2Weeks2aBreakthrough

My Events and Questions About Your Town

Only three weeks left until I hit the road for the Year of the Breakthrough Tour. This weekend I did a test ride with Hazel loaded up will all my tour bags. I have one dilemma not yet solved - whether to bring my laptop. I think I need to bring it but my Apple iBook is pretty heavy and I am not looking forward to adding this weight.

The tour is pretty well set, but I do have a few time slots that are not filled. Let me know if you have any ideas! They are:

• Dallas area - June 1st
• Mid-Atlantic - from Charlotte to DC - June 7-10th
• Chicago are - June 15th
• Salt Lake City area - June 25

Here's the latest map - click on it to pull it up in Google Maps and zoom in. Please note that the route is not actual - Google assumes highway driving, but I won't do that if I have time.

I'd love to meet up will people on an informal basis all along the way. A couple/few people in a coffee shop type thing. Let me know if you want to meet.

Here are a few of the public events scheduled (private/in-company events are not listed here) - I'd love to meet you! All of the events will be appropriate and beneficial for managers, entrepreneurs, trainers, HR pros, and anyone interested in generating breakthroughs and achieving goals.

This Saturday, May 5th, I will be at the West Seattle Barnes & Noble speaking at 11am.

Note: I know this chart looks kind of wonky, HTML is not my strong suit, if you know how to make it more readable, drop me an email. Thanks.

City	Date(s)	Event
Seattle, WA	May 5, 11am	West Seattle Barnes & Noble
Brookings, OR	May 21-22	Event Details Coming!
Santa Rosa, CA	May 23	Event Details Coming!
Cupertino, CA	May 24, 6:30-8:30pm	Event at HP, Oak Room, 19447 Pruneridge Ave. Registration link coming.
Dallas, TX	June 1	Available!
Birmingham, AL	June 4, 9-11am	ASTD Birmingham Chapter, Location and registration link coming.
Atlanta, GA	June 5, 7-7:30pm	Fayette County Library
Charlotte, NC	June 7	Available!
Winston-Salem, NC	June 8	Available!
Roanoke, VA	June 9	Available!
Chevy Chase, MD (DC Area)	June 10	Available!
Baltimore, MD	June 11, 6:30-8pm	Pratt Library, Main Branch
Philadelphia, PA	June 12, June 13	Event Details Coming!
Chicago, IL	June 15	Available!
Milwaukee, WI	June 16, 2-3:00pm	Schwartz Business Books in Brookfield, 17145 W. Bluemound Rd.
Des Moines, IA	June 18	Event Details Coming!
Fargo, ND	June 19, 5-7pm	Women's Business Exchange, Location and registration details coming.
Fargo, ND	June 20, 11:30-1pm	ASTD Fargo Chapter,  Location and registration details coming.
Salt Lake City, UT	June 25	Available!
Boise, ID	June 26, 5:30-7pm	Event from Workplace Excellence, Business Review, Idaho Business Forum, The Owyhee Plaza Hotel, 1109 West Main Street, Boise. Register here.

As I gather together all my information, I'd love to get a few bits of information regarding the towns along my route. Please take a look at the above map, and it if looks like I might be coming by your town (or one you know very well) please check out the questions below. Thanks!

Imagine you are me, riding through town on Hazel. I generally have some time, but not days, to enjoy the towns I pass through:

1. What sights should I NOT MISS seeing - what's extraordinary about this town?
2. Roads I definitely want to avoid
3. Best casual food, best coffee shop
4. Are there sections of the area I should avoid because they would not be safe for me or my bike?
5. Other interesting tidbits.
6. Does your state allow motorcyclists to drive in the HOV lanes?

Leave a comment or email me at lhaneberg AT gmail DOT com. Thanks!

Goal Excitement

I love this post from Success Begins Today called, Goal Setting: The Excitement Quotient. Here's a snippet:

In reading Tim’s experiences in his book, one section really stood out. Tim sets goals based on their excitement level. He says that most people base their life’s goals on Happiness. To Tim, happiness can be had in a pill, but excitement is what really drives people to accomplish a goal.

I agree - when I work with folks, honing in on a compelling and exciting goal is a top priority. It is very common that people start off with boring goals and then wonder why they can't stay focused.

The post refers to an interesting book called, The Four Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss. This book gets the GREAT TITLE award for the years so far. Who can resist picking it up?

Other potential great book titles:

• The Chocolate Truffle Diet
• How to Give Your Boss a Virtual Lobotomy
• Starting a Million Dollar Business with No Money

Speaking of excitement, I could get excited about the chocolate diet. What will flip your trigger this week?

Speak your mind and it comes to life!

Here is part of an interesting email I got today.

By the way, I've had a few interesting opportunities come my way.  While I haven't exactly begun the practices that you suggest in Breakthrough, I have made a few simple statements about my intentions.  Funny how quickly things start to happen when you vocalize your desires.  I've found that I sure can't pretend that they don't exist now!

Be careful what you ask for..... you just might get it!

Even if you have taken my advice before and shared your goals, do it again and unleash an awesome power.

Cannot See the Forest or the Trees for the Fog

You've heard the sayings:
Can't see the forest for the trees
Can't see the trees for the forest

The sayings relate to whether we focus too much on the big picture (forest) or the minutia (trees). I would like to offer a third perspective.

Can't see the forest or the trees for the FOG.

Fog gets in many people's way.

• The fog of overwhelm
• The fog of ambiguity
• The fog of complexity
• The fog of lack of vision creep
• The fog of matrices (a type of complexity)
• The fog of stress
• The fog of mucky muck

I work with a lot of people who can neither zoom in nor zoom out because their brains are flitting like a blind bee on crack (interesting visual, eh?). Do I go for the nectar, do I service my queen, do I avoid the bee eating lizard to my right, do I mate and then die, or do I soar like Jonathon Livingston Seagull Chicken in defiance of my kind?

Good news and bad news about fog:

Good news - Fog lifts. Fog burns off. Fog is not permanent.

Bad news - Thick fog is tough to see through. Fog comes when systems are not in alignment. Fog blankets and dampens the forest, tress, and bees.

A couple side notes:

1. Overwhelm is not real - it is in your head and you can instantly get rid of it. Two people in the same circumstances will react differently. One may feel overwhelm, the other might not feel overwhelm at all. Which one are you? I have days of fake overwhelm, but I can defenestrate it as soon as I acknowledge it.

2. Ambiguity is stuff we think we should know but don't know. So much of what we think of as ambiguity is NOT stuff we ought to know or can know, it's just stuff we don't know. That's not ambiguity, it's just not knowing. Sometimes we suffer from feelings of ambiguity when we would be better off being OK with not knowing. Often it's none of our business!

3. Golden rule #1 of organizations - flat and simple need to be positively correlated - the flatter your organization, the simpler it ought to be. I have seen people get way too sophisticated with how projects and work gets assigned in very flat teams and organizations. 

You might need help navigating away from the fog. Have you ever been at a coast and watched fog roll in and then burn off? Details and definition fades away then slowly comes back. To pull out of your fog, you need to see both the trees and the forest more clearly. Step back and acts like a cartographer - make a map. Draw the shapes, the roads, the detail. See it, then organize it and you will begin to feel much better.

You can burn away the fog.

Opinions are OK

I got to thinking about opinions today. We are all opinionated - that's what makes us who we are. We all have preferences and biases and beliefs that would likely turn off a large percentage of the population.

They are there, lurking behind the wimpy baked chick political correctness we call modern communications.

When we spend time with others, we want to experience their character - warts and all - and get to know their opinions.

Even the politically charged and motivated news shows are watering down their opinions. Most of the news coverage of the Virginia Tech tragedy told us little.

I think blogs rose in popularity because they became a place where readers might be more likely to experience an interesting and honest opinion. Alas, many blogs have gotten really bland, too - short on opinions and tall on SEO motivated vanilla headlines. I am not into starting memes, but if I were, I would challenge all my favorite bloggers to write a highly opinionated piece - to take a stand.

And I don't mean wimpy stand about:
world peace
more fiber
vote for _____
business book ________
management is an art - management is dead
teams rule - teams are dead
blogs rule - blogs are dead
PCs suck
hybrid cars
global warming

These topics are all way too big and easy to hide behind. If you like John McCain or John Edwards for President, believe global warming is a problem, or that our troops out to stay/go home, that's all great - but I am interested in why have you made these selections. What gets you angry and what makes you smile?

Points of view, ideas, rants, idiosyncrasies - it's all we really have got that's us - the essential us.

I am not suggesting you aim to hurt people, but what if we let our opinions slip out a bit more - what would that be like?

A breath of fresh air, I think.

See the Same Signs in a Different Way

Sometimes, the key to a breakthrough is noticing the signs we see every day through another colored lens.

Holding Dynamite

Oh my, you want to know this. Dr. Ellen tells us that we are holding dynamite. Actually, those are my words but check out this post called, Use it or Lose it - Rewire Your Brain in Daily Doses. Here's a snippet:

While you sleep at night, your brain takes on the enormous task of rewiring itself, based on what you did during the day. It’s how the plasticity in the human brain can work for or against you.

For example, if you organize your day into a schedule to get more done – you grow dendrite connectors for organization. Simply act on a target you set – and the brain’s plasticity will rewire for sharper focus for the following day. Plasticity can also work against you though.

Why do I interpret this to mean we are holding dynamite? One way or the other, there's a big reaction. If we reinforce bad habits and behaviors, we are hurting ourselves. If we use this gift - this power - to recraft our brains for success and health, BAM!, that's a breakthrough.

It's up to us to choose and then live with - hopefully enjoying - the consequences. Imagine that if we walked a half mile to the bank each day, the bank would put $1000 in our account. On days we don't walk to the bank, they deduct $1000. We can choose each day to take the walk or pay a grand in penalties.

And we all know that walking every day is good for our health.

Dyn-o-mite!

How quickly do you give up?

For me, it depends on the topic and goal but can vary from ONE HOUR to NEVER.

Changing habits and regimens can be tough. Why can we do it sometimes and why do we give up other times? Some people give up more than others, too. I think I tend to give up too quickly and easily on many promising pathways.

I have started thinking differently about those goals I give up on the same day I articulate them. Most have a few things in common:

• They are not shared - I articulate them to only myself.
• They are not supported by my daily habits and regimens - they require me to break my routine.
• They offer long term payouts - I can be impatient for results (understatement).
• I don't make any promises to others.
• Some are not great ideas - many belong on the cutting room floor.

I need to take things public and make commitments to keep my mind focused and in action. The bigger the promise the better, too.

What about you? Have you found that you are giving up on your goals too easily? You might try going out on a limb and 1) communicating the goal, then 2) making promises to others about the goal, and then 3) keeping your promises. This method works best if the promises you make are not to your best friend, spouse or mother because you can more easily backpedal on a promise made to a pal.

My 6 week motorcycle trip is a good example. I had some notion that I wanted to do this, but I would have given it a less than 50% chance of happening if I had not gone public and asked for help arranging local events. As the people became enrolled in partnering with me and as the events started confirming, it made the trip a reality. I gotta do it now! And this is great. Now there's no doubt about the trip happening and I am sure it will be a life changing experience. Had I not gone outward with the goal, I would never have played full out.

Some of you might be thinking that I should not NEED to go public and make promises to stay on track. Well, I think that for large goals, it helps. Our lives are so busy and complex and it is easy to let things go or get delayed. Rearranging life for 6 weeks is daunting and the planning for a trip like this is even more daunting. I have never taken a motorcycle trip even remotely this long. Without that structure and reinforcement, I would have been so much more tempted to say, "you know, it's probably too expensive," or "maybe I should wait until ____," or "is this really practical or am I insane?"

The vote is still out on that last one, but you get my point.

Set at least one BIG goal every year and immediately share it with others and make promises that pin you down to doing it. It's self-manipulation at its finest! What's your big goal?

Breakthrough Podcast with the Cranky Middle Manager

I was a guest on Wayne Turmel's Cranky Middle Manager Podcast. You can hear our fun and spirited (Wayne is always spirited) podcast here. The topic of the podcast is generating breakthroughs.

Tell me what you think!

Virginia Tech

It's important to acknowledge this tragedy.

Most of us feel pain and our hearts go out to those closest to the lost and wounded.

I also think we way overexpose these news stories - too much of the same news played again and again on every channel, radio, blogs, websites. I don't think it's helpful. 

So I will leave it at that.