Walt Hampton, J.D.

Creating the Work & Life You LOVE

WHERE Are The Exits?

by Walt | Mar 13, 2014 | Success | 0 Comments

I sat in the aisle seat and watched as the flight attendant regurgitated the safety brief I’d heard hundreds (thousands?) of times before.

As a professional speaker, I fly quite a bit for business, and I make a point to tune in to each safety brief. You just never know if it might be necessary.

“This Boeing 737-800 is equipped with eight emergency exits, located…”

As I listened to the safety brief, I noticed the blissful ignorance of the people around me. The sporting goods sales rep from Dallas studied the sports section of USA Today. The retired couple from Sacramento had their noses buried in the public library loaners of Louis L’Amour and Daniel Steele. The college dorm mates scarfed Egg McMuffins and nodded their heads to the tunes pouring from the earbuds of their phones. A newlywed couple gazed longingly at each other, whispering playfully their plans for the honeymoon suite in Aruba that awaited them just hours away.

And all the while, not one of them had a clue where the emergency exits were relative to their seats. They had no exit strategy.

Perhaps, like most people, they were hoping for—no, counting on—someone else to guide them to safety “in the unlikely event of an emergency”. And at the conclusion of an uneventful flight, most would likely stand up, faces fixated on their smartphones, and blindly follow one another out the same door through which they entered the plane in the first place.

In that moment, it hit me; that is the default posture most people take in life.

Everyday, we hustle from one commitment to the next, oblivious to what goes on around us. We detach as often as we can, soothed by our Facebook feeds or the latest episode of reality TV, anything to distract us from the true realities of life. We operate as if tomorrow will surely come, and when it does, the exits will be clearly marked for our smooth transition to the next stage of life.

I find this alarming in many ways. How often do we consider our own exit strategies, especially from the parts of life we just kind of…tolerate? What would we do in the ‘unlikely event of a (life/career) emergency’?

Now, this is not meant as a trip down Doom and Gloom Lane, simply a wake up call to those of us who consider ourselves the architects of our own life masterpiece. And as any good architect will tell you, as important as beauty and style is to the design of an elegant building, the fire exits and egress points are just as essential.

It’s easy to wrap our heads around the necessity of sitting down with a financial planner to map out the road to retirement, or an estate planner to draft the instructions of how to allocate all our stuff after we pass on.

But what can we do if we look around at the life we are living and don’t exactly love what we see? Should we ‘hang in there’ or should we start looking for over-wing exits? To gain clarity on this, consider the following questions:

What if ‘this’ disappeared tomorrow and I had what I truly wanted? By ‘this’ I mean a career, business, relationship or habit pattern or anything else that no longer serves us or fuels our passion. All too often we fall asleep at metaphorical wheel because we take for granted the fragility of life. What would your life look like if that low-performance career suddenly got a turbo-boost? What if you fell in love with your business again? What if that nagging relationship either turned around or ended forever? What if you finally—courageously—stepped away from the habits and beliefs that hold you back from your factory-installed awesomeness? Perhaps it’s time to envision your life full of the things and people you adore, as opposed to the crap you tolerate and abhor.

What would my hero do? It is easy to look to others for inspiration, but what about being your own hero? In his recent Academy Awards acceptance speech for Best Actor, Matthew Macconaughey described how, in order to give his best each day, he needs “someone to chase”. For Macconaughey, that person is himself in 10 years. He idolizes nobody; instead, he draws inspiration from the idea that he is growing and refining into the best version of himself each day. Ask yourself what that person would do today to become the person you intend to become tomorrow.

Where do I really want to be? Ah, now this is the question of the millennium. So often, we either focus on what we don’t want or expend so much time and energy ignoring the pain of that stuff that we never get around to truly living. My intent is to illuminate for you the possibilities of living a life well-lived now, rather than “someday”. Life is way too short to tolerate anything less, my friend.

It’s rare that we consider an exit strategy from the draining parts of life that we barely turn a distracted eye to. If you are tolerating anything that doesn’t serve your higher purpose or isn’t steering you down the path you were called to walk, start orienting yourself to the emergency exits now. The Captain has turned on the ‘fasten seat belts’ sign, and you are cleared for takeoff.

Fly High, Fly Fast, Fly Far.
~JT

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JT DeBolt is an international keynote speaker, executive success coach, and the award-winning author of Flight Plan To Success: Seal the Win Before You Begin And Accomplish Any Goal. A veteran of the US Navy, JT served 12 years on active duty, working his way from enlisted aircraft mechanic to combat decorated Naval Aviator. Learn more at www.FlightPlanToSuccess.com.

Success. It’s Just Not Worth It.

by Walt | Mar 6, 2014 | Success | 1 Comment

So why do you want success? Why do you want to achieve your goals? What’s in it for you?

There’s a new Cadillac ad. It’s really troubling. It suggests that success is about working hard so that we can get expensive toys… but that there’s really no time to enjoy them… because we need to work hard to get expensive toys.

Buckle up and take a ride:

This is a sad reflection of our weary, hollow culture. Success measured by how busy we are… how many hours we work… how hard we labor… how few days off we take… how little time we spend in joy… .

Success measured by the number of victims we leave on the battlefield of achievement, as collateral damage; by the sacrifices we make of our very selves.

Is this really what success is all about?

Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post, says that “[S]uccess as we’ve defined it is no longer sustainable. It’s not sustainable for human beings; it’s not sustainable for the planet.”

Success is not just money and power, Huffington suggests. There is, she says, a ‘third metric,’ of success; one comprised of ‘well-being, wisdom, wonder and giving back.’

One that honors spaciousness, mindfulness, reflection, relationship and joy.

Huffington’s commencement address at Smith College was a call to arms:

If we ‘succeed’ at the expense of our families, our friends, our emotional health, our physical health, our spiritual health and our environment, what have we succeeded at?

Success, at it’s core, is the highest and best expression of our selves in the world. It is reflected in the way in which we share our unique gifts; the lives we touch, the hearts we heal, the impact we make, and the legacy we leave behind.

It is living fully and loving deeply. With purpose and passion. It is measured not by what we hold back, not be what we accumulate, but by what we give.

It is showing up every day with a servant’s heart. Playing full out. Holding nothing back. Leaving it all on the field.

It is about reveling in the joy of Creation and an abundant Universe.

Success by any other definition is just not worth it.

N’est-ce pas?

Start. Just Start.

by Walt | Feb 27, 2014 | Leadership, Success | 1 Comment

Starting out, even when things aren’t perfect, even when conditions aren’t quite right, is one of the most important of all success strategies. Because, the truth is, that for most endeavors, conditions are never really quite right.

I thought about this success principle as I stood high above the trees looking out on one of the most magnificent vistas imaginable.

The day hadn’t started out suggesting that such a moment might be possible.

Indeed, long before the alarm would go off, I could hear the rain beating against the roof of the motel: a cold, heavy February rain in the White Mountains of northern New Hampshire.

I pulled the blankets up and rolled over in the darkness, sure that it was way too snotty to even consider venturing out.

Two hours later, we sat at the Dunkin Donuts. Our climbing packs were packed; the gear was ready. And the rain continued to pour… just freezing as it hit the surface. Nothing suggested even remotely that it was a good idea to strap on snowshoes or crampons and disappear for a day into a range that routinely and indiscriminately likes to kill its visitors.

A half mile from the trailhead, the rain tapered to a light mist. The temperatures were mild. The wind light. And, before the day was out, the sun poked through the clouds. It was a glorious fun-filled satisfying day on one of my very favorite mountains in the world.

It would have been easy to stay in bed.

Now I am not suggesting that you should be reckless; or act without thinking; or start out unprepared; or not consider contingencies.

But that’s not the challenge that most people face.

Most folks when they’re thinking about starting out on a project – a new career or business, a book, a fitness program, a product launch, a new relationship – want to wait until everything is in place, until conditions are perfect, the set-up ideal. Life is not like that (in case you haven’t noticed). Conditions are never ideal; all of the pieces are never in place.

You’ve gotta start out… and see what happens.

Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”

Imperfect action is still action; imperfect progress is still progress. And sometimes when you start out – in fact more often than not – conditions turn in your favor. It’s as if the Universe recognizes your boldness and says, “Ah ha, she’s serious;” “Hmm, I guess he means it this time.”

You are rewarded for your audacity, for your courage; and for your faith: Faith in the abundance of a benevolent Universe; faith in the knowing that you will always find the path; faith in the power of your own inner strength.

Brené Brown writes, “Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.” “Be brave with your life,” she says, “so that others can be brave with theirs.”

You have gifts that the world needs desperately. Conditions will never feel ‘right’ to venture out with them.

You need to start anyway.

Yes You: An Olympic Champion

by Walt | Feb 20, 2014 | Success | 0 Comments

The gym is nearly empty again. And the runners with their new gear have mostly disappeared.

It’s the middle of February. How are you doing on your 2014 goals and resolutions?

Statistically, only a small percentage of the population bothers to make New Year’s resolutions anymore. And of those who do, most abandon the effort by right about now.

You see, life is just way too crazy busy… and even with the best of intentions, it’s easy to slide back into the ‘old ways.’ That book that you had so wanted to write, that new product you were going to drive to market, that new business that you planned to launch, the new job you were going to apply for, your sales calls that you had planned to boost, the weight you said you were going to lose, that fitness program… all back on the shelf again.

“Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans,” John Lennon once said.

And it sure is easy to get distracted.

Frankly, that’s one of the reasons that I so appreciate our coaches (we have 2)… not even considering their perspective, their mentorship, and the resources they provide, the accountability piece is HUGE… staying on track… staying the course… even in times of turbulence and change.

Someone to hold our feet to the fire!

And watching the impact that coaching has in the lives of our own coaching clients – seeing the things that can be accomplished – is nothing short of amazing: businesses, books, health & wellness, new relationships, exciting new careers. It is powerfully transformative and deeply satisfying work.

Peak performers all have coaches… in the arts, in business and in finance… Every Olympic athlete… If you truly want to up your game, if you truly want to accomplish your most cherished goals and dreams, then dial in a coach. It will make all the difference. It certainly has in our lives.

And by the way, if you have fallen off course, no worries. Did you know that a plane flying from San Francisco to Honolulu is off course MOST of the time… but it still gets there because of constant course correction? You can do that too!

Every day is a new day. Every day the chance to begin again.

And the opportunity to grab the gold.

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Email me if you’d like to explore how coaching might transform your life!

[email protected]

Road Blocks & Hula Hoops

by Walt | Feb 13, 2014 | Success | 0 Comments

“I need to do some research on the market.”

“I need another certification.”

“I need to build a website.”

“I’m not sure of my target audience.”

“I think there’s a seminar I should take first.”

“I’m still a bit unclear about my message.”

“I don’t really know what to start writing about.”

“I’ve never spoken to a group before.”

“I’m too young.”

“I don’t have enough experience.”

“I think I might be too old.”

And on and on and on…

In the course of my coaching, I hear them all. Every single one of them.

The excuses we all create for not beginning, for not starting out, for not taking action. The obstacles we set up; the hurdles we drag out; the hoops we think we need to jump through .

We do this because we are afraid.

We fear that we are not enough. We fear ridicule and condescension. We fear failure. We fear success.

It’s easier to stay put, stay safe.

It’s easier to pretend. It’s easier to be ‘busy’ doing things that we tell ourselves are ‘conditions’ for taking action… rather than really taking action.

Rather than risking.

If it looks important and sounds important it surely must be important.

Maybe we can fool the world. But not ourselves.

In staying safe, we’re playing small.

And the world so desperately needs those gifts that are yours alone to give: your writing, your speaking, your coaching, your art, your service, your teaching, your product, your ideas.

By taking action, you will find your direction, discover your voice, clarify your vision, define your mission.

By taking action, you will draw to you opportunities and resources and people who will support you.

By taking action, you will discern what you really need to sustain you on your journey.

By taking action, you will learn what works well and what needs to be tweaked.

By taking action, even when you fail from time to time, you will move closer to your goals.

You could stay put (safe) for the next six months… and be nowhere in the direction of your dreams in six month’s time. Or you could start out on your desired path, fully fail for half the time… and be well along toward what you truly want.

There are enough real obstacles that will rise up along the way.

You need not create any of your own.

Build it, discover it, create it, refine it… Do it on the go.

Don’t wait. There’s nothing else you need to do.

And there is no time to waste.

Start. Today.