I Found Out I Have PMR*.

I came upon a great quote from the Dalai Lama —  "There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called yesterday and the other is called tomorrow, so today is the right day to love, believe, do, and mostly live."

How often do we feel disappointed/guilty about yesterday and anxious/fearful about tomorrow? Probably a lot.

How do we live in 'today' increments? How do we focus on what needs to happen right now without letting the past and future hold us back?

I use a simple acronym - P M R:

P = Plan — Take 5 minutes to Plan your day. Get real, assess exactly what needs to get accomplished, and write it down. Just the stuff that needs to be done today. Add time increments to estimate how long each will take, prioritize each one, and then plug them into your day calendar.

M = Meditate — Take 5 minutes to Meditate. Clean the cobwebs! Sit back, close your eyes, and clear your thoughts. Start by taking a few deep breaths then use the exhalation to sigh and release the tension. Do it again. And again. I promise you will feel better and energized.

R = Reflect — Take 5 minutes to Reflect on all the good things in your life. Gratitude is an important part of staying in the present. We tend to focus and think of all the bad things, worry, forget, and then start the whole process again. Try to focus on the positive this time — your accomplishments, your family, etc.

Take the rest of the time and get stuff done! Don't be afraid of diving in and accomplishing your action items — in fact, you will feel invigorated. Trust me!

*Just found out there is a disease with the same acronym (there always is) - I do not have it nor am I at all using the acronym lightly.

How To Be More Productive When You Work From Home.

I live in Connecticut and this season has to be the hottest on record. I have two sons — one home from college and another home from high school. They both worked over the summer at different jobs, but they are now enjoying the remnants of the summer at home. Even though they are older — they still want attention (or at least I think they do). They can watch TV, read a book, play Steam on their PC's, swim, or stand outside and roast in our yard. I am also working from home today.

Maybe you do too. You have to deliver a number of items today. You have to be on emergency conference calls. You have to manage your team remotely. You might even have to handle weather-related emergencies.

But it’s tough when you’re in a non-work environment. Everything is beckoning to you — the TV, the couch, the kitchen, the kids, surfing the web, your spouse/partner . . . EVERYTHING.

So here are some tips to help you focus, accelerate, and get more done at home than you do at work:

1. Sequester yourself. If you don’t have a home office, find a room with a door and close it. Set a rule — if the door is closed, you are “not in the house”. If the door is open, feel free to come in and say hello.

2. Develop an ‘express’ plan. Get a piece of paper and list all the things you need to do on it in 60 seconds. Then prioritize your list in 60 seconds. Don’t worry, you can add additional things later, but for now, speed is of the essence. Now you have a plan for the day.

3. Work 50 minute hours. Start at the top of the hour and focus on one (or more) items on your list. At the 50 minute mark, stand up, open the door to your office, and go say hello to the family. Or grab a glass of cool ice tea. Or surf the web. Just separate yourself from your work for 5-10 minutes so you can recharge.

4. Reach out to your team strategically. You should call your team at three stages of the day — in the morning, at 1 PM and at 5 PM. Since you’re not in close proximity, you still need to give them the sense you are working together and you’re watching. It’s not a vacation day.

5. Use technology. If you have Skype and a webcam, use it! Leverage email, IM, Outlook, GoToMeeting, etc. to better communicate with your team, your boss, and your clients. Ask your family to stay off the phone (if you only have one line) — and mix communicating with your cell phone — but remember to charge it when not in use. Some places are choosing to use app integrations to make communications between other coworkers and clients much easier and efficient. Things like Slack integration from Salesforce are rising in popularity.

6. Have a virtual lunch meeting. Get your client, your vendor or your staff together and all get on a conference call to get a status, charm the client or direct a vendor. But adding the fun of a virtual lunch makes it much more informal and fun.

If you stick to these tips, you’ll find you will be much more productive, stay in touch with your team, and still have time for yourself to practice watching your electric bill rise due to your AC use.

What do you do when you work at home to be more productive?

3 Ways To Make This Monday Rock.

I have this problem. When I wake up Monday morning (around 4:15 AM), I don’t feel the happy, energized, and focused self most of my clients, colleagues, and friends see when they encounter me later in the morning. At least not until I’ve taken my meds. : ) A lot of people I know feel this way in the morning and unfortunately, it extends into most of the day and it is especially more intense on a Monday.

It could be for many reasons, you had too much fun on the weekend, you hate your job, you hate your commute . . . a myriad of rationales.

Mondays suck. So what do I do to immediately turn them around?

1. I Say To Myself: “It’s not going to last.”  Usually when I am up and taking a shower in the morning, I start thinking of all the BAD things about my business, career and life.

For me, I call it the ‘Morning Seritonin Slump’. It’s my initial body chemistry starting to rev up and it’s going to take a little while to get my car into 5th gear. So I let the bad thoughts wash over me and say “It’s not going to last.” — and guess what — it goes away as fast as it came.

2. I Plan Ahead.  I usually make a list of things I need to get done the night before. Not a huge checklist which would choke a horse, but a simple list of 3-5 items I know need to be attacked first thing in the morning. This immediately give me purpose and focus, two things I desperately need in the morning.

Also — dive right into work. Take action and stop obsessing how bad the day is or will be. Once you start attacking your to-do list, you begin to feel better immediately.

3. I Stretch and Smile.  The physical affects the mental. If you are feeling down, don’t focus on the stinking thinking zipping in your head, get physical. Even if it’s five minutes of stretching in your bedroom, a run outside, or a quick trip to the gym, physical activity gets the blood flowing and the mental malaise changing.

In addition, make yourself smile — we tend to go through life with a flat or angry look on our face and candidly, it affects our mood. Try to make yourself smile, hum, move your head to music, sing in the shower! You’ll feel a major sea-change in your mood immediately.

How do you make your Monday ROCK?

Our Favorite Four-Letter Word Starts With An 'F'.

Gotcha. You thought I meant that other word. I'll save it when I hit my finger with a hammer.

Today's four-letter word starting with an 'F' is: FEAR.

We all have some sort of fear at some level at some time in our life. It might be a very present fear staring us in the face or it might be a background fear hiding in the attic — but it's still there doing its dirty work.

I know your fears. How? We all have the same fears . . . Fear of:

• Meeting new people
• Asking or demanding more from your team
• Stepping outside of our comfort zone
• Pushing back on your boss or a client
• Losing your job or a major client
• Fear of failure
• Fear of success (this happens more than you think)

Fear sucks. But what really is fear?

• It's the future. It's what is going to happen.
• It's the unknown. Anything can happen. You might looks stupid or unprofessional.
• It's the loss of security. When you are insecure, you begin to get anxious.
• It's your mind taking you from anxiety, mixing in a little bad thinking — and you get fear.

Anxiety is not all bad. It's your body telling you that you are stepping out of a secure zone in your life. You're pushing yourself — you're trying something new.

Unfortunately, your mind takes over and you begin to spin terrible stories in your head about 'what might happen' and fear rears it's ugly head.

So how do you conquer fear? 

1. Acknowledge you are stepping into an area that is new or hard. You are pushing yourself.
2. If you feel anxiety, stay there, let your body feel the anxiety for a little while — it will fuel your next step.
3. You need to get back into a secure mode. How do you do that? You need the other four-letter word: "PLAN".

The best way to deal with fear is to have a PLAN. And not a 20-page plan. Sit down and write up a simple one-page plan with steps and activities on it. What happens?

• You begin to stop worrying about the future and stay in the present.
• You start to envision a gradual set of tasks to take you from where you are to where you need to be.
• You have a process to fall back on in case fear creeps into your head again.

"Do what you fear, and the death of fear is certain." - Anthony Robbins 

What do you FEAR? Do you have a PLAN to take care of it?

Image provided by Alex Talmon at Unsplash (Free - do whatever you want - hi-resolution photos).

A Goal Without A Plan Is Just A Wish.

A powerful quote and image (a la Mad Men) to start off your Friday. Next steps to be the person you could have become:

1. Take a piece of paper and pen.
2. Write down what you have right now — relationship, career, possessions, friends, worth, etc. Keep it general.
3. Now write down your dreams — relationship, career, possessions, friends, worth, etc. Keep it general, but THINK BIG.
4. Compare the two.
5. Start developing paths with steps from your current state to your desired state.
6. Start moving forward. Today.

"A goal without a plan is just a wish." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

3 Tips When Everything Is Failing All Around You.

"Sometimes the hurricane knocks down the biggest trees, to only allow the saplings to thrive." Is this happening in the marketplace today? 

Are many of our cherished institutions failing and falling by the wayside? What saplings are beginning to grow out from under the devastation?

First, let's discuss the biggest trees in the marketplace — let's look at a basic company directory:

• Management/Admin - shrinking, less middle management, no admin
• Financial - in a tizzy, most are looking for 'inventive' ways to save
• Human Resources - outsourced areas, shrinking training, little hiring
• Operations - outsourced overseas, replaced by tech, do more with less
• Marketing - outsourced, social media typhoon, failing media institutions
• IT - enterprise to cloud, sexy area to basic plumbing transition, changes instantly
• Sales & Customer Service - most valuable of the bunch, yet do more with less

If you work in any of these areas, you've probably seen some of these things occurring (and some others).

But change is a constant. As I tell all my clients:, "Don't try to desperately hang on to what you're losing, anticipate the future based on what's happening now, and move towards it with your eyes wide open."

First — what can you currently do to stay alive and relevant in your department? You know what areas are growing and conversely, what areas are shrinking (or going away). Don't put your head in the sand — you need to take action TODAY.

Ask for more responsibility. Check out what the 'hot' projects are. Who are the stars? Begin to push yourself and challenge the internal status quo.

If you were unemployed and wanted a job in retail, I wouldn't point you towards Blockbuster, I would direct you to the Apple Store.

Second — start thinking strategically. Where is your area of expertise going? You don't want to be a slide-rule salesperson in a world of calculators. Start taking steps now to make what you have to offer powerful, relevant, and in-demand for the next 5-10-15 years.

Third — embrace change and stay flexible. Don't fight the rising tide. Don't watch the trees fall all around you and expect your tree to survive. Where are the saplings? If you don't make the jump now, you might not have the timing, resources and opportunity to make the jump when needed.

It all starts with a simple, clear plan coupled with ACTION. Start today.

What first step do you need to take to begin this process?

Two Secrets From Leonardo da Vinci That Will Rock Your World.

 "I have been impressed with the urgency of doing.Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do."  — Leonardo da Vinci

That da Vinci character was a pretty smart guy. These words, uttered over five hundred years ago, are still true today.

We go to school for 16+ years and we think we know everything. "We Must Apply." or in other words, "Get busy applying what you know to your life and work."

We dream, wish, hope and pray for things to happen and nothing does. "We Must Do." or in other words, "Stop sitting around waiting for something to happen, you need to take action, NOW."

I see it happen to many of my clients. They talk a really good game about their situation. They know all the players and obstacles holding them back. They understand their inaction is actually hurting them. But they are still stuck in first gear and are afraid of taking the first step to begin the process.

Secret #1

We Must Apply — take what you know and develop a simple plan to take you forward. A lot of people think a plan should be hundreds of pages.

You only need one page. Take out a piece of paper and on one side start writing down all the things you need to do. Don't worry about priority or placement, just get them down on the paper. Use circles, lines, arrows, or boxes to fill in the whole page with many of the steps.

Don't over-think this part — try to get everything down within 20-30 minutes.

When you have exhausted your page with activities, turn the paper over and begin to take all of your ideas and prioritize them into sequential groups. Add timing to each activity or task and ensure any additional resource should be involved.

Now you have a plan.

Secret #2

We Must Do — when the time comes, take the first step, the second, and the third until you complete your plan.

Find out what is holding you back. Is the first step too big? Is it too hard? Do you not know how to start? Are you afraid? Are you lazy? Be honest with yourself and take the necessary steps to move forward slowly.

When we are in a dark room, we tend to move slowly, shuffling our feet forward, sometimes bumping into furniture. But we make it to the other side of the room and then we turn on the light.

Our success relies on applying our knowledge to a problem and taking action. Any less will keep you in the same state you're currently in.

There's no better day to start than RIGHT NOW.

What is your favorite obstacle that frequently holds you back?

How To Start Fresh In 2011.

We humans are a wily bunch nervous animals. We sometimes let our thinking and facts guide us and other times we let our gut and emotions guide us. At this time of the year, many of us look back at the preceding year and become very critical of our status, behaviors, actions, and results. We kneel and shake our fists to the sky and promise we will change for the better.

And then we start our regular journey — we stick to our new way of life for a little while — a few days, weeks, or months. And then something trips us up — an external influencer, a forgotten promise, or our old friend . . . procrastination. At that moment, all of our fortitude, our plans, and our dreams of change suddenly disappear in an instant. And we replace them with condemnation, past thinking, and surrender. We begin to hate ourselves and think we 'lost our chance' to change in 2011.

Let's change that this year.

I teach this system to my clients every year and most of the time (even I'm not perfect) it works. Enjoy!

1. Make a clear decision on what you're going to change in 2011. Be honest and focus on what really needs changing. Start cutting out pictures of the new you — your new career, your new body, your new situation.
2. Set parameters of your journey. Get a piece of paper and write down where you are and where you ultimately want to be. When you start a trip, you always have a starting point and a destination. You need to do the same thing — make a "AAA TripTik" for your journey.
3. Break up your trip into easily attainable segments. If you are losing weight, set to lose a small amount each week. If you are going after prospects, set your number at what you usually hit each day and then increase it slightly. If you are looking for a new position, begin by targeting and scheduling lunches with key contacts.
4. Build in buffers. This is important — and where most people trip up. Life comes at us quickly and we might forget or drop the ball. Or as I say, airplanes are off-course most of the time, the pilot continuously reorients them back on course. Schedule areas/times if we miss our target, we have the ability to jump right back on board.
5. Track, Track, Track. This is the final step - monitor and measure your progress. If you go below what you plan or even forget, don't get frustrated and quit. Use one of your buffers and get right back on track. The secret is always moving forward — if you drop off, just begin again.

Congratulate yourself — you are taking the first step to change something in your life. Understand, there are going to be a lot of detractors out there trying to talk you out of your behavior, your actions, your beliefs. It always seems they pop up just at the right time when your are at your weakest and they prey on your insecurities to make fun of your plan or progress. Smile and stay on course.

Consistency is the key to your success. Like the ocean, there are soft waves and hard tsunamis, but the water still flows in and out. Keep going, stay true to your course and you will amaze yourself!

How Do You Coach Your Team?

I'm a coach. I've been working with executives and business owners for over 10 years. Prior to that, I managed large teams in Fortune 500 companies throughout the nation. I found early in my career that it was easier to motivate my staff with carrots rather than the stick. Get them to see the big picture, how they are contributing to it, and how together, we can best leverage their strengths and talents.

Today, when I coach clients, I use something I call the "Three P's". They are:

1. Push — I push you. I am there to get you to step out of your comfort zone. To get you to take action. To get you to stop procrastinating on those things you know you need to accomplish. Not a hard shove, but a gentle push.
2. Partner — I partner with you. I am here to brainstorm, help with obstacles, think clearly about opportunities, handle rejection, and help you think factually without all the emotion. I also help people with their blind spots that they might not see.
3. Plan — I help you plan. When you go on a trip, you have a destination and a route. You should have the same process for your career. What do you want to accomplish (what are your goals?) and what steps/activities/tasks do you need to do to get there? Not 20 pages, just one page. Keep it simple and actionable.

That's it.

What kind of techniques do you use that are especially effective to coach your team to do their best?