2Weeks2aBreakthrough

Posts about Personal Excellence

Here are a few posts that are linked by the theme of personal success and overcoming barriers.

Steve Pavlina shares a wonderful example of how preparation, resolve, and passion pay of in big and tiny, but important, ways in his post called, Darren LaCroix.

I also like Steve's post, you Have the Right to Be Wrong. Here's a nice quote:

"What’s so terrible about being wrong? If you’re never wrong, to me that indicates you aren’t growing. I hope that five years from now, I’ll look back on some of my blog posts from this year and disagree with myself. Otherwise it would mean that either I haven’t grown or that I was too timid in expressing myself."

John over at Duct Tape Marketing hits the nail on the head with Say Thank You to No Too.

Bert over at Open Loops offers this post called The Secret of Changing Habits. Like Bert, I am not a Tony Robbins groupie but I do feel a lot of what he espouses is sound advice (and I choose to not let the infomercial slickness about him turn me off of his good points).

 

The Power of Requests!

I was reminded today of the power of requests and why it is helpful to push past resistance to make regular requests.

A lot of opportunity comes to those who ask:

• Not necessarily the brightest...
• Not necessarily the most qualified...
• Not necessarily the most well known...
• Not the most popular...

I will be working on a cool project with some cool people (more details later) over the next couple months. The project is a "go" because I pitched the idea and asked the other parties to partner with me. Had they thought of the idea, they might have asked any number of people to work on the project. Sometimes being there first, and being the one to pitch the idea makes all the difference.

Is there a project you would like to get off the ground? Think about who might be a great partner/customer and pitch it! As long as your pitch is thought out and is a win/win or meets one of their needs, there is no downside to asking.

As part of the Daily Practice for the 2 Weeks to a Breakthrough program, I suggested making two requests a day. This is a good pace if you want to create serious velocity. At a minimum, I try to make 5 requests per week. And every now and then, I go BIG and make requests that are very ambitious.

I think about the struggling actor who had a hard time getting a break. He wrote to Oprah again and again and eventually she made it happen for him by getting him a role on a TV show.

Then there is the young girl who fought to compete with the boys in wrestling. Ditto the young girl who played football with the boys.

Then there's my pal Bren (Slacker Manager) who did not take "your qualifications aren't a fit" as the final answer. He knew he could do the job and pitched hard for it. And got it!

Making requests is about having resolve and being committed to achieving a goal. Is there something you should be fighting harder for?

Do Something Epic in Proportions

Some people make BIG changes happen by doing something BIG. Take for example, this guy. Steve Vaughte, starting weight three-hundred and fifty pounds, is walking across the country from his home in California to New York to lose weight (via LifeHacker). Check out his journey - it is going to be long and hard, particularly if the heat wave keeps up in the central and eastern part of the country.

There are people who go away for a month, six months, a year.
There are people who leave their cushy jobs to open a latte stand or to become farmers.
There are people who adopt one particular strict regimen and stick to it.
There are people who become nationally known advocates to try and find a bone marrow match for a child.

And on and on.

Have you ever wondered whether you could do anything BIG like this? Is there an epic journey/action in your future?

I have to give it to Steve - it takes courage and resolve to set out onto something so big. I hope he is successful. Losing weight and becoming more active is obviously very important to him. Do you have a goal that is so important that you might try something BIG?

Change What You Read

For those of you sick of hearing about my trip to New Mexico, I will move on soon, I promise. There’s just too much to say (that came up there) related to breakthroughs!

Being in and amongst the poets, memoirists, and novelists for 7 full days was interesting - I have mentioned this before. 

One of the ways in which breakthroughs, and learning in general, happen is through cognitive dissonance. The definition of cognitive dissonance is:

The sense of discomfort people experience when confronted by contradictory ideas.

Dissonance occurs when things feel not quite right, or we realize we are more clueless that we thought. I was in Taos, chatting it up with the other writers, and I could not have felt more DUMB. Hanging around business people, I generally feel “with it” and knowledgeable. I realized that I have not read nearly enough nonbusiness books. There were authors and books that EVERYONE had read and could comment about that I had never heard of. No exaggeration. This happened many times during the seven days while in casual conversations or during the workshops.

Wow, my reading habits are way too narrow! Here’s a few books I got while in Taos and will endeavor to get through in the next month.

What about you? Is your reading habit stuck in a rut? Changing what we read is like changing our context, but much easier. Pick up a book that you would not normally.

If you read literary fiction - pick up a cheesy, funny, lite book, like a Dave Barry novel (Or my favorite, Carl Hiaasen).

If you read a ton of business books - pick up a book of poetry.

If you read mostly national big publishers books, pick up a small press (or self-published) book by a local author.

If you read dozens of magazines and blogs, take a week off and read more for pleasure.

Breakthroughs and ThirdAge

I am now ambidextrous when it comes to blogging about breakthroughs! This week, the popular 40+ lifestyle website ThirdAge, launched a blog site. I am please to be one of the bloggers and my emphasis will be on generating breakthroughs. You can see the blog and my first post here.

As a 40+er myself, I will be very interested in reading all the various bloggers. Jory Des Jardins (of Pause fame) has put together an interesting and diverse group.

I will be posting on ThirdAge every Tuesday at a minimum and will still be offering around two posts per week on the 2 Weeks to a Breakthrough blog. Lots of breakthrough stuff going on.

I hope you will check it out and enjoy ThirdAge!

Breakthroughs Favor the Resolute

Lori over at Smile and Dial Revenue Generation Services offer this interesting post called, How Trying Again, in a New Way, Can Make a Sales Breakthrough.

I think Lori makes several great points that apply to anyone trying to make progress toward a goal. When we keep at it, and when we challenge ourselves to see things from different perspectives, we can often unclog the barrier that is hold us back.

When I ask Google to define resolute, here's what comes up:

• firm in purpose or belief; characterized by firmness and determination; "stood resolute against the enemy"; "faced with a resolute opposition"; "a resolute and unshakable faith"
• unhesitating: characterized by quickness and firmness; "his reply was unhesitating" 

I love the word resolute. To me, being resolute means that you approach your goal with strength and determination. Being resolute means being willing, able, and ready to obliterate barriers (I love obliterate too). It is important to be resolute relative to the overall goal and type of progress you seek, but not be too rigid that you narrow your possibilities.

Think about a goal that is important to you. How resolute are you being relative to this goal? Are you letting things, people, and your self-talk get in the way? What could you do today that would improve your mental toughness with regard to this goal?

I can think of goals I have nailed and others I am constantly battling. If I am honest, I am not very resolute in the areas I lack success - there's a strong correlation between my success and my level of resoluteness (is that a word?).

To generate mind boggling breakthroughs, I think we need to have a "this shall be" mindset relative to our goal and our commitment to achieving it.

What do you think?

And for those of you who are challenged by unmet revenue goals, I would encourage you to drop a comment on Lori's blog and get her thoughts on your approach.

Changing the Context, Change Your Perspective

I've been in Taos, NM for 7 days now. It has been a great trip and I don't want it to end. I go home Saturday. The writer's conference is very good - I would recommend it to any writers out there. For me, a business writer seeking to develop a more expressive style, it has been extremely beneficial. Why? Because I have shifted my context.

Surrounded by poets, novelists, and narrative nonfiction writers, I am immersed in a different set of conversations, a different set of skills, and an interesting bunch of artists. They write different in ways that I admire and want to learn about.

I have already begun to rewrite the introduction and first chapter of the 2 Weeks to a Breakthrough book based on the mini breakthroughs I have experienced here.

It is good, I think, to put yourself in a new context every now and then. Think about the neighboring "groups" that you could learn from if you hung around with them a bit. Sales spending time in operations. Operations spending time in HR. Entrepreneurs spending time with leaders from medium sized companies. Artists spending time with entrepreneurs. Business writers spending time with poets.

 

Breakthrough Mindset for My Trip

In about 10 hours my plane will be taking off to New Mexico. I will be there for 9 days attending the Taos Writer’s Conference and exploring New Mexico. To ensure I have a great time and maximum benefits (and maybe breakthroughs), I have adopted the mindset that I will:

A. Have fun - appreciate the gifts of New Mexico and my fellow writers.
B. Be highly coachable - open to new and diverse ideas, eager to soak it in.
C. Set my fears aside associated with sharing my work with others - I will share my projects and writing broadly.
D. Set my fears aside in conjunction with interviewing Tony Hillerman. It’s silly, I know, but I am a bundle of nerves.
E. Not let the little hassles of travel get me down - I’m in wonderful New Mexico!
F. Be active - explore, explore, explore.
G. Resist the natural urge to be a complete introvert and do everything on my own. I do want to have some ME time, but I also want to meet new folks and socialize. Well, maybe it is not accurate to say I WANT this, but I know I should spend time with others and that I will be glad I did later.

I am hoping for a few breakthroughs and I think adopting this mindset will be helpful.

Over the next week, blogging may be light - or not - who knows how much time I will have or how inspired I will be!

Play Hooky!

Are you feeling fatigued? Overworked? Up to your eyeballs in alligators?

As counter intuitive as it may seem, the best remedy might be to take some time OFF! Play hooky for a day, or two, or three....

Most of the stuff that piles up is just that - stuff. What if you didn't do it? Would the world end (nuclear bomb maintenance engineers exempt from this line of thinking)? What's the worst thing that would happen?

For most things, the answer is not so bad....

Taking some time off can help us pare down our lists of stuff and enable us to focus on the great and right stuff.

Great and Right:

• Question #1: Is it a great thing to do? Many things will make it through this filter because there are many great things we could possibly do.
• Question #2: Is it the right thing to do? This question is more tricky. In other words, amongst all the possible things you could do, does this action rank near the top?

The great and right filter can help you reduce the number of "nice to do" things and focus on those actions that will make the biggest impact.

Taking some time off helps facilitate this process. Ever notice how you are able to prepare for vacations? You get to that last week before your vacation and you turn into a delegation machine and are more likely to knock a few "nice to do" things off the list entirely.

Pretend you are going on vacation. Sorry, scratch that, GO on vacation.

Breakthroughs Marathon Style

Update: My point of this post was not to focus on my goal to run again, but since so many of you gave me encouragement and ideas, I thought I would say that I have stuck with my daily practice for 2 days - running/walking for 30 minutes each day, 4 minutes walking, 1 minute running, and so on. I also did my yoga stretching, downloaded a beginner's training plan, put in shock absorbing insoles, rearranged my schedule a bit, and managed my diet. Thanks for your support and I will post about my progress and sticking to my daily practice after I get back from New Mexico. I'm feeling good!

I was working on the manuscript for the book version of 2 Weeks to a Breakthrough today. One of the benefits of writing and facilitating programs about breakthroughs is that I am constantly reminded of the techniques I know make a difference.

And the power of repetition.

When we want to achieve something we need to put ourselves into training, like a marathon runner readies for a race.

Do something most every day.

Here’s advice from marathonguide.com:

In general, the important components in developing a marathon training program for most people are these:

• Gradually increase the overall weekly distance until two to three weeks before the marathon.
• Include two long runs spread across the week, perhaps one midweek, the other on the weekend.
• Include one day of faster running and/or integrate pickups into your regular runs.
• Try to run six days per week.
• The runs between your long runs do not need to be any longer than 3-6 miles.

Try applying these techniques to any goal. Here’s how they might look:

• Increase your level and intensity of actions.
• Vary your level of activity and focus, ensuring to commit more time to your goal at least two times per week.
• Pick up the pace and excitement at least one day per week - go on a positive goal crushing rampage!
• Try to do something that supports your goal six days per week.
• Don’t exhaust yourself by doing too much every day - mix it up a bit.

I have decided to get back into running. It has been a LONG time and I am woefully out of shape. My natural physique has always been muscular, but years of lower than optimal activity have taken their toll (like the football receiver who retires and gets flabby). I’m not shooting for the marathon, but I do want to get back into running 10Ks and 5Ks regularly.

I need a few breakthroughs to make it happen. My first step is to reinstate a modified version of the daily practice for my training:

Running Daily Practice:
Jog six days per week - starting off real slow.
Do yoga stretching every day.
Take at least one positive new action toward my goal each day.
Get into conversation about my goal - get it out of my head!
On balance, eat right (I’m still a chocoholic and always will be!).

Wish me luck. That’s just a saying, it has nothing to do with luck. I will report back periodically on how well I am sticking to my practice. If you don’t hear from me, will you bug me?

What’s your goal? How could you create a daily practice that is tailored to help you achieve your goal?