2Weeks2aBreakthrough

Make it Great Interview

Here's a link to an interview I did with Phil Gerbyshak, relationship geek. I hope all you Harley riders out there can get a chuckle out of my response to his question about why I don't ride a Harley..... the interview has lots of questions related to breakthroughs too. Thanks Phil!

Pet Projects and This Week's Events

I am in Frederick, Maryland and officially hit the 5,000 mile mark of the trip - woo-hoo! I had a great weekend in North Carolina and Virginia connecting with family and friends. As I was riding to Frederick, I enjoyed the lovely lush mountains and cool fragrant air.

I thought a lot about my conversations over the weekend. People are so interesting, always up to something, always learning.

My older brother Mike is making gorgeous exotic wood pens. This is in addition to his day job and he may soon start selling them online. They will make great corporate gifts or gifts for writers. He let me take my pick of his current collection. Here's the one I chose. Beautiful Zebra wood and a nice smooth gel writer. Thanks Mike!

My sister-in-law Linda is making glass beads and sterling silver jewelery - also in addition to her day job. She is trying a lot of new techniques and her creations are very cool.

My friend Johna has written a children's book for parents and children involved in foreign adoption. She is giving all the proceeds to an oversees orphanage where she adopted a wonderful son. She needs an illustrator and then will publish it. This project is in addition to her day job.

Interesting! Do you have a pet project like one of these? These types of initiatives are perfect for the Two Weeks to a Breakthrough process. You need to keep the momentum going with small actions that make a big difference. Also, there is so much to gain from sharing these goals and enrolling others in the process.

Wanna learn more? Drop me an email(lhaneberg AT gmail DOT con), get the book, or come by one of my events. Here is this week's schedule:

This week, I have three public events and one private one. Here are the details for the public events. I would love to meet you!

City	Date(s)	Event
Baltimore, MD	June 11, 6:30-8pm	Pratt Library, Main Branch
Philadelphia, PA	June 12, 6-8:30pm	Philadelphia CoF hosts in partnership with Temple Univ. & the Philadelphia Chapter of ASTD. Books sales from Joseph Fox Bookshop. RSVP here. Location: Temple University: Fox School of Business, 1515 Market St., Philadelphia / Room 222.
Milwaukee, WI	June 16, 2-3:00pm	Schwartz Business Books in Brookfield, 17145 W. Bluemound Rd.

The Opportunity to Make a Difference

Quick tour note: Got to Birmingham fine, long day and very humid. After I took my helmet off, my hair almost immediately fuzzed up like Gilda Radner's - give me the desert back!

When I interview people, they often say they want a job where they can make a difference, where their work will matter.

THEN, most people get to work, fall into patterns, and fail to make much of a difference at all.

Is it the job or the person?

It's not likely the job. There are a few jobs that are so poorly designed that they offer no opportunity to make a difference. I would hope that these jobs become fewer as our businesses improve. Most of what I see is not due to the job.

So is it the person?

No.

What?

No, it's not the person.

Let's not categorize people, here, because it is not helpful. Everyone has the opportunity and the capability to make a difference. Sometimes we do and most of the time we don't. Let me be clear about what I mean - most minutes, hours, and days are not spent making the kind of positive difference we all talk about when we interview for jobs.

Each moment, we have a choice. We can push the automatic button or we can push our engines into turbo. Turbo is where big contribution occurs.

Turbo = catalyzing, facilitating, provocative, evocative, butterfly flaps-flaps-flaps, focus and methodically relentless, how we are when we are at our best (amazing).

Should we be on turbo all the time. No - we would burn out.

Should we be in turbo charge more? Likely, yes. Just a few minutes at peak performance can make big things happen.

So the next time someone tells me they want to find a job where they can make a difference, I will respond by saying, "well, we are looking for a professional who does. Good luck with your job search, come back to us when you have some amazing stories to share."

Are You True to Yourself?

I arrived in Las Cruces in good time today. Did some laundry and got caught up on a few things. Life requires maintenance. I got to thinking about authenticity. I hesitate to use that word because it is the latest buzzword. The authenticity I am talking about is authenticity of self. Let's not underestimate the strength and conviction required to be true to who we really are. Courage - it could take courage too.

I was thinking about my life and to what degree I am fully self-expressed and in what ways I am squelching myself. It's a helpful conversation to have with yourself every now and then. It's normal to get a bit diverted, too. Some people spend much of their time playing unnatural or undesireable roles.

What about you?

Self-exploration can be a good catalyst for breakthroughs. Don't get stuck in evaluation, though, it is important to stay in action too.

I am ready to reinvent my career. I will still seek to catalyze breakthroughs - that's the foundation for everything I do. That said, I can see my day to day looking very different. I have many miles to mull things over and identify actions that will help me make thing happen.

I need to take my own advice and keep flapping.

It's fun to expand our possibilities, isn't it?

And if you want to do the same, a book that is very helpful and inspiring in opening up the mind to possibility is The Art of Possibility. Read the Zanders' book to get jazzed, then Two Weeks to a Breakthrough to get moving forward.

At some of my events I have been mentioning the goofy notion of the mutant peacock as a metaphor for possibilities... Here's a brief story that explains this:

The Mutant Peacock

“In the universe of possibility, you set the context and let life unfold.” The Art of Possibility, Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander

Kate was not listening. She scanned the room for a sign for what she should do. Nothing. Nothing at all. This place felt dead to her. Looking back at her notepad doodles, she smiled as she recalled the early morning conversation with her best friend. Alana was the only person she felt she could tell. “I have an idea that is crazy enough that it just might work.” Kate’s arms jazz danced for fifteen minutes as she explained her budding plan. Her friend’s response was a simple, “wow, you gotta go do that.”

The meeting room voices seemed artificial, like they were coming from a TV. The volume oscillated as she floated in an out. Staring through the smudged glass conference room walls she thought, I gotta go do that. The notion of a starting a company vibrated her bones and made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Goosebumps gave way to a rosy warming from her toes to her cheeks. Her body did not care that she was only 20 minutes into a 2-hour staff meeting. “Are you OK?” “Yes, everything will be great.” Kate jumped into her future with exuberance.

At this moment - this very moment and those that will follow - we are faced with hundreds of possibilities. When we step forward in time and space, many potential routes and outcomes accompany us like an entourage. Imagine a male peacock with a big, beautiful, and full tail of feathers. Now imagine the long feathers protruding to the front instead of the back. Each feather fans ahead and points in a different direction. As the bird steps forward, vibrations and wind move the feathers into new locations that aim toward new points on the horizon. Possibilities are like invisible peacock feathers that fan in front of us and adjust with every step. As we manifest one possibility, a new set of potential actions and outcomes become available. Most of the feathers are invisible but they don’t have to be.

We shape our experience and results through recognizing the myriad possibilities in play and making directionally correct choices. And we do this every day. Our success improves as we get better at recognizing and working possibilities. 

A possibility is something that could exist - a potential alternative, a prospect, or a theory. Possibilities include outcomes, paths, flavors, efforts, paces, resources needed, experiences, and relationships. We are likely unaware of most of these possibilities. When we manifest a possibility, we reveal it and then make it real. To manifest means to make visible, and this can apply to tangible outcomes or intangible emotions and ideas. Our bodies react to manifestation. Kate’s decision to become an entrepreneur produced goose bumps chills and a blood rush to her head. She will likely experience many other physical and mental reactions in the coming months, too, as she explores self-employment.

To enjoy breakthroughs and unimaginable results, we need to tune our abilities to see and manifest possibilities. This starts with seeing more possibilities. To explore this further, think about one of your goals then ask yourself the following questions:
•    What’s the best that could happen?
•    What’s the worst that could happen?
•    What are some of the possibilities between the best and worst potential outcomes?

Now assume that you have only listed a small fraction of the possible outcomes. Assume that what you have identified as the best possible outcome is not nearly the best. What else is possible? Bring people into the equation. Who might you meet? With whom could you partner? Whose lives might you affect? How might your life be affected?

Assume that you still have not identified most the possibilities. Think about what could happen in the short-term. What actions or steps could you take in the next 24 hours and how might each action impact what you do tomorrow? Assume that you have only identified a small fraction of potential actions. What else could you do? What’s possible- even if improbable – today? If all the planets aligned to help you achieve your goal, what could you achieve in the next week?

Assume that you still have not seen the vast majority of possibilities relative to your goal. Let your thinking go a little crazy. What would be possible if money was not a barrier? What possibilities would exist if you had all the right connections? What would be possible if you lived in New York City, Seattle, Dallas, or Paris, France? How might a scientist answer these questions? What if you could ask anyone any question and get a “yes” answer? What would be possible if time were not a barrier to success?

Assume that you still can’t see most of the possibilities. Ask 10 people what they think could happen and what you are missing. Then consider the following possibilities:
•    I can do this and be successful.
•    I need to do this; moving in this direction is an expression of my purpose.
•    I can be more successful than I can imagine right now; the possibilities are endless.
•    If I stay in focused action, breakthroughs will occur.

This exercise will improve your ability to identify what’s possible. That said, you will still not see the majority of potential approaches and outcomes available to you. Expand your thinking to consider many, many ways you can achieve success and make your dreams come true. Consider also, that your results might be different and better than you can articulate today.

Seeing possibility is just the start, now it is time to turn possibilities into realities. Some people approach manifestation with laser precision and focus. They select one possibility – one feather – and take actions that support and move forward this potential outcome or result. The strength of this approach is that it is very focused and will enable you to move more quickly in one particular direction.

Others take the shotgun approach to manifesting possibilities. They aim for several possibilities and do a lot of different things to move each possibility forward. The strength of this approach is that we often cannot tell which approach is going to yield the best outcome.

Which approach is best – laser focus or shotgun implementation? Yes! I advocate for using both approaches and here’s why. Every time we act, the spectrum of possibilities shifts. We really can’t possibly know which direction or action will yield the big breakthroughs along the way to success. Knowing this, we can both focus on the most likely approaches and explore other intriguing possibilities. It’s amazing what can happen when we have lots of directionally correct efforts impacting today’s reality and tomorrow’s array of possibilities.

Another reason why I like exploring a variety of possibilities is that it is more energizing and enriching than following a straight and narrow path. Life is a journey, not an outcome. We set goals and define desirable outcomes but most things in life are ongoing. Live an enriched life. Imagine a peacock with just one or two feathers. Not that interesting. Now picture a peacock with a thick plume of iridescent feathers. POW - magic!

Question: What could you this week to manifest a wonderful life?
Answer: Many things. The power is in the manifestation!

I like weekly and daily planning. Weekly plans help you set chunkier targets and map out the week. Daily planning keeps you in action and enables you to adjust your plan. You should be ready, willing and darned excited to adjust your plan because each move forward shifts what’s possible. If you don’t adjust your plan, you won’t be taking advantage of all the possibilities that you could not see and that were not available at the time you created the plan. Keep the peacock analogy in mind: You are a mutant peacock with forward facing feathers that shift with every step. Beautiful.

The Tour is On!

I started my Year of the Breakthrough Tour today. Well, actually, I will head out in about 10 minutes. Here is a picture of what Hazel looks like fully loaded.

Stay tuned RIGHT HERE for posts about breakthroughs and the adventures I encounter trying to catalyze them on my trip. I will post pics and share the inspiring stories of the amazing people I meet. I hope you will be one of those people!

This week I have three public events and two private events. Here are the public events. If you live in the area, I would love to meet you!

City	Date(s)	Event
Brookings, OR	May 22, 7:00pm	This is a special event - a combo performance with my singer/song writer brother Perry Devine (listen to "Breakthrough" here). Best Western Beachfront Inn Conference Center, 16008 Boat Basin Rd., Harbor, Oregon. Sponsored by The Book Dock, call 541-469-6070 or email bookdock@nwtec.com to register.
Santa Rosa, CA	May 23, 7:00pm	Santa Rosa Barnes & Noble
Cupertino, CA	May 24, 6:30-8:30pm	Event at HP, Oak Room, 19447 Pruneridge Ave. Registration details here.

Ride your dreams.

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!

Tough Days

Moving our goals forward is a piece of cake on those days when everything goes well, we have lots of energy, and motivation is high. We don't need a book, or coach, or a class to figure out what to do on good days.

It's the bad days that challenge us. You know what I mean:

• The days we wake up cranky because we slept poorly.
• The days that seem to be ill-fated - things seem more difficult.
• The days our energy and motivation is low.
• The days we have overplanned or overbooked.

How do we stay focused on these days? How do we generate breakthroughs when we are having a tough time keeping our brains engaged in anything at all? How do we make positive things happen when our brains are seeping with negativity?

Here are a few techniques I have found to work.

Lean toward physical activities, not mental. When our minds are in a fog, it is tough to break free. But if we do something physical, it often helps - go for a walk, run those errands you have been putting off, do some stretching, take the three block walk to the local Starbucks. By the way, I don't consider typing a physical act.

Do something small - tiny in fact. Send one email, do one post, straighten up your desk, stop by a peer's office. Do one tiny thing.

Get real. Our bad day is probably not really that bad at all. I have a couple "get real" scenarios I return to again and again to snap my brain out of feeling sorry for itself. These are stories of amazing people who endured 1000 times more adversity than I face on my worst days. Ordinary people doing the extraordinary. We are all ordinary people capable of the extraordinary.

Be just a wee bit indulgent. Bad days are often a signal that we have been working too hard or that we are taking things way too seriously. Take some time today to do something you really enjoy.

Chill out. Stuck in traffic? Don't let it get you down. Late for a meeting?  No worries, reschedule it. Looming deadlines? Take one thing at a time.

Bottom line it. Ask yourself what's the one thing you could do today that would make the greatest difference. Do that one thing now and tell yourself that it is OK to sluff off after that. Guess what, you will likely not sluff off because doing that one thing will help turn your day around.

Spend time with energy givers, not sappers. Some people are a pleasure to be around and make us feel better. Others seem to sap every last morsel of energy from the room when they enter. Spend your time with the former and avoid the later.

Do something nice for someone. On bad days, we often feel like we have been wronged by the universe or that we are somehow being dumped on. Of course, we know this is not really true. A "woe is me" mindset will drag our day down faster than a Porsche eats curves. When we contribute to others, our whole perspective changes and our greatness begins to shine again.   

For me, the toughest condition to overcome is fatigue. Tired is tired. There are many ways to keep things moving forward and when I am tired and I focus on those actions I can take that do not require me to be my most brilliant. And besides, many solutions and great ideas are lurking in simple places.

Here's to turning bad days into better ones....  

Year of the Breakthrough Tour Update

Hello!

Although it's still snowing along the east coast, it is starting to look and feel more like summer here in Seattle. Time to get ready for a nice ride!

Here's a quick update about the 6-week tour I am doing on my motorcycle as part of my celebration of The Year of the Breakthrough and my new book, Two Weeks to a Breakthrough.

I have lots of events booked and will be sharing those that are open to the public soon. There are a couple places where I still have some availability. They are:

Thursday, May 24th, northern California
Friday, May 25th, southern California
Friday, June 1st, Dallas area
Thursday June 7th, northern GA or Charlotte, NC area
Friday, June 8th, Charlotte, NC or Greesboro or Winston/Salem areas
Sunday, June 10, DC area
Tuesday, June 12th - Phili area
Wednesday June 13 - Phili or Pittsburgh areas
Friday, June 15th - Chicago
Tuesday, June 25th, Salt Lake City

Let me know if you would like me to speak with your company or organization. Email me at lhaneberg AT gmail DOT com for more information.

And if you live along my travel route and want to meet up for a chat, let me know. If there's not an event in your town, I would love to meet you for an informal coffee or iced tea if it's possible. Check out the latest route map here.

I recently took a few pics with Hazel. Here's one of Hazel:

And here's another one of me:

Breakthroughs, Breakthroughs, Everywhere

I was a bit out of the loop last week as I focused on a project, but as I squirreled away, several folks kept the conversations about breakthroughs and progress going. Here are the links with my thanks!

Dwayne offers this great post called, What box are you in?

Ambiguity is not your best friend, when it comes to feeling like you're making progress. Often, when I'm dissatisfied with the state of things, I find that it's because I'm not really clear on the outcomes I want.

Valeria offers thoughts on how to go from Start of Success:

Instead of trying to recruit others to help me, I set out to figure out how to recruit myself to help others. Think about this for a moment as you look at your organization. Is the current structure the right one to take you to the next step? As it turns out, changing the way I looked at my problem, taught me a great deal about re-inventing the network. What did I quit strategically? The thinking I had grown attached to.

Jodee is getting people talking big about small talk - join her!

Are you committed to bigger small talk in your life? Want to connect with others who share that commitment? Then put your mouth where your heart is (and your feet where your mouth is) and meet us in Fargo June 26-28! Watch this blog for more details as they develop.

I will just be returning to Seattle these dates and will have been in Fargo the week before on my motorcycle book tour, otherwise I would not miss it!

Check out Three Simple Ways to Charge Your Life over at Success Begins Today.

Dogs have changed my life. They have rescued me from myself so many times. When I am down, they always seem to cheer me up. They love walks (see number 1) and always add to the conversation when other people see them.

What would your three things be?

Mike continues the series about Two Weeks to a Breakthrough over at ConverStations. Super duper.

In today's share and requests, I asked others how they would describe my business and/or goals. Some interesting and even surprising answers.

While we may not ever see our business, life or goals exactly like an outsider, we should at least make an attempt to understand what an outsider sees. Which coffee shop owner will have more success - the one who never steps out from behind the counter or the one who roams the dining room now and again.

I love that Mike is putting the techniques to work. Thanks, Mike!

Nettie over at Allbusiness.com (Must Read Business Books) also featured a review of Two Weeks:

If you really sit and ponder the possibility that in two weeks time you could be filled with more passion directed at what you really want to be doing, then this book is a no-brainer. If however, you want to spend the next two weeks filled with doubt, wondering why other people get to be happy and you don't or just mesmerized by the latest "American Idol", then this book is not for you.

I'm not sure I can compete with this whole Sanjaya drama, but it's a wonderful thought!

Jory offers a very amusing post (all her posts are amusing, aren't they?) about The Secret.

I've visualized throughout my life, though I never did it to get anything; I just have a VERY vivid imagination, and imagining these outcomes felt good. What scares me is when I stop visualizing, when my life becomes too complicated that the natural manifesting mechanism shuts off. When I become stressed to a point where negative energy fills my brain, and I can't focus on the positive.....

The minute I pushed play the groans ensued. I'm not sure what situation is worse for personal development--when the books and tapes are clearly bootstrapped endeavors, or when they are slicker than Pink videos, and the actors in them can get SAG credit. Sure, there were too many special effects; sure, much of the language was  overly simplified and annoyingly repetitive; and many of the examples of manifestation included a new bike, a new car, a new necklace and other purely material outcomes, which evoke get-rich-quick schemes. But not once did I feel that the message was not inspiring or useful.

Yep. Get  the message and don't let the slickness of it get in the way. Thoughts are powerful.

The Cranky Middle Manager chats it up with our pal Phil Gerbyshak - relationship geek and all round positive life force.

Speaking of forces, Adrian over at Slow Leadership offers this posts on Workplace Black Holes.

Have you ever walked into a place of work—an office, a laboratory, a school, a retail store—and felt your spirits start to flag the moment you passed the door? Felt a kind of weight settle on you: a sense of dullness, gloom, coldness? Experienced trying to deal with people who seem disinterested, uninvolved, too distracted, or too sluggish to do more than the absolute minimum? If so, you’ve just encountered a workplace “black hole.” A phenomenon that becoming more common than it ought to be.

Here's to a week steering clear of black holes.

Breakthroughs at ConverStation

Mike over at ConverStations is doing a series of posts about Two Weeks to a Breakthrough. Mike, the five-spot is in the mail :-).

Here's a snippet from post 1:

The introduction explains that part of the daily process is sharing the goal, taking action and making requests. The suggestions Lisa offers fall into one of four categories, including 'Obliterating Resistance' - just saying that out loud almost motivates me to finish this book tonight.

Yes, I like the words, "obliterating resistance," too. It feels liberating to use a term like obliterate to mean something positive. Here's a snippet from post 2:

I believe in the power of questions as a conversation ignitor. In particular - the conversations we have in our own mind - conversations we sometimes take for granted. Lisa lists five 'states of mind' that we can exercise in order to recognize and manifest possibilities:

And he says there will be more posts in the series. Goody! If it isn't already, throw ConverStations into your aggregator and keep up with all the great posts. Thanks, Mike, for taking the time and energy to do this series!