Work Already Performed

Work Already PerformedMartin Eden, a retired sailor, lived in Oakland, California in the early 1900’s. Despite his lack of education and working class roots, Martin was determined to become a published author. He was also determined to marry Ruth, a beautiful and highly educated woman from a wealthy family.

Martin proposes and Ruth accepts. But Ruth puts off the wedding until Martin becomes successful enough to win her family’s acceptance. He works hard, submits manuscripts, gets rejected by publishers, but eventually, he gets a book deal.

Then Martin blows up, makes a fortune off his books, and becomes a celebrated member of the artistic class.

Unfortunately, his success came a little too late for Ruth. Though he already submitted the manuscripts that would make him rich and famous, she loses patience with his progress, and after two years Ruth breaks the engagement. Continue reading Work Already Performed

3 Skinny Gems To Help You Achieve Your Goals

3 Skinny Gems

We’re officially 6 weeks into the New Year. So how are you doing on your goals? I ask because with the Super Bowl and Valentine’s Day over and the weather still crappy, this is the time when a lot of people lose their fire and start skipping out on their promises to themselves.

I don’t want this to happen to you, so I’m recommending 3 inspiring little books that can push you forward.  And by little, I mean short, the longest no more than 3/4 of an inch thick. I’ve read them all many times, and I have an extra copy of one I’ll give to one of you. Continue reading 3 Skinny Gems To Help You Achieve Your Goals

5 Rules of Engagement to Win the War on Clutter

win the war on clutter“The professional… is on a mission. He will not tolerate disorder. He eliminates chaos from his world in order to banish it from his mind. He wants the carpet vacuumed and the threshold swept, so the Muse may enter and not soil her gown.”                       Steven Pressfield, the War of Art.

Like many creative people, I’ve had my struggles with clutter. I used to accept it as part of my nature, but Steven Pressfield changed my mind. He believes creatives must create order in their environment so they can approach their work like pros. This is why I created these 5 rules of engagement to win the war on clutter.

This is how it happened…

I was helping a friend make some progress on his clutter problem. He’s got it bad. So bad that sometimes I go over there just to feel better about me (don’t tell him!)

He was sharing his frustration that though he has cleaned up his place many times, it always reverts back to a giant cluttered mess.

Time for a metaphor.

Continue reading 5 Rules of Engagement to Win the War on Clutter

Always Think Before You Move

Always think before you move - Cuba Gooding Jr. as Eugene BrownEugene Brown screwed up bigtime. He landed in prison for 18 years for sticking up a bank. But in prison he got lucky. He had a mentor who taught him to play chess, and to always think before you move.

This became the metaphor Eugene used to earn his redemption.

He used it to reflect on the decisions that led him to prison. He stopped blaming others, took responsibility for his actions, and began to work on himself. Playing chess helped.

He learned to see all the possible moves on the board, then to make moves based on smart decisions. Which moves would strengthen his position? Which sacrifices were worth making? Which gambits could he afford to offer or accept?

Always Think Before You Move

I learned about Eugene Brown lying on my couch watching the movie of this life story, Life of a King, starring Cuba Gooding Jr. It was pretty damn inspiring.

Every move in a chess game, like every move in life,  has consequences. Continue reading Always Think Before You Move

How Procrastination Leads To A Life Of Crime

ProcrastinationI recently got to thinking of all the stupid, awkward and even dangerous situations my Manic Impressive behavior has gotten me into over the years. This was a long thinking session. As many embarrassing and regrettable chapters of my life flashed by, I noticed a theme.  All these incidents were caused or triggered by Procrastination.

Like the time I knocked off a dry cleaner.

Back in the mid ’80’s, when I’d elevated Procrastination to an art form, I spent three months convincing the good folks at Xerox that I would make a great addition to their sales staff.

They had a dress code. Suit and tie everyday, no exceptions.  So I’d gone out, bought a whole new wardrobe, and took everything to the dry cleaners at the mall. Gotta look good for the first day.

Being a master of Procrastination, I of course waited to the last minute for all this.  So the night before my first day of the new job I’m heading back to the cleaners to pick up my clothes. Due to good planning, I walked in a whole ten minutes before closing.

Only the lights were off and the closed sign was lit. The door wasn’t locked, but when I walked in the girl said she was closed. I responded that it was ten minutes to closing and I had to have my clothes for my first day on the job. She said she couldn’t help me and turned away.

That’s when I looked over and saw my clothes on the overhead rack. Continue reading How Procrastination Leads To A Life Of Crime

The Blue Monday Myth

Blue MondayEvery year at this time, the media declares the third Monday of the month to be Blue Monday. The Most Depressing Day of the Year. This past Monday was it for 2017. It kinda makes sense, since the holidays are over, the credit card bills are in, and the weather sucks.

But it’s actually a total pantload.

The Blue Monday Origin Story

The guy who coined this term in 2005, Dr. Cliff Arnall  from Cardiff University, came up with a mathematical formula to measure this:

(W)Weather plus the difference between your debts (D) and your (d) salary, multiplied by the time since Christmas (T) times how long ago you already quit on your New Year’s resolution (Q). All this over your low Motivation  level (M) multiplied by your need to take action (Na).

Cliff’s work was quickly debunked as a paid journalism piece used to promote a travel company. Mathematicians abused Cliff for his “theory.” They called it “farcical” with equations that “fail even to make mathematical sense on their own terms.”

His university rushed to distance themselves with this smackdown: Continue reading The Blue Monday Myth

I Have A Dream

I Have A DreamDr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream. To live in a country where all men were treated as equals. A country where his children would be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. “I have a dream”, he said, to over 200,000 people on the mall in Washington DC in 1963.

Dreams Into Reality

America has come a long way since 1963. I like to think that Dr. King would be excited and proud of how much progress we’ve made. How African-Americans have prospered since those early days of the Civil Rights Movement. How our government, in time, came to protect the rights of all Americans.

Yes, we have a lot of work still to do. The Black Lives Matter movement is evidence of that. There are places in America where fear breeds hatred and discrimination, and black men are still not safe. Places where all men are not created equal.

The Weekend

But we do have cause to celebrate. Because there has been great progress. So much so, that we elected an African-American man to two terms as our nation’s president.

Now we’re coming up on a long weekend. A national holiday in honor of Dr. King. A holiday that came about because of the sacrifice of a man who fought tirelessly to fight injustice.

A man named Stevie Wonder. Continue reading I Have A Dream

Why It’s Good To Be A Wannabe

WannabeHappy New Year! I hope you had a joyous holiday and are ready for 2017. I’m off to a flying start, thanks to the folks who joined me for the 2nd Annual Resolution Invitational. These folks demonstrated why it’s good to be a Wannabe.

I’m a Wannabe. I wannabe more than I am today. That’s why I gathered like-minded people to help me plan my future.

I assembled a great team – Don, Terry, Ed, Robert, Peter and Nicole. We gathered around my dining room table (five in person, two online) and together we celebrated 2016. All our struggles and all our wins. It was a powerful exercise.

Powerful because we tend to forget most of what happens to us each year. When we reflect on our success despite all the adversity we face, it gives us the strength to wannabe more than we are today.

The Science Behind It

Then we studied the behavioral science of setting and accomplishing goals. How Self-Efficacy (your belief in your ability), an Inner Locus of Control (believing you control your outcomes), and the Hope Theory (that we’re not on a doomed planet hurtling toward the sun) are the critical qualities we need to succeed.

Yes, there is a scientific path to your dreams. And a surprising amount of it has to do with belief. What we believe about the world, what we believe about ourselves, what we believe is possible.

Benjamin Hardy, a blogger I follow, posted a brilliant article on this last week. I couldn’t not use it for our Resolution Invitational, and I highly recommend it for you at home. Continue reading Why It’s Good To Be A Wannabe

How to Be Consistent – No Matter What

No Matter WhatThere are only two things I’ve been able to do consistently up until this year: eat sugar and watch television. Manic Impressives are not consistent creatures by nature. We have bursts of activity fueled by imagination, then periods of downtime. But to achieve our dreams, we must learn how to be consistent, no matter what.

We need to build the skills that plodders, people who work from routine and do a little bit each day toward a goal, come by naturally. We are leapers (not lepers, dummy, LEAPERS) and tend to work in bursts, when we are at the top of our manic cycles.

Why We Need To Be Consistent

It’s easy to work with great enthusiasm and energy when we are in the manic phase. Things are easy when we’re inspired or excited. But we still need to perform when these conditions aren’t at play.

We Manics often get distracted from our main purpose. Shiny things and new ideas throw us off track. But this leads to sporadic efforts, which usually means lots of things started and not many finished.

This year I did things differently. I managed to do a little each week because I set a specific goal with regular deadlines. I know, I know, we hate deadlines. We like unfettered freedom to do things our own special way. But without deadlines we end up puttering.

So this year I made a commitment to post to this blog every week. Every Thursday by midnight. This kept me focused and got me to work even when I didn’t feel like it.

51 weeks in a row I fulfilled this promise to myself. If you’re reading this it means I made it to 52. All because of one little phrase: Continue reading How to Be Consistent – No Matter What

The Best Christmas Present Ever

Best Christmas Present EverIt’s crunch time for you Christmas shoppers. Just two days left to get the perfect gift for that special someone on your list.  I hope you do as well as my grandmother did when I was 14. Because that was the year she gave me the best Christmas present ever.

The Backstory

It started out as more of a protest than a Christmas present. Grandma came to our house for dinner in February with one of her famous cakes. She baked it from scratch as she always did, without that cheatin Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines mix. Grandma was a purist and took pride in her desserts.

After dinner she started to dish it out and was shocked when I declined a piece. To her horror I announced that I had given up dessert for Lent, a practice encouraged by my Sunday School teacher to earn brownie points in Heaven.

I tried to convince her that it was my own decision, but she was having none of that. She was convinced there was a conspiracy at play. Another attempt by my overly strict parents to to deny us both the pleasure of her baking.

While the rest of the family enjoyed her cake, Grandma sat in stony silence. What kind of family would do such a thing to a child? I was clearly the victim of the worst type of parental abuse. Continue reading The Best Christmas Present Ever