Fun

Massive Procrastination — When You Absolutely Don't Want To Do Something.

For years many of my clients have struggled to sit down and get to work when they really, really don't want to (which is most of the time). Most are managers, entrepreneurs or in sales and they have the option of subtly putting things off and procrastinating, and often the urge not to work and surf online instead can be powerfully strong. I call that MASSIVE PROCRASTINATION. During one session, I brainstormed what I call "Activity Gambling" and it's actually been really helpful to many of my clients, so I thought I'd share in case anyone else finds it useful.

FIRST: You need two sheets. On sheet one, draw up a big running to-do list of everything you can think of that you need to do (breaking them down into small tasks). On sheet two, use Excel/Numbers/Word/Pages to develop a horizontal chart with six columns numbered 1 through 6 and 5-10 boxes under each column.

SECOND: Review your to-do list and pick six single, discrete tasks in a box under each number. Ideally, try to make these tasks take 5 minutes or less (this is the hardest part of this exercise).

THIRD: Roll a single die and do whatever task is in the column that the die lands on. Cross out that task and list another item in that column and roll again.

FOURTH: Warning: You might feel a little silly having to do this. But it works and many of my clients LOVE IT. Sometimes they really don't feel like doing anything on that list. But the minute the die is in the air spinning, they are waiting for a number to land.

CONCLUSION: The randomness and the act of throwing the die gets them moving. And once they do that first task, they can usually keep it going for quite a bit before they need a break.

How's Business? You Need A Business Coach.

You've got a business. It might be doing well — it might not be doing so well. If you hire a business coach, they tend to focus on a specific area of your business — your marketing, your financials, your staff, etc. They focus in on your 'pain point' because it's their specialty. If you go to an ear/nose/throat specialist, they will pinpoint your sickness within your ear, nose, or throat. But what you really need is someone who brings it all together. Who can help you view your entire business and help fix what really needs fixing.

That's what I do. The other day, I ran a cool program called Wordle, a free web program which takes a paragraph/page of writing and transforms it into a word cloud. I took a combination of my web bio and my business acceleration page and developed my first word cloud found at the top of this page.

What words immediately stand out?

  • LOVE
  • BUSINESS
  • PEOPLE
  • CLIENTS
  • HELP
  • FUN

I love what I do. I've been a coach for almost 14 years. As a FULL-TIME coach, I work with many businesses to help them figure out what their next steps will be. In fact, I just celebrated 10,000+ hours coaching — if you want to see what that means, click HERE.

I am a business coach. Not a 'life' coach, or a 'financial' coach, or a 'marketing' coach. I am a business/career coach who helps people with their business life. If you want a blankie to keep you warm, look elsewhere.

I am people- and client-oriented. I am not off running multi-marketing junkets — I coach people. Serious people. I spend time with my clients to ensure they succeed. Ask me about Lifeline calls — my clients love them.

I'm here to help. I worked in corporate for over 20 years and found my direct affect on impacting people in a positive way was diminishing. So I refocused it on directly helping people by coaching. I've been put on this earth to help as many people as I can.

Finally, I want to have fun with my clients. Too many things in life are boring and too serious — I want to make the process more fun.

How To Make Work Bearable & Fun.

You hate your job. You hate going to work. You hate your boss. You hate the people you work with. You hate your cubicle. Or it's not good or bad — just boring. You watch the clock and pray for 5 PM to roll around.

Have More Fun.

Great viral videos are hard to come by, but Volkswagen appears to have hit the bullseye. Their new campaign “The Fun Theory” is a series of experiments, captured on video, to find out if making the world more fun can improve people’s behavior. This video, Piano Stairs, has achieved over 1 million views on YouTube – I can’t count how many times friends have shared it this week. Among the experiments: does turning a set of subway stairs into a real-life piano encourage people to use them (answer: yes, 66% more). Another experiment asks whether making a trash can sound like a 50ft-deep well will make people pick up their trash. An upcoming experiment, meanwhile, will turn a bottle recycling center into an arcade game.

The brand placement is as subtle as it could possibly be: a simple VW logo dropped in at the end. And yet the content carries that logo all around the web, as tens of thousands of people pass around the video, along with their positive associations for the VW brand. Isn’t that the definition of a perfect brand campaign?

I Cried Last Night And Learned A Powerful Lesson.

upI saw one of the most touching and inspiring movies of my life last night. Sitting in the movie theater with my family wearing 3D glasses, I was actually tearing up during many scenes of Pixar's new movie UP (by the way . . . don't walk - run out to see it TODAY. It will change your life and the way you look at life).

I'm a softie, but I NEVER cry at movies. And let me also state that I religiously see every Pixar movie. I will argue to my dying day that Pixar puts out the best movies for any age in theaters today.

But the best part - UP has a number of powerful messages. My favorite, and the one that should stick with you forever is: You are never too old to start your second adventure.

Many people go through life thinking that they only have one good 'adventure' in them. It might be their career, their marriage, their kids, college, etc. But let me say this - your life can be full of MANY new adventures! And here's the best part - they could get better and better!

So just when you thought it couldn't get better - go out there - grab life by the collar and make a new adventure for yourself. Take a risk, step out of your comfort zone, and push yourself to new heights. You can plan - or don't plan - just do. You might just surprise someone that is never surprised . . . YOU!

P.S. In posting this story, I just saw that I have no tags for the words "Adventure" or "Fun". Time to rectify that! More "Adventure" & "Fun" for Rich Gee!