It's a new year, and that means many of us are thinking about how we want to make 2018 our best year yet. Last year, I introduced four questions that you can ask to help you gain better clarity and establish more meaningful goals. On this episode, I re-visit those questions and share how I'm answering them for the upcoming year.
Winning is often a game of percentages. The more shots you take, the more likely you are to eventually hit your goal and create something valuable. On this episode, I discuss how to practice and hone your skills through unnecessary creation, follow your instincts for opportunity, and to build a diversified portfolio of risk by taking more shots.
Weekends are not only a great time to rest, but also to recreate (as in "re-create" yourself, and to regain your focus and enthusiasm for your life and work.) By instilling a few simple checkpoints, or rituals, in your weekend, you can spark your creative juices and ensure that you're clear-headed and focused heading into your next week
As we wrap 2017 and head into a new year, it's natural to look back to consider whether your ambitions for the year lined up with your accomplishments. It's easy to unknowingly settle into ruts without even realize it's happening, and to fail to do the work you know you're capable of doing. On this episode, I'll share seven common areas where people and teams unknowingly settle, and a few questions to help you identify and move past them.
What's the most important part of doing creative work? Some people say it's getting started, but I think that's a bit simplistic. It's more about getting started right, and then being able to sustain yourself when times get tough. On this episode, David Kadavy shares some insights from his new book The Heart To Start.
How do you find the motivation you need to attack your goals? According to Jeff Haden, the problem is waiting for motivation at all. If you want to experience fulfillment and tackle big projects, it's more about the process. On this episode, we dive into why focus can actually be your enemy, how to find happiness by quantifying your progress, and how to accomplish long-arc projects by thinking small.
When you're under pressure, it's easy to defer the little actions that you need to do in order to accomplish you work. However, each of those little choices to defer action accumulate and become big problems later. On this episode, I share three areas where you need to stay on top of your mindset and mechanics so that you don't pay a price later.
Don’t rob yourself, and stop trying to will yourself to do better. Instead, recognize that small actions of focus and discipline today is the best way to love your future self. Make investments today so that you can reap a return tomorrow.
What does success feel like at the beginning, or in the middle? It's difficult to say. In fact, many massive successes felt like anything but success when they were in the early stages. On today's show, I share some thoughts about how to prevent the hurdles of uncertainty from limiting your ability to engage your work.
It's getting close to the end of the year. How many of the things you planned to accomplish this year actually got done? For some people, the list is long, and it's because they failed to engage in all three kinds of work necessary in order to remain effective. On today's episode, I share the three kinds of work and the traps that we fall into when we fail to engage in them.
The constant shift back and forth from creative work to administrative work throughout your day carries a high price. You pay a task switching penalty each time you try to make this transition. On today's show, I share a few tactics from The Accidental Creative to help you cluster your work for a more effective work week.
At times, it can feel like life and work is one long string of projects and tasks. You have your eyes fixed forward, and you're thinking about the next thing you're going to do, the next hill you're going to climb, or the next project you're accountable for delivering. However, when your work is just one long series of things to do, you have no rhythm. There's no seasonality. On today's show, I discuss the value of building moments of reflection and celebration into your work.
You are known for your public victories, but it's the private victories you achieve that make them possible. In today's episode, we share some of the private victories that help you build the confidence, resilience, and skills necessary to sustain the public victories.
You are known for your public work, but you're defined by your "secret" work. On today's episode we discuss the importance of having work in your life that no one sees as a means of developing skills and cultivating passion and curiosity.
Do you have a framework for making larger decisions about your life, your career, and your work? How do you decide what you're trying to do with your life? In this episode, I address a question from a listener about how to make decisions about the larger questions of life and career.
If you travel for business, you know that it can be both stressful and frustrating. However, if you have some core principles that guide how you approach travel it can also turn your time “on the road” into space to help you be more prolific, brilliant, and healthy. On today’s show, I share a few principles for traveling well and staying emotionally (and physically) healthy.
Conflict is a natural and expected thing when you have talented, driven people working side by side. In fact, if you don’t have conflict on your team then it’s potentially a sign of a lack of health. Conflict can sharpen your relationships, but how you handle it is everything. On today’s episode I share a few quick tips for fighting well.
When you think about what it takes to be creative every day, you probably think about the technical aspects of your work. However, you might not consider how what you eat, how you sleep, and how you exercise affects your ability to think well and be brilliant when it matters most. On today's show, Dr. Greg Wells shares some highly practical advice about how to better care for yourself so you can think clearly and deliver results under pressure. Dr. Wells is the author of the new book The Ripple Effect.
How do the best brands in the world inspire loyalty? And, why do some brands just seem to fall apart even though they seem to be doing everything right? On today's episode, Alison Stratten is here to share a few stories of brands who have leveraged comfort, cost, convenience, and convergence to grow incredible customer loyalty. Alison is the co-author of the new book Unbranding.
Tactics are important and necessary if you want to do brilliant work, but so is mindset. You can be the most talented and disciplined person on the planet, but if you have a blind spot in your mindset you will eventually fail. On today's episode, I talk about one very important mindset tweak that will help you to bring your best effort every day.