If persistence pays off, how far do you persist? How often do you persist (politely) until you’ve wrong an opportunity dry—absolutely, completely dry? As I wrote on Inc.com yesterday in “How to Build the Best Relationships With Both Leaders and Superiors,” people appreciate helping others—if you behave like you deserve it, but not like you’re entitled. A student of mine was applying to graduate school. She told me how she[…] Keep reading →

Does this sound like a reasonable question: “Do you do things in order of importance?” I don’t think it is. I suggest the question gets things backward. Your priorities don’t determine what order you do things in. The order you do things in determines their priority. What you do first is your highest priority, given all your values and constraints, and if you tell yourself otherwise, you’re lying to yourself.[…] Keep reading →

You get chances to do cool things: classes to take, hobbies to try, relationships to develop, books to read, movies to watch, and so on. How do you decide which to do? Most people look at the new thing and ask if it’s worth doing. I recommend not asking that question. There are many things worth doing in the abstract. Too many. I recommend instead asking what you’d have to[…] Keep reading →

When I got home from traveling last week, I found myself returning to many patterns and habits that traveling forced me to suspend. As I’m approaching middle age, I started to wonder if I was getting set in my ways. I want to stay young, vibrant, and effective. Could these habits mean I’m ossifying and becoming sedentary? While I could look at it that way, I find that I’ve found[…] Keep reading →

Jack Welch said that most of his work was keeping his company entrepreneurial, preventing it from ossifying with red tape and other bureaucracy. He was very successful, in his workplace as much as outside it. I call that stuff garbage. The waste we produce as side effects of what we want. I guarantee your work life has garbage you haven’t been able to get rid of. Same with your personal[…] Keep reading →

I can’t tell you how exhausted I was when I got home yesterday. Traveling meant about five hours of sleep in the forty-eight leading to last evening’s sleep. Telling a client about burpees and Sidchas recently, when I mentioned doing them when tired, drunk, or otherwise discouraged, he asked, “wait, you do them then too?”, implying that for a long-term activity, you don’t have to be a stickler for rules[…] Keep reading →

Think of your heroes and role models. How many of them reached their greatness by doing many things in many areas at once? All the ones I can think of reached greatness by excelling in one area. After greatness they may have branched into other areas, but they all focused with discipline at first. Most people I know spread themselves thin on many projects. They don’t say no to good[…] Keep reading →