for us to re-set. Over four days of meetings with doctors, workouts with coaches and lectures by experts we collected and coordinated information I know we will use for the rest of our lives!
2. To practice being students, learning about the same topics you’re going to study and practice this month as you complete the Course Work for The Wellness Advantage.

I wish I could have stayed to do more “research”!

We attended lectures ranging from “How to exercise when you’re a Road Warrior (traveling all the time)” to “Wake up call: Sleep for good health.”

The biggest take-away I got was to BE PROACTIVE in my health.

• I MUST ask questions.
• I HAVE to schedule annual checkup appointments.
• I NEED take initiative…

GROUP COACHING CALL THURSDAY

During the Group Coaching Call this week, we’ll discuss some of the health facts we learned along the way, review the optimal sleep eco-system and share some road warrior travel tips for better nutrition, sleep & movement!

Let’s talk this Thursday...

 

 

 

• 9AM Pacific
• 10AM Mountain
• 11AM Central
• 12PM Eastern
• 5PM in the UK
• 9PM in Dubai

The Group Coaching Calls are your chance to connect in, ask specific questions and even share a win you’ve had!

"A life coach does for the rest of your life what a personal trainer does for your health and fitness."
- Elaine MacDonald, Harvard Business school

When members like you have this kind of accountability support, you're able to move projects forward, faster.

* Join us via video or call in on your phone.

* Stay as little or as long as you’d like.

* We will be there for you.

Write what you think, hear what you say

Years ago, I realized I think I in pictures. I'm a visual person. Quickly. I see things come together, it's easy for me to jump from A to M to Z. It happens so fast, it amazes me; sometimes it's scary.

I don't consciously think (at least that I know of) of B, or C, or Q... and that worries me. Or, at least it started to worry me years ago.

"How did I get here?" is a question I ask all too often.

Below, a note I wrote at dinner in Hoboken, New Jersey last week. This thought showed up during our conversation about the day (I'd spent 6 hours in a studio recording a new Video Series on a book project I'm considering working on). I was explaining to Jodi my own commitment to staying accountable to a health goal I had set for every day this month. By the 26th, I was at 100% and this is what I wrote:

I hadn't considered it that way before; I thought it was so important I took this picture, and sent it to my Instagram page.

I knew I'd want to see it again, later.

It was early in the 2000's when a client said, "As techie as you are, why do write things on paper, isn't it slower than just typing it in to your computer or smartphone?" [At the time I had a Treo.]

My answer then is my answer today:

"Yes! Absolutely...the reason I write things in my notebook (don't leave home without it!) is that it slows me down."

When I see or hear something, and my mind starts rolling around with it I KNOW I better uncap my pen, and put some ink on the paper. If I go too fast, if I move on to the next topic before grabbing hold of the one that's on my mind "right now," I might lose it. And, now I know better.

Below is a multi-line thought that appeared while I was in a "think-tank" session dedicated to the topic of CHANGE. During the time that a group of us discussed the topic, and listened to what other people thought about what:

Causes Change
Supports Change
Improves Change
Solidifies Change...

I said out loud, "We are talking a lot about what it takes to change, and how important it is to change, but I'm stuck on something: Change to what end?"

I continued, "Its not that change is either good...or bad, just as the radio station you're tuned to isn't inherently good or bad. You'd only change it relative to some preconceived notion of what you'd like to listen to."




Consider the last 24 hours of your work and your life.

Who have you talked to?
Where have you been?
What have you thought about?

All those questions are good ones to ask. (I have more, let me know if you'd like to chat...) and remember, if you think fast, if you talk fast, if you type fast, it might be worth it to slow yourself down.

See what you think, and you'll be able to hear what you say. There's power in there. Let yourself capture the building blocks of how you see the world and what you really want to be doing. Who knows, something big might show up, something about which you can say:

"I'd never thought of it that way before."

Creativity, Innovation and Leadership

Happy Boxing Day.

We hope you're having a great holiday season... It's a great time of year to review your goals and imagine BIG for next year!

Take the https://www.GetMomentum.com Monthly Quiz

The quiz is set up as a self-assessment tool.

You take it in the beginning AND at the end of the month.

When you notice where you are BEFORE you study and do the activities in the Course Work, you'll be better informed about the results of your effort.

Did your efforts "move the needle?"

Did you move your mission forward?

This data is so important especially when studying a topic like creativity and innovation.

Copy/paste the link below to Take the Quiz:

https://getmomentum.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/QUIZ-Creativity.pdf