focus

Habits, not resolutions

January 1, 2012 | 23 Comments

In another epic blog post, Leo Babuta explains how habits are more important than resolutions.

In that vein, below are the habits I’m going to focus on in 2012.

Every day:

Write: I decided to finally write the book that’s been rattling around in my head. Writing a book seems like a daunting task, but by getting in the habit of writing a page a day seems utterly possible. If I write a page a day, after a year I’ll have 365 pages. If even half of those survive the final edit, I have a book. Progress begets progress, so writing more often here on my blog should help. Willie Jackson has been blogging great nuggets daily, so he’s been an inspiration for this habit.
Lift: My friend AJ Leon spends most of his time traveling the world and helping others. He is just as likely to wake up in a tent in Africa as he is in his East Village apartment, so his fitness routine can’t involve fancy health clubs. Yet AJ stays in incredible shape through a simple series of bodyweight exercises (push-ups, dips, etc.) that can be done anywhere. I’m going to follow AJ’s lead and make simple, bodyweight resistance exercises a morning habit.
Eat: Anyone who knows me knows that I love food. The habit here is simple: eat smaller portions of healthier, more natural (less processed) foods. This means eating more vegetables and lean protein and attempting to curb my current addiction to diet soda by drinking more water.

Every week:

Read: Inspired by my friends Julien Smith and Andrew Hyde, I’m going to read even more than I do now and make a habit of finishing one book a week. First up, Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.
Connect: I’m extremely blessed to know so many super amazing people and I love to make introductions that help both parties. Currently, the opportunity to make these connections comes randomly, either via email, social networks or in-person. In 2012, I’m going to be more like my friend Nicole Johnson and make it a habit to proactively identify these opportunities to make one really meaningful introduction every week. If there is someone I can introduce you to, let me know.
Learn: This habit is to try and learn a new skill every week. For example, I know very little about meditation but many of the smartest and most driven people I know meditate regularly, so I’m going to give it a try. This isn’t about deliberate practice or becoming an expert but rather expanding my mind and trying new things.

Every month:

Speak: I actually really enjoy public speaking and I did more of it in 2011, but still not as much as I’d like. My goal in 2012 is to speak publicly every month. Like many on this list, this habit is just about being more proactive vs. reactive.
Travel: I’m writing this from the balcony of a condo in Hawaii, where Julia and I are spending the first week of the New Year. We both love traveling and thanks to Airbnb, we can do more of it on short notice. The habit here is to be more spontaneous, whether that means flying somewhere new or just exploring new areas of New York City.

If I follow through on these habits, I’ll achieve the following in 2012:

Written a book
Get substantially more fit and healthy
Read 52 books
Make 52 meaningful connections for others
Learn 52 new skills
Speak at at least 12 events
Travel and explore at least 12 new places

That’s a damn good year, and one I’d be happy to look back on with pride.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go do some pushups.

What habits are you going to focus on in 2012?

Sink your ships

January 2, 2010 | 1 Comment

This post is inspired by a presentation I attended last summer by Mitch Joel, a brilliant marketer who has a wonderful blog over at Six Pixels of Separation.

Mitch told the story of legendary explorer Captain Hernando Cort�s. In July 1519, Cort�s and a small army left the Spanish held island of Cuba and set out on one of the greatest conquests in the history of the world.

In order to eliminate escape by some of his men still loyal to the Governor of Cuba, Cort�s “scuttled” or intentionally sank his ships. Some historical accounts incorrectly claim Cort�s burned the ships. The method of destruction doesn’t really matter – the point is, there was no going back.

This time of year, a lot of us are making New Year’s resolutions and trying to stick to them.

Think of Cort�s and his choice to sink his ships. How can you “sink your ships” to make sure you stick to your goals?

If one of your goals is to eat better, throw away all the food in the house that doesn’t fit the healthier eating plan. (People eat what they have on hand, so healthy eating at home really happens at the grocery store.)

Are you trying to spend less or get out of debt? Cut up all your credit cards and only pay cash for discretionary purchases.

Do you want to watch less television and workout more? Sell your TV.

Do you want to travel more but find it hard to plan or take vacation at the last minute? Plan and book your vacations now and tell your friends and family. It’s unlikely you’ll cancel.

Do you want to start exploring social media for your company but don’t have the money? Cancel any ineffective traditional advertising and re-allocate the budget to finding someone to help you explore these new channels.

What are your goals? What ships you can sink?

If you only read one thing this month…

December 14, 2009 | 1 Comment

…make it this free e-book from Seth Godin.

Seth has rounded up seventy big thinkers to contribute concise but brilliant one-page essays.

The simple question….

What Mattters Now?

The result is priceless and amazing.

Read it. Share it. Pick your favorite five pages and make something happen now.

You�re just like Tiger Woods

October 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment

I’ve never been very good at golf. I’ve always played different sports and I could usually pick them up fairly easily and be adequate without a great deal of practice.

Not golf.

I would play a couple times a year. My friends would call when their 4th player canceled or they were desperate. They knew I was a hack and was likely to spend as much time in the woods as on the fairways.

I recently decided I wanted to get better at golf. My uncle John talked very highly of a golf instructor on Long Island named Victor Romano. John insisted that if I was serious about improving, that I drive out to Long Island and take lessons with Victor.

Victor is a wizard. In the matter of only a few lessons, he has helped my swing immensely and has fixed some major flaws. I still have a long way to go but I’m starting to see improvements.

Victor has a metaphor for golf improvement he calls �moving the bell curve�.

The metaphor is one of a 100 golf shots. Every swing a golfer takes, they reach into this metaphorical bucket and take out a ball. Ball #1 is the best shot they could possibly hit that day, given their skill level. Ball #100 is the worst. Plot those 100 shots and you get a representative bell curve of that golfer’s current skill level.

When you’re starting out, the bell curve is very wide. The #1 shot is probably OK and the #100 shot might be a complete whiff.

As you gets slightly better, the #1 � 5 shots are quite a bit better but the worst #90 – #100 shots are still embarrassing shanks.

As you continue to improve, the #1 – #5 shots get even better, the medium shots get a little better and the worst shots aren’t quite as bad but #99 and #100 are probably still ones you would rather forget.

This is true for me and it’s true for you and it’s true for Tiger Woods. When Tiger Woods shoots a 76 (a terrible day for him), he hit some of the worst shots possible on his bell curve.

After working with Victor, my best shot (my #1) is almost as good as Tiger’s worst shot (his #100). That means the best shot I can hit out of 100 is comparable to the worst shot Tiger Woods hits.

The point of Victor’s metaphor is this.

Golfers always make excuses for the way they played a certain hole or a certain round. If they shot a great score on the front nine but played poorly on the back nine, they blame it on exhaustion or the fact that it was getting dark. If they hit a huge slice into the pond, they blame it on the fact that they pulled their head or that new wedge that they just haven’t figured out yet.

They’re wrong.

Their skill level is at a certain point. On a bad day, they hit more balls from the higher end of their bell curve.

The purpose of practice, in golf and many other endeavors, is to move the bell curve.

Chris Brogan and Seth Godin write new blog posts every day. Some posts are better than others but their last 100 are significantly better than their first 100. Through practice, over time, they have dramatically moved their blog quality bell curve. Following their lead, that’s what I’m trying to do as well.

Pick a skill in your business or personal life, what is your #1 ball? What is your #100?

How can you improve and move your own bell curve?

[Photo credit: Paul Gallegos / PR Photos]

Parkour

July 7, 2009 | 1 Comment

From Kelly, a really cool post about Parkour, a really cool sport.

My favorite is Kelly’s quote to wrap the post:

Gives me chills. My entire girlhood, my entire life, might have been so different in so many ways if I’d had any of this when I needed self-confidence, when I needed to be living in and learning my body rather than being so wary of it. Oh, the possibilities.

And with some practice…walls become ladders and obstacles disappear….

The underlying metaphor of Parkour that obstacles aren’t always obstacles and anything is possible.

If you have a child, please teach them this. Parkour is one good way to do so.

Stacking dominoes

June 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Remember stacking dominoes as a kid? As long as you stack them close enough together, they’ll all fall down because they are the same size and weight.

Think of your competing priorities & projects as dominoes that are not the same size. Some are much larger and heavier. Some are smaller and lighter.

If you stack them in the right order, the momentum from the completion of one tips the others. But if you stack the smallest dominoes first, they won’t tip the larger ones. You’ll be stuck.

Will one successful product launch fund the next three?

Will one critical sale help close the next ten?

Lay out all your projects. Identify competing priorities. Determine how to stack them so that the success of the first sets off a chain reaction.

Stack the dominoes. Then focus manically on tipping the first one.

Hit 'em where they ain't

April 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment

The first time I heard this advice from my Dad, he was teaching me (a right hander) to bat left handed. At the time, I was still young enough and naive enough to think that he invented the phrase.

In fact it was coined by Wee Willie Keeler, a great hitter in the late 1800′s and early 1900′s, a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, and at 140 pounds and maybe 5 feet, 4 inches, one of the smallest players ever in professional baseball.

The point is, you can hit the ball hard but if you hit it right at someone, it’s a likely out. Alternatively, you can hit the ball softly, but if you place it between fielders, it’s a sure hit.

It’s true in baseball and it’s true in business.

Sam Walton opened his first store in Rogers, Arkansas. The second store was in Harrison, Arkansas, population 6000. His eighth store was his first outside of Arkansas, in the thriving metropolis of Sikeston, Missouri. Sam hit ‘em where KMart and Woolworth weren’t. By the time he has expanded to the same markets as the leaders, Wal-Mart had the profits, growth and momentum to compete, and eventually crush KMart and Woolworth.

Before you buy a plane ticket to Arkansas, understand that “where they ain’t” doesn’t necessarily mean geography. In the 1950s and 1960s, Joe Flom hit ‘em where they weren’t by taking on the work that the traditional, white-shoe law firms disdained: litigation and proxy fights. By helping position his law firm, Skadden Arps as M&A specialists, Flom and his partners dominated when relaxed federal regulations and the internationalization of markets in the 1970s resulted in a boom in the number and size of corporate takeovers. By carving out the niche and doing the work nobody wanted to, when the tidal wave hit, Flom and his partners were the default experts. Being experts in the complex world of M&A allowed Skadden Arps to spread into every area of old-line work and by 1989 had gross revenues of $517.5 million dollars, making them at the time, the world’s richest law firm.

Whether geography or area of focus, listen to Wee Willie Keeler and hit ‘em where they ain’t.