I know, I know…I’ve been a little light on blog posts for the past few weeks (as in I haven’t written any). I’ll get back in the swing soon, I promise. In the meantime, here’s something for your listening pleasure: an episode of my Blog Talk Radio program about Steven Pressfield’s new book “Do the Work” (which is brilliant, by the way…if you haven’t read it, go get your copy now!)

I’d love to hear what you think…leave me a comment. Thanks!

For weeks now, all I’ve been hearing is people talking about how they can’t wait for 2010 to be over and a brand new year to begin.  In fact, I joined in that chorus a time or two.  No doubt, 2010 was a rough year.

But it’s over now.

We’re officially three days in to 2011, and from the looks of things, it has the potential to be a truly amazing year.  Personally, I’m excited to be kicking things off in style with the International Consumer Electronics Show this week in Las Vegas, NV.  This will be my first CES, and I can’t wait to get there.

It also rocks because I’ll be making the trip to Vegas with my friend and fellow blogger, Ryan Snethen.  Ryan is a very cool cat who knows his music and movies, and the more obscure, the better.  His “Did You Miss It?” blog is chock-full of movies you might have missed.  He’s also a writer and an entrepreneur.  We’re making the 10-hour trip by car, so we’ll have lots of time to brainstorm new ideas.  Can’t wait!

Which brings up the topic of road trips.  A couple of recent road trips reminded me of two things: a) I love taking road trips and b) I don’t take enough of them.  I’m changing that this year; more road trips are a must.

Johnny B. Truant also got me thinking today, which is a bad habit of his.  He wrote a post called “Resolutions Suck. Try Anarchy.” that got me thinking all about WHY I want to do the things I want to do, and whether they’re really worthy goals, and whether I’m up to the challenge of seeing them through.  Great stuff.  If you’re not reading Johnny’s blog, start now…even if the posts are a little longish.

2011 has the potential to be a kick-ass year, no doubt about it.  But we can’t assume that it’s going to magically turn out that way just because the calendar rolled over and 2010 is finished.

You’re going to have to put forth some effort if you want to see those results; in fact, truth be told you should have been putting out that effort for awhile now.  But don’t despair if you haven’t already started: just get your ass in gear and figure out what you want to do and, more importantly, WHY you want to do it.  Then (and here’s the really tricky part) go do it! Don’t wait for someone to give you permission or for the circumstances to be just right; they won’t.  Not ever.

Remember one thing: the only moment you really own is this one, right now.  If you let it slip by, it belongs to the past, not you.  And the ones coming up? Those belong to the future, not you.  You get this one.  Use it wisely.

So tell me: what are YOU going to do in 2011 to make it your best year ever?  Share your vision in the comments, and thanks for reading!

Gary Klaben

Today, there is a strong pull between the profit maximizers and the purpose maximizers.  It is not that working on Wall Street or Main Street for large companies is all about profit maximization, or that starting a small business is all about purpose maximization.  It is about the tide turning towards purpose, while maintaining profit.

In Daniel Pink’s recent book, Drive (2010), he identifies and discusses three types of motivation.  Motivation 1.0 is the basic need to survive.  Our hunter-gatherer ancestors spent nearly all their time fulfilling this need.  Motivation 2.0 involves seeking rewards and avoiding punishment.  From the time of antiquity through the 20th century, this was the primary motivator after achieving survival.  Finally, motivation 3.0 seeks internal, intrinsic satisfaction — the fruit of personal freedom, challenge and purpose. What we like to call MVP (meaning, value & purpose).

Ours is a motivation 3.0 world.  The unexpected and unpredictable will increasingly occur.  Change is the only constant.  Continual surprises!  Microsoft’s digital Encarta encyclopedia — a profit maximizer — lost out to tens of thousands of online hobbyists writing and editing topics in Wikipedia’s open-source, interactive encyclopedia without pay — a purpose maximizer.

Surprise!  Wikipedia — now the world’s most popular encyclopedia, with 13 million articles in 260 languages — maxes out on personal motivation, massive value and combined purpose.  How many other industries today are likely candidates for Internet “re-purposing”?

We are at a very important crossroads in history.  Both the developed and developing worlds have a unique opportunity to transition to what makes all of us tick: what is inside of us, who we are, what we dream to be,  what is most important to us, how we want to be remembered.

Before you consider a career upon completing school, before you pursue a new job, before you give up on the unemployment line, consider the current environment.  Literally every citizen in this, the world’s freest country, can start any business with an iPhone or a BlackBerry and a laptop.  Barriers to entry have never been so favorable to the small business owner.

Are you intrinsically energized to achieve your MVP?  Then you stand on the threshold of a most interesting, exciting future.

Mahatma Gandhi said, “As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world, as in being able to remake ourselves.”

Eleanor Roosevelt was quoted, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

Carthaginian general Hannibal:  “We will either find a way, or make one!”

Yoda (from Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back):  “Do or do not.  There is no try.”

But success doesn’t come easy and, at the end of any given day, you may not be able to control each outcome.  Certain folks, for various reasons, will always resist change:  Therefore, we need as much enlightenment as possible to guide all of us intelligently and creatively into a bright future.

I’m frequently reminded of Yogi Berra’s admonition:  “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up some place else.”

About the Author

Through a series of chapter “conversations” about client dysfunctions and challenges encountered over 25 years, author and financial advisor, Gary Klaben, seeks to stimulate a new kind of conversation. Time and time again, people have watched helplessly as the family wealth-destruction cycle has gone from “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves” in three generations. His book, Changing the Conversation, seeks to empower readers to begin a journey of self-discovery in order to become masters of money, not slaves to it.

This is one of my favorite moments from a Monty Python movie, and the life lesson it teaches is the core of my philosophy: you can always, no matter what your circumstances, choose to look on the bright side.

I was talking to a friend of mine whose wife is waiting for a liver transplant.  In addition, she’s just found out she has cataracts and will have to have surgery on her eyes before she gets the transplant.  I try to imagine myself in those circumstances; when I do, I’m incredibly thankful for my health and for the health of my loved ones.  I’m thankful that, at least for today, I feel pretty good.

Life’s a funny thing; it can turn on a dime.  Don’t take the blessings in your life for granted, since they might not be there tomorrow.  Take a few minutes today to actually tally up all the things you have to be grateful for.  Write them down, and carry that paper with you.

Then, whenever you get to feeling that things aren’t going your way, you can pull that paper out and remind yourself that, on the whole, life is pretty amazing.

I’ve been spending a fair amount of time lately preparing for the re-boot of the game I call MyLife, and I’m crazy-excited about the release of version 2.0.  For the non-geeks out there, that basically means I’m getting ready for a fresh start.

For those of you who weren’t there to see it, here’s the short version of the last three years of my life: they sucked.out.loud.  From financial ruin to broken relationships to a roller-coaster ride of emotional turmoil, I’ve been a complete wreck.  Don’t worry, though: I can say with total confidence that the dog days are over.

The  last year has been a re-building period for me.  In December of 2009, I started working full-time for Karl Palachuk who is, without a doubt, the best boss I’ve ever had.  I sometimes even forget that he’s the boss (except on payday, of course…I always remember it then) because he’s such a blast to work with.  That’s right: we have FUN at work.  It’s part of the culture, and I love every minute of it.  And we’re good at what we do, which makes it even more fun…and profitable, too.

The training business I tried (and failed miserably) to start has morphed into a blog building and mentoring business that I work on nights and weekends.  Simply put, I love it.  I have a blast, I love my clients, and I’m good at what I do.  I’m picking up new clients every week, and, so far, they’re thrilled with the results.  2011 is going to see the explosion of that business, too.

This year saw the closure of some things, too.  After a year of separation and serious deliberation, my marriage of 16 years is coming to an end.  As strange as it might sound, Renee is still and always will be my best friend; we’ve just come to the conclusion that we’ll have a greater opportunity for happiness as friends than we did as a married couple.

I don’t expect everyone I know to understand that; many of the people closest to me have already made it clear that they don’t.  That’s okay; we’re going to do it anyway.  Of course there’s sadness over the decision; that’s to be expected.  But there’s no drama; just a deep sense that we’re making the right decision.

At the same time, my emotional and spiritual growth has been amazing this year.  I’ve got a long way to go of course; that’s a life-long journey, I know.  Still, the progress I’ve made astounds me.  I feel happy all the time and, for the first time in my life, I feel at peace with myself and the world around me.

The future is…well, it’s the future, so I won’t know what it is until it’s here.  At the moment, though, I fully expect it to be incredible.  And even if it turns out that the bright light at the end of the tunnel is just a freight train headed my way, I know that I’ll get up, dust myself off, and keep on going, all the while humming a happy tune.

There really isn’t any other option, is there?

pos·tur·ing

1 : to assume a posture; especially : to strike a pose for effect
2 : to assume an artificial or pretended attitude

This post has been stewing in my brain for days, and I think it’s about time I get it out.  If it seems a little disjointed, well, consider the source.

I’m calling out the “fake it ’til you make it crowd”; I think it’s time to put that idea to rest.  While the philosophy seemed like a good one at first blush, I’m beginning to understand that “faking it” is just another way of hiding from the fear of being open, honest and transparent.

The thought is that by pretending you’ve already arrived at the destination, somehow the journey will be less arduous and time-consuming.  If you’ll just act like a successful business person (i.e. “fake it”), so the theory goes, people will assume that you are a successful businessperson and will want to do business with you (i.e. you’ll “make it”).  Sounds good, right?  You can move to the front of the class without doing any homework or passing any tests; who wouldn’t want to do that?  Where do I sign up?

Here’s the problem, though: if you’re not a successful business person, pretending to be one is at least a little dishonest.  What happens if that new client, trusting in the posture you’ve assumed, hands over a project you’re not prepared to deal with and you continue to fake it?  What could your posturing cost you (not to mention your client) in the long run?

For the record, I want to be perfectly clear that “acting as if” and visualizing your success, both on your own and with your team, is one of the best ways to stay optimistic and to keep moving forward.  What I’m concerned about, though, is the growing number of people I meet who are taking these exercises out into the world with them, pretending to know things they don’t know, taking on work that they don’t know how to do and have no intention of learning how to do, and causing harm to others in the process.

And why are they doing it?  Because they’re living in fear of being “found out”.  They fear if their clients find out that they’re struggling, the clients will go away.  They fear admitting they’re having a tough time because they think it diminishes their value in the marketplace.  They fear having their failures exposed.  And so they “assume an artificial or pretended attitude”; they posture, hoping that no one will see the panic behind their plastic smiles.

It’s time to stop the madness.  It’s time we all stopped posing and started being.  It’s time to be OK with what IS, to accept it, to embrace it, to be grateful for it, to appreciate it, to revel in its perfection.

Struggling to pay your bills?  Welcome to the club…we’re accepting new members daily.  Wondering how you’re going to make payroll this month?  Know that you’re not alone.  Recovering from a failed business, a failed relationship, or a failed everything?  Me too.  And that’s OK.  You know why?

Because life, in its infinite perfection, is teaching us the lessons we need to learn to prepare us for the greatness we were born for.

It’s a fine balance to maintain, and difficult at times, to live in that space where you’re simultaneously visualizing a better future and accepting the “IS”-ness of the present moment; if you’ll be patient with it, though, it will get easier.  Deciding on the policy of transparency is a tough row to hoe, but the rewards outweigh the risks ten-fold.  Stay tuned for a discussion of the benefits in a future post; in the meantime, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Thanks for reading!

“You teach best what you most need to learn.” – Richard Bach

As I sat down to write today’s post, I found myself having to take a big heaping spoonful of my own medicine.  I didn’t like the way it tasted going down, but I know I’ll feel better for having taken it.  That’s the problem with sharing your ideas in such a public format: you leave yourself open to people calling you on your BS when you’re not applying your own wisdom.  I guess that’s not really a problem, though…probably more of a benefit since it keeps you in alignment with your own philosophy.

The scary (and kind of cool) part, though, is when you start to catch yourself in the act before someone else has to point it out to you.  That’s when you know you’re getting close to living your truth.

I’ve been having that experience more and more often.  Like today when I was driving home from the office.  I suddenly realized that I was in a funk (and had been for a couple of days) because I was trying to control the outcomes in my life (the things I can’t control) instead of focusing on the processes (the things I totally have control over).

I started to inventory the things I was frustrated with: the client who hasn’t paid an invoice that was due on the first of the month (it’s the 20th as I write this), the fact that I didn’t have a full house at an event I put on, the client who has verbally committed to a pretty big new deal but hasn’t put pen to paper and signed their agreement yet, the new client that keeps putting off our first meeting and making it impossible to get started on her project; you get the picture.  Sure enough, all of the things that were frustrating me were things that were out of my direct control; my clients controlled the outcome of each of those situations.

This didn’t mean I was powerless, though, because I also realized something else: that I can influence the outcome.  How?  By managing my own processes: being diligent with my follow up to make sure no deals slip through the cracks, improving the level of service and results I deliver so that my clients pay my invoices as soon as they get them for fear they’ll lose me as a partner,  inviting twice or three times as many people to the next event so that it’s standing room only.  Those are all things I can do, and they’re the very things that get neglected when I get caught up in trying to control the outcome instead of managing the process.

So as I write this post, I’m doing my best to release my attachment to any particular outcome.  When I wake up tomorrow morning, I’m going to focus on the things I have control of, put all my effort into performing those tasks, and leave the rest to sort itself out.  I’ll let you know how it turns out.

“I will laugh at the world.” - from The Scroll Marked VII, The Greatest Salesman In the World by Og Mandino

Is there any ailment in the world that a good laugh won’t cure? I don’t think so. I mean, the jury’s still out on whether Norman Cousins actually healed himself by watching Marx Brothers movies, but I’ll tell you one thing for certain: he sure felt better!

And that’s all that really matters, isn’t it? I know that when things are going great and I’m happy, I can be sick as a dog and it doesn’t phase me. I to recover a lot faster from any illnesses, if I get them at all. On the other hand, whenever I’m feeling down or depressed, the slightest cold can put me down for days.

Once again, we find that it’s all a matter of our perception of our situation and our chosen reaction to it. We can choose to be in a depressing slump or we can do something about it: laugh! Have you ever been in a situation where things were so bad, so depressing, that you didn’t know if you could endure any more, then caught a case of the giggles? How did it make you feel? At first it’s a little disturbing and you question whether you’ve lost your mind, then you start to feel a little better. The giggle turns into a hearty belly laugh and, before you know it, you’re wondering what you were so worried about!

It’s been said that tragedy plus time equals comedy, so why not shortcut the system? If you can see that you’re probably going to look back on a bad situation and laugh, why wait? Why not “laugh at the world” now? Mandino teaches four magical words that make this easy to do: this too shall pass. If you can always remember that, no matter what’s happening for you right now it will eventually pass, you can survive almost anything.

And remember: it’s not just your own circumstances that are improved by laughter. Laughter, like any emotion, is contagious to those around you, including your customers. Remember the famous Ella Wheeler poem that starts, “Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone. For the sad old earth must borrow it’s mirth, but has trouble enough of its own.” Your positive mental attitude will rub off on your customers; they won’t be able to help it! And happy customers are far more likely to buy than gloomy ones.

What if you don’t feel like laughing, though? Mandino provides a source of constant inspiration for laughter:

“And most of all, I will laugh at myself for man is most comical when he takes himself too seriously. Never will I fall into this trap of the mind. For though I be nature’s greatest miracle, am I not still a mere grain tossed about by the winds of time? Do I truly know whence I came or whither I am bound? Will my concern for this day not seem foolish ten years hence? Why should I permit the petty happenings of today to disturb me? What can take place before this sun sets which will not seem insignificant in the river of centuries?”

Let’s face it: we humans are a funny bunch. We’re the only ones on the planet with the ability to laugh at ourselves. Why waste this great gift and mope around in perpetual gloominess? Instead, choose to laugh at the world and bring a little joy along with you wherever you go.

“I will be happy. I will be successful. I will be the greatest salesman the world has ever known.”