Walt Hampton, J.D.

Creating the Work & Life You LOVE

(Ig)Noble Choice

by Walt | May 5, 2011 | Journeys | 0 Comments

In every moment, the power to choose is ours alone.

This probably doesn’t surprise you. I have always been intrigued by the question: “Where does the white go when the snow melts?”

Kind of like the question: “Where is yesterday?”

I celebrate my birthday this week. There are more than a few yesterdays. But they’re all gone.

Today is all there is.

What will we do with today?

It is easy to muddle through, get by, hang in there. It is easy to do the same thing day after day. It is hard to constantly level up, play full out, live like there’s no tomorrow. (Because there might not be.)

How ephemeral a day. One melding into another until they are a kaleidoscope of indistinguishable memories.

What happens is this: We are constantly barraged by both the urgent and the important. The urgent screams loudest; we give it its due. But when the day is done, the important has been left by the curb.

We are inundated by emails and voicemails and faxes and Facebook and Twitter. We are driven by other people’s emergencies; the agendas of others rather than our own. We are directed from without rather than from within.

And another day passes us by.

There is such a tendency to sacrifice ourselves on the altar of other people’s demands; to sacrifice our own hopes and dreams for the hopes and dreams of others. It is in the name of selflessness, service and social responsibility. It is noble, we are told.

I say it’s not.

We cannot serve when we are broken and depleted. We cannot help when we are empty. We give our best to the world only when we are whole and happy and filled with joy.

When we choose in favor of what brings us joy, we bring our highest and best selves to the world. Our gifts shine brightly. Everyone is enriched. Everyone wins.

To do this requires exactly that: that we choose. Hard choices sometimes. Unpopular ones. (But, default means another day bites the dust.)

The mission: to choose what changes up the game in our lives such that we live with courage and audacity and brilliance. The challenge, every day, to choose what is mighty, what is important, what makes a difference.

The challenge, in every moment, to burn with passion. And live with joy.

To choose well.

Will you do this today? Before it’s yesterday?

Do You Suffer From VCS?

by Walt | Apr 28, 2011 | Journeys | 1 Comment

Headaches? Hypertension? Loss of appetite? Sexual atrophy? Anxiety? Sadness? Frustration? Erectile dysfunction?

You may be suffering from VCS. Yes, Vacuum Cleaner Syndrome.

You know when you have VCS when you’re in a situation and suddenly realize that “it just sucks.”

No need to ask your doctor about it. Most of them are clueless.

Usually, there’s no explanation for VCS.

Sometimes things, or entire days, just suck.

I learned this lesson long ago as a distance runner. I’d go out for a 10 mile run and feel great. Two days later, I’d go out for a 5 mile trot, and it would suck. A day later, it would all flow again.

No rhyme. No reason. Just as quickly as it came on, VCS would dissipate.

But I seem to need to remind myself of this lesson over and over again: every occurrence of VCS is not an emergency, it’s not a disaster.

Last week, I hit a road block in my writing. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t write my way through. I began to tell myself that I was a horrible writer, that everything that I had ever written was terrible, that I would never write anything worthwhile ever again, that I would be devoid of inspiration forever more.

The next morning, I finished the chapter in about 10 minutes.

It was just VCS.

Who knows why certain efforts suck. The legendary Jim Rohn would have said that they’re simply a mystery of the mind. They just are.

Here’s the scoop. Our only job is to show up. Every day. No matter what. Just show up.

George Leonard once wrote, “The master is the one who stays on the path day after day, year after year. The master is one who is willing to try and fail, and try again, for as long as he or she lives.”

We cannot wait for the muse. We cannot wait for inspiration. We cannot wait for the day that we “feel” like exercising, running, writing, painting or doing what needs to be done. We just need to do it. Whether it sucks or not.

When we show up every day and do the work, even when it sucks, remarkable things happen. Books get written, art gets made, careers take off, relationships are deepened.

We don’t see it when our faces are in it. Some days, all that we can see is that it sucks. But when we gaze back over a horizon of time, we can see that, just by the act of showing up, we have created a masterpiece.

So next time you suffer from VCS, consider FAI: forgetaboutit. Tomorrow will be better.

Bread Crumbs

by Walt | Apr 21, 2011 | Journeys | 0 Comments

Are you excited to get up in the morning? Do you bolt out of bed, ready to greet the day with joy and expectation? If not, you may be off course.

Steve Jobs, Apple’s billionaire founder, says this: “Each morning I look in the mirror and ask myself this question: If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today? And whenever the answer is no for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”

We are called to live with purpose and passion and possibility. We are called to live with joy. These are the greatest gifts we can give to the world. These are the greatest gifts we can give to one another.

We can only live these gifts, we can only live with this intensity, when we live our dreams.

Time is not kind when it comes to dreams. Life gets in the way. We lose sight of what is really important to us; what really matters. And before we know it, the sands have run through the glass.

Sometimes during a presentation or keynote, when I’m talking about how essential it is to follow our dreams, how necessary it is to be true to our passions, I’m met with blank stares. Folks can’t remember.

Long ago, we knew what sparked our imaginations, quickened our hearts, left us breathless with excitement. But then there were responsibilities, jobs to do, bills to pay, children to raise, houses to clean, yards to rake. Other commitments.

And we forget.

So how do we remember?

Ask yourself these questions:

What rocks your world?

What are you passionate about?

What jazzes you? What excites you?

What did you once love? What did you once dream of doing?

What makes time stand still? Where do you lose yourself?

What’s fun for you?

What would you do no matter what?

If money weren’t an issue, how would you spend your day?

The answers to these questions will lead you back to your dreams.

And then it’s time to act.

When Directions Fail You

by Walt | Apr 17, 2011 | Journeys | 4 Comments

Sometimes we think that asking for help makes us look weak. It doesn’t.

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As mavericks, messengers and audacious creators, our journeys can be challenging. Go ahead and ask for help. And lend a helping hand.

Lord of the Flies

by Walt | Apr 14, 2011 | Journeys | 1 Comment

The prisons we create are our own. We are both the jailers and the jailed.

I am the Lord of the Flies.

Don’t get excited. It’s not a good thing.

Transformational leader John Assaraf tells this story: One summer day, he passed by a window and saw a fly buzzing against the glass. A short time later, he saw the fly still buzzing against the glass. When he returned a few hours later, the sound was gone. He looked down on the sill and saw dozens of dead flies.

What was remarkable, he noted, was that a short distance away, there was an open window.

How often I am that fly: butting up against the same obstacle, over and over again; failing to see the possibilities of another way.

I so resonate with that old definition of insanity: doing the same futile thing again and again, expecting a different result.

This is certainly true in climbing. Sometimes in the mountains when the way seems so much harder than described, it means I’m “off route.” If I were simply to retreat a bit, to get back on the route, then the climbing would become easier. But often I have just muscled on, convinced that my way was the way. Failing to see the other way.

It’s true in most of life as well: Work problems, client challenges, kid issues, relational stuff, home improvement projects, and artistic endeavors. The solutions are often nearer than near if we but open our minds (and our hearts) to the possibilities.

Working recently with a remarkably talented creative team, I spent several hours brainstorming new ideas for an exciting new project I’m working on. So linear am I in my thinking, so accustomed am I to the “necessity” of being “right,” that I literally had to give myself permission to simply toss random ideas into the universe. How exhilarating it became to explore the possibilities, to discover new ways. And how much more vibrant the project became!

I love the phrase: think outside the box. But consider this: what if there is no box?

I often envy my wonderful friends Sasha, Kit and Doreen who are so gifted with such keen intuitions and the sensitivity to read energies. Their ability “to see” is remarkable. It is so easy for me to get wrapped up, tied up, in my own “rational” head. Dan Quayle might have said: what a waste it is to have a mind.

Remember the safety pitch on the airplane? The attendants tell you about the exits. And then they remind you that the nearest one may be just behind you. Now that’s a concept!

To turn around.