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Category: Challenge

A call could change your life

I can guarantee it WILL change the life of others.

For the next 48 hours, I’m offering a special incentive. Those who donate a minimum of $100 to the Light Campaign will receive a free one hour phone session with yours truly.

Things we can talk about:

You can stalk my LinkedIn profile to see other skills and endorsements I’ve received from clients I’ve worked with.

At the risk of sounding like a marketer, I will tell you this IS a special offer, worth far more in value. You have the opportunity to help yourself, help a community, and feel good about it.

You have until Friday, March 7 at 2pm EST to take advantage. I can’t guarantee I’ll do this again, but I thought it would be a fun way to get the solar project the help it needs. To get started, pledge a minimum of $100 on the indiegogo page, and you’ll be contacted for scheduling. Your free call is good through April 8, 2014, so let’s get moving.

I hope to speak with many of you.

Inconvenience yourself.

New Yorkers and scheduling is borderline ridiculous. I spend more time than I care to admit orchestrating calendars, slotting calls, finding common days for in-person meetings. While there are plenty of automated tools to streamline this process, I’ve found that each person’s needs and requests are very different, and the act of scheduling itself can reveal underlying issues. Each day I’m forced to reassess my priorities and make decisions accordingly.

Yet with all of this scheduling and compartmentalizing, is there space for magic?

We spend so much time making sure things go according to plan. If something falls through the cracks, it’s a fault in the system — our system. The slightest tip of the scale can throw off an entire day, delaying planned meetings and cramping scheduled “me” time. Minor inconveniences (a late train, a forgotten document) suddenly become huge problems.

Ever pause to evaluate whether your intense regimen is adding to your anxiety rather than helping? Consider your definition of inconvenience and flirt with alternatives.

What would happen if you intentionally take the later train, let someone step in front of you, choose the slowest checkout line?

 

#$*!% = QUIT

Quitting has become a dirty word, associated with failure and weakness.

Anyone who has experienced any measure of success knows that quitting is par for the course. A few dinners have opened with folks talking about their failures. Really talented, accomplished individuals getting honest about places they screwed up, projects that were complete disasters, even relationships that weren’t right.

I’m not sure quitting and failing is something that needs to be hidden. Your story could be the inspiration someone else needs.

If you want to read more on quitting (what to quit, how to quit, resources to help) check out The courage to quit on Medium.

Hack your life

Few entrepreneurs and business leaders I’ve worked with have developed a consistent writing practice. This surprises me. You won’t easily find an artist without a notebook of scribbles. Art and entrepreneurship are tightly bound.

It doesn’t have to be pretty, and it certainly doesn’t need to be coherent. Write observations, experiences, reactions, hopes, wishes, failures. You’re gifting yourself a valuable reference tool and sounding board for your own progress.

Make it a ritual: Five minutes, every day.

Try it for a month.

On risk

Risk frightens some people. It paralyzes others. Risk has stopped many people from doing incredible things.

Risk has also failed to prevent others from wholeheartedly chasing their dreams.

It might be worth asking whether risk is your fear dressed in disguise.

If risk wasn’t an issue, would your decisions change?

Why you should quit

Before traveling to Nepal, I did some major quitting: I quit my job, quit a relationship, quit where I was living, and quit some hard held beliefs about the way life should be lived. At the time, I couldn’t put my finger on what it was. The pieces were there, but the puzzle wasn’t coming together.
After taking time to revisit my go-to list of dreams (I suggest you write a list of your own), I set out to follow my heart. To many on the outside, not much seemed sensible about heading off to a different country to work for free and climb mountains. It might have been one of the best decisions of my life.
If you’re stuck, if something feels askew, consider whether there is something you can set aside. If it’s meant to be, it will be there after you’ve  found renewed energy and refreshed commitment. Perhaps you discover what was missing all along, something beyond anything you could have possibly imagined.
Quitting isn’t easy. It takes guts and courage and conviction to ditch plans and rewrite stories.