Simplicity

Be Like Jack LaLanne.

I grew up with Jack LaLanne. I used to watch him, his wife Elaine, and his dog every morning on TV. Jack taught me a lot of things about life — especially to stay positive all the time. Why be like Jack? You might know him from his juicer — but he was so much more.

How Do Busy Leaders Make More Time?

One of my clients sent me their daily schedule. I was so blown away by it's simplicity and it's ability to fit many professional and personal things in — I just had to publish it for my audience. In their own words: "I want to put myself on a schedule.  I need a schedule where I meditate 2x per day, exercise, have ample time for self-education and time to relax."

  • 5:00 AM - Get Up.
  • 5:00 to 6:00 AM — Meditate for 20 minutes, Walk for 30 minutes, Lift weights for 10 minutes.
  • 6:00 to 6:30 AM — Eat Breakfast, Coffee.
  • 6:30 to 7:30 AM — Self-Education.
  • 7:30 to 8:30 AM — Get Ready for work.
  • 8:30 to 9:00 AM — Drive to work, Listen to Audiobooks/Podcasts.
  • 9:00 to 5:00 PM — Work.
  • 5:00 to 5:30 PM — Drive home, Listen to Audiobooks/Podcasts.
  • 5:30 to 6:00 PM — Meditate.
  • 6:00 to 7:00 PM — Cook & Eat Dinner.
  • 7:00 to 8:30 PM — Self-Education.
  • 8:30 to 9:00 PM — Ready for Bed.
  • 9:00 to 10:00 PM — Relax, Read, Watch TV.
  • 10:00 PM — Go To Bed.

My client is a successful senior executive at a prestigious company who has accomplished a lot and has been gainfully employed and promoted regularly. They're not a slacker.

As you can see, they get it all done in a relaxed schedule, allocating adequate time for all of their activities. Of course there might be subtle deviations due to travel, emergencies, and unplanned activities, but for the most part, they stick to this plan.

So for all the people out there who say they "don't have the time" — Yes, You DO. 

Hitting A Wall In Your Career? You Need A Breakthrough.

It's tough today. It’s hard when everything is coming at you. Hard to think. Hard to act. Hard to react. As they always say — the first step is always the hardest.

Task Ninja: Form the Action Habit.

A lot of us get stuck in inaction –procrastinating, doing a lot of unimportant tasks to avoid the important stuff, worrying about failing or about being perfect, having a hard time starting, getting distracted, and so on. It’s time to start forming the Action Habit instead. Get all Ninja on your actions.

Keeping Unscheduled Time.

Making time to reflect and think is a critical leadership practice. In its simplest form, reflecting is just thinking about what happened. It’s the process of thinking about and examining what we’ve experienced, how we reacted and what changes we need to make to become more effective.

How David Beats Goliath or When Underdogs Break The Rules.

Gladwell again uses history to reinforce his argument that with the proper planning and doing something different (something that your opposing team (i.e., competition) isn't expecting) even though you are the underdog — you will succeed.