Do a clean sweep

Do a Clean Sweep

 

I’ve spent much of the past twelve months in what I call Strategic Hibernation – pulling back from much of the “busyness” of my life and rethinking things like my priorities, my values and my personal philosophy. I’ve accepted fewer social invitations, limited many activities and spent a lot more time in reflection – just to make certain I’m climbing the right mountain and spending my days in the way they should be spent. I’ve also spend a lot of time this year doing a “Clean Sweep”

 

A clean sweep is a superb way to streamline, simplify and refocus your life. Most of us have a ton of baggage and clutter that we carry with us on this journey. These might include, “messages,” like incomplete relationships or people you have yet to forgive (or apologize to). The baggage in your life could include “undones”, like a will that needs to be prepared or a life insurance policy that should be updated. The clutter could relate to an unkempt yard or a bunch of unpacked boxes stacked in a spare room. The idea is this: when you clean sweep these things – put them into order or delete what needs to be eliminated from your life – you will feel lighter, happier and your mind will experience more peace.

 

My clean sweep involved getting a will, getting rid of a lot of things I hadn’t used for a while, putting a financial plan in place, tidying up my physical spaces, saying goodbye to pursuits that were not aligned with my personal and professional strategic objectives (goals), installing systems to be more efficient and spending a lot of time refining the model of my business. Guess what? It worked – beautifully.

 

I have more time to do what’s most important. I’m more relaxed and in the flow. I have more energy and more creative. And I’m having more fun. So do a Clean Sweep of your life. And start soon. The results just might astonish you.

 

“Delete what needs to be eliminated from your life – you will feel lighter, happier and your mind will experience more peace”

 

What do you evangelize?

What do you Evangelize?

 

An evangelist, by definition, is simply someone who spreads good news. It’s someone who gets stuck on a big idea or a passionate cause and then walks out into this day and spreads the message like a virus. It’s someone who gets to be engaged in doing something important that it’s all he/she things about, dreams about, talks about. It’s a human being who understands – at a cellular level – what Dr Martin Luther King Jr. meant when he said: “if you have not discovered something you are willing to die for, then you are not fit to live”. This troubled and uncertain world of ours needs more evangelists: human beings doing great things, blessings lives by their actions, making a difference.

 

Where did most people’s passion for greatness go? Each of us had it as kids. We wanted to be superheroes, astronauts, poets and painters. We wanted to change the world, stand on mountain tops and eat lots of ice cream. Then, as we aged, life began to do its work on us. Fearful people snickered at our dreams. disappointments began to show up. Life began to hurt us and we began to buy into the propaganda that says we should not thing too big, reach too high and love too much. Breaks my heart to think about it. But that’s exactly what happens.

 

You are meant to shine. I believe that fiercely. You are here to find that cause, that main aim, that vital destiny that will move you at the most visceral level and get you up at the crack of dawn with fire in your belly. You are meant to find something that your life will stand for and that will consume you, something so beautiful and meaningful that you’d willing to take a bullet for it. It might mean developing people at work and helping them live their highest potential. It might mean being an innovator who adds outrageous value to your clients and brings cool products to the world. Your cause might involve elevating communities or helping people in need.

 

I don’t know what your life’s most important to do is. That’s for you to figure out (through some deep reflection, introspection and soul-searching; doing that within a journal is a wise idea). But I do know this: when you find the mission that your life will be dedicated to, you’ll wake up each day with that fire I mentioned. You won’t want to sleep. You’ll be willing to move mountains to make it happen. You’ll find that sense of internal fulfillment that may now be missing from your life. And you’ll preach that message to anyone who’ll listen. You’ll become an evangelist.

 

“You are here to find that cause, that main aim, that vital destiny that will move you at the most visceral level and get you up at the crack of dawn with fire in your belly”

 

How to be a happier human

How to be a Happier Human

 

If you want to be happier, do more of the things that make you happy. I know that seems like an obvious point – but it’s not. As we leave the wonder years of childhood, most of us stop doing the things that make our hearts sing. One CEO client told me recently that when he was young, he used to love to take long solo rides on his bicycle. “I stopped doing that when we had kids and work demands took over. Life just got busier. But those moments out on that bike came from some of the best days of my life.” Another client, a phenomenally successful entrepreneur, shared that his passion used to be playing his drums in a rock band. “Those were incredible times. Then I started my business and it began to consume me. I miss playing music. I’d lose myself in it.”

 

Here’s your To Do: Make a list of your 10 Greatest Passions, 10 activities that fill your heart with joy and remind you of how good life can be. And then, over the coming 10 weeks, inject one of those pursuits into your weekly schedule. Powerful thought: The things that get scheduled are the things that get done. Until you schedule something, it’s only a concept – and extraordinary people don’t build remarkable lives on concepts. They build their greatness on action and near-flawless execution around their deliverables. They get things done.

 

This 10-week program works. When you get back to doing those things that lifted your spirit and sent you soaring, you reconnect with that state of happiness that you may have lost. And part of the purpose of life is to be happy. Real happy.

 

“When you get back to doing those things that lifted your spirit and sent you soaring, your reconnect with that state of happiness that you may have lost”

 

Get fit to lead

Get Fit to Lead

 

You know I’m an evangelist around the whole idea of being ultra-fit if you want to be at your best. Getting into world-class physical condition is one of the smartest moves you can make. Exercising will make you look better, feel stronger and fill you with boundless energy. Staying fit will even make you happier.

 

The past week has been a time of great change for me. I’m reengineering my business to make it more focused and fast. I’m coaching my team so that they know the new standards and goals. I’m pushing myself harder to get more done and generate better results. And I’m lifting the bar on the size of my dreams. I need to make a bigger difference. I passionately feel that. As I go through all this, one of the practices that is serving me so well is my daily pilgrimage to the gym.

 

I remember a professional speaker name Peter Urs Bender once telling me: “Robing, some people go to church each day. Well, my church is the gym. And each day that’s where I go to get blessed”. I also remember a participant in one of my leadership seminars sharing: “Exercise is an insurance policy I’ve taken out on my health. And each that I go into the gym, I’m paying the premium”. Yet another personal told me recently at a book signing: “Good health is a crown on the head of a well person that only a sick person can see.” Smart points. Wise people.

 

No matter how busy I get or how much pressure is on my shoulders, a good workout makes me feel at ease. I come off the treadmill feeling relaxed, full of joy and with a sense of perspective over the issues on my plate. I get so many big ideas while I’m running and such clarity while I’m lifting weights. And staying fit keeps me happy and positive. I know I’ll never be Mr. Universe. But because I care for my health, my life will be a lot better, more productive and longer than if didn’t. And that’s good enough for me.

 

“Good health is a crown on the head of a well person that only a sick person can see”

 

The person who experiences the most wins

The Person Who Experiences Most Wins

 

I want the experience of an old man while I’m still young. And I think I’ve figured out a way to get it: collapse the timeline. Most people don’t take that many risks or have that many new conversations or read that many new books or take that many new travels. By engaging in these and other experience-building pursuits at a dramatically accelerated rate, I figure I could get 10 years worth of learning and lessons in quarter of the time. Just collapse the timeline by doing more important stuff faster and sooner. Just stay focused and committed. Just put more living into each of the days.

 

We all get the same allotment of time. Each of us get 20 hours each day. The sad fact is that too many among us spend too much time doing unimportant things. Living reactive lives. Saying “yes” to activities they should be saying “no” to. Drifting like a piece of wood in a river, moving in whatever direction the current happens to be moving on that particular day. All because they did not make the time to think. About their priorities. About their dreams and goals. And to note what they want to make of their lives. People have lost 20 good years this way. Seriously.

 

By getting clear on what you want out of life, you heighten your awareness around what’s most important. With better awareness comes better choices. And with better choices you’ll see better results. Clarity breeds success.

 

So don’t wait until the end of your life to become experienced. Collapse the timeline. Get clear on what you need to experience to have a fulfilling life – and then start doing it now. Meet cool people. Visit neat places. Read deep books. Seize opportunities. Fail often – it reflects an increase in your reach and risk taking. Who cares if you win or lose, so long as you get another experience to add to the inventory? Even the saddest of times make your life richer. Benjamin Zandler, the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic, shared the following line from his teacher’s wonderful book The Art of Possibility: “I’m so sorry for you; your lives have been so easy. You can’t play great music unless your heart’s been broken.” The more experiences, the better the life.

 

“I want the experience of an old man while I’m still young. And I think I’ve figured out a way to get it: Collapse the timeline”

 

Innovator's Mantra

The Innovator’s Mantra

 

True innovators have a mantra: “The enemy of the best is the good.” They are constantly daring to make things better. What others call impossible they see a probable. They live out of their imaginations – not their memories. They live to challenge the commonly accepted. They assume nothing. They see no limits. To them, everything is possible.

 

If you want to be a leader, I have a simple suggestion: Just keep innovating. Innovate at work, Innovate at home, Innovate in your relationships. Innovate in the way you run your life. Innovate in terms of the way you see the world. To become stagnant is to being to die. Growth, evolution and reinvention sustain life. Sure it can be scary. But wouldn’t you rather feel your fear than play small with your life?

 

There’s no safety in being the same person today that you were yesterday. That’s just an illusion that ends up breaking your heart when you get to the end of your life and realize that you missed out living it boldly. Lasting fulfilment lives out in the unknown. When I was a kid, my dad used to tell me: “It’s risky out on the limb. But son, - that’s where all the fruit is.” And to play out on the skinny branch, you need to innovate. Daily. Relentlessly.

 

Of course, the more you innovate and refuse to be bound by the chains of complacency, the more you will fail. Not every risk you take and not everything you try will work out as planned. That’s just life happening. Failure truly is essential to success. And the more you stretch, the farther you will reach. Failure is a gift anyway. Failure has been so helpful to me. It’s taken me closer to my dreams, equipped me with more knowledge and toughened me up so I’m more prepared. Success and failure go hand in hand. They are business partners.

 

One of the pharmaceutical giants GlaxoSmithKline’s organization values is “disturb”. Love it. Companies that don’t innovate don’t survive, so the key is driving this innovation. The lesion is especially important when things are going well. Though it’s counterintuitive, successful companies actually need to be more innovative than competition. It’s like kids playing king of the hill – everyone aims for the kid at the top. Leaders that don’t innovate are displaced by those willing to take risks. “So go to work each day and refuse to do the same thing you did yesterday – just because it was what you did yesterday. Keep challenging yourself to thing better, do better and better. Shape things up. Confront your limitations. Refuse to be average. Stand for what’s best. Commit to being breathtakingly great in all you do. And that’s what you’ll become. Sooner that you think.

 

“There’s no safety in being the same person today that you were yesterday. That’s just an illusion that ends up breaking your heart”

 

Make people feel good

MAKE PEOPLE FEEL GOOD

 

People do business with people who make them feel good. Human beings are creatures of emotion. We want to be with those who make us feel happy and special and cared for and safe.

 

There are two people I want to introduce you to: a farmer name Steve and Jake the variety store owner, two people who know more about business building than most CEOs. Steve sells pumpkins. I live in Canada, and every autumn the kids and I hop into our car and drive half an hour to get our Halloween pumpkins from this farmer who never seems to grow older. Sure we could get our pumpkins from the local grocery store five minutes from our home. But then we’d miss the feelings that Steve generates within us. He remembers our names. He makes us laugh. He tells us stories. He reminds us of what’s best in the world (farmers are good at that). And we drive away with a big batch of pumpkins and joy in our hearts. By the way, Steve’s business is unbelievably successful.

 

Next comes Jake. Jake runs a variety store. When the kids and I go in, he greets us by name. He knows our birthdays (records them in a little black book). Jake orders magazines like Dwell, Azure and Business 2.0 especially for me (no extra charge, of course). His manners are flawless. He always smiles. He makes us feel good. There are at least five other corner stores in our neighborhood, but Jake is a master at relationship-building. So he has our loyalty. Oh, and the guy’s a millionaire.

 

Being good is being wise. It’s a smart business strategy. So be like Steve. Model Jake. Make people feel good about doing business with you. You’ll lead the field. You’ll have fun doing it. And it’s just the right thing to do.

 

Makes me thing of the words etched on a slip of paper one seminar participant handed to me after an event a few months ago that read simply: “Do good and leave behind a virtue that the storm of time can never destroy.” I asked him who authored those worlds. His reply was brief: “the wisest person I’ve ever known – my grandfather”.

 

“Do good and leave behind a virtue that the storm of time can never destroy”