Well Scripted Life

Day 100 - All done.

99 days. My odd experiment is coming to an end. Tomorrow is the last episode. Today, I thought I begin to reflect on what’s happened, maybe a part 1. I didn’t want to talk about something I’ve already posted, like so many of the podcasts. I wanted something new for today, so I’m starting with a blank sheet, and I’m going to see where this leads. Emotions have played a larger role in my experiment than anything physical or mental. I didn’t lack skill, time, or money. The skill level required is minimum. I just did the best I can do. The time wasn’t much. The article and podcast took about 20 to 45 minutes depending on the day. The exercise was only 150 seconds. Money wasn’t required. Anchor.fm and LinkedIn are both free, and I already had the microphone. The experiment was an emotional rollercoaster. The last week has been an all-time low, and I would have predicted it to be an all-time high. I thought I would be excited to be at the end, but I was almost angry at the futility of a few more days. Somehow I thought I had learned all that I would learn, but in the middle of that thought, realizing I was still learning how to finish when the fun was gone. It’s about the finishing, even when it isn’t fun. It’s okay to switch of course, but only for real reasons, not for emotions. I’m not happy about emotions playing such a large role. I feel cornered somehow by my desire to have my emotions aligned with my objectives. Why do I “want” to relax, veg, read for fun, hang out? None of those activities are bad in the right context and allotment. I’m not saying to work all day and never relax. Actually, I believe being with the ones you care about is more important than any experiment. The point is what type of person do you want to be for the ones you care about. I know someone that lies often. He’ll exaggerate and explain away mistakes. I find him untrustworthy. I don’t value his friendship much. He’s not the type of person I aspire to be. I don’t think he’s the type of person he aspires to be, but maybe I’m wrong. I don’t know him well enough to say, but I can use him as a hypothetical to examine my own thinking. Is it possible he’s too busy with the mundane and immediate that he can’t take the time to ponder something long term and valuable? Could he be addicted to the easy road? I know first steps in any direction is a good indicator of the next step and direction. I like to say firsts beget seconds. If I read, I’m more likely to read. If I eat junk food, I’m more likely to continue to eat junk food. If I walk a little, I’m more likely to walk a lot. In this real sense, I can be aware of beginnings and set a course for a beautiful ending. I haven’t really found my tribe yet. I have a few very dear friends that are worth the world to me. I’m not talking about that tribe. I’m talking about my hobby of investigating will power, decisions, and habits. I’m still searching. If you know anyone I should know, please connect us. If you are someone who finds this type of thing interesting, please let me know. This isn’t an end. Tomorrow is my last episode for this experiment, and I will close tomorrow the same way I’m going to close today, to be continued.

Where is work? It’s not a place. It’s an effect. Stephen Ambrose in Nothing Like It In the World (page 130-131) tells a story about General Dodge's philosophy. “He [General Dodge] toured the country and had every soldier on the Platte in the saddle instead of by a fire in the stockades. Shortly, the general manager of the Overland Telegraph notified Washington that telegraphic communication had been resumed from the Missouri River to California. Grant wired him a query: “Where is Dodge?” The general telegraphed back, 'Nobody knows where he is, but everybody knows where he has been.'” I can think of a better complement.

Schedule it. That's the best time management advice I can give summed up in one bumper sticker. Sure there's more we can talk about, but if you only remember one thing, schedule it.

Have you ever stressed because you don't have enough time in the day? I hope so, and that's a good thing. I believe you can use this to your advantage. Do you normally start out strong and relax a little as the day progresses? I hope so; you can use this to your advantage. Boundaries and restrictions, like 24 hours a day, force innovation and creativity. One of my favorite movie quotes is from Platoon, "There's the way things should be and the way things are." When we talk about change in a corporate sense, we are trying to move from the way things are to the way things should be. To paraphrase a quote by Bernard Shaw "At every dog fight, the owner knew which dog would win. When asked how he knew, he explained it was easy. He feed one dog and starve the other." I experienced the benefit of feeding the wining-dog firsthand. About 20 years ago, I sold service at a local car dealership. I was measured by how many hours my technicians were able to charge per customer visit. On days with less factory-paid warranty work, I'd have a higher average repair hour number. I told my boss that I couldn't control what warranty work would come through the door. He agreed and told me to book more customer-paid work, and I wouldn't have room for so much factory-paid work. I had to feed the dog I wanted to win. Change requires a feeding plan. You must identify the behaviors required to adopt the new way of life, the way things should be and make a plan to encourage, require, or gamify those behaviors. Since we know our will power is stronger early in the day and wanes thin as the day progresses, we need to go big and go early with the desired changes. If you fill the day with the actions you want, you'll run out of time for the other actions. Of course, this isn't easy. Of course, there are key behaviors. Of course, there's more to change than just a feeding plan. My point is that you must have feeding plan in addition to the other change activities. What do you think?

Definitions are powerful. What's your definition of success? As a parent, my definition of success is simple. I have 6 kids now, and I formed this definition years before I had kids. I would add so much to it if we were discussing parenting today, but I still think it holds as a decent definition. I'm the child of a teenage pregnancy. I've heard lots of stories about the hardships and struggles. I've seen a few as I got old enough to understand. I guess this is why growing up I considered teenage pregnancy such a burden. This type of mistake carries a lot of fear. Young people have a tendency to continue hiding a mistake, hoping it will somehow go away. I too was young once (long time ago), and I remember clearly thinking the world was against me. I had to do it myself. This type of thinking is dangerous. As we know now as older adults, a lot of harm can be avoided if we get help early and often. My definition of success as a parent is "Can my daughter come to me and say, 'Dad, I'm pregnant.'"? As a leader, my definition is very similar. Does the team live in fear of failure? Do they hide mistakes, sweep mistakes under the rug, or think they'll make up for it next time? Remember the $2 Billion mistake JPMorgan suffered? Jamie Dimon explains in an interview how the mistake could have been so much smaller had the team admitted earlier what had happened. What's my definition of success as a team leader? Does the team come to me earlier and often to check in on mistakes? Do they trust that we'll push each other hard, hold each other to high levels of accountability, and still realize we have to take risks? Does the team believe we have each other's back? What about the success definition as a seller? “Let's call Greg.” -- not “Let's look for a solution, or let's shop around.” Even if I don't have the product they need, I'll still help explore a solution. My definition of success as a seller is “Am I top of mind to the customer?”. Do they trust me enough to call early and say, "Hey, we're thinking about X." or "We have a problem. Not sure you can help, but we thought we'd start with you." In life? My definition is a bit odd. I've always pictured a loud, chaotic, colorful Christmas. Too many gifts. Too much food. Kids everywhere. Laughter. Time together. As Inky Johnson says, it's we not I.

How I wish we were face-to-face. We could talk like humans. We could trade ideas, extend our views, challenge our assumptions, and even become friends. I think it was Newton that said we stand on the shoulders of the giants that came before us. Day to day we can stand on the ideas of our peers much like you see the obstacle course racers scale a wall with the help of their team.  We need each other more than ever to tackle the problems of the day. I love to learn. And after I’ve learned anything, I can’t help but share with anyone that will listen. This morning while driving to an appointment I was thinking about KPIs, metrics, and gut intuition. Malcolm Gladwell in his book, Blink, tells us we should trust intuition more than we think.  Over time experts can become very good at intuition. Daniel Kahneman in his book, Thinking - Fast and Slow, explains what we consider intuition is really just pattern matching over time. Either way it’s a judgement call. What I find interesting is my behavior with google maps and my intuition -- and how I discount for risk. On each morning drive I get to choose between a slightly faster interstate drive or a drive through town.  Depending on the time of day and destination, it can be 5 to 15 min difference in the choice.  Maybe 60% of the time, I’ll check google maps for traffic and base my decision on that metric or KPI; however, the trips I remember are the ones where I didn’t check google maps and the traffic on the interstate delays me excessively.  This happens maybe 1 out of 20 trips. I don’t know for sure since I don’t track it; however, the negative experience weighs so heavily in my mind that I’ve learned to not trust the interstate. This is how most people discount for risk. They might not use that phrase, but I discount the time saved by interstate travel by a factor equal to what I consider the risk of traffic.  If this was a project and I was using a financial model to determine to go or no-go, I’d discount the project outcome in the same way. It’s a gut-intuition call. What if I had used metrics? KPIs? Google maps is a very good KPI for my travel time. It is true that I could start out with a clear interstate and an accident could happen that would change the prediction.  Remember past results are no indication of future returns. I could have traveled the interstate for weeks and today would be the day I would miss the important meeting. Like most managers, I discount more if the risk is higher. Let’s say I was on my way to an interview for a job. I’d leave earlier and drive through town, regardless of what google might predict. The risk is too high. Here’s the point: use KPIs and metrics routinely for everyday decisions at work. Don’t trust how it normally is.  Evidence based decisions are real and getting cheaper by the minute. As the algorithms improve, we’ll trust them more, but remember to discount for risk. It’s still your responsibility to make the right call.  You can’t blame the model or the machine or the computer.

Sunday, November 1, 2020 Update Hello again. It’s Sunday. Time for an informal update on the 100 Day Challenge. We are down to the wire. A week from today, and it’s all over. So far, I’ve missed exercise on 1 day. I have recorded a podcast and wrote the accompanying blog every day for the last 93 days. I keep thinking about day 101. What do I do? Do I keep going? Doesn’t feel right. I might have something to learn from a forced break. I could lose the handful of people that actually listen. Am I going to begin a different 100 Day Challenge? I think I am; I must. Knowing what it means to stick to something, even a small something for 100 Days, causes me to weigh my selection carefully. What will the return be on the attention invested? What type of gains do I wish to see? I’ll continue something with health and something creative. I’ll add something about growth, like learning a new topic. I’ve wondered if I should shoot for the moon and discover the grit required to stick it out, or do I stay with a reachable goal that adds up to nice rewards. The past 100 have been very easy as far as the tasks are concerned. The podcast has surely suffered at times being forced to a daily production, but I am happy with the output. My exercise was so simple to be embarrassing, and yet I am more flexible and stronger than I’ve been in a long time. Everyone talks about swing for the fence or out working everyone else. Of course, I don’t disagree, but I’m more interested in the small nuance of change. What’s the minimum I can alter and get a desired improvement? I could start with goals like run a marathon, lose 50 pounds (yes, I weigh 240 at 5’9’’), make a million dollars. These goals might be unreachable or seem like it. But I could back up and wonder what type of person I would need to be and what type of things would that person do each and every day. Make a list of those tasks and find a bare minimum that would move me toward my goal. Based on the philosophy that something each day is far better than nothing or a medium size chunk every once in a while. The best activities aren’t much use if done once every couple of weeks. I can’t run a few miles once a month and expect much from it. I can’t fast 1 day a month and see a lot of gain. I can’t write all day every 90 days and get anywhere. I’m far better off to run for 1 min a day, stop eating after 6pm, and write for 10 min. This is what I’m talking about. 3 areas to improve for me: 1. Body 2. Mind 3. Skill Hard to separate mind and skill, but I’m talking about a healthy habit for the mind like creating or building versus a tactical skill like writing, singing, programming. I’ll keep working on what’s next, and I’m building a process to pick the goal, find the habits, and begin with tiny actions. Right size fits all. Send me an email if you’d like to join me. Starts Monday, November 9th, 2020 and ends February 17th, 2021.

Do you believe physical weight is relative? Does 50 pounds weigh the same for everyone? I know on a scale, we might agree, but in practice, is 50 pounds just as easy for a 1st-grader to pick up as it is for a high school senior? Of course not. Do you believe emotional weight is relative? Can I handle the same emotional trauma that everyone else can handle? Maybe I can handle less; maybe I can handle more, but we can all agree we don’t each handle it the same. I might cry like a baby during an aircraft emergency where a trained pilot would become alert and get into action. I might yawn when the school calls and says my kid was hurt where some other parent might find it difficult to drive safely to school. I think we can become sensitized to emotional strain. I’m sure a nurse’s first day in ER is a little tougher than six months down the road. Our minds have a way of shutting out information when we have too much to handle. Over time we can become familiar with some details and notice more. This takes practice, and we can be trained to focus on the key information. My point is we don’t all behave the same under pressure, and we can’t expect everyone to be the same. We can’t transfer our expectations onto someone else. Sometimes I don’t even understand why something gets to me when I don’t think it should. We are complex. Einstein said something like, “We are all geniuses, but you can’t judge a fish by its ability to climb trees.” Often those of us in the technology world ask too much of everyone else. We expect people to understand how to use our tools when we can't possibly understand theirs. I remember wondering why a nurse wasn't better at using the software at the hospital until I saw her with a patient. It was by the patient’s bed that I realized how silly IT was when asking her to learn a cumbersome tool. It was up to us to make the tool easier to use; otherwise, we were taking care away from patients. We all have a limited amount of time and energy, and we can only focus on one thing at a time. When we ask a teacher to wrestle with a learning management system and fill out stacks of tracking paperwork, we steal attention intended for a child. In my world of technology, we all too often take away from the real work that needs to be done. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard about the “stupid users”. The “users” are people trying to help customers, clients, patients, or kids. These people are trying to solve real problems, and the tools shouldn’t distract them. Don’t judge the “user” by their ability to play with computers. How do you feel when the physician is speaking to a loved one about a serious condition, and you can’t understand what’s being described? Or less importantly, how about when an auto mechanic is describing what’s wrong with your car? We all have our world, our context, and we need to respect the other person’s turf. Try it and let me know how it goes.

Today’s question is simple. What comes first the decision or the question? Do I decide to act or question my current state first? I think the question must come first, and the decision is the answer. Everything seems to come down to a question and a decision. I questioned if I should skip today. I decided I should not skip. What type of guy records 90 days in a row and skips on day 91? Not me. I am not a hero. I frequently want to skip. The decision to keep going has reinforced itself over the past 90 days, and I have a little boost in my will power. The fear of quitting actually helps me keep going. I’ve been reading more about questions. I stumbled upon a book on interviewing by Dean Nelson called “Talk to Me”. I haven’t read enough to say it’s a good book or not, but I have read enough to appreciate what he is trying to do. I look forward to reading more. He’s trying to describe how to conduct a good interview. It seems similar to selling. First, he has to know why he’s conducting the interview. What’s the point? Who would care? He places emphasis on being transparent, honest and the work to prepare. I couldn’t say it better myself. I’m sure I’m going to learn more from the book. I’ll update everyone as I do. How I wish we could have a conversation, a two-way dialogue. I don’t mean for my podcast. I mean for both of us to think through problems and maybe improve a little. I was training the other day, and the presenter said, “Shared problems are solved quicker.” Reminds me of a saying, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” What problems could we work on together? My favorite job I’ve ever had was an IT manager position. It wasn’t fancy, but every day I went to work wondering how to make the life of the team a little better. Could we get better at our jobs? Could we be more reasonable about our planning and expectations? I couldn’t give raises, so I had to search for other ways to make the job worth having. I decided to create a learning environment. If you came to work at our company, you would gain skill to make a better living. If you got so good that I couldn’t afford you, then that was a great problem. I would help you find a better paying job somewhere else, and if at all possible, I’d hire you back if it didn’t work out. For a while, I think our work world did improve. We’d take 90 min on Friday afternoon to teach each other a technical topic. We were growing as a team. It didn’t last, but that’s a different story. Change doesn’t stop. No such thing a status quo. You can’t get back the way things were. You need to keep going. Good came from the short-lived experiment, and I would do it again even knowing the same result would occur. I guess I’m still trying to recreate that scenario. Like Johnny Appleseed I keep spreading plants hoping they’ll take root, and a new orchard will be found. By the way, Johnny Appleseed was most likely making alcohol from his apples, but that’s a different podcast. I asked my students “What do you want to be remembered for?” I love to read the answers. I get a sense of who they really are. What we want to be remembered for is a story that we want to tell about ourselves. When we are doing well, we live out those stories on a stage. The audience is how we think everyone sees us. It’s important to remember the audience is not in charge. We are. We are the director and lead actor all rolled into one. I want to give Life-Stones instead of tombstones. A Life-Stone would have inscribed a sentence of what I want to be remembered for, and I wouldn’t wait till I was dead. I would look at it every day, and I would measure myself against it. What would your Life-Stone read? I want mine to read, “He led us through the valley.” I realize it’s a bit grandiose, and I know I fall short most days. It is the story I’m trying to live out. It’s the story I want told. What’s your story? Call me sometime and we can talk.

Are you a believer? Do you live your life as a believer? I’m guessing many of you are thinking about God, and that’s probably the most important question you’ll have to answer, but it’s not what I’m asking now. I’m asking about the power of belief, faith. What do you believe about normal life, day to day work?  My favorite line from Coach Flower’s half-time, football pep-talk is, "Belief will rule my world.” He’s right. When I’m not doing what I think I should be doing, I have to ask myself, “What do I really believe?” In my favorite sci-fi movie Serenity, the lead character asks why he should be afraid, "Because he's a believer. He's intelligent, methodical and devout in his belief ..." That’s what I’m asking. Are you intelligent, methodical and devout in your belief? We all believe in many things. It’s what we choose to believe that matters. Do you believe? Are you sold? Did you buy first? If you haven’t bought, if you don’t believe, how can you expect others to want what you have. If you don’t really believe you are worth it, neither will the teacher, HR interviewer, new boss, or client. Faith is a choice, often based on first impressions. It’s in your favor to work for a good first impression. Could you lose few pounds, dress a little nicer, shine your shoes, show up a bit early, be prepared? Once an initial choice to have faith, to believe is made, it grows in power through evidence over time. Do you do what you say you are going to do? Trust is what we call this powered faith. Trust is hard to build and so easy to lose. Faith comes from hearing and hearing and hearing -- what we call marketing. If you want to sell more, if you want to grow, first you must make a choice to believe. Zig Ziglar often said that he'd listen to a motivational tape every day. You can make a quick decision to believe for professional reasons, but it takes time to become familiar and truly convince yourself. If you sense yourself wavering, doubting, questioning, then dig in and learn. Become the guide your client is looking for and save them time, money, and headaches.

Do you save for a rainy day? I always live with the feeling it might rain, and I need to prepare. Might sound like a good idea, but it does take away a little fun from the sunny days. Are you preparing for rain? Are you doing the work needed to reduce or mitigate risk? Are you maintaining processes and machine as you should? Are you afraid to risk it? How many of us know to change our oil every 3,000 miles? Of course, we don't often say that's the "more severe" schedule as my car's owner's manual describes it. The other schedule is 7,500. As a nation, I can only imagine how much money is wasted due to over maintaining our vehicles. I'm not writing to ask you to delay your next oil change. I'm writing to talk about the idea of deferment and the art of pushing it to the limit to maximize profits. I was reading the Union Pacific: The Reconfiguration: America's Greatest Railroad from 1969 to the Present by Maury Klein and it describes a battle between operation and staff at headquarters. Operations continually wanted to perform maintenance on the track and headquarters wanted to delay in order to save money.  The problem isn't simple. Can you delay? Yes - naturally. But for how long and how many times? Certainly, there's a point where it's too expensive to recover from deferred maintenance and just as certainly money is wasted from too frequent maintenance. One of my favorite authors, Nassim Taleb, asks the best question. How many white swans does it take to prove all swans are white? How many black ones does it take to prove you're wrong? How many safe bridge crossings does it take to prove deferring maintenance was a wise choice? How many unsafe bridges does it take to prove you are wrong? Pursuing profits creates too create of risks in some situations and regulation steps in for the greater good, take aircraft for example or DOT regulations for trucking. Without restraint we arrive we were in 2007 and again today – corporation are too big to fail and can’t be held accountable. I don’t like regulation either, but it’s the guard rails for short-term thinking and used correctly, rules protect the greater good. We are never free from responsibility. When taking finance classes during my MBA program, we were taught that bankruptcy is just the price of doing business. We were taught to leverage as far as possible, meaning borrow as much money as possible to expand as far as possible. In theory, this means you capture as much money as you can while you can. In practice, it runs the risk sky high and leaves the mess for taxpayers to clean up. It should be the stockholders, but that’s the beauty of too big to fail. The company leadership and stockholders do fine. The cost is spread across the entire economy. I feel I drifted a bit too political; wasn’t my intent. I was really interested in deferred maintenance vs. a well-maintained environment, and the art of knowing the difference. It seems to settle in on beliefs. Do you believe clever software can track all conditions and predict a maintenance schedule? The trouble is with the word, “all”. I do believe software can help, but we can't forget Taleb’s Black Swans hide in every situation. And I only change my oil about very 6000 miles - more due to forgetfulness than cleverness.

Daily Checklist I have an appointment each morning. It's my daily checklist. Reminds me to do what I intend to do and not just start looking at email. I set outlook to open on my calendar and not my inbox. Here's a sample: Morning Pep Talk. It's a link to a google doc containing a commercial by me and about me. It's a over the top and ridiculous, and it helps get me going. 10 min meditation on "How to do my job better?". Review my Project list Review my calendar for the week - do I need to prep for anything. Do I have a Two-do list? What's the two things I need to get done today? Scan my Important, Not-urgent list (thank you Steven Covey) Triage email -- don't bother sorting everything, just pick out emergencies. Look at tasks in Outlook Review sales numbers Environmental Enrichment When I was selling cars back in the 90s, I shared an office with a depressing guy. He showed up late to work, left early and complained about management the whole time he sat at the desk. He would figure out how many hours he worked, divide by the little commission he made, and whine that he was paid less than minimal wage. Try as I might he wore me down. His negative attitude was poisonous, and the day he was fired my stats started to improve. I was like an animal at the zoo. With a gloomy environment, I paced back and forth in my cage with a distant, blank stare. I've learned over time that Environmental Enrichment is required. What can you do to help you immediate surroundings? Keep your area clean? Bring in some flowers? Kid's art work? Maybe aroma therapy? Favorite saying on a poster. Move your desk, so you aren't engage in conversation with anyone that walks by. You can find ways to make improvements, even if they are very small. Playlist No negative music. Depressing, dark music is great if you are Batman, but it doesn't help sell anything. Scrub your playlist and have only your favorite tunes. Why me commercial I mentioned this above in my daily checklist. I have a short word doc that shouts from the rooftops why I am the best choice for the job. It's only meant for me, and it would be embarrassing if it got out, but I have to admit that it helps. I can't help but smile and feel like I have an important job to do. 10 min to make my job better This one has been surprising. So simple and powerful. It helps me focus on what I need to do most and forces me to define my job. If you want to get better at your job, you first need to really understand what your job is. Not what your title might suggest, but what do you actually do? What tips do you use?  thanks, g

Did you prepare? Did your preparation have a goal, a purpose? Maybe you had a test in school? A sales-call on a client? An interview for a new job? An interview of a magazine article or online blog? A prospecting phone call? One thing all of these situations have in common is preparation. We celebrate the result, and the results do matter, but have you heard the saying, “What gets measured gets done, so be careful what you measure?” If you mainly emphasize results, you over emphasize luck and win at all cost. I think we can agree these attitudes led to Enron, Worldcom, and too-big-to-fail financial crisis. What if we emphasize the preparation, celebrate a well-prepared effort? I’m sure the cynic in the room would still sneer and say, “who cares?”. I do believe if you focused on the preparation, then you could build a predictable, repeatable process. People like us, prepare like this. The culture at work could center around hard work, preparation, and checklists. You could reduce your reliance on luck. You could predict the odds of winning based on the degree of preparation. For a job interview, I could ask if your resume and cover letter are unique to this position? Did you think up STAR stories that fit this company’s expectations? STAR is a story model that stands for: Situation, Task, Action, Result. The key is the result. Did you prepare 3 to 5 great result stories that highlight your experience? Did you have an answer to, “Tell me about yourself?”, or are you just going to wing it? What about a test in school? Did you make flashcards a few days in advance and have the definitions, formulas, concepts down cold? Did you practice application? Read the material? Review with a classmate? Granted a lot depends on the subject, but I believe we all agree steps can be taken to be ready. You will have dozens of tests, and you can add preparation steps as you learn from mistakes. What about interview questions? Can questions be prepared in advance? Can you have written the story in advance and then organized questions that would be needed for the story to unfold? Can you frame the questions better? Much like I’m asking now? What has to be true for you to do better tomorrow than you did last time? How did you plan to prepare? What special steps did you take to give yourself the advantage? Do you rely on hard work or luck? How do you measure the level of work? What have you learned over the years that can help others chase their dreams like you did? Even producing this podcast has me energized for tomorrow. What can I do tonight before bed to setup tomorrow morning for success? What price am I willing to pay? What’s too much? Am I willing to forego a little sleep? Should I be sleep deprived? Can I control the day? What’s more in my favor the first hour or two or the last couple of hours? When a day goes wrong what has normally been the reason? What can I do this time to avoid the most common reasons? I’m going to go out on a limb and claim few days have surprises? Some do, but it’s few. Plan for the majority of the days without surprises and in most cases, you can forgive yourself when you do get a surprise – the first time. The second time you should know better. Do you learn? Are you capable of learning? I don’t believe in natural born anything, but I do know some people have to put in more effort over a longer period of time to get the same result as others. Look in the mirror and be honest. The answer is acceptable. You must know where you are to get where you want to go. Does this make sense? Start small, start now and don’t quit. Come with me. I have big plans for Nov 9th! Day 101.

Who cares about a 100 Day Challenge? I mean it was just a made-up bet to myself. All I win is a sense of accomplishment. Today is day 86, and how I think about the challenge today is alien from how I thought about it on day 1. For one thing, I didn’t believe I’d still be searching for a job. I actually was worried a new job would get in the way of the podcast. That would be a good problem to have. Some problems we like to complain about are actually good to have. I haven’t been perfect. I guarded against failure by making the goal easy to achieve, but I missed exercising one day. I made it to day 80 without missing a day. You know what? I learned a valuable lesson. Get the important work done first. The day can get away from you. Eat dessert first. Life is uncertain. I've had a hard week. On a scale from 1 to 10, I would have rated it a 7 or 8.  And then I got the news a friend of mine heard she has breast cancer. My week went to a 3 or 4. Changing perspective is key. At times, the change is forced upon me like a message from a friend about her breast cancer. Sometimes I need to force the change upon myself. When forced proactively, I need frame the situation or reframe if needed. How I ask questions of myself become very important. The self-talk can be deadly. Next week I’ll think about self-talk, framing, asking questions, and narrowing in my focus. I’ve noticed I’m not making progress on all the fronts I’ve engaged. I need to shelf some agendas to make room for the few that are important. So, what’s changed since day 1? How do I think about the 100 Day Challenge now? At day 10, I panicked with so far to go. Day 50 was curious but didn’t offer relief. Day 75 was a celebration since the end was in sight. Day 80 I realized I was wrong. I still have to fight for one day at a time. Day 86 I realize progress is a temptation. It’s not about the number. It’s about each day. What matters. What lessons are important. Can I apply the few things I know to the situation at hand? Talk to you tomorrow. g

3 Books You Must Read Checklist Manifesto http://atulgawande.com/book/the-checklist-manifesto/ Tim Ferriss often asks which book you gift most often. He's compiled a list in his latest book, Tools for Titans. If had interviewed me, I would have easily said, The Checklist Manifesto, by Atul Gawande. Unless you have a job where it isn't important the complete anything correctly, you need to read this book. I am a huge fan. Thinking, Fast and Slow https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/0374533555 I have lost count how many books I have read the refer back to Kahneman's book. I highly recommend reading his actual book. You'll be surprised how guru's borrow heavily from his work. This is one I own on audio. Extreme Ownership https://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Ownership-U-S-Navy-SEALs-ebook/dp/B00VE4Y0Z2 Okay, I'll be the first to admit it isn't the same weight as the first 2, but it's is required ready. Some wise guy from a few thousand years ago -- maybe Cicero -- said there are two kinds of speeches. The ones were people applaud and say nice speech, and the ones were people march. I like books that have an impact, and Jocko's is one of those books. You'll change your mindset when you assume extreme ownership. I believe it is a missing ingredient in many of our lives. Caused me to start doing laundry at home -- you'll have to message me to get the rest of that story. So many more books I'd recommend for fun and profit and some combine both, one example is Jesse Itzler's book Living with a Seal, but the 3 listed above are mandatory. Have fun and drink more wine.

 A long time ago, I typed for profit. I was a computer geek, a technician. I used to be decent -- maybe better than decent. What did it take? What separated those of us that were decent from those that were faking it? I really believe it was faith in Gremlins. All of us lost our way and got confused. When the chips were down, the difference was who believed in Gremlins and who didn't. The technicians that stopped because “sometimes things just happened” believed in Gremlins. We found the tenacity to keep going because we knew Gremlins didn't exist. We didn't always find the answer, but we knew it was out there, and our faith keep us going long after others would quit. Where did the faith come from? It started with a choice to believe and strengthened through experience. Belief will rule your world. What you choose to believe will decide how you respond. Have the courage to change your mind when you find new evidence, but you must always decide what you believe, how you will respond -- even inaction is a choice.

35 years since high school, and I still remember talk about the star freshman that hit the winning home run. I said, "What about the first home run? Was it not as important?" My friends walked away making comments about my lack of understanding sports. I still get those comments today. We had won by one run. The score was 10 to 9. If the first 9 home runs were not hit, then what value would be the last one? I was genuinely confused why we celebrated the last run more than the first run. I do understand the extra pressure that comes from do or die scenario. Maybe it was the bottom of the 9th with 2 outs, and he hit the run to win the game? I too celebrate the winner, but results have a lot to do with luck and circumstances outside of our control. Effort and intention are hard to measure, so we demand good grades, very easy to measure. What gets measured gets done, so kids play it safe and take classes with easy teachers. My own kids don’t trust me when I tell them grades don’t matter because if they don’t score well, I bench them from sports and take away their electronics; however, it is true. I don’t care about the grade itself. Grades are only a proxy for effort. Have my kids put in the effort to meet the standards set by the school? I know these standards have little bearing on success in the real world. The life skill comes when you figure out how to achieve; how to try something hard and fight for achievement. The ability to learn for yourself. Grades are still the best way I have to tell if my kids are trying. It didn’t work well in the lower grades since it was too easy to get high grades. It’s a better tool for high school and college. Peter Drucker believed we should record our intentions. Check our results frequently, and we'll quickly figure out our strengths and weaknesses. Can you achieve what you intended to achieve? If not, what needs to change? I plan my day in advance, and I have yet to work out the day as planned. I always believe I can get more done than I do. I try to improve, but the facts are there on paper. Drucker’s method gives me the feedback to improve. A different way to think about it is to use Nassim Nicholas Taleb's metaphor. Which $100,000 is more valuable? A winning lottery ticket or a dentist's earnings? If our intentions are to win the game, we need a machine more capable of winning more often. If we look only at the last home run or the final score, we might value the winning lottery ticket as much as the dental practice. My point is lead people to create an environment that has the ability stay the course, maintain a sustainable pace, and hit winning home runs as often as possible. Celebrate the practice. I'll close with my favorite paraphrase of Bear Bryant, "It's not the will to win that matters, everyone has that. It's the will to prepare to win that makes all the difference."

How do you catch more fish, as a metaphor for winning more deals or completing more projects on time or getting promoted? It’s all about winning more often, so how do we do it, win? Is it timing? Is it a natural born talent? Or? Is it knowing where to stand? The grizzly that has figured out where to stand catches the most salmon. The equivalent in selling of knowing where to stand is knowing where to spend your time. It's what Jack Daly calls High Payoff Activities (HPA). The best salespeople know where to stand. They work on HPAs. What's an HPA? An HPA is simply any activity that generates more business. If you aren't careful, you'll be spending 50% or more of your time on busy work. Make a list of the HPAs, and question everything else: · can you ignore it, · can you delegate it, or · can you delay it till a non-prime time? Skip the to-do list. Jack suggests working off a calendar instead of a to-do list. I couldn't agree more. I scan my emails [applying lessons learned from Getting-Things-Done author, David Allen]: · to delete what's possible · complete anything I can do in less than 2 minutes, or · move it to a "processing" folder. I empty my inbox about every hour or two. When I work through the "processing" folder, I think through each email: what's the work that needs to be done: study? respond? create? organize? I use outlook on both my MacBook and my ThinkPad. On my mac, I tap with two fingers to trigger the right click options. I select create - new appointment to create a calendar entry. On ThinkPad, I have a quick action built to "book time" (creates an appointment with text of message). This is where you do the preprocessing. Think through what you want to do before you hit save. The trick is you don't want to consider it again. When it comes time to act on the email, you can act, not think through it again. You have room on both platforms to write a note to yourself above the email and keep track of progress. If I'm not able to finish in the time allotted, I make a note of my progress and reschedule. Every action requires time. If a message is worth acting on, then it's worth scheduling the time to act. When you use a to-do list, you are in effect saying, "I hope to make time to work on this someday." What if it isn't from email? I use the note app on my phone. It's quick, easy to use, and saves in the cloud. I have a few standard lists: · Books recommended · store -- things to buy next time · writing prompts · good ideas · tasks noticed to complete around the house, etc... I process these notes about once a week. Same idea as the emails. I schedule a time to get it done. The exception are small tasks at home. I just work through the smaller tasks at my leisure on weekends. At home, I use google docs for organizing information, and at work, I use OneNote and SharePoint. I love OneNote for its ease of use and mobile access. I have a notebook with several tabs: daily journal, external clients, internal clients, key vendors, process notes, tools. I share the notebook with my team. Routines help me save space for HPAs. The routine of capturing work and ideas builds the trust that projects will not be dropped. The trust is in myself. I can rest at ease that I'm not forgetting anything important. I can focus on the HPAs without worrying about the little things falling through the cracks. One more routine is Friday afternoon planning. I put in the Big Rocks (Steven Covey) for next week. The Big Rocks are the important but not urgent activities that will be missed if not scheduled first: prospecting, training, exercise. By living off my calendar, I am more honest about my time and spend my time more wisely. I use my time on purpose, more productively. It's always a work in progress. These are just a few of my ideas. Greg

Driving into work one morning, I noticed all the ornamental grass had been cut back to about 6 inches from the ground. It made a nice geometric scene for me to enjoy but more than that, I wondered how they knew that's best for the grass. More to the point, I wondered what I would do if I was told to maintain the grounds. If it was my job suddenly to take care of the landscaping, what would I do? I wouldn't have thought to cut back grass. I doubt there is a training manual at our property management company for the grounds crew. Of course, something as insignificant as cutting back grass is comical, but it highlights a larger lesson for me. I see tribal knowledge. I see a great example of implicit knowledge. I see a group that shows newcomers how it's done. I realize my salespeople are exactly the same as these grounds’ keepers, and I wonder what I am leaving up to the group to teach each other through gossip, trial and error, email threads, and you-should-have-known. A training manual will help, but it doesn't solve much. A weeklong training camp is useful but the impact fades quickly. The only way I've seen impact stick is consistent, steady, nudging. The best way to nudge is sitting side by side while they work. Much like the groundskeepers working side by side. Much like we all adapt to new situations by watching those around us. I watched a great Ted talk that of course I can’t find anymore. I remember the research being discussed was about teaching and how to get someone to remember something for a while. We typically teach a lot in a short period of time and test to confirm it was taught. Students are great at this, and the test scores show it; however, if you test again in a couple of years, you’ll discover nearly 100% of the material has been lost. The best method is to pile a lot on early and then continue to question for a long time. The questions must vary in difficulty, and if a question is missed, the subject can be repeated. I hope it doesn’t come as a surprise that random reinforcement over a long period of time is best. Just because we know how to do something doesn’t mean we do it. We tend to copy what we’ve seen, and we see the cram course is popular. Guess what? It actually takes work. Good luck and watch how the grass is cut.