Things I’m learning and practicing
I’m learning to Twitter
What I’m doing sounds really boring when I write it down. Now I have to be conscious and actually make something fun and creative out of what I’m doing, boring or not. That’s pretty cool, actually!!
I’m learning to blog write
I’m learning how to schedule my time to write and update.
I’m learning how to plan my blogging time and prepare it so when I actually sit down to write I have something to say.
I’m practicing using the tools I have for managing my time.
Keep it simple.
Declare the 3 results I’m going to produce for the day, P3
Write them down,
Be accountable and share them with someone else,
Set a consequence for my actions (3am heart to heart with myself and god)
I’m learning to stay in alpha energy
Alpha is what I call it when I’m being the director of my life. I tend to be a pretty easy going, go with the flow, open for anything person…and I like that about me. However, there’s a time and a place for everything. I’m finding that the greater my desire for reaching my goals and dreams, the more I have to be directing my life with purpose…taking charge, being committed, and leading myself as well as others on my team. It’s a conscious practice for me as I’ve been pretty effective with just cruising along…but I already know how to do that, it’s not learning if I don’t try something new, right.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Thursday, January 1, 2009
What’s the deal, are we in a Recession? Or is it a depression?
What’s the deal, are we in a Recession? Or is it a depression?
Are we waiting for something to happen? What are we doing? Watching? Worrying? I don’t know.
What I do know is that we need to be in action.
What I do know is that we need to be connecting with more people than we have been.
What I do know is that we need to not be sitting around waiting for the fruit to fall off the tree.
Why? Because it’s times like these that people, yes you people, me people, US PEOPLE need to work together.
A couple of months ago I attended a workshop with Jack Canfield, author of the world famous Chicken Soup series. Two key ideas I learned and I want to share with you.
1st- How we play games is how we live life
Being successful in our work is a game. It is not life. Our work or job is not our life. It is simply our contribution to our community. In order to survive as a tribe, people need to contribute. In our culture we reward contribution with pay. But let’s not forget the underlying reason we all work. It is because of contribution. Those who do not work, who do not contribute are not supported by our culture (for the most part). That’s how our system is set up and our desire to be successful is a game we play to be rewarded within that system. It is a personal choice to play or not to play and to what extent.
Choosing to play this game we must realize that the game is always on. It never sleeps. It doesn’t stop. Whether a hurricane, or an earthquake, or a wild fire devastates your city, or a you become ill or injured…whether you have a job or have been downsized…whatever…THE GAME IS ALWAYS ON. It is a game and you either choose to play full out, you choose to play casually, or you choose not to play at all. Either way the game goes on.
2nd – We cannot be ultimately successful without a team.
We cannot do it by ourselves. This game requires too much. There is too much involved and to play it alone is a complete waste of our energies. We must have a team and we must support that team and let that team support us.
In our world TODAY we must come together. We must help one another. We must tap into our own resources and reach out to others and lift them up.
We must lift their spirits and their energy
We must lift their thoughts
We must lift their lives
We must do what we can to support their …
Health and well being
Their knowledge and education
Help them understand their finances and planning for their future effectively
Help them to take care of their body and their mind.
Help them to fill their environment with positive energy that makes their life simpler and easier …and reduces their stress.
We must do what we do best in order to support them to do what they are the best at.
This is the way to success TODAY. It’s about coming together as a team, as a unit, as a community. To ask the question…HOW CAN I HELP YOU??? AND LISTEN and then ACT!!!
Today our world needs more people to reach their goals. It needs more people to be successful. It needs more people to play the game like it is always on…like you are always standing in the middle of an opportunity to help someone else out.
Are we waiting for something to happen? What are we doing? Watching? Worrying? I don’t know.
What I do know is that we need to be in action.
What I do know is that we need to be connecting with more people than we have been.
What I do know is that we need to not be sitting around waiting for the fruit to fall off the tree.
Why? Because it’s times like these that people, yes you people, me people, US PEOPLE need to work together.
A couple of months ago I attended a workshop with Jack Canfield, author of the world famous Chicken Soup series. Two key ideas I learned and I want to share with you.
1st- How we play games is how we live life
Being successful in our work is a game. It is not life. Our work or job is not our life. It is simply our contribution to our community. In order to survive as a tribe, people need to contribute. In our culture we reward contribution with pay. But let’s not forget the underlying reason we all work. It is because of contribution. Those who do not work, who do not contribute are not supported by our culture (for the most part). That’s how our system is set up and our desire to be successful is a game we play to be rewarded within that system. It is a personal choice to play or not to play and to what extent.
Choosing to play this game we must realize that the game is always on. It never sleeps. It doesn’t stop. Whether a hurricane, or an earthquake, or a wild fire devastates your city, or a you become ill or injured…whether you have a job or have been downsized…whatever…THE GAME IS ALWAYS ON. It is a game and you either choose to play full out, you choose to play casually, or you choose not to play at all. Either way the game goes on.
2nd – We cannot be ultimately successful without a team.
We cannot do it by ourselves. This game requires too much. There is too much involved and to play it alone is a complete waste of our energies. We must have a team and we must support that team and let that team support us.
In our world TODAY we must come together. We must help one another. We must tap into our own resources and reach out to others and lift them up.
We must lift their spirits and their energy
We must lift their thoughts
We must lift their lives
We must do what we can to support their …
Health and well being
Their knowledge and education
Help them understand their finances and planning for their future effectively
Help them to take care of their body and their mind.
Help them to fill their environment with positive energy that makes their life simpler and easier …and reduces their stress.
We must do what we do best in order to support them to do what they are the best at.
This is the way to success TODAY. It’s about coming together as a team, as a unit, as a community. To ask the question…HOW CAN I HELP YOU??? AND LISTEN and then ACT!!!
Today our world needs more people to reach their goals. It needs more people to be successful. It needs more people to play the game like it is always on…like you are always standing in the middle of an opportunity to help someone else out.
Friday, November 21, 2008
A challenge, great results, and my important lessons
So, this P3 commitment thing is a little harder to stick with than I had thought. Here’s what has happened during the past month in terms of my commitment to identifying, tracking, and accomplishing my top three priorities each day and my 3 am reflection.
I found that 80% of the time I did not identify and track my P3s during the day. When I did set my P3s for the day, I was successful 85% of the time (in case you were wondering, all statistics have been compiled by the accounting firm of Deloitte and Touche and are certified accurate. Okay, they’re not.)
Results: I took on two new private clients and acquired a very large, potentially life/business changing venture. Also, I was invited to attend a strategic meeting with Dr. Ivan Misner, the founder of BNI, and one of the great legends of motivation, sales, and business development, Brian Tracy – just to name the top ones. Countless other connections were made, opportunities were created, and projects were moved forward.
My intention from the beginning in spending this reflection time at 3 am was to do some journal writing and share the insights I gained with you. I did notice some of the challenge wasn’t so much getting up at 3 am as it was letting myself off the hook by not playing the game and setting my priorities for the day. If I didn’t set my P3 for the day, it wasn’t that I consciously chose not to get up at 3 am; rather, I just never really thought about it. This part is a little disappointing because the whole purpose for this game and exercise is to practice staying conscious in creating my day, intentionally determining my activities and the most effective actions to be taking every day. What I learned is the majority of time I just go unconscious. Now I’m wondering what more I could produce if, instead of being 20% effective, I was being 30% or 40% effective. With all of the great results that have happened this past month…WOW. I wonder what else could happen if I stayed more conscious.
Here’s the experience I had. In establishing my daily P3s, the momentum really started picking up, and I kept coming up with more than three priorities. My P3s became more like P10s, which was overwhelming. I found myself under a couple of deadlines, and it became less about thinking and prioritizing and more about just working to get stuff done. Although I was getting a lot done, I still didn’t feel I was entirely effective. It’s like I just went back to my default strategy. When I had some pressure put on me, I went back to a default pattern of just “going without thinking” I think if I had been more conscious and a little more diligent with this, it would have worked much better.
The other thing that was going on was that I used the excuse at times that I was too tired. I was going to bed at 11 or 12 at night, getting up at 5:30 in the morning, and I was finding myself a little tired and dragging during the day, so the last thing I really wanted to do was wake up at 3 am for any amount of time. I think there’s another way around this; I think the 3 am reflection is not a time that really takes away my rest. In fact, I actually found that the 5 or 10 minutes really didn’t make or break how much rest I received. What I got out of it, the value of sticking to my integrity and my commitments, was far better than any loss of sleep. It actually energized me because, instead of having one more thing that I didn’t do, carrying around with me all day, I didn’t have that burden. I was in alignment with myself – and that overrides any fatigue. I think I get way more tired when I’m constantly carrying around all the incomplete things in my life and having to justify them in my own head in order to feel okay. When I woke up in the morning and I knew that either I did or didn’t do my P3s the day before, and that I already handled that by taking my 3 am reflection time, I would actually find myself refreshed. I stuck to my commitment. I did what I said I was going to do. I enforced the consequence when I needed to. And now I am complete with that. I’m not dragging it around with me all day.
So, overall consensus is 20% is WAY better than 0%, just based on the results I produced and the new opportunities that came forth based on that focused action. The other conclusion is to stay conscious with it. It’s a habit. I’m trying to change a habit. I’m trying to change a default behavior, and that’s going to take some work for me. So I’m going to get back in the game, get reengaged, and begin this whole process again and continue to begin it again every day. My intention is to be 100% effective, and I’m going to be super excited to get 30-40%, but I’m going to play for 100% every day for the next 30 days. Because, hey, based on the results I’ve produced so far, this game is on, it’s not stopping, it’s going to move on, and if I’m not being as effective as I was in creating it, who knows what’s going to happen. So, the game is on; the game is always on – and I’m going to play it.
I found that 80% of the time I did not identify and track my P3s during the day. When I did set my P3s for the day, I was successful 85% of the time (in case you were wondering, all statistics have been compiled by the accounting firm of Deloitte and Touche and are certified accurate. Okay, they’re not.)
Results: I took on two new private clients and acquired a very large, potentially life/business changing venture. Also, I was invited to attend a strategic meeting with Dr. Ivan Misner, the founder of BNI, and one of the great legends of motivation, sales, and business development, Brian Tracy – just to name the top ones. Countless other connections were made, opportunities were created, and projects were moved forward.
My intention from the beginning in spending this reflection time at 3 am was to do some journal writing and share the insights I gained with you. I did notice some of the challenge wasn’t so much getting up at 3 am as it was letting myself off the hook by not playing the game and setting my priorities for the day. If I didn’t set my P3 for the day, it wasn’t that I consciously chose not to get up at 3 am; rather, I just never really thought about it. This part is a little disappointing because the whole purpose for this game and exercise is to practice staying conscious in creating my day, intentionally determining my activities and the most effective actions to be taking every day. What I learned is the majority of time I just go unconscious. Now I’m wondering what more I could produce if, instead of being 20% effective, I was being 30% or 40% effective. With all of the great results that have happened this past month…WOW. I wonder what else could happen if I stayed more conscious.
Here’s the experience I had. In establishing my daily P3s, the momentum really started picking up, and I kept coming up with more than three priorities. My P3s became more like P10s, which was overwhelming. I found myself under a couple of deadlines, and it became less about thinking and prioritizing and more about just working to get stuff done. Although I was getting a lot done, I still didn’t feel I was entirely effective. It’s like I just went back to my default strategy. When I had some pressure put on me, I went back to a default pattern of just “going without thinking” I think if I had been more conscious and a little more diligent with this, it would have worked much better.
The other thing that was going on was that I used the excuse at times that I was too tired. I was going to bed at 11 or 12 at night, getting up at 5:30 in the morning, and I was finding myself a little tired and dragging during the day, so the last thing I really wanted to do was wake up at 3 am for any amount of time. I think there’s another way around this; I think the 3 am reflection is not a time that really takes away my rest. In fact, I actually found that the 5 or 10 minutes really didn’t make or break how much rest I received. What I got out of it, the value of sticking to my integrity and my commitments, was far better than any loss of sleep. It actually energized me because, instead of having one more thing that I didn’t do, carrying around with me all day, I didn’t have that burden. I was in alignment with myself – and that overrides any fatigue. I think I get way more tired when I’m constantly carrying around all the incomplete things in my life and having to justify them in my own head in order to feel okay. When I woke up in the morning and I knew that either I did or didn’t do my P3s the day before, and that I already handled that by taking my 3 am reflection time, I would actually find myself refreshed. I stuck to my commitment. I did what I said I was going to do. I enforced the consequence when I needed to. And now I am complete with that. I’m not dragging it around with me all day.
So, overall consensus is 20% is WAY better than 0%, just based on the results I produced and the new opportunities that came forth based on that focused action. The other conclusion is to stay conscious with it. It’s a habit. I’m trying to change a habit. I’m trying to change a default behavior, and that’s going to take some work for me. So I’m going to get back in the game, get reengaged, and begin this whole process again and continue to begin it again every day. My intention is to be 100% effective, and I’m going to be super excited to get 30-40%, but I’m going to play for 100% every day for the next 30 days. Because, hey, based on the results I’ve produced so far, this game is on, it’s not stopping, it’s going to move on, and if I’m not being as effective as I was in creating it, who knows what’s going to happen. So, the game is on; the game is always on – and I’m going to play it.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
3am
I began this blog with a punishment of sorts. I picked up a great idea not too long ago from a workshop I attended about an incentive to get my work done. It is called the 3am Talk with God. The idea is that each day I declare my P3 (that’s my shorthand for top 3 Priorities for the day...cleaver huh?). My goal is to get at least one of them done before noon and ideally all three of them. If I don’t get 1 done before noon AND get them all 3 accomplished in the day then I have to wake my ass up at 3am, go for a walk, have a little chat with myself and God, and reflect on my commitment to what I’ve set out to accomplish.
My first attempt at this game lead me to this very blog. I failed to accomplish my P3’s and I found myself setting my alarm for 3 am. Yes, I am honoring my word to myself. 3am rolls around and I rallied myself out of bed for a long walk…to the bathroom…and then right back to bed. However, I did sit on the end of my bed for a few minutes and believe it or not, I did have the heart to heart conversation with myself and with God. Here’s what I learned.
Listen more. There’s more to life than just goals and accomplishments. Create more space in your life to listen to your own thoughts. Create more space to listen to another’s words. Create more space to truly get what it is that is coming from your outside world and into your life. We (and by we I mean me, but you may relate too) tend to listen so quickly, so unconsciously as if we’re just skimming the frosting off of everything that occurs in our day to day world. There’s cake in there, really good cake, if we would just take the time and make the space to truly listen and hear not just the words but all the underlying messages…without editing, just appreciating the essence of what is being communicated. Imagine how your relationships would change if you listened more. Imagine how much time you could save if you listened better. Imagine how easy things could be if you listened so well it caused another to have no other choice but to ask for your thoughts.
This is what I got at 3am. In the quiet of the night, I had no other choice but to listen. To me it was quite a gift…and not at all what I was expecting. So I took my gift from God and decided to start listening to myself better, for starters. Now as I set my daily P3’s I take a moment to reflect and I ask myself, “is this truly what my heart is set on for today? Does accomplishing these 3 tasks satisfy my greatest purpose in life or at least bring me one step closer? And then I LISTEN. I listen for my own answer. And it will not come from my head, from my logic, or from the drunken monkey that often runs wild between my ears…rather it simply comes as a whisper from deep in my heart as a feeling that washes over me and leaves me feeling powerful and inspired.
What I thought I was doing was honoring a commitment to myself. Instead I found a gift of quietness and stillness that caused me to listen in a way I have not done before. Now there’s this part of me that hopes I will fail again just to see what the next lesson is that I will learn at 3 am…I’m not sure if that is really cool or kinda sucks. Who wants to be excited about failing? J
But not this night...today, I have completed my P3’s.
Until my next 3am Talk with God…
-T.
My first attempt at this game lead me to this very blog. I failed to accomplish my P3’s and I found myself setting my alarm for 3 am. Yes, I am honoring my word to myself. 3am rolls around and I rallied myself out of bed for a long walk…to the bathroom…and then right back to bed. However, I did sit on the end of my bed for a few minutes and believe it or not, I did have the heart to heart conversation with myself and with God. Here’s what I learned.
Listen more. There’s more to life than just goals and accomplishments. Create more space in your life to listen to your own thoughts. Create more space to listen to another’s words. Create more space to truly get what it is that is coming from your outside world and into your life. We (and by we I mean me, but you may relate too) tend to listen so quickly, so unconsciously as if we’re just skimming the frosting off of everything that occurs in our day to day world. There’s cake in there, really good cake, if we would just take the time and make the space to truly listen and hear not just the words but all the underlying messages…without editing, just appreciating the essence of what is being communicated. Imagine how your relationships would change if you listened more. Imagine how much time you could save if you listened better. Imagine how easy things could be if you listened so well it caused another to have no other choice but to ask for your thoughts.
This is what I got at 3am. In the quiet of the night, I had no other choice but to listen. To me it was quite a gift…and not at all what I was expecting. So I took my gift from God and decided to start listening to myself better, for starters. Now as I set my daily P3’s I take a moment to reflect and I ask myself, “is this truly what my heart is set on for today? Does accomplishing these 3 tasks satisfy my greatest purpose in life or at least bring me one step closer? And then I LISTEN. I listen for my own answer. And it will not come from my head, from my logic, or from the drunken monkey that often runs wild between my ears…rather it simply comes as a whisper from deep in my heart as a feeling that washes over me and leaves me feeling powerful and inspired.
What I thought I was doing was honoring a commitment to myself. Instead I found a gift of quietness and stillness that caused me to listen in a way I have not done before. Now there’s this part of me that hopes I will fail again just to see what the next lesson is that I will learn at 3 am…I’m not sure if that is really cool or kinda sucks. Who wants to be excited about failing? J
But not this night...today, I have completed my P3’s.
Until my next 3am Talk with God…
-T.
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