Stop Using Lack of Time As Your Excuse

It’s easy to tell ourselves

If I only I had more time then I would (fill in the blank)

  • Balance my checkbook
  • Stretch my back
  • Clean out the garage
  • Floss my teeth

Today, we woke up with an extra hour in the bank (here in the US-daylight savings time change).

So what did you do with your extra hour?

I am guessing that you didn’t wake up and make a list of five of your least favorite things.

Of course you didn’t, I didn’t either.

Nor did I start building that open ocean kayak that I’ve dreamed about building in my garage.

I didn’t schedule three more podcast guests or read that book I keep intending to start.

If I’m honest with myself, having more time really isn’t the reason I don’t pursue my dreams or floss my teeth daily.

I prioritize what I love

I don’t enjoy flossing my teeth.  I never have and yet I know full well that as the dentist preaches “Just floss the one’s you want to keep“.

Isn’t that a persuasive argument?

Today my teeth are all present and accounted for so I simply choose something else for the three minutes it would take me to battle gingivitis.

We prioritize the things, the people, the experiences that we love above the things we simply don’t want to do.  We use the excuse that we lack time and therefore we appease and comfort ourselves for ignoring those peripheral priorities.

The root is deeper than lacking time.

How am I going to change? 

I’ve found that it is unrealistic to say

“Starting tomorrow I’m going to start doing or stop doing (fill in your challenge) every single day“.

No I’m not.

When approaching change like this we obligate ourselves to a zero to 100% compliance overnight.

Most of the time, it just doesn’t work like that. For most people they start with a beginning, some small movement forward, then a bit of consistency over time and a lot of grace for when you fall off the wagon.

My encouragement to you this week is ask yourself,

Where am I using the lack of time
as the bogus reason that I cannot...?

Ok ready for the drum roll?  

I cured my flossing aversion by putting the floss in the shower instead of at the sink.  Yep, that’s all it took.  Now when I take a shower, I pull out the floss dispenser and I knock out two things at once.  Super Type-A I know.

That was all it took, to change the thirty-eight year trend of not flossing my teeth.

I moved it to a place in my daily routine where I couldn’t use my list of iron clad excuses.

Ridiculous I know, but it really taught me something about myself.

I learned that flossing was the peephole to places that I am stuck, resistant, reluctant, or indifferent to change.

Good luck on your list.

Keep going.

What to Say When You Have Nothing to Say?

Canyonlands National Park

I usually have an idea in my head or a concept that I am looking forward to unpacking with the keystrokes of my Mac.

This time I don’t!

At the moment my idea reservoir is about as dry as the Canyonlands of Utah.

For today, my entry is to say that I have no big idea to offer you.

Yet, I suspect this discomfort is more common than we might want to admit to each other.

Sometimes we just don’t have a revolutionary idea or project that we can’t wait to work on.

I wouldn’t call this writers block

It’s more like the time right after a big race or shipping your project.

You did all of the work, trained well, showed up on race day and delivered.

The day immediately after the race is a bummer.

There is a let down of excitement.

The lead-up anticipation is over.

The daily motivation of the deadline is gone.

It’s back to the drawing board to start working on the next “big thing”.

The Next Big Thing

I envy people that are more even keeled than me.

I love watching them as they do the work without requiring a new injection of “what’s the next big thing?”

They have an amazing ability to move from one day-to-the next without much thought.

I know athletes like this.

They finish one race on Sunday and then on Monday they start their training cycle over again.

They don’t need a goal or mission or a big story to chase.

They simply wake up tomorrow and do the work.

Dreaming of a Reason

My heart drives most of what I do.

Unfortunately I don’t wake up on Monday after a race and just jump back onto the hamster wheel.

I go for a run, but not with the same zeal I had before the race.

I go searching for a more allusive question

"What is my heart saying is next?"

I usually need a reason or an idea to drive me to get all of the way to the finish line.

This same mystery surrounds writing this blog.

I am familiar with the Steven Pressfield “Do the Work” idea.

I am not talking about work ethic here.

I am talking about the internal fire burning at a dull glow instead of a hot fiery furnace.

Friends I am not going to conjure up some list of five things to do to cure this predicament.

I know some of those lists are very popular and even helpful.

Instead I’m going to leave us both with the mystery of the question

“What is our heart saying is next?”

Keep going.

Die Empty: Unleash Your Best Work Every Day

Chalk Board at an outdoor pub in London

I was recently in London and came across this chalkboard at this outdoor pub.  It stopped me in my tracks, as they were inviting people to write for everyone to see what they most desire to do before they die.

“Live Right”

“Travel to ….”

“Kiss …..”

I immediately thought of Todd Henry’s new book, Die Empty.

“Don’t go to the grave with your best work inside of you.  Choose to die empty”
Todd Henry

No one really loves to think about the end of one’s life.

No one that I’ve met wants to spend their career doing work they don’t love or believe in.

In Todd Henry’s newest book, “Die Empty” he takes those two concurrent unifying truths and invites us to “Unleash Your Best Work Every Day”.

Toddy Henry is the author of the successful book and podcast The Accidental Creative.   In Die Empty he outlines the case for purposely extracting your life’s best work from within.

The beauty of Die Empty is not that Todd invites you to not leave your personal Picasso unpainted but most importantly he provides practical steps for how to make it happen.

Here are some practical guidelines that Todd explores:

  • How to avoid the “Seven Deadly Sins of Mediocrity”
  • How to define your battles wisely
  • Why you should be fiercely curious
  • How to step out of your comfort zone and make a valuable contribution to the world

If you’ve dreamed of doing your best work. If you’ve pondered a life list, books you want to write, trips you want to take, creative projects you want to begin, don’t allow those visions to die with you.

Let Todd Henry, help you make it happen.

Pick up a copy of Die Empty and stop listening to the excuses in your head.

Our Compliance is Not Their Fault

Most people sign an unwritten contract every day.

We trade a paycheck for predictability.

Does your arrangement go something like this?

Boss, you give me a predictable every-two-week paycheck, health insurance, projects to work on, lunch breaks, and a Christmas party, and I’ll give you my will, my dignity, my freedom of choice, my security, my sleep, and my future plans for my life.

Like the indentured servant, most employees take on the goals of the crown—the company and the customers—as their priority instead of their own goals. Creating great products and building great companies are wonderful ways to invest in a career, but at what expense?

Too often the objectives of the kingdom—the company—become the only mission. What you want, what you need, or what you value is rarely included in the company’s quarterly objectives.

How frequently have you been asked in your quarterly or annual review,

How is the company treating you?

What can the company do for you?

How can the company help make you a more content, enthusiastic, invigorated, challenged contributor?

The problem is that you have made a trade, an agreement:

You work for them and they believe that their mission—regardless of your feelings about it—should be fulfilling to you.

You will never offer your best if you are constantly editing yourself to keep in step with the contract you signed.

We can end up yielding so much of our true selves that we subject ourselves to emotional tyranny.

Isn’t it true that fear is the driving force behind our compliance?

If we hold conflicting views with our company or leadership, if we desire more than what is offered in the trade, we fear the consequences of standing up for what we desire and believe.

I owe this realization to a coworker.

We were taking a walk in the parking lot together outside of our office when he told me,

“I get it. I sign a contract and accept the terms of the agreement every time I cash a paycheck.”

He was right.

I had a business dealing that accurately depicted this type of contract. It was a contractual agreement between three parties that totaled seven figures over five years.

One of the parties never signed the contract, but they cashed the checks each year for their portion of the compensation.

After a few years the attorneys concluded that even though this party never signed the contract, they were acting according to the contract terms and receiving compensation for doing so.

Therefore, cashing the check was as good as signing the piece of paper.

MY compliance WAs not their fault.

THE UNWRITTEN CONTRACT

Cashing the check is as good as signing the contract.

By cashing my check every two weeks, I was agreeing with the terms of my employment even though I wasn’t externally condoning or agreeing with those terms. I had to take ownership of my participation in the dysfunctional system.

I could no longer blame or point fingers.

I had to become a part of the solution or stop cashing the checks.

*Expert from eBook: Don’t Quit Your Job. Fire Your Boss.

For your complete free copy download here.

99 Uncensored Ways to Live Life

The Path of Life by Joram68 (Creative Commons)

I was struck recently reading a new book realizing that really I am asking the same question every time I pick up a new title

“How do I have better or more…

  • Health
  • Sex
  • Finances
  • Success
  • Relationships
  • Career

The truth is that the answers are relatively the same from book-to-book.

The problem is that they are so damn hard to live by.

Check ’em out and see which one’s you’d take and which one’s you’d leave.  I’m not claiming this is a complete list.

These 99 fell out of me into my journal on an airplane ride.

  1. Show up consistently and do the work.
  2. Work on what you love.
  3. Don’t do it to pursue fame.
  4. Don’t neglect your relationships.
  5. Don’t be an asshole.
  6. Duck tape fixes almost anything.
  7. Be generous.
  8. Don’t give up, but be ready to revise at any moment.
  9. Don’t hire someone that you wouldn’t want to be stuck with for a twelve-hour car ride through a snowstorm.

10. Don’t dip your quill in company ink.

11. Rest one day a week.

12. Don’t self promote.

13. Help others achieve their goals.

14. Spend less money than you make.

15. Be willing to do with less sleep in order to pursue your dreams.

16. If you want to feel good at 80, you better start doing something about it at age 40.

17. Enjoy the wife of your youth. Don’t upgrade her after she cranks out three kids and gains three dress sizes.

18. Write down your goals and stare at them everyday.

19. Don’t check your email 200 times a day.

20. Listen attentively to others.

21. Risk doing more work than is required or asked.

22. Professionalism is a choice, not a personality trait.

23. Self-respect and dignity are easy to ignore, but difficult to regain.

24. Don’t pursue a career in hopes of your family waiting for you to “succeed”.  Your victory party may be pretty lonely.

25. Say what you mean and mean what you say.

26. Practice, practice, practice.

27. Ask advice of other’s who have done it before.

28. Surround yourself with people smarter than you.

29. Don’t take no for an answer, but know when to back off.

30. Don’t keep saying, “I don’t have time to do that.” Just do it.

31. Your checkbook and your calendar accurately reflect your priorities.

32. Don’t do crappy work and expect showmanship to make up for it.

33. The words that come out of your mouth reveal what you believe.

34. Assume the best in everyone until they prove you wrong.

35. Forgive and forget.

36. Don’t be a passive boss, husband, father, or friend.

37. Better is a patient man than a warrior who takes a city.

38. The best things in life are the hardest to grow and cultivate. Weeds creep in overnight.

39. Pursue adventure more than comfort.

40. Avoid negative people.

41. Ask for help, but don’t be needy.

42. Offer second chances to others.

43. Don’t eat fried food.

44. Pray daily.

45. Don’t assume that someone with a lot of money has fewer problems than you.

46. Courage is not the absence of fear, but action in spite of fear.

47. Don’t take credit for someone else’s work.

48. Do something that scares you.

49. There is a difference between persistence and annoyance. Figure it out.

50. Respect people’s personal space.

51. When you loose, congratulate the winner.

52. Don’t tattoo your face even if you are the former champion of the world.

53. Don’t name your children after a long night of partying.

54. Don’t worry about other people’s problems. Worry about your own.

55. Don’t use credit cards. Don’t live in debt.

56. Auto-draft your savings every month.

57. Watch less TV.

58. Don’t treat your life like a game.

59. Do work that matters.

60. Deal with your past so it does not consume your future.

61. Automate repeatable tasks and focus on producing value instead.

62. Don’t write an email when you are mad.

63. Don’t send bad news over email. Call instead.

64. We teach people how to treat us by what we invite and permit.

65. Pursue adventures and memories instead of buying more stuff.

66. Most of what we believe is impossible is only in our head.

67. Having your ass handed to you will teach you more than ten years of prosperity.

68. Humility is a choice.

69. Do what you’re good at and stop focusing on fixing your weaknesses.

70. Don’t watch the news if you want to remain an optimist.

71. Less is more.

72. Tell the truth the first time.

73. Your kids want your attention not another vacation.

74. Drive used cars.

75. Ask questions.

76. Stay curious.

77. Ask yourself, “What is my motive?”

78. Exercise for 20 minutes every day.

79. Floss.

80. Drink water.

81. Don’t tell someone who just lost his or her job, his or her marriage, his or her child, his or her house, his or her health, or his or her company that you know how they feel. You don’t.

82. Don’t borrow money.

83. Don’t flirt with your married former high school girlfriend over Facebook.

84. Seek first to understand.

85. Don’t put up with bullshit.

86. When you’re the boss, don’t underestimate your influence over your employees. They miss nothing.

87. Bless those who curse you.

88. No one will care about your idea as much as you do.

89. Invest regularly in friendships.

90. Get outside every day.

91. Ask “Why?”

92. Accept correction.

93. Apprentice for as long as possible. Once you’re in charge, you can’t ever go back.

94. Feed the hungry, shelter the cold, and care for single mothers.

95. Create space in your life for quiet.

96. Don’t believe everyone on Facebook is having more fun than you, skinnier than you, funnier than you, has more beautiful houses, children, cars, and vacations than you. It’s only some of the story.

97. Everyone’s lives make more sense in the rear view mirror than as it is happening.

98. Tell your wife, your children, your parents, and your friends that you love them. Don’t assume they know. It needs to be said. They need to hear it.

99. A fulfilling purpose is longer lasting than any amount of sex, fame, fortune, success, vacation, or adventure.

Download the PDF full list here:

99 Uncensored Ways to Live Life by Aaron McHugh

How to Gain Seven More Seconds of Consideration?

Photo by ReneS (creative commons)

Most people rush past the final coat of polish.

If you’re selling a product, a service, an idea or yourself then you might consider one more coat of polish before you ship.

I am a big fan of Don’t Worry Be Crappy, courtesy of the Godfather Guy Kawasaki.

I’m going to modify Guru Guy’s principle, Ship early and don’t rush the final polish.  

Don’t confuse the two ideas

You can ship a crappy product but it better work.

Crappy may just mean that there are ten things you would like to add but you’re going to ship it now and add those additions later.

There are too many choices in the market today for any of us to waste our time trying to like something.

Without a polish of professionalism, we will be replaced quickly.

  • We uninstall it
  • We stop reading
  • We move on
  • We choose another option
  • We write a bad review

Better have substance behind it

I was having a conversation with a new acquaintance and he said “When I read your work, I thought you did this for real“.

The polish of professionalism invited seven more seconds of his consideration, his attention and his mind.

What he was saying was when I read your eBook and blog posts, I thought you were a professional.

The layer of professionalism better have substance behind it or else we’re done.

We don’t get a second chance if we’ve lead someone astray.

Yet, we never even get a glance if we don’t polish the veneer of our work until we see a reflection that we are proud of, then it’s ready.

Go get that polish.

How Long Will We Be Working?

It was very common for our grandparents to find a good company and hitch their wagon to it for the next thirty years.

In the post-depression and post-WWII era, finding predictable work was a blessing.

If you were able to work for a company like Ford Motor Company, then you were enrolled in their retirement pension plan.

This golden handcuff tethered you to the company until you reached retirement age, but your contract was mutually beneficial: the company benefited from your investment and you benefited from a reliable income source for the rest of your life.

That has all changed.

Saving for Retirement: We’re going to be working for a while.

Imagine that last week you attended your company’s retirement plan meeting. The young thirty-something presenter showed a chart proclaiming how the stock market boasts a predictable 30-year average rate of return of 10%.

For the last 15 years, however, you’ve only experienced down markets. You follow the advertised best practices, contributing your faithful (x)% every month. but you know that your retirement plan is not the golden handcuff it once was.

Indeed, the Ford Motor Company’s pension plan model vanished with our grandparents’ generation. And the promise of the stock market producing wild amounts of wealth with which we can travel the world and eat caviar does not seem to be panning out, either.

Maybe we shouldn’t try and stay with one company?

The belief that our company’s retirement plan will provide a guaranteed path to financial security is not anything you should count on. Instead, we should accept that you will be working for more years than the thirty-something presenter promised in that meeting.

Let’s not feel obligated to stick it out with any one company for our entire career.

The good news is that when the pension plan vanished, employees received greater freedom of choice. We can make career decisions largely independent of a company retirement plan.

Since most of us won’t end up in early retirement, we should certainly make sure our work is fulfilling.

We are going to be at it for a while and there is no payoff for hanging on to one company.

We are free to choose where to invest your skills and talents.

*Expert from eBook: Don’t Quit Your Job. Fire Your Boss.

For your complete free copy download here.

I Want You To Know About the Mistake I Made

Always Be Closing-Alec Baldwin

Yep, I’ve just recently learned how I single-handedly created a lost opportunity.

I choose not to listen to conventional wisdom.

I choose to chart my own path.

I choose to experiment and try something that went against the grain.

I choose to politely listen to other people but to ignore their advice.

What was my mistake? 

I gave away my eBook for six months and asked nothing in return from my reader.

I did not require an email address or a sign up for my blog updates.

I simply gave it away.

I choose to run an experiment to see if the content was worth a trade.

At first I was not sure.

I’d never written or created anything like this before.

Truthfully I didn't really know if it was any good.

In some ways by giving it away for free I was testing the populous to determine it’s worth.

It felt less risky to say; here you go I hope this encourages you without requiring anything in return.

What drove my decision? 

Now, six months later, I realize it was my own self-doubt that drove my decision.

Second to self-doubt was rebellion.

I am not an aimless follower.  I never have been.

I am generally more comfortable charting new trails than trying to walk the heavily traveled wide-path.

As a result I can be a real pain-in-the-ass.

Take one part self-doubt, combine that with one equal part pioneer and an extra dash of rebellion and you get this decision.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy being me.

And some days I come with a list of resulting challenges and limitations.

Here is what I learned

1. Have ten trusted people preview your work.

If they say it’s good-trust them. 
If they say it needs more work-trust them. If they say it’s better for your own personal enjoyment-trust them.

  1. 2. Don’t ship until you are ready to put your name on it.  

I picture this like a see a trade show exhibit.

If I were the only guy standing in 10 x 10 booth along an aisle of 5000 other exhibitors would I be proud to stand in front of my work?
If not, fix it before you ship.

3. Don’t dismiss the current wisdom of the day.

Use the proven method that produces a desirable result.  Don’t try and create a new method.
My method was, if it is any good they will come back for more.

Guess what?  They didn’t, they don’t and they won’t.

The truth of the matter is that people are busy and there is always another guy with a blog and an eBook.

In the great words of Alec Baldwin from the movie Glengary Glen Ross “ABC. Always-be-closing”.  

Take the opportunity to close the deal when you have the opportunity.  In sales you never come back tomorrow, you close it now.

4. Being generous is good

I am proud that my experiment of giving away my eBook was also rooted in generosity.
I was genuine in my desire to help change the world I live in by allowing my idea to be transmitted freely.

I want my experience to benefit other people regardless of whether or not I get anything in direct return.

What now?

Staring last week, you will now find a sign-up form in order to receive the download link to Don’t Quit Your Job. Fire Your Boss.

I hope this encourages you in your own journey as you sort out which road to choose today.

Keep going.

Your Boss Does Not Hold the Verdict on You

Your boss, customers, company, and coworkers should not hold as much influence on you as they do.

The verdict on your impact, your worth, your genius, and your value is not in their hands.

Too much energy is consumed with interpreting our leadership’s appreciation and acknowledgement of our contribution.

Do your dinner table conversations and dates with your spouse get chewed up with workplace drama?

  • What your boss said
  • What your boss didn’t say
  • How your boss said it
  • Why it should have been said
  • Why it should not have been said

I bet even your spouse is tired of your boss.

Your boss does not hold the verdict on you.

Of course, all of us want to be noticed and appreciated for our workplace contributions, but we often put too heavy a weight on whether or not our boss or company displays appreciation or gratitude for us in the way we desire.

As a result we can internalize feedback or lack there of as a verdict on our workplace value. Although feedback is an indicator, it is not a summary.

Here are some things I have learned that have helped me weather long dry spells of negative feedback or even silence.

Stop doing your work for your boss.

Your idea is not good or bad as a result of the feedback you receive. If you believe you have a great idea, a worthy project, or a good decision, then go for it! Do it because you believe in it and because it is the right thing to do.

Assume the best.

No news is good news. Start heading down the path you believe you should follow and assume the best outcome, assume everyone is supportive, and assume you are going to be successful. If someone in authority has a problem with it, they will tell you so.

Consider the source.

If you consistently receive negative feedback from the same person(s) every time, consider that their negativity might be their own personal problem. It took me a long time to realize that consensus building and democracy is really great most of the time. Some people will never be supportive or helpful. That is just the way they choose to be, and that is OK. Don’t let their negativity stop you from doing your own great work.

Own your mistakes.

If you make a mistake, say so. Own your shortcomings, missteps, bad judgment calls, etc. Most everyone is appreciative and understanding when you say, “I made a mistake. I am sorry.”

Your boss isn’t getting what he needs either.

Yep. Your boss desires the same validation and acknowledgement that you do.  And more than likely if he is not giving it to you, well, he isn’t getting it from his boss, either.

In my story

This one was a massive tectonic shift for me. Once I realized that my boss didn’t have the verdict on me, I was free to do my best work regardless of his or her acknowledgement of it.

It was such a relief.

I had spent so many years attempting to gain the appreciation and confidence of my leaders that I was exhausted.

The truth is, it was like playing a baseball game with one eye on the game and one eye on my boss in the bleachers. As a result, I was never fully in the game because I was more worried about whether or not I was being seen for the great plays I was making.

Now I’ve learned to offer my best work every day and get my head into the game instead of spending so much time wondering what the commentators are saying.

*Expert from eBook: Don’t Quit Your Job. Fire Your Boss.

For your complete free copy download here.

What I Learned About Wisdom While Crawling Towards the Finish Line

Photo @1997 Rich Cruise Ironman Finish line

My definition of wisdom is doing something wrong so many times; you finally learn know how to do it right. The first time I learned this lesson was while I was on all fours crawling towards the finish line. When I was younger, I saw wise people seemingly make fewer mistakes.

As I watched them I witnessed how they operated with some kind of Jedi super power that enabled them to see around the next bend.

In work and life they knew

  • what to do
  • what to say
  • what not to say
  • when to say it.

At the time, I couldn’t claim these as areas of strength.

In the void of having experience I read a lot of books to gather more information.

Experience is worth a lot.

I listened to a younger woman recently expound on how a particular speaker that we listened to failed to connect with the audience.

It wasn’t that I necessarily disagreed with her.

What was missing was the reason she believed that the speaker failed.

She read in a book how a speaker should connect with an audience.

I’ve read a lot of books about how to be a better speaker, or writer, or runner or husband.

None of those books made me wise.

I gained some great information, but wisdom doesn’t come from a book.

“DNF” for my first marathon

In my first attempt at running a Marathon, I decided to wake up at 4 am and eat a whole bowl of spaghetti, take a handful of Advil and only drink water, not Gatorade during the race.

I had a plan.

I read it in a book.

I decided to try it for the first time on race day.

By the time I reached mile seventeen I was involuntarily dispensing the spaghetti on the racecourse.

By mile twenty-four I was on all fours crawling towards the medical tent.

In racing they call it a “DNF” when you “Do Not Finish”.

Now I have wisdom on how to run a marathon.

But most of what I know is a result of doing it wrong more times than I can count.

Use the books for gaining information, but use experiences to solidify wisdom.

I hope we will allow our mistakes to teach us.

Let me know if you want that marathon training program.

I bet I could dig it up for you.