Earlier this month, I wrote a post about how you could Marie Kondo your to-do list. Later that day, I met with a client of mine, and he was skeptical. “I can’t knock things off my to-do list just because I don’t want to do them. I have clients that need me to get stuff…
So you’ve got just a few goals for this year, and you must accomplish them. You want to increase your commitment, but you feel resistance. Even though these goals are critical, you’re not sure that you will follow through. What’s that about? Commitment is scary Going all in on your goals means that if you…
When I was a kid, my dad would frequently tell me, “The time to rest is when all your work is done.” It was a good lesson for a teenager prone to lying on the couch reading a book all day! But as an adult, I’ve found that the reverse is true. The time to…
I’m going to take the next couple of weeks off, so you won’t be hearing from me again until after the holidays. I used to be anxious about taking time off at the end of the year. Now I know, that there’s nothing more important than some time off; baking cookies, sitting by the fire,…
Do you ever stop what you are doing and listen to the chorus inside your head? I just took 10 sec, and this is what I heard: What do you notice about this list? How do you think I would react if someone walked into my office and started blurting that stuff out to me?…
Sometimes my head can get into a bad neighborhood. Does that ever happen to you? It could be a regular Tuesday, but something happens, and I can’t see straight. Everything looks dark or tilted against me. If I try to get something done, I see nothing but bad outcomes. My resourcefulness and creativity plummet. The…
This month I worked on a deal that would have been a dream assignment for me. I had the right contacts; I was the only resource considered. As I talked to the decision-makers, it was clear that they saw the value the engagement would create. The price was right for both sides. But it didn’t…
Last week on LinkedIn, I talked about the power of systems to help us get things done. Systems are great for problems with mostly known steps; if we’ve done it before, we can map out a plan. But what if we’re venturing into the unknown? (Or at least the unknown to us.) In that situation,…
I hear you saying… But if you are serious about growing your firm, you can’t be talking like this. Victim or Creator In each of these statements, the person speaking is in a situation that they don’t like, that they’d like to be different, but none of those statements take any responsibility for the outcome!…
What happens when life speeds up? When my day gets packed with meetings, my work gets pushed into the evening or the weekend. If I’ve got commitments with my family or friends, I have to skip those or reschedule them. To keep my head above water, I start to drop commitments that I have made…