"It's About TIME!"

My newest e-book "It's About TIME" is now available on my website bookstore. Here is an excerpt from it. This book is about living your life with no regret. It is about eliminating the IF ONLY I HAD’s in your life. If you follow the suggestions, you will live a full and rich life and accomplish twice as much in half the time. You will have realized that vast potential within you. We have all the time there is. No one has any more or less of it: 24 hours in a day, 1,440 minutes, 86,400 seconds. Ever hear someone say Do you have a second? That usually means an hour. Why don’t we say no? The truth is we don’t manage time very well. We are not mindful. We manage activities in relation to the sands of time, dropping through our own personal hourglass. No time? That’s a myth. Here are some other myths about time. I call them Rational Lies. See if you are guilty of using one or more of these excuses. I know I have. 1.I am waiting until I have more time. 2.It (planning) doesn’t work for me. 3.I always lose my list. 4.I already took a time management course (or read the book). 5.You just can’t get organized around here. 6.But there is nothing I can do. 7.People keep interrupting me. 8.Time Management is boring. 9.Isn’t there a danger you will get so organized you can’t get anything done? 10. I need someone to motivate me. Is it time to be honest? Are you operating on a small fraction of your potential? Would you like to learn how to get twice as much done in half the time? If you answered yes, read on... My mother passed away two years ago. Her sand was all gone. She was one of the best time managers I ever knew. We finally sold her house. As we divided up her lifetime of possessions, I was struck by how incredibly organized she was in every aspect of her life: finances, closets, book shelf, scrapbooks and pictures, even her kitchen. She labeled everything! It was clear much of what she owned reflected how proud she was of her history, British history, family history, the things she loved and cared about. Her home was a shrine to a life well lived and traveled. Some of those treasured belongings ended up in my house. Now I had nine pounds of coffee in a five pound can. What to do? I had INSPIRATIONAL DISSATISFACTION. I sat down and mind-mapped this massive project. I decided to go through every room, closet, nook, cranny, and shelf to purge, sort, toss, and clean. In reorganizing my bookshelf, I created a shelf just for books on time management and organization. I went back and reread some classics on the subject, choosing the best of the twenty-five books on the subject. It was a reminder of the things I used to do, but got out of the habit of doing. Good habits are hard to form, but easy to live with. I will post more from it next week...until then, "Is it about time you improved your effectiveness?

ANYWAY!

I read a little book entitled Anyway by Keith Kent. He lists the 10 Paradoxical Commandments. They remind me of my youngest son, Evan. In December of 2010, my wife and I flew to Oahu to watch him play basketball, three games on three islands. They won all three and it was a defining moment in his college basketball career. After I read that book, it hit me, HE lives many of these commandments. It’s just who he is. Here they are. People are illogical, unreasonable and self-centered. Love them ANYWAY! If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good ANYWAY! If you are successful you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed ANYWAY! The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good ANYWAY! Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank ANYWAY! The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas will be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. Think Big ANYWAY! People favor the underdogs but follow only the top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs ANYWAY! What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build ANYWAY! People may need help but attack you if you try to help them. Help people ANYWAY! Give the world the best you have and you may get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have ANYWAY! There is a man in Hawaii by the name of Robert Alm. He is a successful attorney and banker. He created a program called the Live Aloha Program. The meaning for Aloha they had in mind deals with caring, affection, and courtesy. Here is the list of their examples: >Respect your elders and children >Leave places better than you found them >Hold the door for others >Hold the elevator for others >Plan something >Return your shopping cart >Get out and enjoy nature >Pick up litter >Share with your neighbors >Create smiles Simple ideas. What if you tried them out for thirty days, even if people think you are strange. Try them ANYWAY. Evan’s coaches, friends, teammates, and parents of teammates tell me with great regularity how nice our son is...all 6’ 11” of him. That doesn’t mean he isn’t a competitor and doesn’t want to win. He blocks your shot, then helps you up! I think its because he lives those 10 Commandments. He got them from his mother! As of this writing, he has been invited to a try out with the NBA team, The Golden State Warriors in October of 2012. All his hard work has paid off. He has a terrific foundation of hard work, focused effort, discipline and goal achievement. He will go as far as he sets his mind to. ANYWAY, that’s enough from the proud Dad.

"Snake Pliskin, I thought you were dead!" It's a callback, a reoccurring line from one of my favorite guilty pleasures, the campy movie starring Kurt Russell, "Escape from New York. No, I am not dead. I took a blog sabbatical. It's been ten months since my last blog post. A few people asked me why the silence? A few lame excuses come to mind but not one good reason. Here are the excuses: 1) My mother passed away 2) I have been Tweeting and posting on LinkedIn every day 3) Isn't my monthly e-zine enough writing for crying out loud? 4) I wrote a new book "Wag More, Bark Even Less" 5) I wrote a new e-book "It's About TIME" (HOW TO GET TWICE AS MUCH DONE IN HALF THE TIME!) 6) I have been busy traveling abroad speaking. 7) Not enough people are reading my blog. 8) I have this hang nail.... 9) I am a lazy blogger. 10) I traveled around the country watching my youngest son play BB for his senior year of college. Not one good reason. Time to follow my own advice. "It's About TIME" Reading my new friend Kevin Knebl's terrific book "The Social Media Sales Revolution" particularly the chapter on Blogging kick me in the butt. No more excuses. I will post weekly until I die. Honest. What are my REASONS for blogging? They might be your reasons too! Here they are: 1) It's easy. I write in my journal every day, why not do it online too? 2) People seem to like what I write. 3) I love to talk (hey I am a professional speaker!) I talk like I write. 4) I love to write about the things I am passionate about and do for my clients (Sales, Marketing, Communication, Relationships, Leadership, Learning, Team Building, Customer Service, Presentation Skills, Coaching, Consulting, Mentoring, Time Management, Personal Development, Humor/Comedy/Improv and Basketball) 5)I would like to believe I have something to say and do so pretty well. Five Reasons is a good start. GIMME FIVE MAN! What are your reasons to Blog? Did you know there are 120 million bloggers but only 7.4% have updated their blog in the last 90-days! It's like a gym membership, thousands of members, only a few show up with great regularity! It's the 80/20 rule, Pareto's Law. How many people do you know that have a Bowflex machine that is the most expensive coat hanger in their bedroom? Enough talk. It's time for action. But first, I think I'll watch "Escape From New York" tonight. Spoiler alert! Kurt Russell does't die!