Building A Better You

Weekly Challenge # 127: Get Ahead In Winter...While Others Are Waiting On Spring

[Yes, this is a re-work of Weekly Challenge # 105...because it's timely :) ]

Instead of spending the next couple of weeks waiting for warm weather and the opportunities that come with spring, use this time to either:

(1) Finish the winter strong, or

(2) Get a jump on spring

While everyone else is waiting and pining for spring --and generally being unproductive, you can use this time to get ahead in your work, at home and on your year's goals.

So let's take the two possible strategies one at a time:

How do you finish the winter strong?

You begin, continue or finish those projects and tasks that are perfect for the winter: tasks meant to be done inside when the weather is cold, projects best suited to the slower pace of winter, and those endeavors that help you build capacity and store up energy instead of burning it up.

Sometimes this looks like rest and sometimes it looks like preparation and often, it's just something you'd rather not be doing when the weather turns warm and inviting.

There is time yet for you to finish the winter strong.

Unless you're already loopy with spring fever. In which case...

How do you get a jump on spring?

Answer 1: you project yourself into May 1st, and ask yourself. What are all those things I wish I would have gotten a jump on back in March, instead of having to do them now?

Think spring cleaning, or yard preparation, or income taxes.

Answer 2: you ask yourself: while everyone else is easing into spring, what are the things I could be working on, pushing forward, getting done, that will enable me to be ahead of the game once spring and summer come on in full?

Why wait for summer (when you could be vacationing)? when you can accomplish a great deal in the spring and feel all the better for it?

Think about accomplishing both 2nd and 3rd quarter goals...by July.


Bottom Line: This is a time of year where you can either lose track of time or get ahead. Either finish strong or spring forward.



BE More,


Tom


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POWER QUESTIONS:

1. What from the winter do I have left to do? How can I finish strong?
2. What things could I get done to get a jump on spring and summer?
3. How can I take a break during the transition of the seasons?

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Weekly Challenge # 126: Commit To Learning This Year

You've thought about what you want to accomplish this year, and professionally you have your objectives.  But if you want to really build a better you that will last over the long haul, you need to make a long-term investment in yourself. 

And the greatest investment you can make in yourself is to learn something.

Do you have learning goals for the year? -- Something new you would like to be able to do, or something you will know so well by year's end that it will transform your doing and being in the world?

"But wait," you say. " I already suffer from learning overload.  I learn a hundred new things every day."

Ahh, you've identified a major impediment to learning: confusing information with learning or even wisdom.

Just because you have access to info and even because you absorb it for the short term does not mean you are learning. 

We are all surrounded by a sea of info.  But it is the person who commits to speciifc learning who will be in the better position to achieve better things at work and live a better life.

Three Different (but related) Ways to Get Serious About Learning:

(1) Learning by Doing / Achieving

Set goals and choose projects that require you to learn in order to achieve them.  For example, I would like to know how to use a certain set of web-design software, I want to learn how to easily record tele-classes and how to easily create a wiki site so others can share in adding content to a website.  All these things I will learn this year because I have things that I am creating and paying others to create which will provide a front-row seat to learning these things.

Next year, I'll be able to use those skills to create other web-based products and spaces.

What do you want to learn that could be connected to what you want to acheive, produce or do?

(2) Learning by Focus 

If you want to learn to do anything, you must schedule time to do so.  Logical, I know.  Yet, some of us are wishing we would learn simply by osmosis or by good intentions. 

Don't plan on learning to play the guitar if you don't set aside regular time WITH a guitar and a lesson book or CD.  You might need the additional structure of a scheduled class where you have invested money and people are expecting you.

If you have learning goals already, put them to the calendar test: what evidence is there that you are spending time with the subject you want to learn?

If you're setting learning goals, begin by looking at your calendar and carving out the time to actually learn.

(3) Learning by Environment 

If you really want to get into learning something, or you find that you are weak in sticking to a project or calendar-based approach like I mentioned previously, consider recreating your environment: surrounding yourself with people, activities and things that support--even require, your learning.

If you REALLY want to learn spanish...make new friends who speak spanish, some who ONLY speak spanish, label everything in your house with it's spanish name, only watch Univision or spanish television, learn to cook Spanish or Mexican dishes, change your wardrobe etc. etc.  Others in your life might ask if you've gone off the deep end, but one thing is for sure: you're learn spanish...and quickly at that.

A simple but powerful single step you can take to immerse yourself to learn better:  surround yourself with experts and practitioners in the thing you want to learn. 

Do you need to learn to manage your finances, play the violin, laugh, produce videos, develop a better backhand, play texas hold 'em, get financing for your start-up, clean up clutter? 

There are people who are very good at all these things...they could be your new friends, colleagues, coaches, business partners, lunch dates, etc.

The real trick is to SURROUND YOURSELF.  One person doesn't fill the bill.  Nor does just two or three.  It takes a group. 

When you find yourself in their company and don't understand what they are saying...you'll know you're on the right track.  If you hang around soccer players, sooner or later they will be playing or talking soccer.  The same is true for musicians, writers, accountants, etc. 

Consistently surrounded this way, you can't NOT learn.

Bottom Line: Don't confuse seeing a lot of information with actual learning.  To build a better you, make the long-term investment in yourself through purposeful learning.  By definition, each year you will be getting better and better.

BE More,

Tom

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POWER QUESTIONS:

1. What have I been wanting to learn for some time?
2. How can I connect my goals and ideas for this year to learning opportunities for me?
3. Which of the strategies will I need to use if I really want to get serious about learning?

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Weekly Challenge # 125: Remember Your New Year's Resolutions

Remember the excitement you had at the beginning of the year: new possibilities, a year full of _________, another chance and  fresh start to finally...get healthy, start that project, make that move, incorporate that habit, etc?

It's 45 days later.  Have you forgotten some of what you resolved to do already?

Take little comfort in the fact that you're not alone.  Unless your New Year's Resolutions got some great traction early-on....they are likely a fastly fading memory.

But wait, we can do something about this memory problem we have!  (This is starting to sound like an infommercial).

(steps that should be familiar to weely challenge readers...now just apply them!)

Here are Ten Ideas For Re-Igniting Your Resolutions

(Don't laugh at the first one)

(1)  Recall what the resolutions were that you were so excited about on January 1.  You might have to ask your friends what you said.  You might need to see if you wrote something down.  When you re-discover them, write them down using ink.

(2)  Get your resolutions in front of your face everywhere (see Weekly Challenge # 124 for particulars).  But remember, not doing this was part of how you forgot in the first place.

(3)  Put a number to your resolutions.  Don't set out to "lose weight," set out to lose 34 pounds and keep track of your actual progress.  Don't resolve to "eat more oatmeal."  Commit to having 7 servings per week (and tally them).  Don't just have the idea of more time off this year, commit to 3 separate vacations, 4 holidays and 12 "fun days."  Etc.

(4) Build in short-term rewards.  Set up, schedule, put on order, various rewards that can pull you forward.  Since you didn't have any rewards built in on Jan 15 or Jan 30, or Feb 1, etc., no wonder some of your most important goals for the year have started to fade a little.

(5)  For habits you want to develop: get another support in place.  Find another person to accompany you, join a place or group that supports your new habit, surround yourself with reminders in your environment of the new habit that is a part of your life.

(6)  For goals and projects you want to accomplish: put something else in motion TODAY.  The longer it sits on the shelf as an IDEA, the more dust it collects, the easier it falls back behind the other work, the more likely you'll remember it only in a fleeting moment, and long enough to beat yourself up about never doing it.  (Am I right?)

(7)  Do you have several resolutions you've forgotten: Drop most of them and focus on one or two.  It doesn't matter that they are all important.  No, it's because they are all important--and you haven't managed to get busy on ANY of them, that you must drop the load and choose one to make a reality. THEN move on to another.  (you will)

(8)   Translate any "should" resolutions into "wants" resolutions (or drop them):  If you have any goals or resolutions that are on your list because you think you SHOULD be doing them...it is no surprise that you can't seem to remember them, let alone make them happen.  But, if you can figure out some powerful reasons why YOU WANT to achieve those goals or establish those habits:  there is your motivation engine.

For example, knowing you should exercise for good health is one thing...excercising because you want to still be alive when your daughter gets married...that's a reason to want to be healthy.  Finding a new job because your workplace is toxic is a good idea, but...getting a new job because you have identified what you WANT as a professional is another subtle level.  Simply, it's personal.  And therefore, more probable.

(9)  Visualize how you want things to be different three months from now.  Write that vision down.  Read / tell it to yourself daily.  If you can't see or envision the future you're creating, you'll be less likely to remember any of those steps you need to take to get there

(10)  Get a coach.  Or a pal, a friend, a colleague, a spouse, who can help you "not forget" the important things you said you wanted to do / be this year.  I only half-jokingly tell people that most of my work as a coach is to find out what is really important to people, and then NEVER let them forget it. 

Bottom Line: Don't let your dreams for the year fade away as time marches on.  Since our memory can let us down, employ other strategies to keep your important goals and resolutions a focus in your life.

BE More,

Tom

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POWER QUESTIONS:

1. Again, what are my resolutions for this (new) year?
2. What is my best strategy for not forgetting what is important to me?
3. How could I use help from others to make my resolutions a reality?

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Weekly Challenge # 124: Don't Confuse Being Active With Being Awake

A problem for many smart people is that we have some very clever ways to prevent ourselves from being fully awake to our lives.

We can be busy and think we are making progress.  Or, even more clever: we can be accomplishing many things (a good thing) and falsely believe that we are awake.

The first step of our Struggle Less, BE more philosophy is to Wake Up and Pay Attention.  And the ultimate question to figure out how awake you are to your own life: ARE YOU AWARE OF and REALIZING YOUR DREAMS?

Notice how the question doesn't reference your first quarter objectives or your list of achievements or even the existence of a bonus last year.  It is concerned with you BEcoming you and paying attention to the life you're supposed to be leading.

Want to know how well you're doing?

The check-in quiz is simple enough: two questions with a gut check (and maybe a close friend for verification):

Level 1 Question :  Do you find your self very busy on a regular basis without a lot to show for it?

You spend your time running here and there, you are juggling many "priorities" and you hardly have an open slot in your schedule.

For sure, you are busy.  But are you getting anything done?  Are you checking off tasks or can you stack up achievements?

This is the first level of being awake: overcoming busyness.  Are you making a difference because you are actually achieving some things?

Then...

Don't get me wrong- it is good to accomplish things you have promised, things you get paid to do, things that make your life and the world better, things that pay the bills.

But don't stop there.

Level 2 Question : Do you find yourself accomplishing a great deal, winning awards, getting bonuses and receiving congratulations regularly...and still feeling like the challenge is gone, and "something is missing" in your life?

Compared to others, you are the high achiever.  You get more accomplished before most have left oatmeal bowl in the morning.  You're not just active, you have a lot to show for it.

But you know this isn't "it" for you.  There is something else you're supposed to be paying attention to.  You probably even know what some of those things are: you've been DREAMING about them for years, and sweeping them under the rug, forgetting about them.

This is the second level of being awake: achievement that is tied to your dreams, your purpose, your passion.

So, what do you do if you find yourself not fully awake your life?

Well, rather than give you ten strategies, easily ignored, I'll give you one strategy that works for both levels of being asleep.

MAKE A LIST (or "accounting") and KEEP IT IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE.

Level 1: If you aren't paying attention to accomplishing anything, make a list of the things you want or need to achieve...and get that in front of you all the time.

Level 2: If you are accomplishing but aren't paying attention to your dreams and the awesome things you desire to do and contribute in this world, make a list of those dreams...and get that in front of you all the time.

Ok, I said no strategies above....but here are a few ways to keep these things in front of you...and therefore a guide to what you're doing.

1 Keep copies of the list(s) in several places: your car, your desk, your kitchen, your computer screen-saver

2 Put copies of the list in the shower (laminated!)

3 Every morning, re-write your list(s)

4 Give a copy to your closest friends & allies

5 Schedule the lists to be emailed to you regularly

You get the idea.

As a result of any of these strategies, two good things will likely happen: (1) you'll continue to refine your lists until they are even more accurate and more compelling and (2) you'll find your daily activities are guided by these two important lists.  And, as Martha would say, that's a good thing.

Bottom Line: Don't be asleep to who you are and what you can do.  Instead of confusing activity with accomplishment, and confusing accomplishment with being awake and living, remember your dreams and your goals, so they'll become reality.

 

BE more,

Tom

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POWER QUESTIONS:

1. Do I need to pay attention more to what I want to accomplish or to my dreams?
2. Where is my list of goals?  Where is my list of dreams?
3. What is most important to my life, but easiest for me to forget?

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Weekly Challenge # 123: Love

Do you really want to know THE sure-fire way to challenge yourself to a better you, surpass your own goals, and impress and inspire others beyond belief?

Love them and yourself.

Love God and the world we live in.

Love WHO you are---your craziness and specialness

and Love everyone else in the same way.

It's almost certain you'll be a better professional, a better friend, a better spouse, a better boss, a better owner, a better....everything.

I almost made this challenge too simple.  I thought I would just title it "love" and then have that simply be the message too.

But then I remembered: we forget too easily to do what we know to be good and true and right for us.

So....during the holidays...a time when we really do have choices about what to do and how to act:

I challenge you to take yourself to the ultimate creative edge and to be a leader in your family, at your workplace, in your neighborhood: Love

Bottom Line: Love. It's the ultimate way to transform yourself and y(our) world.

 

BE more,

Tom

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POWER QUESTIONS:

1. How can I prepare to love in situations that try my patience this month?
2. Who is a good role model for me in this area?
3. What are some simple ways I can love those around me?

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