Todd Gifford – Success Coach

Innovation is defined in the Webster Dictionary  as “the introduction of something new.”  Innovating is something that we all want to do and need to do to advance / progress and achieve goals — and make a huge impact.  But innovating can be challenging amidst the daily battle of the ongoing business.

Most people approach innovation one of two different ways:  innovating by soliciting the help and input from many different people, or attempting to innovate by themselves.  Regardless of the approach chosen (and both approaches can work), most people make some key mistakes when attempting to innovate.  The fact that most people do not approach innovating correctly is supported by data that indicates that between only 8%-15% of technical challenges typically get solved.

So what are the key strategies and tools to improve the innovating process?

I was watching the TV news magazine show “60 Minutes” a number of weeks back, and they were doing a story on a guy who is considered to be the very best free solo rock climber in the world today.  ‘Free solo’ meaning no ropes or climbing gear whatsoever — just him, a shirt, shorts, shoes, and some talcum powder he uses on his finger tips to reduce friction and moisture.  They showed him climbing vertical mountain walls with no ropes, and even walls that were greater than 90 degrees — meaning that the walls actually leaned outward, with him dangling there up over 1000 feet off the ground, tethered to the wall face with nothing but his fingertips.  Just one small mistake, and he is dead.

How does climbing with no ropes relate to innovating you might ask.  As I watched this story and the interview, I could see that there were some strong parallels to be taken away from this that apply to successful innovating and efficiently solving challenges.  The free solo mountain climber on 60 Minutes talked about the value of having a very clear and specific challenge in front of him.  It is critical to him that he has no fuzziness or lack of clarity about what it is he is trying to accomplish.  It is a lot about having extremely clear goals.  Every thought he has and every move he makes is about safely achieving that clear goal, with no wasted motion or energy.  It is recognized by many authorities on innovation that the strategy that generates the most valuable innovating results is defining a specific challenge that people can solve.  Developing a very specific, precise question for people or yourself to think about and respond/answer to is the single most powerful tool you can use when innovating.

If you do not identify a clear and precise challenge and identify the related question to solve that challenge, it does not matter what type of innovating approach you take (open, closed, internal, internal+external, collaborative, solo, etc…).  Not defining the precise challenge and clear question to be answered simply creates too much wasted motion and energy.  A critical problem noted by experts is that most people today are “exerting energy to find solutions to problems that don’t matter.”  This is a good example of lack of clarity.

If you are not sure where to start innovating, here is a great question to ask yourself and/or your team and/or your suppliers:  “What challenge, if able to be solved, will create incredible value, such as cost savings, increased efficiency, and competitive advantage, for the enterprise?”

Back to Climbing With No Ropes…

The other key thing I took away from the 60 Minutes interview was that the free solo climbers’ incredible results and accomplishments happen largely because of a hard, no-options, deadline.  When the free solo mountain climber commits his/her first several moves up the mountain face, they essentially have a ‘firm deadline’ (make it to the top without falling before they need food/water).  There is no going down or reversing course.  The climber has to perform at maximum productivity and has to achieve the very clear goal.  This ‘no options’ deadline obviously produces incredible results.  We can all take and apply some important points from this story.  When innovating, or tackling any other type of project for that matter, it is critical that some form of ‘hard’ deadline be put into place to force maximum productivity.

Putting yourself and/or your team on a virtual ‘mountain wall with no ropes’ in terms of innovating can be extremely productive and rewarding.  Defining a very precise challenge, creating a clear question related to that challenge to work from, and setting a no-options hard deadline can produce some of the most efficient and successful innovating you can imagine.

Be Your Best,
Todd D. Gifford

Todd Gifford – Success Coach

Springtime is generally associated with ‘Spring Cleaning’, as we all get out from the long winter. For me and my family, spring cleaning also means getting rid of clutter and ‘stuff’ we have outgrown, are not using any more, or is simply in the way of progress.  Most people do this and tend to think of only tangible ‘stuff’, which is the bulk of what I am talking about. But there is another big area of stuff that needs the same type of spring cleaning/purging — tasks, activities, commitments, groups, associations, etc…  More on that later.

As life goes on, regardless of who you are, we all accumulate ‘things’.  Some of us are relatively effective ‘purge-it’ people, but others have a very difficult time with getting rid of things.  Even the people who I know who are pretty darn good at getting rid of stuff — they still accumulate things.  It’s no wonder — we are called ‘consumers’, not ‘get-ridders’.  It’s hard on several levels: if something has emotional value, that makes it automatically hard to part with it.  Then, you have all the items that are nice enough that you hate to toss or donate, but not worth enough money to sell.  And then there are the items that are physically difficult to move anywhere or dispose of, like that old TV that kind of works ‘ok’, sometimes.

But here’s the deal — there is a tremendous benefit by making an extra effort to get rid of this unneeded, unwanted ‘stuff’.  Does not matter if you donate it, sell it, or toss it.  If you can give yourself permission to let go of it and get motivated to take action to purge it (donate, sell, or throw away), something pretty cool happens.  It feels really really good.  The reason it feels so good is a result of something a friend of mine, Lee Milteer, calls the “Law of the Vacuum”.  Not your vacuum you plug into the wall — the ‘scientific’ type of vacuum created by an absence of matter or low air pressure in a space.  When you purge out ‘stuff’ that you no longer want or need, it creates a physical empty space in your house/garage, but it also creates a virtual empty space that de-clutters your mind too.  When you sell, donate, or toss something, it’s like a small weight is lifted off you, and creates a new space (a ‘vacuum’) for something new to fill in the future.

We tend to think of our physical and mental space we each have as never-ending, unlimited, or ‘free’ (0 cost).  But the reality is that everything we accumulate has a cost or toll of space/storage, both physically and emotionally.  We also have to make sure the items do not get damaged and generally have to insure them.  And then there is the issue of trying to find something when we have a lot of stuff to search through, not to mention the clutter or safety situation where things can be ‘in the way’.

Don’t get me wrong — I am not promoting getting rid of your favorite collection of xxxxxx’s.  Even my wife who is a professed ‘non-collector of anything and a tremendous purger’ has several collections of things that she would never part with.  This Law of the Vacuum applies to things that are not serving a good solid purpose for you or do not have significant meaning to you — if it does not fit into one of those categories, you can make yourself feel really good and create that ‘vacuum’ by selling, donating, or tossing it.  If you can convince yourself to let go and make the effort to move it on, it will create a new space in your life for something to come into your life.  AND, by donating or selling an item, you give someone else the opportunity to enjoy and benefit from it (which also feels pretty good).  If you don’t get that warm and fuzzy from ‘other people benefiting’, then just think of it as recycling and good for the planet to sell or donate.

Tangible vs. Intangible

Not only do you accumulate tangible ‘stuff’ that should be cycled through and purged, but you also accumulate intangible stuff that needs to be purged periodically.  Just like tangible physical stuff can weigh on you, so can thoughts, fears, commitments, certain people, groups you belong to but no longer want to be, etc… These intangible things take up mental space, energy, and your time.  The Law of the Vacuum applies here too: if they are not serving a good solid purpose for you or do not have significant positive meaning to you, consider purging them or letting them go to make space for something new.

Giving yourself permission to let things go and creating space for new things to come into your life requires effort and taking action, but feels really good.  An old quote I really like says: “Let go…or be dragged.”  See how much new space you can create for new things by letting go.

Be Your Best,
Todd D. Gifford

Todd Gifford – Success Coach

Like a lot of you, our house is full of books.  Books everywhere.  My wife likes novels, history books, and big encyclopedic type reference books on many topics.  I like how-to books, automotive/old car reference books, business books, and fitness/sports/wellness books.  And then of course our kids have more books.  Running out of space to put all the books!  I was thinking about how we ended up with so many books and when we purchased each one of them, since we did not acquire them ‘in bulk’.

The general answer to my question of ‘when did we get each book?’ is:  when we felt some sort of pain and needed or wanted to learn something.  It is not always the same type of pain when you stub your toe, but it could have been that kind of sharp pain that drove us to learn.  I know for myself that once I become aware of something that I am interested in (home repair/improvement project, a sport, a hobby, etc…), I immediately start to experience some ‘pain’ of feeling unknowledgeable or incapable — so I usually turn to books to begin the learning process.  And then once I begin learning more about the thing that I wanted to pursue, I find out how much more I really did not know and still don’t know, and may never know.  This creates more ‘pain’…and then more learning (and more books!).  And the more I realize how much I don’t know about so many things that I think I should understand and know about…

…it creates the concept or philosophy for me of a lifetime of constant learning.  Over the years, I have come to look at this pain-learning-pain-more learning-more pain-more learning cycle as one huge “goal” of: a lifetime of constant learning.  And the pain that causes me to want to learn (and read) is pain that I really want to have as much as possible, seek out, and experience.  “Passion” can be substituted for the word “Pain”.  I feel that passion is a form of pain.  So if passion makes more sense vs. the word pain, insert it.

And the point of this is…?

I think a lifetime of constant learning is a worthy, rewarding, but challenging goal.  Knowledge = “wealth” = ability to try new things = fun/excitement = happiness.  But it really is a challenging goal for several reasons.  First, there is a paradox going on at all times.  I am trying to learn to master any given endeavor (basically trying to ‘conquer’ it) as I learn about it — and achieve the feeling like I know it all or have it mastered.  But the moment you think you know it all or ‘enough’, you stop learning.  And if you stop learning, the knowledge = ‘wealth’ = try new things = excitement = happiness equation above stops happening.  This applies to everything: golf, model building, dancing, playing the piano, gardening, or whatever.  You basically have to operate comfortably in constant paradox:  always try to learn it all, but know that you will never learn it all.  Second, learning takes time and effort and focus.  Time is precious and limited, and focusing on learning is even trickier with all the daily distractions.  You could say that you are learning as you watch TV or surf the web on your smart phone, but that kind of learning is spotty.  Third, you have to approach learning with a consciously open mind.  Like a great quote I heard many years ago says:  “Your mind is like a parachute — it only works when open.”  This means that you should consciously be thinking about and focusing on the learning process in order to learn.

Reading is obviously not the only way to learn.  DOING is another powerful way to learn.

More on learning via Pain

When you do and try a lot of things (which tends to increase the more you read and learn), you increase your chances for having more pain through failure.  But it is these painful experiences and failures that create powerful learning experiences.  Not trying things for fear of failure removes one of the most important lifetime of constant learning opportunities.  Rarely do we learn important lessons from our successes, but rather from our setbacks.  Here again, another paradox that you must be comfortable with to execute the goal of a lifetime of constant learning: you try as many things as possible and try to succeed at everything you do, but you know that you will learn more from failing than succeeding.

Read and Do.  Read and Try.  Try and fail (or succeed) as much as possible.  It’s the goal of a lifetime of constant learning!

Be Your Best,
Todd D. Gifford

Todd Gifford – Success Coach

Luck is a very hard concept to pin down when it comes to success and failure, and of course, we all hear ‘you were lucky’ or ‘that was just good (or bad) luck’ all the time — but it seems more of a cliché than something that people really understand.  There is no doubt that luck plays a factor for personal and group success in the big picture and small picture — but how and how much?  Should you/we care?  Can luck be understood or managed or leveraged?

I have always been intrigued by the concept of luck, wondering just how much luck (volume of luck, frequency of luck and timing of luck) played a factor in life.  My first interest in “luck” was when I was a kid, about 10-12 years old, playing tennis, and trying to become a better tennis player.  I was playing recreationally, but then started to enter some tournaments as I became a teenager.  Bottom line is I didn’t win very often.  The frustrating thing was that I truly felt that I was ‘better’ than most of the players I was playing against.  When I would warm up with my competitor before the match, hitting the ball back and forth, I would feel that I was better than the other player.  But then during the match, they would beat me sometimes handily and sometimes in a close match.  But I lost most matches.  I continued to work hard and practice frequently to get better, but still lost most all my matches.  Going through this stretch for a few years, I started to wonder if I was just ‘unlucky’ or the players I was playing were ‘luckier’ than me.  Well, the answer was they were just better tennis players than me … but the real point here is that the concept of “luck” was something I began seriously wondering about and it did play a factor (as I understand it today), but not how I thought it did.  Did some people have more luck than others?  Did certain people have more frequent luck?

Of course as you get older, you hear more statements and clichés about luck — my personal favorite: “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”  For me, through all the years of working, I never really had any big conclusions about luck and its role in my successes and failures.  I think I felt that overall, I was pretty “lucky” in general, but not sure I would consider luck as being critical in getting me to where I am at (like most of us, I like to think that what I have achieved was based on hard work and effort more so than any luck that I have had, good or bad.  But the reality is that until recently, I still felt that the concept of how luck plays into success and failure was pretty much a mystery.

Of late, I had the fortune of reading a book by Jim Collins, called ‘Great By Choice’.  This book is an excellent read for several reasons, but one of the most interesting portions of the book (and worth the price just to read this one chapter) is the chapter discussing “Luck”.  Collins’ research project for this book sort of backed into the issue of luck, because an obvious question that was raised by his identification of a number of companies that had reached success more than 10X over 20-30 years vs. the comparable companies was: ‘did luck play a minor, major, or nonexistent role in the success of the 10X companies?”

Collins’ team studied the concept of luck like no one else has ever done prior, and arrived at some very interesting  and important conclusions based on empirical data.  These conclusions finally provided me clarity as to how luck plays into success and failure.

R.O.L.

First, by definition, a luck event is something outside of your control, so you cannot predict or ‘advance manage’ luck.  Second, Collins’ research data showed that the ultra successful companies did not have any more good luck, any less bad luck, and no different timing or frequency of luck events than the comparable less successful companies.  This is what the empirical data over a 20-30 year study period showed.  OK, so by and large, luck itself does not cause great success.  But is any part of luck a factor in success?

YES.  The aspect of luck that DOES cause greater degrees of success is the concept of “Return on Luck” or R.O.L.  Return on Luck (ROL) is what kind of positive or negative ‘return/benefit’ you get when luck happens to you.  You can think of ROL in a 4-box matrix.  There is the type of luck (Good or Bad) you get, and then there is the benefit that you create when ‘luck’ happens (Good or Bad ‘return’ on luck).  So, when a good luck event happens, you can either capitalize on your good fortune, or the luck event can pass you by (possibly unnoticed) and your return (benefit) from that luck was poor.  Same goes for bad luck, and in fact, your performance/success may be more dependant on your Return on ‘bad’ Luck than on good luck.  It is quite possible to have a ‘good’ return on ‘bad’ luck (and ‘bad’ ROL on bad luck) — taking a bad luck situation and transforming it into a tremendous positive outcome (challenging, but very possible).  Collins’ research study showed that the 10X more successful companies achieved better ROL with the luck that they got (good luck AND bad luck).  This is extremely important information, but maybe even more significant is the fact that what people do with the luck that they get is completely within their control.  It is all about choices and action taken upon recognizing either good luck or bad luck has occurred.  For me (and I hope for you), this is a really important principle that can help your career, your life, and your success/happiness.  Be on the sharp lookout for when good luck and bad luck happens, and strive to get a high ROL!

Be Your Best,

Todd D. Gifford

Todd Gifford – Success Coach

Warren Buffett, business magnate, legendary investor, and philanthropist was once asked how he defined friendship.  He answered: “I remember asking that same question of a woman who had survived Auschwitz.  She said her test of friendship was: would they hide me?”  That made me stop and think: how many friends do I have that would hide me?  How many friends do I have that I would hide?

Another successful person said that you will uncover a lot of lost friends and unknown relatives by winning the lottery big, but you can only determine the true friends you have by calling them all the night before your having won that lottery becomes public knowledge, telling them you are under life and death duress to raise a million dollars more than you have immediately, and asking how much they will lend you first thing in the morning.

A statement made by a trusted friend: “Caskets are made with six handles — a very optimistic thought.”

And finally, yet another interesting perspective of friendship: “If you want to know who your true friends are, get yourself a jail sentence, and see who visits you.”

All of these perspectives point to the same basic point that true friendship is very rare.  True friendship is something that I think should be taken  very seriously, like other important principles like honesty and integrity.  Succinctly put by a person I admire: “The hole we give through is the same hole we receive through.  We choose its circumference.”  Putting some concerted thought each day on how to be a better person and a better friend will almost guarantee a large band of good true friends.  True friendship is priceless.  A good first thought: How many friends would hide you?  How many friends would you hide?

F.E.A.R.

We all are pelted and pounded with issues, concerns, doubts, and reasons why things are bad, why we can’t accomplish things, how things may be worse in the future.  It is a real challenge not to be inundated and subsequently have increased anxiety by all this negative information in today’s information overload environment.  But it is critical that we proactively manage fear to allow ourselves to reach our full potential and accomplish everything we desire.  Fear can stifle us.

A mentor of mine provided me this definition of “Fear” many years ago:  Fear =

Fantasized Experiences Appearing Real.  This puts the concept of fear into good perspective.  Most of the things we fear are simply an exaggeration of our imagination.  Our subconscious mind and our nervous system don’t know the difference between reality and our imagination.  So, the same feelings of anxiety are created whether a situation is real or imagined.  That is really important to understand.  F.E.A.R.

Here are a few things you can do to proactively manage your fears:

Actively feed your mind with positive and uplifting information.  You are constantly being bombarded by negative news and negative information.  If you are a news-oriented person, this is magnified.  On an average day, studies have shown that 80%+ of our thoughts are negative.  By actively exposing yourself to positive information, your brain and imagination can absorb that to offset or counter all the bad news coming at you.

Second, it is important to take time periodically (daily or weekly)  to think about positive goals and aspirations, and develop plans to achieve those.  By doing this consistently, you put your mind on ‘track’ and focus on your targets — helping to eliminate distraction (aka fear).  As Earl Nightingale (father of personal development) once said, “You become what you think about.”

Lastly, it is generally productive to confront your biggest persisting fears head on.  It is an interesting paradox in life that when you resist something, it persists even stronger.  Eleanor Roosevelt once said: “Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.”  One of the best and most useful tools I have ever been given is this:  The best antidote to fear is ‘Action’.  If you ever have fear or anxiety, just start ‘doing’ something and you will immediately feel better.  Go for a walk, ride a bike, work on a craft, play with your kids/pet, etc… It works like a charm.

Be Your Best,
Todd D. Gifford

What is old is new again — The model car DEE President Todd Gifford assembled and painted after 34 years since doing his last plastic model project

Over the holidays, I was ‘sequestered’ at my wife’s folks’ home in Pueblo, Colorado.  I am not very good at just sitting around and relaxing for very long.  I did not have my typical house chores to do, nothing broken to fix, no cars to wash or work on, and none of my normal list of things to do.  Since it was right after Christmas, everyone wanted to just hang out at home.  I was getting restless and had already done a lot of reading and football game watching, so I started to think about things I could do.

We had given our 5 year old nephew a little wooden Lion puzzle 3D model for Christmas from a craft store.  Lots of little balsa wood pieces that you have to figure out how to assemble (puzzle), and when you are done, you have a ’model’ of a Lion.  After several adults in the family had tried to start this model puzzle and gotten no where, everyone agreed that it would be too difficult for our nephew to try to assemble it alone.  I grabbed the project and started to take a look at it.  I was dying for a challenge, so I started into it.  Even though the package said “for Ages 8+”, this thing was fairly difficult to figure out (although it should be noted I have never been any good at puzzles).  After about an hour, I started to make some nice progress.  I began to get some oooh’s and ahhh’s from family members, as they checked on my progress — which made me feel pretty good.  After a couple hours, I had a Lion model completed that looked just like the picture on the package!  That project was done, and now I was back to my original situation of needing something to do.

That wooden Lion model sparked some memories I had of when I was about 9-12 years old, sitting in my basement putting together 1/18th and 1/24th scale plastic models of tanks, airplanes, and some buildings for an H.O. train setup.  I remember really enjoying doing that, but could not figure out why I just stopped building models somewhere around age 13.  I have not even looked at or thought about a plastic model project in over 34 years.  I got excited and thought “I am going to take all this free down time and put together a plastic model just like the old days.”

I really like old cars, so I decided to hunt down a cool old car model that I could build.  So, within a half hour, I was looking for my project at the local hobby shop.  A few days later of 6 hours per day effort carefully painting and gluing, I completed my first model after 34 years since I stopped building them.  It was every bit as fun and rewarding as I remember it from when I was very young.  And in some ways, it was more rewarding.  My two daughters (10 and 13 years old) helped me with the project, which made it even that much more fulfilling (and they really enjoyed it).

This experience got me thinking.  If I had forgotten about something this fun and rewarding for 34 years, what else am I missing or have forgotten about that is just as rewarding?  The fact is that there are hundreds upon hundreds of activities, books, techniques, tools, learnings, etc… that you have used or been exposed to in the past — that you simply just forget about or stop using or doing.  Why?

I suppose there are a lot of reasons why we (I) just stop doing or using valuable or important things that we have done in the past, but the reason that I think is the biggest is: that I am always looking for the ‘next thing’.  As human beings, we have a fundamental need for growth and excitement.  This is a good thing, but the bad part about it is that we can leave behind some very good things we have been exposed to, only to be forgotten and replaced by new things.  This phenomena applies equally to business and personal life.

On the one hand, searching and finding ‘new’ allows us to become exposed to a lot of different things and experiences — but on the other hand, it may not allow us to fully maximize the value of what we already have learned or been exposed to.  In the plastic model story I talked about above, if I had stuck with building models over the years, what could I have accomplished?  Same goes with business tools, strategies, and techniques.  So many times we move on to the next ‘thing’, without fully leveraging or maximizing strategies or techniques that we have already learned.  In the end, it is all about ‘balance’.  Not searching for ‘new’ inhibits our growth potential.  But constant searching for new or better without fully mastering or leveraging the good stuff we already know can also lead to falling short of our potential.  It’s a bit of a paradox where you need to do a lot of both.

Take time to look ‘back’ at some of your lost or forgotten ‘good stuff’ that you can rediscover. What is old can be new, important, and valuable again.

Be Your Best,

Todd D. Gifford

Todd Gifford – Success Coach

I found out several weeks ago that one of my friends had passed away.  It happens to all of us, and as we get older, it will happen more frequently.  The real troubling thing about this situation is how he died.  This one really rocked me.

I was contacted by my friend’s son to let me know his dad had passed way.  The last time I spoke to my friend’s son, I think he was only about 6 years old.  He is 21 years old now.  This friend is someone who I got to know very well in the early 1990’s.  I spent a lot of time around him in my job and he was someone that I highly respected and my wife and I got to know his entire family.  After that time, we had moved away, as did he and his family, and we moved on with our families and lives.  From then on, we had only stayed in touch by phone occasionally, some emails, and exchanging Christmas cards.  Regardless of how often we communicated, I considered him a very good friend.  Not sure about you, but there are certain people I know and no matter how much time goes by in between seeing or talking to each other — the next time you talk it is like no time had elapsed.  This was one of those situations.

When the son contacted me via online, I gave him a call right away.  When I asked if his dad had gotten sick, he explained to me that his dad had attempted suicide, immediately determined that he had made a huge mistake, called 911 himself, but ultimately could not be saved and passed away that night after coming off life support.

I was nearly speechless, as I simply could not understand why my friend would attempt to take his own life.  Wonderful family, beautiful home in a great place to live, healthy, and just a super person to be around or associate with.  Even as I write this I am still somewhat in disbelief.  This was a very tough phone call for me, and I can only imagine what it was like for the son I was speaking with, and the rest of their entire family.

After I hung up the phone, my mind immediately went into the mode of thinking about the last time I spoke with him.  Why had I not spoken to him more recently or frequently?  When I spoke to him last, was there anything he said that I should have picked up on?  Could I have done anything that might have made a difference?   I was racking my brain to try to figure it out.  Ultimately, after talking to a number of people including my wife about it — there is no ultimate answer that makes you feel any better about it.  Although I don’t want to keep beating myself up about it, I do want to take something important from it that is constructive and apply it going forward.

My takeaways:

1. Yet another reminder that life is really really short.

2. Keep in touch with friends and family more often than you think is necessary.  Work hard at it.

The 6 Reasons Why People Give Up

This is what I was going to write about in this month’s letter before I learned about the death of my friend.  But I think there are some interesting and potentially spooky parallels between what happened to my friend and the topic of why people give up.

In the book “Mojo”, Marshall Goldsmith outlines the 6 Reasons Why People Give Up.  I wanted to list these here because they are so universally applicable to just about everything we do, everything we want, and anything we want to achieve in life.

The better we can manage these ‘give up reasons’, the better off we will be in our quest.  Not being able to overcome these 6 reasons means falling short of goals, underperforming to expectations, and not achieving what you want.

6 Reasons Why People Give Up:

1. It takes longer than we thought.

2. It’s more difficult than we thought.

3. We have other things to do.

4. We don’t get the expected reward.

5. We declare victory to soon.

6. We have to do it forever.

It is not just a matter of discipline.  Optimism has as much, if not more, to do with success than self discipline.  Remaining persistently optimistic despite repeated setbacks is a “behavior” that must be mastered.  Most think that optimism is just a mindset, but it is most effective as a ‘behavior’.  Behavior is action — mindset is thinking.  Action wins over thinking, although both are important.  Goldsmith in the Mojo book is not suggesting that you employ ‘blind optimism’ and forget about realism or realistic thinking.  But you want to understand that optimism is a behavior that is positive, attractive to other people, feels better, can be self-fulfilling, and is contagious.  Know that these 6 factors listed for ‘giving up’ will happen.  And when they do, you will be ready, because they are normal and expected.  Planning how you will optimistically deal with the 6 reasons and then behaving optimistically when any of the 6 reasons happens puts you way ahead of the pack.

Be Your Best,

Todd D. Gifford

Todd Gifford – Success Coach

This is that time of the year you tend to reflect on how your past 12 months has gone, how you are doing, and where your are going.  I am not sure which of these two following things presents more pressure to me these days — the clock or the calendar.  Time flies by so quickly that it is easy to fall into measuring time by the calendar instead of the clock.  The reality is that we should be scrutinizing our hours, not our days, in order to maximize our time and be ultra-successful, based on whatever definition of success you have for yourself.  The problem with assessing your day’s or week’s productivity or effectiveness is it allows you to generalize and round, and not reach your true potential.

Measuring your productivity or accomplishment or happiness by the clock seems daunting, but can be very effective. Planning and scrutinizing your time at the hourly level makes you much more accountable to your goals and objectives – no doubt it is more rigorous, but the payoff is significant and worth the effort.  We only have 1,440 minutes in a day, 10,080 minutes in a week.  Sounds like a lot until you translate it into hours: we have only 168 hours in a week.  Keep in mind that you are sleeping a good portion of those 168 hours (a very good use of time that you should track your # of hours on by the way), this is really not that much time if you are not making the most of each hour.

Ok, so planning every hour of your waking day may not seem feasible.  But why not?  I think for many of us (and speaking for myself) it’s because of three things: 1. We/I tend to be a bit lazy with our time without some form of hard deadline (whether it be at work or at home), 2. We are heavily distracted as a rule throughout most days, unless we have proactive disciplines in place to prevent distraction, and 3. We are ‘taught’ by others around us that you do not plan out each hour of every day — it is simply not something that 99.9% of people do.  But these reasons should not prevent you from attempting to do it.  Any amount of precise planning and discipline around your time at the hourly or minute level will increase your productivity, success, and overall satisfaction (no matter how you define these things).  You will simply accomplish more, achieve greater results, and because of this, feel greater satisfaction more often.

The Power of Subtraction

In the book “Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, and How to Get it Back When You Need it”, Marshall Goldsmith talks about the concept of the Power of Subtraction.  I bring this principle up because when talking about making every hour or minute of every day count, I think this Power of Subtraction concept is something we should all explore to help us.

Goldsmith describes the Power of Subtraction as when something of significance is removed from your life (by choice or by chance), and because this thing has been taken away, we humans (that are motivated) tend to seek out new and better passions and uses of their time as a result.  One example Goldsmith describes is someone who lost their vocal cords due to throat cancer.  This person had been a professional salesperson, who used his voice regularly.   When faced with no voice, he found a new direction, and something far more fulfilling as a result.  We can all use the Power of Subtraction concept proactively to create need and direction, AND to free up time to be used for other things.

Obviously, no one wishes for a disability or illness to take something away.  But the power of subtraction is a tool that we can all experiment with to free up time as well as create space for new direction.  It’s something interesting to think about for the New Year.  The bigger the subtraction, the bigger the opportunity.

New Years Resolutions

I typically don’t create a set of New Years Resolutions, per se, because I feel “why wait ‘til New Years to make a resolution?”  I prefer to nail down more of a ‘plan’ for the year, with goals and objectives.  Call it whatever you like, there is a lot of value in formally establishing goals or resolutions.  Many people, including myself, struggle in creating a personal plan for the year.  It can tend to feel contrived or forced when trying to do it one sitting, and I don’t have all the plan ideas together at a single moment in time.  So, here is what I do, for whatever it’s worth.  I basically have an evolving set of written short/mid/long-term Goals and Objectives (‘resolutions’ I suppose), as well as a running (and changing) list of ’Want to Do’ items (aka Bucket List).  There is really never one point in time I create the plan — I just periodically review it, update it, cross completed stuff off, and add new goals and bucket list items.  Deadlines and due dates are important (critical, actually), and I try to set timeframes for just about everything on my plan with exception of certain bucket list items (deadlines on those are before I kick the bucket — or I will grab one from time to time and set an earlier deadline).  At this time of year, going into the new year, I am not ‘creating’ a plan, but rather I am reviewing my existing evolving plan, assessing results, making some changes, and adding some new goals.  A new aspect I will be adding to the plan this year is some things I will be ‘subtracting’ or not doing —  I need to make space for new goals!  Happy New Year to you, your family, and friends.

Be Your Best,
Todd D. Gifford

Todd Gifford – Success Coach

It’s that time of year where things are almost moving in a blur-like pace.  Get up in the morning, exercise a bit, get ready for work, grab something to eat — whatever you can, work-work-work, head to the store, shop-shop-shop for gifts, make dinner, clean up after dinner, wrap presents, clean up again, make a pie or dish for a party or gathering coming up, clean up again, get ready for bed, go to bed.  Whooo!  Hardly enough time to take a breath, let alone just relax and think.

It is times like these where you have to force yourself to carve a moment out periodically to ‘stop and smell the roses’.  In the heat of the holiday battle and hustle and bustle, you can literally miss the fun, beauty, and happiness of the season.  As part of  that stopping to smell the roses, it is  a great time to spend some time just ‘thinking’.  Sound like a foreign concept?  No one just sits and thinks anymore, right?!  That was something they did in the old days, before Radios, TV’s, iPods, Smart Phones, Web surfing, Wii and Xbox.

All of this non-stop ‘doing’ and activity can really wear you down and just plain wears you out.

Today, it is very easy to conclude that there is simply no time to just THINK.  In fact, silence is so uncommon it can almost be unnerving for some of us when or if it happens.  If we have silence and nothing to ‘do’, it can seem like a huge void where we have to find something to fill or kill the silence.

Let me tell you something — you have got to take some time out to just relax, recoup, rest, and silently just do some thinking for yourself.  And we should all do this with some degree of frequency, hopefully at least on a weekly basis.  Time set aside to just wind down in comfortable silence (or at least with nothing playing that you have to actively concentrate on) is important.  Why?  This down time allows you to rest and recoup mentally, much like your muscles need to rest and recoup from workouts.  This down time also allows you to think creatively, develop ideas, find solutions to nagging problems, think of new things to do, as well as discover brand new opportunities.  Even just 30-45 consecutive minutes of good quality quiet time every week or two makes a huge difference.

If you are like me, I get a lot of ideas and key thoughts to write down while I am getting ready for work in the morning…likely because it is quiet time to myself.

There is something very powerful about scheduling in some quiet relaxation time for yourself.  It can feel almost like you are slowing the whole world down for a little while you take time to think.  Give it a try.  It’s a super simple concept, but very powerful.  A lot of times, I like to take a topic or problem that I know I need to figure out and the next time I can carve out some quiet time I just try to think only about that one topic.  When you don’t have phones ringing, email chiming, text messages flying, videos playing — it is amazing how you can figure things out.  Eventually my mind starts wandering off the focus topic, but I always seem to come up with some great ideas and thoughts.  I don’t force myself to go back to the focus topic, but having that initial core problem or topic allows me to get into a good focused state.  I keep a pad of paper and pencil nearby to make a note as things pop in to my head.  If you don’t write them down at that moment, many times they are gone as quickly as they came.

Here are some great questions to ask yourself when you carve out some quiet time to just ‘think’, especially at this time of year at the cusp of a brand New Year:

• What am I most proud of achieving this year?
• Who am I most grateful to this year?
• What is blocking me right now from being my best?
• Am I healthier, happier, and wiser vs. a year ago?
• What am I committed to accomplishing next year?
• What are the most important things I can do to grow myself?
• What unfinished business or open projects do I need to complete and finish asap?
• What am I willing to do differently that will change my life for the better?
• If I knew that everything in my life was going to work out and I had no worries, what would I do differently?

I can just about guarantee that you cannot develop high quality answers to these questions without some focused and quiet quality thinking time.

This holiday season, give yourself the gift of relaxed silence and thought.  It’s free, but uniquely and infinitely valuable.  Happy Holidays!

Be Your Best,
Todd D. Gifford

Todd Gifford – Success Coach, President

I was watching the CBS ‘Sunday Morning’ show recently, and they had a piece on ‘Positive Thinking’.  The crux of the story (the headline) was that: “Many experts believe that positive thinking does nothing in the way of healing illness or overcoming problems.”  On the surface, this story had kind of a negative tone by refuting the popular belief that ‘positive thinking’ does help heal people quicker and helps overcome problems.  They had both sides of this issue represented, but the slant definitely was that just because you think positively, does not mean you will have a positive outcome.

As I watched the CBS Sunday Morning story, I reflected on a concept that I had learned some time ago called the Positive Power of Negative Preparation coined by author, copywriter, and business consultant Dan Kennedy.  I do a lot of reading on the topics of the power of the brain, achieving success, and personal improvement.  Basically, the power of negative preparation concept articulates that ‘thinking positively’ is not just about ‘thinking in a positive way about positive outcomes’.  The positive power of negative preparation (positive thinking) should also include thinking about potential negative outcomes.  In other words, thinking about all the ‘what is’s’, not just about the ‘what ought to be’s’.  This is thinking more in the way of a ‘what if’ approach, and then determining how to deal with or preparing for all those what if scenarios.

Another Key Irony about Positive Thinking

On the CBS Sunday Morning story, they interviewed some top professional athletes, who all believed in positive thinking as having a very important impact on their success.  But as I listened and watched, another key principle or truth was glaringly obvious.

Although each of these top athletes was talking about positive ‘thinking’, what appeared to really make the big difference in their success was positive “DOING”.  Yes, ‘Thinking’ has to happen before ‘Doing’, but ultimately, the difference between two people who think the same exact positive thoughts about the same successful outcomes, is what they DO.  The doing is usually the difference.  I think we can all agree that positive thought alone, without action, will not yield success, regardless of your definition of success.

Some more examples of Positive Thinking through Negative Preparation

Someone who prepares for a presentation by writing down and thinking about every possible question, concern, or negative opinion they can come up with that the people they are presenting to might have is positive thinking through negative preparation.

Another example is an athlete going into a match or game thinking about all their weaknesses and how they can proactively counteract or turn those weaknesses somehow into strengths.  Having multiple game plans created in case the primary game plan is not working well is a form of positive power of negative preparation.  This is all positive thinking, and again, largely translates into positive action vs. just thought.

6 Steps to Leveraging the Positive Power of Negative Preparation

1. Try to forget about any preconceived labels of positive and negative.  Focus on what is, or what if, not what ought to be.

2. Make a list of every potential negative response, concern, question, or objection you can think of related to the task or situation you are focused on.

3. Make a list of everything that could go wrong.

4. Develop and document positive responses and actions to all the negatives you thought of.

5. Organize and document your information so that you can easily reference it and use it.

6. Have great confidence and a positive disposition that you have thoroughly prepared.

Notice that many of these steps are ‘action’ oriented, not just thought-oriented.

The Elusive Pursuit of Perfection

As a side note to Positive Thinking, most of us are ‘perfectionists’.  We tend to see what others are doing as somehow better, we set lofty goals for ourselves, and that we simply need to do better.  Nothing wrong with that continual motivation to improve, however, it is important to understand that every pasture, from a distance, looks greener than yours.  Most are not.  Taking some pleasure in your own imperfect pasture is a very challenging, but important skill to master.  Although it is our dissatisfaction with our current situation that produces most of our achievement, this same source of power can also be a source of inaccurate thinking — the thinking that somewhere, somehow,  somebody has it all figured out.  Far too often, we use the word ‘perfect’ as a synonym for ‘successful’.

Be Your Best,
Todd D. Gifford