Walt Hampton, J.D.

Creating the Work & Life You LOVE

I’m getting schooled

by Walt | Jul 13, 2017 | Success | 4 Comments

It’s really easy to get comfortable in our particular areas of expertise. In fact, it seems as if the more we know, the scarier it is to venture into the areas we don’t know.

We like to protect our egos. Our facades feel safe.

Not knowing is uncomfortable; humbling even.

That’s what this week’s video is about. Check it out by going here:

Be a life-long learner: That’s what will keep you vibrant and alive.

Get uncomfortable. You’ll be glad you did.
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Want some help pushing the edges? I can help. Email me: [email protected]

This One Thing Will Make You MUCH More Productive

by Walt | Jul 6, 2017 | Success | 0 Comments

This is a popular time of the year to take a vacation. Except that a lot of folks don’t.

Last year, there were about 169 million unused paid vacation days that were forfeited by U.S. workers, amounting to over 52 billion dollars in lost benefits. Forty percent of workers will leave paid vacation days unused this year.

Culturally, in many organizations, workers are explicitly or implicitly discouraged from using their vacation time. On my first day at The Big Law Firm, my mentor said to me, “You get three weeks of vacation.” And then he lowered his voice, looked me square in the eyes and said, “But no one ever takes them.”

This is dumb.

Vacations help you to:

Recharge

Refocus

Re-boot

The Huffington Post reports an internal study of Ernst and Young employees in which it was found that “for every additional 10 hours of vacation an employee took, his or her performance ratings went up by 8 percent — nearly 1 percent per day of vacation. That means companies where employees are leaving two and three and four weeks of vacation on the table are foregoing an enormous productivity boost.”

Tony Schwartz, CEO of the Energy Project, says that “the best way to get more done may be to spend more time doing less.”

We know that, in athletics and physical training, rest and recovery are keys to peak performance. For some reason, though, we pretend that this principle is not applicable to our work lives. So we just keep on going like hamsters on a wheel; which results in stress, burnout and poor productivity.

When you take a vacation – a real vacation (yes, that means away from the tether of your computer and your smartphone) – you come back rested, refreshed and ready to take on the world.

So go.

And if you decide to forfeit your days, please give them to me. I promise that I’ll put them to good use.

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Want some tips to help you become less busy? Download your free guide HERE.

More In The Next 90

by Walt | Jun 29, 2017 | Success, Uncategorized | 0 Comments

The 90 day planning process is one of the most powerful tools we know for creating exponential growth in your business. While the process is not a complicated one, it does require that you step out of your business and get crystal clear on what you want to create in the next quarter (and beyond). And that can be the big stumbling block for so many entrepreneurs. It’s a challenge even for us.

We’d love to support you in the next 90-days and beyond. Consider applying for the Summit Mastermind, a community of like-minded entrepreneurs and business professionals on the road to excellence who want for your success.

Go HERE now to apply.

Stuck In The Weeds

by Walt | Jun 29, 2017 | Success | 0 Comments

You don’t need more genius. You need less resistance.
— Seth Godin

I love the high summits. I can see forever.

I love to feel the wind on my face, revel in the exaltation, bask in the sense of accomplishment. Weeks, months, sometimes years of effort, wrapped up into a single glorious moment.

But most of my time isn’t spent on the summits. It’s spent in the valleys.

And in the weeds.

I got to the end of last week feeling frustrated and exhausted. Despondent even.

I had done everything right. I had done my weekly planning, my daily goal setting. I had mapped out my most important tasks. Yet, when the week was done, all that I could say was that I had been “busy.” I hadn’t moved the dial on the projects that mattered most: the ones that would change up the game, the ones that would truly make a difference.

I had avoided them.

(Even after writing last week’s blog, I failed to make the choices that really counted.)

Why?

“Everyone has a little voice inside their head that’s angry and afraid,” writes Seth Godin. “That voice is resistance – your lizard brain – and it wants you to be average (and safe).”

My friend and mentor, Patrick Combs, says, we don’t identify sufficiently the Immediate Impact Possibilities: the truly significant tasks that have the potential to light our lives on fire. Instead, out of fear, out of habit, and yes, out of resistance, we get caught in the repetitive cycle of minutia. And stay stuck.

The great thought leader John Assaraf goes a step further. He suggests that resistance may be physiological, biochemical. He says that he could provide an audience an exact blueprint for making five times more money. And most of the audience wouldn’t follow it. He says that when presented with an idea that has the potential to move us outside our comfort zones, the cybernetic mechanism in our brains releases a chemical that triggers a thought that allows us to rationalize why we’re ok just where we are: no more, no less.

Resistance may be hard-wired. How scary and depressing is that.

But thankfully we’re not lizards. We still get to choose.

“Real artists ship,” says Steve Jobs. By artists he means all of us: writers, speakers, artists, poets, experts, thought leaders, mavericks, creators, dreamers. People of Might.

Shipping means getting the work done. Getting it out the door. Moving it out into the world. Come hell or high water.

Godin writes, “Shipping isn’t focused on producing a masterpiece (but all masterpieces get shipped). I’ve produced more than a hundred books (most didn’t sell very well), but if I hadn’t, I’d never have had the chance to write this one. Picasso painted more than a thousand paintings, and you can probably name three of them.”

“Not shipping on behalf of your goal of changing the world is often a symptom of resistance,” says Godin. “Call its bluff, ship always, then change the world.”

Only the work that ships matters.

Do the work. Ship the work. Do some more.

Resistance will always be there. But we can choose to climb above it.

Resistance works overtime “to be sure that you won’t do anything remarkable,” writes Godin.

This week, climb above the weeds. Focus on the Immediate Impact Possibilities. Dare to be remarkable.

Lizard is so last week. Don’tcha think?

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LIMITED TIME OFFER; and by application only: membership in the Summit Mastermind Community. Entrepreneurship can be a lonely go. One way to get out of the weeds and beat back resistance is to be part of a community of like-minded people who seek for excellence and want for your success. The Summit Mastermind may be that place for you. Applications accepted only until Sunday, July 2, 2017. Check it out by going HERE.

You’ll Kill It If You Water It

by Walt | Jun 22, 2017 | Success | 1 Comment

Winemakers in Châteauneuf-du-Pape must adhere to strict guidelines if they wish to present their wines to the marketplace as wines from the Châteauneuf-du-Pape region . One curious rule is that, except in extraordinary circumstances (and then only with special dispensation), winemakers may not ever water their vines.

The land in the region of Châteauneuf-du-Pape is rocky, dry and laden with clay.

And so we inquired of the master sommelier in one of the vineyards we visited, “Why wouldn’t you water the vines?”

“Because,” he explained, “Without artificial irrigation, the roots of the vines must grow deep; and the vines become resilient and strong. If we were to water the vines, the roots would stay near the surface and the vines would be much more likely to fail.”

When you are compelled to grow your roots deep, you become resilient and strong.

That, of course, is the challenge of our lives.

To grow deep roots, to become resilient, requires discomfort.

We hate discomfort.

We want easy.

The magic, the majesty, the joy, the deep satisfaction is most usually found just beyond that place of comfort: one more rep with the weights, one more minute with the plank, pushing out one more mile on the run; holding the question just a little longer; staying with the ambiguity, in the uncertainty; digging just a bit deeper with the research; lingering just a bit longer with the words on the page.

Leaning into the discomfort; and not fleeing from it.

We’ve learned this lesson ourselves over and over again in the high mountains of the world when long after the packs have become way too heavy to bear, we break through the clouds to share what few will ever see; and on ultra-distance races, when long after our bodies have told us we were done, just a few more miles brought us to the finish line.

We’ve learn this lesson ourselves over and over again in our business when we’ve stayed in the insoluble problem long after the confusion and despair have set in to discover a way through that yields extraordinary results.

Of course, we’ve fled discomfort too. Too many times to count if truth be told. Retreating when the wind has blown too hard; and the feet have become way too sore. Abandoning a project because it has required that we become beginners again; and it all just seemed way too complicated.

And always with the fleeing comes regret. Regret for what might have been. If only we had leaned into the discomfort. Leaned in just a little bit longer.

We’ve learned hard lessons in our parenting too. Who doesn’t want to make the lives of their children easier? Who wants them to suffer; to experience discomfort? Yet all too often when we’ve stepped in to “rescue” a child, to smooth their road, to solve their problem, we’ve seen (in the rear view mirror with regret) the lost opportunity to grow their roots deeper.

“Don’t wish it were easier; wish you were better,” Jim Rohn once said.

“With discipline comes freedom,” Ann says.

Deep roots make strong vines. And create extraordinary lives.

Perhaps a little drought is good.

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I promise that if you work with me as a coach, I will make your life way uncomfortable. When you’re ready, email me: walt@walthampton