Category Archives: Focus

Give it a Name

Something unique happens when you name those things, feelings, thoughts, or ideas that you’re in pursuit of or that haunt you.

For instance, Steven Pressfield calls that nagging voice of distraction and disbelief the “resistance”. Now that you have a name for it and that name discloses what it does, you can now call it out push back against it.

For purposes of this blog, we’ve named the success we are all after as “our music.” By giving success the name music, we’ve opened the idea that success could be a timely collection of multiple factors that occur simultaneously. So we must gather instruments and insure they’re making music and not noise.

In creating names for these ideas and unseen realities, two things happen:

1) For the good things you’re after, now you and your tribe have something to point at.

2) For those things that haunt you, now you can call them out, silence them, and mute their plea. Caution: they hate being named.

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If you’re in the job hunt…

…please search, research, study, ask, ponder, mull, listen, and question until you find a medium that you can say something in.

You’re really on a hunt for a medium, an avenue, a canvas, a microphone.

You shouldn’t search for a job – you should find your medium.

#LTMP

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Rare and Valuable

The natural lean today is to make a list of our goals in regards to what we want to become in the next 365 days.

Most people will want to become:

stronger,

skinnier,

more healthy,

more wealthy,

smarter,

faster,

or better at ________.

All of which are worthwhile and respectable goals, but  today I’m arguing for you to dwell on your “be” goals rather than your “become” goals.

For example, when you are rare and valuable overtime you become and create something rare and valuable. Rare choices breed rare returns and value-able people are compensated accordingly because of their ability to create that value. Funny, but words do what they promise…be rare and you will become something rare – which will probably have value to someone somewhere.

Ask any Navy Seal, world-class athlete, top producing salesperson, hallowed artist, best-selling author, or studio musician and you will hear stories full or rare events and intense training – most of which was done while no one was watching.

So go ahead and seek to get noticed, get sought out, stand out from the crowd, lose weight, or build wealth this year – but don’t forget you and your story will have to be something rare and valuable.

We have to be a certain way before we can become the goals we are after.

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The Green Room

Let’s think of today as the green room prior to the stage of 2013. The green room is the space in the venue which accommodates the performers before they hit the stage and make their music. This is the room where the set list is made, the show is planned, and the Muse begins to whisper hints and nudge at the musician’s improvisation.

You’ve got a service, product, or idea and now you’re locked in the green room to dwell on its…

  • content
  • appeal
  • connectivity
  • engine
  • fuel
  • form
  • fans
  • followers
  • assets
  • market trends
  • edges (smooth and rough ones)
  • vision
  • weakness
  • strength
  • untapped markets
  • craftsmanship
  • trade-offs
  • vibe
  • truths and lies
  • purpose
  • design
  • pace
  • taste
  • feel
  • style
  • why
  • promise
  • hope
  • legacy
Ralph Waldo Emerson, once said, “People only see what they are prepared to see.”
Give yourself some time in the green room today for 2013’s benefit.
Success feasts on preparation.
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