Life

I think that we’d all agree that the last couple of weeks have been brutal ones for our various markets: the stock market closed Friday at 2004 levels, Oil is at an all-time high, and the real estate market here in Michigan continues to plunge to new lows.

And all I keep hearing is doom and gloom from the chicken-littles here. And it’s not just the media that’s perpetuating and worse yet – AMPLIFYING these problems – it’s people too young to remember what a recession looks like and those that are old enough to remember but simply choose not to.

And I have to say that I’m tired of it. Sick and tired, as my folks used to say. From the Newsweek cover that shouted about the Post-American world to the young kid working at his first job in Downtown Detroit that I argued with online for a couple of days because he was wailing that Michigan “is coming to an end”. What a bunch of crap.

I had been doing some research to compare this economic downturn with the one that we lived through in the 70’s. My plan involved coming up with irrefutable evidence and a brilliantly structured logical argument that the 70’s were much worse than what we’re facing today, and by the sheer brilliance of my argument thousands would be convinced and start to think differently.

Then I came to my senses.

I realized that too many of the doomsayers are so caught up in their own beliefs that not even my most well researched and written factual arguments could convince them otherwise.

So I said screw it. Because I happened to find something that succinctly delivered the message that I have been trying to get out for months. It’s an ad for Harley-Davidson.

And the message? Fear Sucks. This area WILL come back, sooner than everyone thinks and stronger than it was before. It always has.

I thought that this was appropriate for the week of July 4^th.

The text says:

We Don’t Do Fear.

Over the last 105 years in the saddle, we’ve seen wars, conflicts, depression, recession, resistance, and revolutions. We’ve watched a thousand hand-wringing pundits disappear in our rear-view mirror. But every time, this country has come out stronger than before. Because chrome and asphalt put distance between you and whatever the world can throw at you. Freedom and wind outlast hard times. And the rumble of an engine drowns out all the spin on the evening news. If 105 years have proved one thing, it’s that fear sucks and doesn’t last long.

So screw it. Let’s ride.

Call it blinding flash of the obvious number, what? 87 or 88 for me at least? But after spending the last 25 years or so always looking out toward the future, I figured out a couple of weeks ago that the journey is really the thing.

Those of you that have already figured that out are wondering what the big deal is and why I’m writing about it.

Those that haven’t figured it out are thinking that it’s silly and that it’s not worth writing about.

But it is worth it.

The last couple of weeks have been pretty interesting and a lot of fun. I attended all the kids sporting events that didn’t have a time conflict. I hung out with the kids after work and helped with homework and projects, heard all the stories about the classrooms, the lunchroom, and the playground. We even caught a couple of episodes of Star Trek Voyager before dinner.

I did all of this instead of running into my home office after work and burying myself  in my business like I usually did.

And the funny thing was – everything still got done for the business, and I had a blast with the kids.

Now I’m looking to outsource more work for the business to get more time back.

This whole point of doing this got driven home to me last Saturday during a canoe trip on the Au Sable during our annual cub scout and family camping trip.

We had a serious canoe accident with two of our kids that could have been catastrophic. Only God’s grace and quick thinking prevented a truly horrible result, and for the life of me I still don’t know how we avoided the catastrophic result. But we did, and both of them came through it fine. Shaken up, but fine.

Now as a bare-knuckle Type-A personality I’m really not much of a philosopher, but this experience last weekend was an eye-opener to say the least.

All I can say is this – believe me when I tell you that the Journey really is the thing.

1 Pittsburgh Penguins jersey size XXL:     $  200
1 set of custom goaltending equipment:  $2,500
1 pair of custom fit goaltender skates:     $  500

Knocking in the Stanley Cup winning goal for the other team with your butt:  Priceless!

Here’s the video:

And true I have to admit. I still want one though!

I happen to be pretty adept at getting things done. A LOT of things done.

I have to be. I have a high visibility job with a global consulting firm and a client that is one of the top three biggest companies in the world. I serve on three committees in my community. I have four kids, a wife, and a terminally ill mother at home, I coach my son’s hockey team and I have a very active real estate investing business. And I only have the same 24 hours in the day that everyone else has.

Everyone that I know is busy. It seems that in this hyper-connected existence that we’re in everyone is swamped. So a question that I get quite often is “do you ever sleep?”.  In each case the person asking is commenting on the amount of work (and play) that I get done on a regular basis.

But it hasn’t always been that way. In the “BK” era (after grad school and before kids) I can remember my wife and I sleeping until 10am every Saturday and at least a few nights a week sitting down with a martini and watching a full evening of television. We both had great jobs of course, but other than that we came out of that era with exactly nothing to show for it and wondering where all the time went.

Then I changed jobs and that changed everything. At that point I took on a role where I was abruptly thrown into the deep end and expected to manage projects, even though I had never done it before. It was sink or swim, and since the prospect of drowning wasn’t very appealing, I decided to become a student of the discipline – fast! So I read everything that I could get my hands on. And in a very short time I was hooked.

Hooked to the extent that I started to become a student of productivity – and not just managing work projects. This expanded my horizons quite a bit and really laid the foundations for the success that I have had.

So after the question “do you ever sleep” , the question that follows is usually – “what’s the secret?”

It would be easy to say that it’s black magic, that it’s more art than science, that you can’t explain it because you just do it. And then try to sell you some expensive course and coaching program to “bring you to the light”.

But none of that is true.

The answer is that productivity is in fact a process. And like any process, your results are totally dependent on how well you follow the steps.

This presumes, however, that you have, or at least know, steps. Notice, though, that I didn’t say THE steps. I just said steps. Because they can be different for everyone.

If you’re one that’s looking for the secret and you already have your steps but you’ve gotten away from them, then my recommendation is that you get back on that horse.

If you don’t have steps and don’t know how to start getting some, then let me tell you how I got started and give you a starting point.

First, you need to have SOME sort of planning system, and my strong recommendation is that it be written when you get started. I know that people like to use digital planners, but in my experience they end up being glorified tactical task lists and are rarely, if ever, used for actual planning because they are far to cumbersome to use that way.

My suggestion – start with the Franklin Planner. But not only that, you need to start by taking the Franklin Planner class FIRST. That’s right – spring for the measly $300 and get a rigorous one day seminar on detailed daily planning. Here is the brochure: Click here.

I took the course going on 15 years ago and although I had already been using the paper planner for several years I realized that I had no clue as to how to actually plan a day. Taking this one course literally changed my life and the way that I worked. I know that it has been updated to reflect using a pda, but you should resist the temptation and stick with the paper, at least until the planning principles that they teach get ingrained into your daily thought processes.

I believe that taking this ONE action – and truly implementing the principles – will increase your productivity by a minimum of 50%.

The second recommendation that I have is that you spend $9 and buy the book “Getting Things Done – The Art of Stress Free Productivity”.  Here is a link: Click here.