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When Wrong Is Right

by Walt | Mar 24, 2016 | Success | 0 Comments

Mistakes, wrong turns, blind alleys: they are part of the adventure.

I thought about this as I paddled on into the driving rain…and darkening sky.

Hours earlier we had ventured out onto the Killarney Lakes in kayaks. Even with a map in hand, the exit from one lake to another – the route to our pick-up destination – was ‘discreet’ and difficult to find. Two or three times we missed it… paddling windward into blind cul-de-sacs, only to turn around and try again…and again.

What started out as lighthearted fun turned into a bit of an epic… as adventures sometimes do. But it was difficult to feel too sorry for ourselves wandering around as we were in the magnificence of the National Park, surrounded by mossy forests and dramatic hillsides. We were beat for sure by the time we were done. But the wrong turns had allowed us to see more and experience more and enjoy more of this incomparable beauty.

Would that we could take this perspective into other areas of our lives! We (you can read this as ‘I’ or ‘you’ or ‘someone else not me’) often get pissed off when we make mistakes that take us off our intended course, that require extra time, that take us down paths that don’t appear to lead us to our destinations straightaway. They seem to ‘cost’ us; they appear unnecessary; we consider them ‘wasteful.’

But maybe they’re just part of the adventure. Maybe they allow us a fuller experience of this wondrous journey of our lives. Maybe we might discover something new along the way… if only we might see it differently.

‘Mistakes,’ ‘and wrong turns’ led to the discovery of penicillin, the invention of the pacemaker, and the ubiquitous post-it note… to name just a few life-altering ‘ah-has’ down what might have appeared to be blind alleys.

Maybe the delay at the airport will lead to a chance meeting with your next business partner or boss. Maybe the wrong turn will lead you to the site of your new home. Maybe getting stuck in traffic will give you that rare chance to connect with your daughter, listen to a beautiful piece of music, or just be still.

Maybe these things that look like errors or wastes are really opportunities.

Yes, let’s go with that frame this week.

If I Call, Don’t Answer

by Walt | Mar 17, 2016 | Success | 0 Comments

During a job interview, a client of mine received a phone call. She answered.

A realtor friend told me that his broker expected him to answer every phone call he received regardless of what he was doing; and, in no event, should he ever take more than 9 minutes to return a call.

The general manager at the hotel we stayed at took a phone call in the middle of a conversation we were having about my reservation.

We were at one of our favorite restaurants. Five women came in and sat down at the table next to us. Every one of them pulled out their smartphones and began to talk or text.

It is the paradox of connection: that the more our technology allows us to connect, the more disconnected and fragmented we become.

Research in the field of interruption science shows that, following an interruption like a phone call, it takes us (physiologically) 25 minutes to refocus. On average, most of us experience interruptions every 11 minutes in the day. Which means that, not only do we feel like we can never catch up, we never really can.

On top of the stress and overwhelm caused living in a state of continuous partial attention, there is a huge relational cost. (You know how you feel when someone you’re with answers the phone or sneaks a look at a text.)

The young interviewee (of course) didn’t get the job. When my realtor friend takes a phone call while showing a property to a client, he dishonors both relationships. The general manager at the hotel couldn’t possibly take care of two guests at once. And the women at the table next to ours missed out on the opportunity to connect with one another.

So consider these ideas as possible ways to reconnect with yourself and those around you:

Voice mail exists for a reason. Use it

Turn your phone off when you are otherwise engaged

Don’t slap your phone down on the table at the restaurant; it tells your colleagues you’re already distracted

Don’t sleep with your phone; it’s toxic and depleting

Have a smartphone free dinner (or weekend!)

When you’re in a conversation with a client, be in that conversation. When you’re on the phone, be on the phone. When you’re with your friends and family, be with your friends and family.

Relationships fuel our businesses (and our lives). Our real presence, our complete attention: these are the most powerful gifts of our humanity.

Do one thing; and then the next. And if I call, you don’t need to answer.

I Don’t Care How You Feel

by Walt | Mar 10, 2016 | Success | 0 Comments

I had just finished speaking to a university audience on leadership and goal achievement, and had stayed on afterwards to chat with the students.

“I know exactly what I want,” my young listener proclaimed.

Looking earnest, he furled his brow. “It’s just that I don’t always feel very motivated.”

“I don’t really give a fuck what you feel,” I replied with an equal amount of furling and earnestness.

“If you know exactly what you want… and you want it badly enough, then you’ll show up every day and do what needs to be done whether you feel like it or not.”

He flinched, only slightly, as I jabbed my finger in the air for extra dramatic import: “Motivation is vastly overrated.”

And it is.

I rarely feel motivated to run, or go the the gym, or put on over mitts to go out into the arctic cold to climb. There’s not a whole lot of motivation going on when I think about driving three hours to a ski area or hoisting the kayaks onto the roof of a car. I almost never feel motivated to write. In fact, I’ve put off writing this blog until the very last moment possible, perhaps just to dramatically punctuate my own perpetual lack of motivation!

You see, motivation is flighty. It’s not dependable. It comes… and it goes. Sometimes it shows up; more often than not, it doesn’t. Even when it comes to stuff we like or want.

What’s important is the knowing. Knowing what you want. Knowing what you like. Knowing where it is you want to go. And why.

When you’re clear about your destination, when you know your outcome, then all you need to do is act. You’re pulled forward by the vision of what you will achieve. How you feel from moment to moment is irrelevant. In fact, your transitory ‘feelings’ usually just end up getting in the way.

I know how much I value my fitness and vitality over time when I run. And so I run. Whether I feel like it or not.

I know how much I love the creative process of writing and the sense of satisfaction I have when the words I have written have an impact on someone I have never even met. So I write. Whether I feel like it or not.

Get clear on what you really, really want.

Then get going. And stay at it.

In the meantime, it doesn’t really much matter how you feel.

It Happened At The Urinal

by Walt | Mar 3, 2016 | Success | 0 Comments

It was just an ordinary visit to the men’s room. For a very ordinary reason. It was a pretty nice restaurant. But I didn’t really expect that moment, that transformational experience.

There I stood at the urinal. Looking at the wall, as one does. And there on the wall… on the wall that so often contains crude drawings and classic limericks reminiscent of days gone by…was a TV monitor. Streaming one of those talk news programs. With the volume turned up.

And in that moment I realized that nearly every place of silence and solitude in our world has disappeared. Gone even from one of the most hallowed of our spaces of refuge… the bathroom.

As I went from place to place, I began to notice: televisions in grocery store lines, at convenience stores, in dining areas… even ‘upscale’ ones. Televisions everywhere.

iPads too… bolted to the middle of your table… so that you have no choice but to engage in the device rather than the person sitting on the other side from you.

Input. Constant stimulation. Everywhere. In every moment. With no means of escape. So that we are compelled to live out our existence in a state of continuous partial attention.

And in that state, we lose touch with the most precious of resources: Silence.

In the silence there is the space to think, the space to reflect, the space to create; the space to consider the core essential questions of our lives: who we want to be, how we want to serve, what we want our legacies to be.

The constant input, the overload of information, our cultural cacophony, has put in jeopardy our capacity to sit still and be still and know the beauty and the grandeur of the here and the now.

Indeed when we walk away from the input, often it induces anxiety… fear… a fear of missing out… a fear of what it might mean to be alone… alone with ourselves.

When I go home to my hillside in Ireland overlooking the sea, the silence in arresting: For a moment I wonder if my ears are broken. Then I soak in the silence. And renew. And revel in what is possible without the noise.

Seek silence. Seek the grace of solitude.

For in the silence is your power.

It was just an ordinary urinal. But an extraordinary moment.

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If you’d like strategies on how to beat the overwhelm, check out my book, The Power Principles of Time Mastery: Do Less, Make More, Have Fun. Click HERE.

Why Business Isn’t Complicated

by Walt | Feb 25, 2016 | Success | 0 Comments

A lot of entrepreneurs and business professionals live in a constant state of overwhelm.

Sure, there are lot’s of things that seem to require our time and resources in business: branding and marketing and websites and list building and lead generating and marketing and sales and fulfillment and service and bookkeeping and record keeping and…..

There are lots of things that draw our attention too: the latest landing page design, the new webinar platform, that fancy CRM.

Of course, the Internet marketers don’t want us to overlook them: that one thing that will make you money; the 6-week program that will transform your business; the 3-secrets to marketing magic; that certification that you surely shouldn’t go without.

And in the midst of all of this noise and confusion, we forget: business is about relationships. About creating, sustaining and nurturing relationships. That’s it. That’s all there is.

All things being equal, we do business with people we know, like and trust. And guess what? All things being unequal, we do business with people we know like and trust.

It’s about credibility and likability.

Think for a moment about how you yourself do business when you need a professional or service provider you can rely on. You turn to someone you know, like and trust. And if you don’t know someone that fits that bill, you turn to a colleague or friend for a referral.

Business may seem complicated. But it’s not. It’s about relationships. Start there. Keep your focus there. And everything else will fall into place.

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I teach the fastest, easiest, most reliable system for getting more clients and customers than you can handle, even if you hate marketing and selling. Using this system, 90% of entrepreneurs and professionals see a 40% increase in revenues in the first year. Email me and we’ll talk: [email protected]