Be Your Best

Todd Gifford - Success Coach

In the past 45 days, I decided that I was going to take a step towards achieving a life/dream goal (on my ‘bucket list’) of finishing the Iron Man Triathlon, held each year on the Big Island of Hawaii.  Not sure if I will ever complete that dream goal — it is an insane event where you Swim 2.4 miles in open water, followed by a 110 mile bicycle race, followed yet by a 26.2 mile running marathon, all in one continuous event.  Honestly, this is something that I have wanted to complete just once in my lifetime since I was very young and would see the Ironman covered on TV each year.  Kind of like the ultimate athletic/fitness achievement that I could probably ever attain.  However, I have never seriously even attempted to move toward that goal until about a month ago.  Around my birthday last month, I was reviewing my bucket list and started to feel that time was slipping away on a number of things on my list, so I guess that got me motivated.  Each year that rolls by its going to be harder and harder to do this triathlon thing.

The Ironman event is a pretty intimidating goal.  It seems nearly unachievable to me despite seeing some ‘normal’ people complete the event on TV (although they do look like a heavy toll has been taken on them as they cross the finish line — the ‘price’ is high).  The significant physical conditioning required on a Triathlon is menacing, not to mention where do I find the time?  It’s a bit overwhelming, not unlike a lot of goals all of us face at work.  Stick with me.

I came across some good information from a guy named Ron Scolastico, who teaches the concept: “If you would go every day to a very large tree and take five swings at it with a very sharp ax, eventually, no matter how large the tree, it would have to come down.”  It’s another way of answering the question “How do you eat an elephant?” “One bite at a time.”  Same as the ‘Flywheel’ concept for companies in the best selling book “Good to Great” by Jim Collins.  Which small swing of the ax made the big tree fall?

I have been pretty conditioned over time, like many of us, to expect results to happen fast with whatever I am doing.  Whether it is work or personal life, I like to see near immediate results from my efforts (mowing the lawn—instant gratification in how the lawn looks; make a decision at work, put something into motion, and see some results of that action fairly quickly,  make a change in my golf swing — see the immediate change in ball flight, etc…).  I believe this built-in expectation can actually prevent a lot of people, including myself, from aggressively taking on big long-range goals.  They can be perceived to be so big and so far off that shorter term goals look more attractive.  Results happen faster.  I am confident that is why I have not taken steps toward achieving the Iron Man Triathlon goal previously, even though it was on my bucket list of goals for many years.

I decided to take this ‘Rule of 5’ concept and put it into practice with respect to the Ironman Triathlon dream goal.  I determined that the first ‘swing of the ax’ would be to sign up for a Triathlon even though I am not ready.  Signed up for a normal length Triathlon, paid the money, and am now committed.  Swing of the ax #2—tell people what I am doing to hold myself accountable.  Can’t back out because it would be too embarrassing.  How close am I to my ultimate goal?  Not very close.  But, closer than a month ago.  Swing of the ax #3—got a book on how to train for my 1st Triathlon.  Swing of the ax #4—signed up at a health club with a swimming pool (the swim portion of the Triathlon I perceive to be the toughest for me).  Ax swing #5: started daily training (7 new ax ‘swings’/week).  12 weeks away from my first Triathlon, I have started to train according to a pretty rigid daily plan laid out in that book I bought.  I run quite a bit already, but layering in the swimming, bicycling, and strength training is challenging.  The first big hurdle was that the training plan has me running further in a day than I have ever run before.  I was concerned about how to ‘step up’ to that level — the book said to back off my speed.  Routinely running at about 7.2 mph, I backed off the speed to 6.4 mph.

Nothing short of unbelievable as to how much of a difference that made in terms of the ability to go further.  This has been a good learning lesson to apply elsewhere—adjusting something just by a fraction in how you approach it can make a huge difference in accomplishing tasks.  Previously I was not open to change because I had my ‘routine’.  With the new training plan, I have no choice but to change.

Now I am wondering about all the other areas where I can make small changes to get better results!

Take Care,
Todd Gifford

Todd Gifford - Success Coach

The other night I watched a little bit of the Academy Awards  recognizing all the best movies and movie performances of the past year.  It dawned on me while watching all the people come up to the stage to receive their Awards (‘Oscar’ statues) and speak to the audience, that what was really happening is that these people were realizing/completing the achievement of a goal or resolution of some type.  Somewhere along the way everybody in the movie business has set a goal or dream to win an Oscar.  I seriously doubt very many actors, directors, producers, etc… who win an Oscar did not have that moment in their mind as a goal or life dream.  Not rocket science I know, but I will tie back to that in a minute…

Last month I had another birthday come and go.  I have typically used my birthdays as a time of reflection on my personal goals (both work and non-work) and what I am trying to do with my time on the planet.  I have spoken of my ‘bucket’ list in the past, and I look at that important list as well.  Call them ‘goals’, ‘dreams’, ‘stuff I want to do before kicking the bucket’ or call them whatever you want — they are the foundation of about everything if you think about it.  I know most people make ‘New Year’s resolutions’, but I have never done that for whatever reason.  I make ‘life resolutions’ (isn’t ‘resolution’ just another name for a ‘goal’?) whenever I think they need to be made.  Why wait for January 1st?  Heck, I could accomplish the goal by then!  On or around my birthday, I do a review of all of these to make sure I know where I am at.  It’s kind of my Annual Performance Review, and I am sure I am tougher on myself than anyone else could ever be.  Anyway, I guess my main point here is that nothing of any magnitude gets done without a goal or resolution of some kind.  The real secret is that setting a Goal makes things infinitely easier to accomplish.  Why?  The magic in identifying the ‘goal’ and transforming it into something other than a passing thought is that your brain starts to work on it whether you want to or not.  Small steps start getting taken towards the end goal.  “Setting goals” has a bad wrap because it is always positioned as such a ‘corporate’/’business’ thing to do.  But the reality is that if you decide you want to accomplish something (and you reallllly want to do it): if you write it down (on a napkin is fine), tell as many people as you can you are going to do it, and keep that goal in view somewhere consistently — it will happen, sure as shoot’in a very high % of the time.  Even if it does not get fully accomplished, good stuff happens regardless.  A quick tip on setting goals for yourself — use the ‘SMART’ technique: goals should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and the big one —- Time bound.

Ok, so here goes.  I just recently decided that I am going to do a Triathlon (you know, where you Swim a long way, then you Bike a long way, and then you finish with a long Run, all in one event).  Came up with that goal last month around my birthday.  I have never run more than 4 miles in one shot, never swam more than a couple hundred yards at one time, and I don’t bicycle hardly ever.  Why do I want to do this?  Not 100% sure, but I think it has to do with ‘because I think it will make me feel really good if I can do it’.  A related Bucket List dream goal I have is to do the ‘Ironman’ Triathlon before I kick the bucket, which is a ridiculous race where you Swim 2.4 miles, followed by a 112 mile bike race, followed by a 26.2 mile marathon run, all in one continuous event.  Not sure I will ever get that done, but I figured the only way to get there is to start somewhere, and that somewhere is a regular Triathlon event.  Finishing the ‘Ironman’ Triathlon is like winning an Oscar for me.  My first Triathlon is in June, 2010, so I will keep you posted.  I have started my training (which is based on the goal of being ‘ready’ for the event and just finishing the race—I don’t care about my time) which has all kinds of little goals within that plan.  This goal-stuff can be exhausting, but also a lot of fun!

Take Care,
Todd Gifford

Todd Gifford - Success Coach

Have you ever had a fun trip planned, but the whole thing fell apart in progress…but then..

That’s pretty much what happened this past month to me with a snowmobiling trip that I had planned with some friends.  We do this every year (some of these guys go more than once a year, but my body can only take one time per year).  We head out to the Snowy Mountains in Wyoming to do some mountain snowmobiling.  These mountains are at about 8,500—9,500 feet, in a mountain state park reserve that is only for snowmobiling, shear cliffs, beautiful views, and it is a massive area.  It is not unusual for this area to get 12-18 inches of snow overnight, every day you are there!  It is, if you like riding in untouched powder that is about 6-8 feet deep, sort of like the ultimate sledding experience I guess.  I am sure there are other places as good, but it is simply amazing.  Now I am a beginner-to-intermediate, and probably would not tackle this place if I were not going with some ‘experts’.  There are times when you get stuck where you cannot even see the sled because the ‘off trail’ powder is so deep.  Anyway, back to the point of all this.  This year’s trip was looking to be great, as the mountains were getting heavy snow and the temperatures were moderate.  Had a nice basic cabin in the mountains reserved, and the weather along the way looked clear.  It’s about a 13 hour drive, and the group was all set to go.  As the trip approached, I was fighting a cold/fever deal.  The day we were leaving, I was feeling better, but not great.  Well, with a whole day in the car to rest and relax, no problem.

We arrive at the lodge and cabin in the mountains and unpack.  I was feeling a little worse, but then the high altitude started really hitting me.  A good night’s sleep should do the trick, right?  Wrong.

Up half the night sick, and the other half laying half awake just trying to breathe.  By the next morning, I was a mess.  Just walking to the bathroom was tough, let alone thinking about snowmobiling in the mountains.  I was bed-ridden.  Within an hour of waking up, one of my buddies accidentally put our vehicle into a mountain road ditch while trying to park it when he could not see clearly due to all the snow.  Finally got it pulled out, but the morning was not starting out too good.  I obviously was ‘done’ for the day, but our group finally got off to sledding.  About 2.5 hours later, I hear the front door of the cabin open.  Steve, one of the sledding ‘experts’ in our group walks in and says ‘Brian’s hurt, I think he broke his collar bone.’  I pull myself together to go assist.  Sure enough Brian is sitting at the lodge with an ambulance, paramedics, and half the small town standing around him.  He was wisked off to the Laramie hospital about an hour away.  Confirmed: Broken collar bone.  His sled: mushed.  He took a tight turn to fast, and ran into a tree.  The tree won.

With me sick, our car put in the ditch, one of us with a broken collar bone, and a very mangled sled —- we decided to call it quits and head home early.  Of course, that night, they got about 14 inches of fresh snow!

But the funny thing about this totally botched trip, is that I had a great time, and had some great dialog and conversations with the group of guys during our 13 hours each way.  I drove 26 hours and did not even get on a snowmobile, but for whatever reason, I did not feel like the trip was a bust.  In fact, I really enjoyed myself (except for that first overnight).  It was relaxing, lots of great conversation, got some really good ideas, and caught up on some reading.  Not too bad.  Not sure if I am mentally trying to put a bad thing in the best light, or if it really was a great trip.  In fact I think it was a great trip, but for unexpected reasons.

The take-away lesson for me is the reason why I go on a trip like that is for the camaraderie and interaction with friends, not the sledding.  Sledding is just a bonus.

Take Care,
Todd Gifford
President
Dee Electronics

Todd Gifford - Success Coach

Over the holidays, I had the opportunity to go see the epic movie Avatar in 3D.  I did not have any real desire to see it, but I volunteered to be the guy who took some of the family and extended family ‘PG13’ kids to this movie.  Going to the movies is something we like to do during that week between Christmas and New Years.  I was pleasantly surprised by this picture and recommend you see it if you have not already, but that is not why I mention it here.  I won’t ruin the ending, but Avatar did drive home an important concept that I have been reading and thinking about that applies to all of us in our business and careers.  We’ll get to that in a minute.

Just finishing up a book called “The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement” by Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox.  In this book Dr. Goldratt introduces the management philosophy/concept of The Theory of Constraints (TOC).  The Theory of Constraints is based on the premise that the rate of goal achievement is limited by a small number of , but at least one main constraining process.  Only by increasing the flow through the constraint can the overall throughput and goal achievement be increased.  TOC then says that once the key constraint is identified, then the organization should be aligned around exploiting that constraint to significantly improve performance.  Obviously I am giving the Reader’s Digest version here, but it is a pretty simple theory (simple but very powerful).

Constraints can be internal or external, but a Constraint is anything that prevents the system from achieving its goal.  One of the key important aspects of TOC is that there are not tens or hundreds of constraints, but only one or a just a few in any given system.

Back to Avatar.  When Pandora’s Na’vi people were up against the humans to save their planet and there hometree from destruction and exploitation, they had a major ‘constraint’.  Their Goal was to save their bio-botanical neuro network from being destroyed.  The major constraint was they did not have any defense from the air attack power by the humans.  Realizing this, they began to rally their Na’vi people around this constraint, and ultimately the constraint was exploited such that their air defense became the main reason for achieving a major goal.

The reason I think you want to pay attention to the Theory of Constraints and why it is a very powerful tool in your business is that so often we assume that there are ‘hundreds’ of things that are working against our goal attainment.  We focus on what the goal is and attaining it, but rarely sit down and think about what is the primary constraint to attaining the goal.  If you start analyzing the situation with the understanding that you are looking for one or just a couple of major constraints that are in the way of major progress, they start rising to the surface and becoming clear.  Once identified, rallying to exploit those constraints can be the easier piece of the puzzle.  Not identifying or exploiting the constraints can allow for a lot of wasted effort and falling short of the target.

A simple example of TOC might be: Goal—to attain X% Cost Savings in 2010.  Normally, you would develop a strategy and tactics based solely on the goal itself, and go to work.  However, if the time is taken to look at where the one big constraint is, based on historical information (example: Suppliers not willing to proactively provide Cost Savings Ideas), then a specific strategy can be developed to exploit that major constraint and allow better throughput.  Strategies might include allowing the most aggressive and creative suppliers to do Plant Cost Savings Walkthroughs, having face-to-face meetings with key suppliers to ensure they understand your objectives and the benefit for them to support you, creation of better tools for suppliers to communicate their ideas, and new forums for cost savings ideas to be created in.

The big takeaway for me is the act of looking at each situation for the big constraint, knowing that there is one or a couple out there all the time. Once identified, rallying the team or organization around it to exploit it can be very rewarding and even a little fun.

Take Care, Todd Gifford
President
Dee Electronics

Todd Gifford - Success Coach

Over the holidays, I spent a lot of time with family and friends.  As the New Year comes around and we turn the corner into 2010, discussions start to include New Years resolutions.  Personally, I have always had a hard time with the concept of New Years resolutions, because I have always thought…why wait for a New Years day to ‘resolve’ to do something that needs to be done now?  How about resolving to do new things or change things that need to be changed all year long, at the point where you realize something needs to be done?  How about calling it “New Day resolutions” or “New Hour resolutions”.  While I am on a bit of a New Year’s thread, it does not surprise me (and I kind of expected it to happen some day) that the first ‘Internet Addiction Clinic’ opened up in 2009.  Yes, you heard that right.  This is an addiction clinic to wean patients off of the Internet by combining traditional talk therapy with social skills training.  Patients of the clinic apparently also feed goats, raise chickens and do home-maintenance work as a way of getting reoriented with the offline world.  For a mere $14,500.00, in a 45 day period you can be rehabilitated of this dreaded disease.  Boy, I am thinking there are some farms in the Midwest that could kill two birds with one stone — generate some additional income from this new Internet Addition Clinic thing, as well as getting some cheap farm labor!  What’s the point of all this?  The choice of ‘Self-Management’ is of critical importance for Success, whatever you define your Success to be.

To that end, I have assembled a list of 8 Keys to Success.  None of these rely on circumstances, money, luck, or anyone else to do anything.  They are all about Self-Management and choice.  Whether it’s creating job satisfaction, advancing in your career, fulfillment with family and friends, general happiness, etc… these apply.  I try to keep this list in front of me as much of the time as possible, to avoid falling into bad habits.  In no particular order, here they are:

1. Resourcefulness – also known as ingenuity, imagination, and creativity.  Simply put, resourcefulness is extremely important to success, and 100% within your control.  It is not a special skill as much as it is a mindset.  You choose to be resourceful or you don’t.  Constant and continued learning is also an important part of resourcefulness.  2. Speed – for the most part, moving slow, deciding slow, and acting slow are all worse than moving, deciding, and acting fast.  Taking faster action brings about success, and if it occasionally leads to failure (which I like to refer to as ‘testing’) it just gets that ‘testing’ behind you quicker.  3. Change, fast – the choice of being flexible and adapting to change is extremely important to success of any type.  The faster you can change and adapt, the better.  4. Curiousity – a close cousin to resourcefulness, and possibly the most difficult to understand about success, is the ability to constantly ask good quality questions of yourself and others.  The power of ‘the question’ is massive.  5. Intolerance – this is intolerance to mediocrity or average.  Place high expectations upon yourself (ie. lofty goals written down help).  6. Work Hard – not that working ‘smart’ isn’t something you want to strive for, but anything worth doing requires some hard work.  Sorry, no free lunch!  7. Accurate Thinking – here is another one most people would not include in a list of ‘success principles’, but it is key.  Think ‘real’ as much as you can.  If it is out of your control, accept that fact unemotionally.  However, do not forget that outcomes are never the result of just events that are out of your control — they are a result of your response to those events.  Taking full responsibility for outcomes is accurate thinking.  8. Follow-up and follow through – the grand daddy of them all…taking action.  Nothing happens until action is taken.  All the New Years resolutions in the world do nothing without “action”.  Just doing #8 alone takes you a long way toward success.  Happy New Year to you, your family, and your friends.

Todd Gifford
President of Dee Electronics

Todd Gifford - Success Coach

It’s the words that you never want to hear when you are flying.  The odds are pretty low that you would ever hear these words, but unfortunately, I did hear those words recently on a flight out of Dallas, TX.  With about 20 minutes to go in the flight, cruising along nicely, enjoying a fairly quiet and smooth flight — over the loud speaker the flight attendant said: “Folks, we are going to be doing an Emergency Landing, and we will need everyone to practice the Emergency Landing Position.  The jet airliner wing flaps are non-operable so the pilots cannot slow down the airplane for landing.”

With that announcement, it got very quiet.  Beyond the practicing of the emergency landing position (which by the way does not seem like it would help much if the plane did crash), my mind started racing and processing at a very fast rate.  It was like I shifted it into super high gear.  I started to think about: my family and what we talked about in our last conversations, what I would do if we had a ‘bad’ landing, how I could potentially communicate with my wife in the next 10 minutes, what open major projects were on my plate, I reflected on which major goals I had accomplished and which ones I had not, thought about some new life goals I had never thought of before…I was getting a lot done in a very short amount of time!

We approached the runway at full steam and in a very steep approach, and I could see flashing lights all over the place, with fire trucks and other vehicles moving out onto the airfield.  That did not make things seem any better.  We slammed down hard on the runway and the pilots threw the jet engines in reverse to slow the plane down.  All things considered, a very good landing.  We were on the ground and everything turned out ok.  Why do I tell you this story?

The reason I tell this story is because of the power that a deadline and complete focus has on getting things done, and how we can perform at unheard of high levels when everything is on the line.

When a deadline was imposed on me during the flight (no pun intended), all of a sudden my brain went into overdrive, blocked out distractions, and I started to process a large amount of information.  I had no choice.  “Imminent deadline.”  The takeaway from this is that

when you can put yourself in a ‘gun-to-the-head’ situation in needing to get something accomplished, your productivity, clarity, and focus increases dramatically.  So what really is an ‘emergency landing’ announcement or a gun-to-your-head situation?  It’s a deadline.  And this deadline shrinks the amount of time (and effort — I will get to this in a minute) required to complete the project or task at hand.

For the reason this phenomenon happens, we need to turn to a fundamental principle that I became aware of via author Tim Ferriss and his College Professor, called “Parkinson’s Law”.   Parkinson’s Law says that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion” and “a task will swell in [perceived] importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for completion.”  You can probably imagine why this fundamental principle was conveyed by a College Professor — yep, a major term paper due with an ‘extension’ requested.  The professor basically said “I am confident you will complete it on time.  You will be fine.”  Of course the paper did get completed and got an A.  An all-nighter plus a huge amount of caffeine and focus produced a stellar outcome … Parkinson’s Law.  With an imminent deadline soon ahead, you cut through the clutter, waste little energy, and focus on only the things that matter most to achieve the outcome.

What I have learned is that imminent, ‘gun-to-your-head’ deadlines not only need to be set on anything important you want or need to get done, but they need to be set with uncomfortably short timeframes.  Why? Otherwise, Parkinson’s Law (they don’t call it a ‘law’ for nothing) allows the work to expand to the timeframe provided.  You actually create wasted work and activity that did not need to exist to complete the outcome.

You can prove this law to yourself by reflecting back on the last work day before you were going on a long vacation.  Got loads of stuff done in a very short period of time, like maybe in the last 3 hours of that day?  Amazing levels of efficiency and effectiveness and it all worked out fine.  Imminent Deadline.  Parkinson’s Law.

Todd Gifford – President, DEE Electronics

What is the President of DEE, Todd Gifford doing with George Foreman, 2-Time Heavy Weight World Champion?

Todd Gifford, President of DEE, with George Foreman

I had the distinct pleasure of meeting George Foreman recently, first known as 2-Time World Heavy Weight Boxing Champion, but also well known to many for his Lean-Meaning Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine — that virtually every household has at least one of.  Many do not know that George is the oldest man to become Heavy Weight Champion of the World at age 45, and was an Olympic Gold Medalist in Boxing.  It was a great honor to be around him, as well as hear him speak.  Most think of George Foreman as a “Boxing Champion” or “the guy who promotes his fat-reducing grills” or the “the famous guy who named all of his sons ‘George’” — but I will tell you that George is a very special individual that I picked up a number of important lessons from, and that everyone can learn from.  George’s story is a good one to look at, as he was truly a self-made success coming from very humble beginnings.  The big over-riding thing that strikes you about George Foreman, besides the fact that his hands are 3 times that size of mine, is that he oozes positive energy.  The moment you are in his presence and then hear him start talking to you immediately makes you smile and feel positive.  This is something he is very conscious about and has always been — he loves people.  George said that his family was so poor growing up, that they couldn’t even afford the “o” and the “r” — they were just “Po”.  It is well known that he named all 5 of his sons “George”, but what is not well known is why.  Here is what he said about it: “Have you heard of Mohammed Ali, Ken Norton, Joe Frazier, and Evander Holyfield?  If you had all these guys punching you in the head, how many names could you remember?”  George espoused a number of important principles that have guided him to his success and fame.  He strongly feels that you have to believe that every step you take is right at that time — don’t be scared, be hungry.  He also said ‘listen to old people, they know” and “when you give your best, you cannot be beaten.” But, one of the really big points he mentioned that I felt was very important to me, my family, our employees, and my friends was: “you may not be the fastest person, the smartest person, or the prettiest person, but you can always be the nicest person.”  This is a pretty profound principle George mentioned if you think about it.  How nice and likeable you are is 100% completely within your control on a daily basis.  And how big of an impact on your career and life can this point have?  I also thought it was interesting when asked what his most proud achievement was in his life thus far, George said “my 25 years of marriage.”  George Foreman has accomplished some amazing things, but a common thread in all the ingredients of his success are fundamental things we can all do every day.

Take Care, Todd

Todd Gifford
President
DEE Electronics

Can You Beat Death as a Career Strategy?

Todd Gifford - Success Coach

On June 26th, Michael Jackson CD’s accounted for 60%+ of all CD Sales on Amazon.com.  Sales of all other Michael Jackson DVD’s, Books, TV programs, etc.. shot up like a rocket as a result of his death.  All of Michael’s ‘friends’ fought vigorously for their 15 minutes of fame on all the cable TV channels.  It kind of reminded me of the O.J. spectacle a number of years back.  I was a young man when Elvis died and was not focused on media hype, but I would imagine it was probably the same thing.  Just seems like everyone’s energy level goes way up for spectacle events like these, vs. channeling some of that energy to getting some really important goals accomplished.  Speaking of goals, I spent some time recently learning how to take a set of goals and really make them come alive.  It makes the process of setting goals much more interesting — even my two girls Lauren (11)and Megan (8) are getting into it.  The process is creating a ‘Vision Board’.  You may have heard the term before, but not quite understood what it is.  It’s pretty simple, and I highly recommend you giving it a try for yourself.  If you like it, it’s a great thing to show kids, friends, family members, and co-workers how to do.  I noticed that in a recent interview with Conan O’Brien (Host of the Tonight Show), there was his own Vision Board in the background.  Like him or not, he’s a pretty successful guy — maybe there is something to this Vision Board thing.  Many very successful people I know personally have been using this tool for many years.  Here’s how it works.  First, you make your list of goals, but you go way outside the ‘work’ and ‘hobby’ areas — list health goals, feeling goals, community service goals, things you want (fun stuff), learning, accomplishments, travel goals, etc… Think big and really go after it.  Then, put a deadline on them (a ‘by when’, ‘how often’ and ‘how much’).  Get a big sheet of card stock or cardboard.  Then, think of and find or create strong images/photos that represent each of these items in your list.  Next, stick them on your Vision Board in any manner you like, hyping it all up with color, designs, etc… I like to write next to each what they represent.  Here is the ‘science’ behind this process: your brain thinks in images, not words.  I don’t need to convince you the power of creating goals, but it’s safely proven that you get and become what you think about and focus on.  Put these two proven concepts together and you get a Vision Board.  Put your Vision Board somewhere you can look at it twice a day to remind yourself and hold yourself accountable to what you want.  Give it a whirl.

Take Care, Todd

Todd Gifford
President
DEE

The Best Ideas and Best Work Performance Come from Muscle Recovery?

I was sitting at an ENT Specialist Doctor’s office a while back to have my ear checked out.  I slammed my right ear down hard on some lake water while water skiing this past summer, and although my hearing has come back over successive weeks — for a while, I had lost about 80% hearing in my right ear.  While sitting waiting for my appointment, I had some completely, totally 100% distraction-free time going on.  0 noise, 0 phone calls, 0 email, 0 distractions.  I was thinking about how often this happens (100% distraction free awake time) on a weekly or daily basis.  Not very often.  I started making a list of when I have 100% distraction-free time (waiting at the Doctor’s office which is fortunately not very often, in the shower, in the bathroom, sometimes brushing my teeth, sitting at the airport, moments just before falling asleep).  The list is not very long and the amount of time is not very much.  I did not count driving to work since there is plenty going on to keep alert to.  So, why is this issue important anyway?  Well, there are a couple of really important points that are very well and thoroughly studied and documented that you should be aware of and aggressively utilizing for your personal performance benefit and that of our teams:

1. The best ideas happen the most frequently when the brain is at rest and in a relaxed situation (ever notice when you try to force thinking of new ideas or problem solving, it is difficult — but then ideas start flowing while in the shower, etc..)

2. The most effective work gets done when the brain is totally focused on a single topic for an extended period of time

I am sure that all of us already know about these two key points, but how many of us are really proactively leveraging these two principles to our benefit and our organization’s benefit?

I had a chance to interact a bit with Tony Schwartz, author of the book ‘The Power of Full Engagement’ at a conference, and have read this book as well (which I highly recommend everyone reading, by the way).  Tony is an expert in the field of body energy management and physical/mental performance.  Anyway, from Tony I learned a lot more about the 2 points made above about how the brain/body works with respect to optimized performance.  Tony did extensive research studies, starting with the top Tennis players in the world, to find out what makes them better than all the other players.  I know this is ‘sports’ and not business, but hang in there with me.  It gets good.  Tony found that the major differentiator between the top elite player and the next level down is that the elite players were able to “rest” without distraction more often and more effectively during the match.  And this ‘rest’ was not just physical, but resting of the brain.  In other words, between points, the elite players would create massive amounts of “rest/recovery” within a 20 second period while the other players would not.  Ultimately the elite player was able to go harder, longer, with more sharpness because of getting so much ‘rest’ during the match.  Ok, so what does this have to do with us mere mortals in business?  The big deal and key points are that heavy “stress” is: (a) actually productive if it is followed immediately and frequently by rest/recovery, and (b) muscles ‘grow/repair’ during rest/recovery, not during stress (and, as you know, the brain is just another muscle).  In fact, ‘stress’ is required to live (the opposite being atrophy), but we are optimized when we are frequently cycling  between stress and rest/recovery.  Bringing this full circle back to 100% distraction-free time and why it is so important for our optimum performance: placing huge stress on your brain…and then providing frequent rest of your brain…allows it to operate at a much higher efficiency level (think of lifting weights — muscles stressing and then growing/repairing during rest).  When does brain rest occur?  Distraction-free or relaxing time.  When does the brain operate at maximum effectiveness for work needing to be done?  It’s when you are focused on one single thing or independent successive things for a 60-90 minute time period totally undistracted.  After that period of ‘stress’, the brain needs some rest/recovery for a short period to stay optimized.  When you allow the brain to ‘rest’ for a longer period of time, then it can recover and expand even more (i.e. Shower time).  Try to carve out more 100% distraction-free time slots for both ‘work’ and ‘rest’ in your schedule and see what happens.

Take Care, Todd
President
DEE