While Daring Greatly

There is one moment in my life when fear washed over me more powerfully than ever before. It was a phone call I will never forget.

If you know me at all, you know I have five (almost six), kids. You know  I wear hats and love to be around people. Right now, I’m writing this from my kitchen table, locked in a house with my wife and five kids, and loving it.

As the world has been on lock-down, I’ve been thinking about our time at  home. It’s a burden, but can it also be an opportunity? Sure, it’s an  opportunity to spend time with family, most of us got that on day one.  But, I wonder, is this an opportunity for more? 

In high school, my small business teacher was an enigma. Before I met him, I noticed him. I would see him in the halls and immediately had assumptions about him. The often severe look on his face, combined with his fast walk and unflinching stare, always made him look serious, intimidating, and a bit scary. Then one summer, out of the blue, he called me at home. That call changed everything.

I have been thinking of renaming my thought leadership channels (Website, YouTube Channel, Personal Podcast)  for a while, but I couldn’t find the right phrase. I wanted something  to capture the spirit of how I live daily and the aspiration of how I  want my life to unfold. This is what I landed on and why.

Recently I got the chance to sit in a talk given by David Abney, CEO of UPS. It was fantastic, and his perspective on leadership was inspiring. Here are some of the things I learned.

It's time to think about productivity tactics. These are the tools and approaches used to remain productive. Tactics will be different for every person, so I won't get into specifics. But, I think it's important to outline some categories to give us a framework for our thinking.

A huge part of being productive is building the habits that will help you along the way. Habits are like automated processes that help you to move consistently in the right direction and get things done. If you build the right habits, productivity becomes a  natural part of your day and your life.

Today we are considering mindsets related to productivity. How we think about work and the beliefs we hold about getting things done will influence all we do. It's essential to examine our beliefs, test our thoughts, and decide what mindsets we want to live by, not accepting the mindsets that we have by default.

Yesterday we worked on creating our perfect week keeping in mind the things that are important to us, our goals, and what gives us energy.  Today we will be creating our perfect month and year.

Today I’m working on mapping out my perfect week. This will include my  morning and evening routines, as well as other routines that are important, like one to wrap up work, or start work.

Today I’m looking at my evening routine. I want to think about how much sleep I need and when I need to be in bed. I also want to consider the things that are important to me from Day 1 and the things that give me energy from Day 3 to see what I might incorporate.

Today I’m looking at my morning routine. Routines are the cornerstone of productivity. They are the operating system that allows you to get things done efficiently and consistently.

Today we talk about how to manage our energy to make sure we aren't getting drained. We will make two lists, listing out what gives us energy and what drains our energy.

Today I go over setting goals and my simple method for how to think about that. We will make sure our goals for the year, week and day all align, leading us to where we want to go.