Monthly Archives: June 2015

Practice What It Means to Be At Your Best

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So, you’re ready for the next lesson in the “Be a Better Man Course,” are you?

Read pages 24-26, 73-74 of Your Best Just Got Better
 and visit: www.AtMyBestWhen.com

We were at a party a while back, around the time the book came out in 2012.

Jodi was talking to someone she just met, and I overheard just a portion of the conversation, it went like this:

Person: You said your husband just published a book? Was it with a real publisher? Or did he just self-publish?

Jodi: Yes, he published with John Wiley and Sons, out of New York! He’s really excited, and I’m so proud of him.

Person: Wow, I’ve heard that’s hard to do these days. What’s it called? What’s it about?

Jodi: It’s called, “Your Best Just Got Better,” and it’s about…

Person: Oh, God. If I got any better, my boss would only give me more to do.

Jodi: [silence]

Practice does NOT make perfect

Next up: Read pages 24-26, 73-74 of Your Best Just Got Better

Momentum…

“the impetus gained by a moving object”

Click here to PRINT activity #5 to “be a Better Man”

In this series, there are 6 courses (click here for all of them!).

Print #5, and you’ll:

  • Identify when you’re at your best.
  • Set yourself up to be a better friend, husband, lover.
  • Be more kind to those around you.
  • Look for how OTHER people are at their best.

Go, Get Momentum on being a better man.

Click here to PRINT activity #5 to “be a Better Man”

How Successful Men Think (better than you do)

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Improve the Way You Think

Next up: Read pages 86-89 of Your Best Just Got Better

Momentum…

“the impetus gained by a moving object”

Click here to PRINT activity #4 to “be a Better Man”

If it were easier to achieve the goals you’ve set, both in life and at work, would you want to know? Would you want to know the secrets you think OTHER men know about how they are experiencing the lives they have, the love they enjoy, the success they achieve? Well, in order to “know what they know,” you have to study what we study.

When it’s time to make YOUR best better, think of the ROLE MODELS you’ve looked up to over the years.

When you think of successful businessmen, who are your role models?

I mean, sure there’s that restaurant you go to almost every week that’s owned by that one guy.

Maybe you have a manager at work, and you’ve learned something from him over the years.

Could be that one of the “famous” ones is more your style…

  • Coach John Wooden.
  • Investor Warren Buffett.
  • Technologist Steve Jobs.
  • Entrepreneur (any other way to say it?) Richard Branson.

Let’s take Branson for a moment. Seems like he’s all over the “social media” world, writing articles for Entrepreneur Magazine and other websites. Can you really compare what you do, and how you do it, to an icon like him with BILLIONS of dollars at his disposal?

Click here to PRINT activity #4 to “be a Better Man”

“If you could focus more…AND manage your time…”

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Do you wish you had more “me time” each weekend?

According to a survey by Salary.com, 90% of workers waste at least a half hour each workday, not including lunch or scheduled breaks. You know that you’re not wasting time; you truly don’t have enough of it…

You know, enough time to be with your family. Or…

  • Time to get things done around the house.
  • Time to relax and do nothing.
  • Time to catch up on lost sleep. (If that’s the one, we have to talk. There’s more going on…)

Recently, we’ve been hosting special ONLINE classes (30-45 minutes each) teaching people 2-3 ways to Optimize their Time and Focus.

During these classes on time management, you learn how to save 15-45 minutes a day on the tasks you have to get done. I also teach you how to…

  • Be at your very best and prepare for more productive days.
  • Manage your expectations in light of constantly shifting priorities.
  • Be MUCH more productive with tools like email and tablet computers.
  • And more…

If you want extra time, if you’d like to be more productive, experience less stress, and do more of what you said you’d do, take the time to attend this course.

There’s a class on Time Management you can register for right here.

If you want more “me time” next weekend, you’ve got to sign up for this course.

What would “there” look like? (If you could dream it AND get it?)

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Game. Changer. Course.

Hello men…

…yes, that’s who this course is for! (Any questions, click here…)

So, the 3rd course in the “Be a Better Man Course” at GetMomentum is designed to get you thinking. Get you dreaming. Get you wanting.

Click here to PRINT activity #3 to “be a Better Man”

Next up: Read pages XIII - XIV & 139 of Your Best Just Got Better

If you’ve never written an ideal day before, get ready. I’d suggest you take 30 minutes right now (visit www.e.ggtimer.com) and find a few blank pieces of paper. Take a look at your calendar, and find an “important” day that’s 3 - 9 months from today.

On top of that paper, write that day and date. And then, let yourself see 300-400 words in your own handwriting of what you can imagine unfolding on that day. What you do with this is entirely up to you. You could put it in a desk drawer, file it away in a cabinet, send it in the mail to someone, or throw it in the trash. No matter what you do AFTER you’ve written, you’ll always have that memory of thinking about something before you really had to think about it.

She’s the “yin” to my “yang”

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Those of you who know Jodi, you know she’s the “yin” to my “yang.”

Look, she’s the introvert, and I’m the one who makes sure we dream of new books to write, bigger/longer vacations to take, and new Get Momentum courses we can teach!

People often ask, “How do you manage each others’ roles in the Get Momentum coaching program?”

Well, it’s her job to make sure people are understood, and they feel connected.  (Me, I just keep running ahead saying, “Follow meeee!”)

Jodi has had a “job” since she was 10 years old (doing inventory in department stores). She’ll tell you that in all those years, she’s learned ONE thing about business:

People are starved for real connection.

Your clients want to be seen, heard, and feel that they belong. When someone says, “hi, please, thank you, and good to see you again,” - and you can tell they mean it - it makes a difference.

It doesn’t surprise us that many of our clients have become good friends.

And, we continue to meet Get Momentum members around the world for Coffee Chats and dinners. Why? Jodi is convinced it’s because we share what is real. Over multiple conversations, we get to know what’s important in each others’  lives. Sure, every now and then Jodi will share some business coaching/advice. [If you haven’t booked time with her to talk about YOUR business, do that asap!] Sometimes she’ll introduce them to a media contact. But mostly, when she knows who you are, when she understands your motives for action, she’s able to care about what you care about.

In 2009 the Women’s Business Social was born in Ojai, CA. It was a networking event for women in business. Jodi started it because she couldn’t find a business/networking event that she wanted to attend. For more than 5 years she hosted an event every month. And, it was a huge success. Women drove from more than an hour away to attend. The local news wrote about it. Jodi was even  invited to speak about it at conferences in Paris, France and Venice, Italy!

Why?

Easy… because people believed that they would be understood.

And that - above all else - is motivating.

If you’re looking for this kind of connection to a supportive business community of people, click here to see what Get Momentum is all about.

Who is your “who”? (And, it is it time to change that?)

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Click here to PRINT activity #2 to “be a Better Man”

Next up: Read pages 69, 94, and 98-101 of Your Best Just Got Better

Hey guys, do me a favor: Bring to mind a coach, a mentor, a teacher…Someone in YOUR life who was there at the right place, at the right time. It may have been in school, or college, or a first job…

Now, I want you to recognize the influencers in your network (personal and professional) and identify specifically HOW these people are influencing you to be. Look, once you know HOW they influence you, you get to decide how to improve.

(There’s that word “decide” again. It’s a biggie; I mean, you gotta choose in, and look, if it were easy, you’d have already done it by now. Don’t think this is about “just” doing anything. Its really not; it’s about doing, stop doing, doing, stop doing, you get the picture.)

In 1999 I turned 27 years old. In the 6 months around my birthday, three women in my family had been diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Next, I left my job of teaching high school, started a new career working with a “time management” guru, and began preparing for what would become my next career. To do that…

…I applied for, and was accepted to, a Master’s Degree program in Applied Psychology. Early in the program, I settled in on what would become my main area of focus:

“What Impacts Self-Talk?”

When you pause to actually listen to yourself think, what do you hear yourself say?

Ok, stop. That’s enough. You’ve probably heard that voice before, so let’s take it to the next level. I want you to start thinking of things that are bigger, better and much, much more important. So, now think about the tools you have had access to that could help you “be better.” Maybe you studied the “7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” by Steven Covey. Or, you thought you should “Start With Why,” you know from that guy Simon Sinek. Or, erronously, you thought you should or could “Just Do It,” like how Nike says.

If Only It Wast That Easy

I’m gonna shake things up a little bit, and you can say you heard it here first (unless you already saw it here). You do NOT start with why. Don’t try and figure out what. Don’t go to a new where. ,

“Your Who Will Change Your Why, your What, your Where, When and your How.”

Don’t believe me? Fine. Stop reading, and close this web page.

Now…

If you do believe me, let’s look at the reality.

  • There is someone in your life who you can’t wait to get back to tonight/this weekend/this month. My “Who” is Jodi.
  • There is someone in your past who gave you a piece of advice - right place/right time - that changed everything. My “Who” is Curtis Solberg.
  • There is someone in your past who (although you WISH you’d never met) made you rethink all that you were bought in to. My “Who” shall remain unnamed.
  • There is someone you work with or for or around who is able to lift your mood “like that.” My “Who” there is Joe.
  • There is someone you know who you wish you could do another project with. My “Who” is Pip.

This (and more) is I write about in chapter 5 the book, Your Best Just Got Better.

  • Your network changes what you focus on - more or less.
  • Your network presents new opportunities in life and at work.
  • Your network is there to push on/encourage/question your momentum

Who Will Get Your More? (And, who gets you less?)

If I could leave you with one quote today it would be,

“Think about what you’re doing. Do something that you’re thinking about.”

Click here to PRINT activity #2 to “be a Better Man”

Ways to Get Momentum - a book you can contribute to

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The feeling you have after going to a conference, or meeting someone doing something cool…

You know, you’re wondering, “I’m inspired to do something, but where do I start?”

Well, a good friend - long-time Get Momentum member and Ojai Leadership Retreat two-time Alumni, AND fatherhood expert Devon Bandison - of ours is working on a book that YOU can be a part of. If you have #momentum, we want to hear your story. Right now, there are ten members of the Get Momentum membership community who have contributed their story.

Walk Into the Trap That Steve Jobs Warned Us About: Avoidance

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Click here to PRINT activity #1 to “be a Better Man”

On June 12th, 2005, then-CEO of Apple, Mr. Steve Jobs told the graduating class at Stanford University,

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know of to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”

It is in your best interest to stop and do long-range thinking. The kind of thinking today that you will be living in a year. By the way, what did Jobs mean when he warned those students to “avoid the trap?”

Just write down what you are avoiding thinking about. Now, imagine you have 12 months to live.

Should you start thinking about it? Look, you want to be a Better Man, right? That starts when you figure out what “being better” even means to you.

Over the next month, I’ll serve up the activity, but it’s up to do you to do the work. Don’t want to do the work? That’s ok. You won’t realize the benefit.

Do the work, gain the reward.

Tim Cook

On May 17th, 2015 at George Washington University now-CEO of Apple, Mr. Tim Cook said,

“The sidelines are not where you want to live your life.”

If you’re living on the sidelines, by default you’ve avoided thinking about (and acting on) what you “say” is most important to you.It’s time to make a decision.

Decide: come to a resolution in the mind as a result of consideration

To decide means you’ve thought about it.Let’s start from Ground Zero. Look at your list of what you’re avoiding thinking about. From my experience, I’m sure you have thought up some GREAT excuses for NOT thinking enough about those Most Important Things.

You DO have some excuses ready for me, don’t you? (If I missed one below, will you email it to me? I’m making a list!)

  • You don’t have time to think about being a better man.
  • You don’t have the energy to be a better husband.
  • You don’t have the focus to be a better manager at work.
  • You don’t have the patience to be a better father.
  • You don’t have the bandwidth to be a better brother.
  • You don’t have the capacity to be a better community member.

Those are just some of the Limited Resources I write about in the book, Your Best Just Got Better.

  • Time
  • Energy
  • Focus
  • Patience
  • Bandwidth
  • Capacity

Eric Schmidt

Last month, graduates at Virginia Tech heard Google’s executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, say,

“The future doesn’t just happen. It’s not etched or written or coded anywhere.”

Look, guys, this is your month. Give yourself 30 days; let’s call June 2015 “My Month.” This is when you “be selfish.” It’s ok. I promise.

Elon Musk

I love this quote by Elon Musk (founder of Space X and Tesla):

“If something is important enough, even if the odds are against you, you should still do it.”

Click here to PRINT activity #1 to “be a Better Man”

“Man Up…” (have you heard that and wondered…?)

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This is a big month, men.

Graduations. Father’s Day. The beginning of summer.

So, starting tomorrow you’re going to get 6 “lessons in being a Better Man” here at Get Momentum. The course is “almost free;” the rules are here. Come back tomorrow, I’ll get you Activity #1…