Welcome to my blog

Grow & Scale A Business That Will Set You Free

Punched In The Face

by Walt | Jan 5, 2023 | Success | 0 Comments

What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
Mary Oliver

“I’m excited to take one in the face,” the Chief Strategy Officer said.

His New Years Resolution? To get into a fistfight. In the office.

WTF?

The Wall Street Journal cites a disturbing thread in the “back to office” conversation: Leaders and managers who want to dial up the heat.

More demands, tighter deadlines, greater intensity.

Rewarding face time, ambition and drive at the expense of sanity, space and balance.

Seriously?

Have we learned nothing?

Many leaders came out of the pandemic with an understanding that the hustle culture was broken. That the way most organizations worked didn’t really work. That there was a better way, a more sustainable way.

The Great Resignation, Quiet Quitting, and the challenges of recruiting and retaining really good talent seemed to punctuate these hard-learned lessons.

But then inflation spiked and recession loomed; layoffs ensured.

Some in leadership saw this as an opportunity to return to the good old days.

Don’t get sucked back in.

You are the co-creator of this gift that is your life.

You get to create the work and the life that brings you joy.

Plan well this “one wild and precious life.”

_______________________________________________________

Want help creating a new plan? We have an amazing team of coaches who can help. Email me and we’ll set up a no-obligation call: [email protected]

And stop by for a visit at: https://summit-success.com/

Manifesting BS

by Walt | Dec 29, 2022 | Success | 0 Comments

Are you manifesting a bright New Year?

A 2023 Tesla?

A marathon-ready body?

Dollars instead of crypto in your bank account?

I hope not.

Oh, sure, manifesting is “in.” Hashtag trending, in fact!

Indeed, you needn’t look far. The purveyors of manifesting challenges and courses are lining up and standing by to swipe your card.

For 37 bucks and a few minutes a day, you can (finally) learn to do it “right.

Would that it were that easy.

It’s not.

I’ve built five successful businesses from scratch. Each one took time and a dirty four-letter word: Work.

Twice I’ve run the Grand Canyon from rim to rim to rim. Both times required months of discipline and training.

I’ve stood on some of the highest summits in the world. All of them have required meticulous preparation, and skills honed over decades.

None of it involved manifesting.

So here’s my invitation to you as you stand on the threshold of 2023: Be a creator, not a manifester.

Leave the manifesting to those who have 21 days (or more) to waste, hoping that something will turn up.

Decide what it is you really want in the year ahead. Create a concrete actionable plan that will get you there; and then start. Take small consistent steps toward your goal every single day.

Perhaps it’s finding a different job; launching a new program; building a new business; searching for the love of your life; running your first 10k. (Or maybe it is working toward a Tesla!)

Whatever it is, begin it. “Boldness has genius, power and magic in it,” Goethe wrote.

Will you falter? Will you stumble? Might you fail?

Yup.

But keep your focus on your vision; keep your focus on what’s working. What you focus on you’ll see.

Will it be easy?

Not likely. Things that are worthwhile usually aren’t.

But, as Jim Rohn once said, “Don’t wish it was easier wish you were better. Don’t wish for less problems wish for more skills. Don’t wish for less challenge wish for more wisdom.”

Cathedrals are built one stone at a time.

Stay steady; stay the course.

You are the co-creator of this magnificent gift that is your life.

Be that creator.

Happy New Year.

_______________________________________________________

Want help co-creating your 2023? Email me and we’ll set up a no-obligation strategy call: [email protected]

And stop by for a visit at: https://summit-success.com/

Are You Naughty Or Nice

by Walt | Dec 22, 2022 | Success | 0 Comments

Make your list; and check it twice.

Decide what’s naughty… and what’s nice.

I’m not talking about your Christmas list or your holiday card list or your To-Do list.

No, I’m talking about your most important list of all: your Stop Doing List.

We get caught up in the myriad tasks we have; we lose ourselves in the vortex. We forget that, as Mark Devine, author of The Way of the Seal, says, there are really only a few “high value” targets.

Think Pareto. Old Vilfredo was an economist. He was also a gardener. One day, Pareto looked out at his peas and made a stunning discovery: 20% of his peapods had 80% of the peas. Well Pareto, being the intellectual that he was, decided to explore whether this ratio could be found in areas other than his garden. And lo, the Pareto Principle, also know as the 80/20 rule, was born.

Here’s what’s true: 20% of your clients lead to 80% of your profits; 20% of your products are responsible for 80% of your revenues; 20% of your team is responsible for 80% of sales; 20% of your efforts yield 80% of your outcomes. (And, oh, by the way: 20% of your customers cause 80% of your headaches!)

So why not focus on that significant 20%… and chuck the rest?

Think back over the last year. There are certain efforts that didn’t yield any measurable results. Stop doing them. There were certain networking functions that didn’t yield any real viable leads. Stop going to them. There were certain customers that were way too high maintenance (or dangerous) to work with. Stop working with them.

Now think back through this holiday season: There were certain gatherings you went to that left you wondering why you ever went. Don’t go back next year. There were certain functions that left you feeling drained and down. Don’t do them again. There were certain toxic, soul-sucking people that were just unpleasant to be around. Stay away from them!

Just because you’ve done something before doesn’t mean that you should keep on doing it.

Stop running around giving everything the same level of import.

Focus on what matters most. Focus on what’s high value.

Apply Pareto. Ruthlessly.

Make your Stop Doing List. Today.

I’d hate to have to send you coal.

Turn Again

by Walt | Dec 15, 2022 | Success | 1 Comment

Because I know that time is always time
And place is always and only place
And what is actual is actual only for one time
And only for one place
I rejoice that things are as they are and
I renounce the blessed face
And renounce the voice
Because I cannot hope to turn again
Consequently I rejoice, having to construct something
Upon which to rejoice.
— T.S. Eliot

It’s dark. Really dark. And cold.

The sun, even when it comes up, skitters across the southern horizon. And then disappears.

Yet, next week, on December 21st, we celebrate the light.

It is the turning point.

From the very earliest of times, before tribe or tradition, we have confronted the darkness with trepidation – the darkness of the night, the darkness of our souls – and railed against it. Through liturgy and ritual and celebration, we connected with the ancient rhythms of the earth to welcome light – and hope – back into the world.

For a fraction of a moment next week, the earth will stop – and shift on its axis – and turn again toward the sun.

It is the turning point.

In the busyness of your frantic, constantly connected and over-stimulated lives, you can miss this moment. It is easy to forget why you run around and string lights and light candles and wrap presents and gather together – and in the process end up empty and depleted and sad.

It is easy to forget why we celebrate.

We celebrate the light. We celebrate in the deep knowing that the light always returns. We celebrate that the light always triumphs over the darkness.

Take a moment to stop this week. Reconnect with the ground – and with the Ground of All Being. Feel the earth turn back to the sun, back to the light.

It is the turning point.

Then decide.

What will you turn toward in the days and months ahead? What light will you discover in your life? What light will you shine in the lives of others?

Be that light.

And celebrate.

It is the turning point.

In The Vortex

by Walt | Dec 8, 2022 | Success | 2 Comments

It’s December, and you’re being pulled into the vortex of time. The maelstrom is all around you! Can you feel it?

After Halloween, the year just seems to accelerate. After Thanksgiving, the days move forward at warp speed. The commitments and the demands and the lists and the expectations and the projects that need to be done – have to get done – before the end of the year seem to mount logarithmically. And then there are the card lists and the gift lists and the shopping and the school concerts and the holiday parties… .

In many professions, there are the added pressures of pulling in the receivables and closing the deals by year’s end.

What to do?

Wrong question.

The question is what not to do.

The way out of the vortex – the only way – is the simplest and the hardest thing of all. The only way out is to say “no.”

Saying “no” is not news and it’s not rocket science. All of the leadership and success books will tell you that it is fundamental to your sanity and, paradoxically, a key to your productivity and goal achievement.

Success Magazine suggests that, “People could improve their mental and physical health as well as their relationships by carving out a portion of their day to do nothing.”

Jack Canfield in his book The Success Principals recommends creating a “stop-doing”or “don’t do” list. (My favorite list!)

I invited a colleague to a program I was hosting. Her response: “Thank you. But I ‘don’t do’ evening commitments.” (Those are pretty clear boundaries, I thought!)

But, why is saying “no” so hard?

Well, most of us are conditioned from very early on that “no” is not the “right” answer. As time goes on, you also begin to layer on your own assumptions – whether true or not – about what others expect of you.

Sometimes, I suspect, saying “yes” is just a habit. (I said yes to a commitment recently without even stopping to realize I would be out of the country during the time I’d committed!)

And yes, isn’t there is a healthy dose of narcissistic self-importance that loves to believe that somehow your presence is essential or that you are the only one who can do something?

So as the vortex swirls, I’m working on saying “no” more often.

I’ve started by asking myself whether a project or an invitation is one that I “should” do or accept rather than one I “want” to do or accept. I’m working at eliminating the “shoulds.”

(Note to self: Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.)

Saying no to the non-essential allows you to be more fully present to what is most important. By doing less, you can pay closer attention to what is essential. And as The Little Prince reminds us, “what is essential is invisible to the eye.” It takes time to see.

The Carmelite monk William McNamara writes, “We are not really practical, and we shall get nowhere, we shall never find life, life will escape us, unless we learn not to always be bustling about – unless we learn to be still, to let things happen around us, to wait, listen, receive, contemplate.”

“One final word on the subject of time,” McNamara says:

“I suggest that we stop doing half the work that presently consumes us. Then let us attend to the remaining half wholeheartedly, with contemplative vision and creative love. I stake the authenticity of our lives and the effectiveness of our work on this radical shift.”

I described the vortex to a colleague as a giant flushing toilet bowl.

Not a great place to end up.

____________________________________________________________________

Go HERE for 7 simple practices that will make life a whole lot saner.