Listen up for a second: I want you to take a ‘time-out’ in your busy, over scheduled, hectic day for 5 minutes to read this.  Take a look at this You Tube video from the movie ‘Coach Carter’ and notice 3 things:

1. A Time Out is Called - Coach stops the action so his players can rest and get ‘outside’ the game for a minute.
2. Coach Reviews Actual Results vs. the Game Plan - what has happened so far and how does it not line up to the agreed ’Game Plan?’
3. Coach Encourages and Recommits the Team to Executing the Game Plan - sends them back out on the court ready to get back to ‘Richmond Oiler’ basketball.  

Have you ever stopped to think for a second about the habits or beliefs you hold that may be holding you back from more success in life?  Maybe habits or beliefs that aren’t (or shouldn’t) be part of  your own Personal or Professional Game Plan?  I have – both in my own life and the lives of my clients and friends.  Here’s what I have come up with:      

1. You are giving your corporate job too much credit, time, and chances to become more fulfilling.
Think of your job as if it is a girl you are dating.  If the dates suck and there is 0 chemistry, you end it.  Why?  Because there is no sense continuing something that you know is not right for you (or her.)  It’s the same with your job – don’t keep making excuses or giving it second chances.  If it is not right for you, quit and use the free time to find (or start) something that is more aligned with your passion.  

2. You believe that you need more time, money, or credentials to pursue the ‘great idea’ or dream that currently sits dormantly in your head.
Being an idea-preneur (or what I like to call a head-epreneur – great ideas, no action) is easy.  Anyone can come up with a good idea.  The real movers and shakers are those that take immediate action – despite not having a mission statement, logo, enough funds, a website, or the right credentials. 

Get this through your skull: the EXACT RIGHT TIME TO START ANYTHING DOES NOT EXIST IN THE FUTURE.  It’s right now.

Here’s what you need… an idea and the discipline to follow through on the first 3 actions steps to take by Friday of this week.  And someone in your corner to kick your ass if on Friday at 5:00 PM you are on Twitter instead of completing Task #3.  By the way, ‘create a website’ is not an action step. ‘Register a domain name’ is.

3. You suck at managing the first 2 hours of your day. 
Two questions:
1. Do you get up at 6 am (or earlier) every morning?
2. What do you do from 6-8 am?

Most people:
1. No (and if ‘Yes,’ absolutely hate it.)
2. Rush like a madman to work so I can get right to my E-Mail – no breakfast, no reading, no quiet time.

Getting up early and using the first 2 hours of your day to have a nutritious breakfast, read, study, think, and meditate/pray is the single biggest way you can make mind blowingly fast progress to a level of success you could only dream of.  Racing to work so you can jump right into your e-mail is a great way to stay right where you are.  

4. You suck even more at managing the other 22 hours.   
Spending 3+ hours per day on E-mail, Facebook, or watching TV is the best way I know to stay right where you might be right now or a few years from now – fat, broke, and with no life.  So why do people do it?  Because it’s easy.  When left to choose between an important task and an easy task, unless you are disciplined, committed, and accountable you will pick easy.  

Get this: checking E-Mail 30+ times per day or spending mindless time surfing people’s picture albums on Facebook will not move you closer to your dream.  Don’t give me that crap about ‘it’s how I stay connected’ or ‘I need to be available at all times in case my boss or important customer contacts me.’  That is BS and just your way to justify such kindergarten like behaviour.

5. You have not written down your Dreams and/or they are not big enough.   
I ask people this question a lot: ‘What is your dream?’  Most people have very little idea, have not bothered to ever write it down, or are shooting way lower than what I feel they are capable of.  How can you ever expect to reach something that you have never even bothered to write down?  And how can you motivate yourself when the dream doesn’t make you gasp in astonishment and disbelief at how big it is?

Bonus!
6. Being so action and task oriented that you never have time to reflect on where all this activity is actually taking you.
Driven, ambitious people are doers.  We take action.  This is a blessing and a curse.  A blessing because action helps get things done.  A curse because more action can make us exhausted, unfocused, and wondering if it will actually pay-off in the rewards we seek.  What if you stopped a lot of ‘doing’ and took some time to think if all the ‘doing’ was actually leading where you wanted it to take you?  I think you don’t do this because you’re afraid of quiet, non-doing time and what you mind find if you try it.   

To sum up:

Cancerous thinking and terrible time management skills are costing you time, money, and happiness. If you simply worked on changing your thinking and managing your time better you would be in a much better position to pursue your dreams and become super successful. The solution is not doing more – it is thinking better and doing less. Don’t waste anymore time, money, or happiness – you only have one life, so make the most of it!

I am working on my tan this summer - a tall ordeal for a guy as white as I am.

There are a lot of great things about Summer – the weather for one and a lot of people seem happier and more relaxed.  Life is good! Throw some more shrimp on the Barbie and pass me a cold one.

However, if there is one thing I hate about Summer, it is this:

Using Summer as an excuse to be a PUNK about your life.

A punk?

Yes, you heard me. A punk!

What does that mean?

For me, a punk is someone who ‘shuts its down’ for the Summer.

It’s someone that sees Summer as a 2 month vacay – not only from those things we may need a vacation from (work, school, etc.) BUT ALSO the choices/decisions WE DO NOT NEED a vacation from.

Like what, you ask?

• Making a necessary decision (to START something new we badly need to begin or STOP something that is not working or hurting us, for example)
• Taking action on an idea that sits dormantly in our mind, screaming like a little kid to get out.
• Seizing opportunities to learn, grow, or expand ourselves.

The punk inside us says:

‘Screw that. I’m going to the beach. I’ll get around to it in September.’

And what do the rest of us do to discourage this kind of punk-like behaviour?

Nothing. We actually encourage it!

How? Look around you… how many groups, activities, schools, etc. do you know that shut down for the Summer? How many great things are postponed because Summer is a ‘slow time?’

I hate this.

It’s like we are Summer’s abusive spouse – enjoying the great parts but taking advantage of Summer’s generosity by deciding to not fully live.

No more.

Bottom Line:

Go to the beach. Get outside. Enjoy yourself. Live it up. But when you hear that little punk inside tell you that Summer is a time to watch passively from the sidelines as life passes you by, do me a favour:

Kick that little bugger in the butt and tell him not to come back until Christmas!