Walt, Author at Walt Hampton, J.D.

No One Likes To Suck

by Walt | Feb 27, 2020 | Success | 0 Comments

No one likes to suck.

I know I don’t.

Except that sucking is a condition precedent for growth… it’s especially necessary when learning new things.

Not wanting to suck is the single biggest impediment to creating the life you really want.

You’re an accomplished professional. You know your shit. You strut your stuff.

And you like that.

Trying new things is… risky… uncomfortable… and you worry that you’ll be seen as “less than.”

But…

Whether it be building a new career or business, launching a product or program, learning new tech, writing a book, or creating a keynote…

Whether it be training for a marathon, learning to ice climb or ballroom dance, or getting on a surfboard for the very first time…

You need to be bad to get good.

The discomfort, the fear of being a beginner again, is the killer of dreams.

Embrace the suck.

The Unpleasantness Index

by Walt | Feb 20, 2020 | Success | 1 Comment

We’ve invented a new index. We use it often. You can too.

We call it the Unpleasantness Index. UI for short.

It has many applications.

When the UI is high, it’s essential that you re-connect with the “why” of what you’re doing. It has to really matter. Without a sufficient “why,” the UI will stop you in your tracks.

“Today I will do what others won’t so tomorrow I can do what others can’t,” Jerry Rice once said.

Push through the UI

Run Forrest Run

by Walt | Feb 13, 2020 | Success | 0 Comments

You can run. But you can’t hide.

Well… actually you can hide. But that doesn’t usually work out very well.

Busy isn’t better.

Less is actually more.

Kind of a paradox… like jumbo shrimp.

But a paradox worth exploring.

Better Than An Affair or a Ferrari

by Walt | Feb 6, 2020 | Success | 1 Comment

“In the middle of the journey of our life, I found myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost,” Dante wrote.

It’s easy to get lost.

It’s easy to go missing in action… especially in the middle of the journey of your life.

The answer isn’t an affair… or a Ferrari.

The answer is within.

The heart knows.

The heart always knows.

Connect there.

Experience the Experience

by Walt | Jan 30, 2020 | Success | 0 Comments

Do you experience the experiences of your life?

Or… are you just a spectator?

Or… worse yet… are you just missing out entirely?

(Danger lurks.)

With so much coming at you all of the time, with so many demands and distractions, it’s easy to lose the capacity to focus…

Only to lose connection with the moment… this one and only moment.

And… miss the moment.

The entirety of your life consists of a series of moments, the poet Emily Dickinson wrote. “Forever is composed of moments.”

You miss the moment at your peril; to your detriment.

Because as Annie Dillard writes, “What is important is the moment of opening a life and feeling it touch–with an electric hiss and cry–this speckled mineral sphere, our present world.”

The present is called the present because it’s a present… and really the only one we have.

Practice experiencing the experiences of your life.

Be in this moment.