Recently, I cut the number of RSS feeds I follow in half…and I plan to do it again.  You see, I have a problem. I feel like if I subscribe to a feed, then I am obligated to reading it.  This self-imposed obligation causes unwanted stress in my life.

Stress aside, I felt I had stopped learning. My information overload is not just related to RSS feeds, it pertains to all the information I consume. I began is recognize these symptoms a few months ago. My learning system shutdown. I was reading but not retaining any of it.

Have you experienced this?

No longer able to keep up or retain the information I read….I was forced into taking drastic action. Here’s what I did.

• Google Reader RSS feeds: Reduced my feed count from 250+ to around 100. I used two criteria to make this decision: frequency I fully read the articles and posts I mark as favorites.
• Newsletter E-mail: I made deep cuts here. I unsubscribed from virtually every e-mail list I was on. The amount of e-mail I comb through today is significantly lower. Honestly, I was not reading most of it anyway.
• Push Notifications E-mail: These are all the notifications from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. I eliminated all the e-mail associated with the social networks I participate in. By being active on these networks, I still see everything I need to see.
• Newspaper/Magazine Subscriptions: I canceled all of these. I never read the hard copies.
• Books on my bookshelf: I was reading a book a week.  I found I read books, placed them on the shelf, and rarely looked at them again. My first wave of clean-up was books that I would grade a “C.” I donated 40+ books to the local library.

Removing all this clutter made a world of difference to my mental state of mind. I felt a tremendous burden was lifted.

Did this do the trick?

The answer is NO!!!! Why? I was still consuming way too much information. Did you notice what I eliminated? That’s right, I only removed the NOISE!!!

I did not address the real problem…information overload. My learning system was still shutdown.

In my search for a better solution, I remembered a passage in a book I read a couple of years ago.  The book is Ken Blanchard’s Know Can Do. Blanchard wrote this book in search of helping his readers and speaking audiences retain more of the concepts he was teaching.  The learning cycle goes like this. Humans require exposure to a subject six-times before they own the material.

• First exposure: We reject the new material because if conflicts with previous knowledge
• Second exposure:  We resist it because we can’t accept it
• Third exposure: We partially accept it, but we still have reservations
• Fourth exposure: We fully accept it because we feel it express what we have been thinking
• Fifth exposure: We begin to use the material in our conversations
• Sixth exposure: We own it and freely pass it along to others

This process is very similar to the coaching training program I went through at Newfield. For each module we learned, we followed a similar process.

• In-person lecture
• In-person practice with classmates
• Conference call lecture
• Reading about the subject
• Writing about the subject
• Teaching the material to a learning group

Did you notice the similarities? Throughout the process I was continually learning new things each time I was exposed to the material. More importantly, I owned the material.

Try it for yourself. Take out a piece of paper and without looking back at this blog post, write 2 or 3 things that stuck out to you.

Finished? Great, now go back to the beginning and re-read this post again. When you get back to this point, write 2 or 3 more impressions. Did you write something different?

Next time, try this exercise with a chapter in a book. I’ll bet you write something different the second time around.

Want to own it? Write about what you read. Verbally share the information with some friends. The more ways you digest and communicate the information, the easier it is to own it.

Finding the right information intake balance is very subjective. My plan is to further reduce what I read and to focus on learning the material I choose to read. I encourage you to explore ways to challenge how you receive, learn, and share information.

What can you do right now to improve your learning process?

Related posts:

1. The trouble with learning
2. Lost and searching for meaning and direction
3. New Perspective

We are a familiar with the catch phrase…Lights, Camera, Action. Most of us attribute this to the movies or television.  Everything in life can be translated into another domain.

For instance, we can simply deploy this concept and change a pattern or situation in our life.

We begin by shining a light on it;

Next, we whip out our camera and take a snapshot of our future;

Finally, we take action to move closer to our desired future.

Did you see how easy that was? Ok, maybe you need a little more explanation.

Shining a light is self-awareness. Awareness clarifies how we see the world and how the world see us through the lens of what has occurred in our life up to this moment. Whatever we discover is neither good nor bad. It just is what it is without judgment.

Self-awareness expands our perspective, creates new possibilities, and generally makes it easy to amplify our life’s journey. Awareness is our green screen for limitless choices. We can choose to change our relationship with our discoveries or leave them as they are. The choice is ours and only ours to make.

Assuming change is what we want, we need a plan to get there. We need to remove the green screen and replace it with a picture of us in our future.

Go ahead…I double dare you to whip out your camera and take a snapshot of your future.  Are you up to the challenge?

Describe it in as much vivid detail as you can.

• What does your future snapshot look like?
• What are the top 10 reasons you want to achieve X?
• What rewards do you expect to receive along your journey?  (could be knowledge, experience, something more tangible).
• What challenges do you expect to face? Who can give you support or help along the way?
• What qualities will allow you to survive these obstacles?
• What will be different in your world when you have achieved your goal? How will it affect others around you?
• What are you going to do to make sure your journey is FUN?

You have all you need to be successful in this journey right now.  You are not lacking anything. Any resources you may need will magically appear when you need them.

Our marvelously scripted screenplay is worthless without bringing it to life. Action is required. We must commit to designing and practicing actions that move us closer to our desired future.

Action builds momentum, creating the required inertia to propel us on the road to achieving what we desire. Our envisioned future begins with a commitment to take action. We commit to learn new skills or behaviors. We commit to practicing what we want to learn. We are what we practice. We become what we practice.

If the practice is the right practice for our learning, then we must continue to practice until we embodied the practice.  If our intended results are not achieved by this practice, then we need to revisit and redesign our actions.

Even if you fail, you are a success. We learn from all our experiences. Our commitment to action is what’s important. Your success depends on you being responsible for your actions and inactions.  Do not let anything or anyone get in your way of success.

Your present self is afraid of your future self!

Related posts:

1. Resistance is the doorway to action
2. Our stories shape how we see ourselves

We all know these voices…they are constantly chirping away at us. For some, they voices are loud and paralyzing. For others, they are a faint noise that shows up in moments of uncertainly. They trap us in our comfort zone and keep us from fully experiencing the life we want to live.

Laurence Boldt wrote a short book (“How to Find the Work You Love ”) that is full of endless wisdom. Voices of doubt are public enemy number one. There are four main voices, doom and gloom, conformity, self-diminishment, and idle complaint.

Boldt frames this discussion beautifully by identifying the fear associated with the voice of doubt and providing a way to overcome your voices of doubt.

I would venture to say that we have all experienced each one of these voices many times in our lives.

Take trust for instance. Do you trust yourself?

We welcome what we allow. We resent what we resist. Trusting ourselves gives us the courage to face our challenges and obstacles. We are able to take risks and make our dreams come alive. Trust removes our resistance and allow us to live.

Why do we choose to resist when we can allow something new to emerge in our lives?

When you have complete trust, you have complete confidence in every decision you make for yourself. Without much thought, you know what is in your best interest and what is not. The voices of doubt chatter is what stops us from taking action to achieve what we desire.

The secret to moving past these voices of doubt is to avoid being trapped by the toxicity of these negative energy patterns. If we cannot mute the volume, then we need to turn the volume down low.  We can learn to adjust the volume by allowing our creative juices to flow. We can choose to allow ourselves to experience more joy in our lives.

Can you imagine a life where every decision is fully supporting what is best for you?

Utopian maybe, but it would sure be fun to live every day in that flow.

Related posts:

1. The open road awaits…put the peddle to the metal
2. The trouble with learning

I am standing backstage about to give an important and meaningful speech. I know what I have to say will touch the hearts and souls of my audience. I cannot help but wonder what their expectation is of me. I wonder how they arrived at this event. I am curious as to how they will act upon the information we share tonight. Moreover, I am excited about what I will learn from our interaction together.

Teachers carry a tremendous burden.  They often shoulder the responsibility of helping their students comprehend and extrapolating those concepts into other arenas of their lives.  This responsibility is not solely theirs to own. Learning is a 2-way street. Teachers learn just as much about their craft as the student learns.  The real value in learning is taking newly found knowledge and applying it to every situation you can imagine.

Teachers can inspire us, but they cannot make us want to learn. We have to have a burning desire to learn every day and to face every encounter with the utmost resilience.  The only hurdles we cannot overcome in life are the hurdles we do not allow ourselves to jump.

Learning and applying is what has led me to this moment. I have had many great teachers. My path has brought me to this point in my life. The journey has and continues to challenge my preconceived notions about my life. I have struggled to communicate my needs to the world. I have found the voice I have been search for.

Today, I live my daily life by trying to better version of myself every day. I do not always succeed. I fail in my efforts quite a bit. I get up the next day and try again.  I believe it is my path to help others do the same. My help is not always welcome. I am often misunderstood. I keep trying to perfect my craft. I am learning and applying my knowledge. My actions honor who I am.

Introductions are being made. The butterflies are churning not in an anxious or nervous way, but in anticipation about what great discoveries we will make together. Learning and applying has taken me this far on the road to mastery. I see no reason to stop now. I hope you will join me.

Related posts:

1. The trouble with learning
2. The open road awaits…put the peddle to the metal

How does the word “responsibility” really show up in our lives?  According to dictionary.com’s definition, responsibility means accountability or blame. So I am either accountable for my actions or I blame others for their in action. Does anybody else find this fascinating? I do. Let us see if we can find this working this way in our society.

Recently, huge back-to-back snowstorms (40+ inches) crippled the DC metro area. The public opinion on snow removal and schools re-opening has been a lightning rod discussion topic.

My parents taught me self-initiative and to take action. I reacted to the enormous snowfall by digging my way out. I cleared sidewalks. I shoveled streets. I helped my neighbors remove their snow.

Many people I met had the opposite response. They were bitter and resentful. The county failed to plow my street. My kids are driving me batty. Why are the schools still closed? I’m trapped and can’t get out. Where are the plows? These people wanted someone to blame. They did not want to take responsibility themselves.

A friend was complaining about their DirecTV not working due to heavy cloud cover and the mounting snow on the satellite dish.  I asked if they were blaming Mother Nature, DirecTV or themselves for subscribing to satellite TV? Stupid snow was the answer.  Clearly very frustrated by being stuck inside.

The definition holds true in these two recent life examples, but does it hold true in other life events?

When I think about responsibility, I generally think about it from a personal accountability standpoint. Responsibility also carries a burden,  sense of duty, and constraints. These emotional feelings can weigh heavily on our ability to move forward in life. The weight we experience is directly related to the choice we make. Blaming focuses our attention towards finding fault and feelings of guilt thereby weakening our ability to show up the way we want to show up in the world. Accountability is much more powerful and gives honor to meaning to our actions.

When we feel overwhelmed by responsibility, we feel trapped and our possibilities for escaping seem very limited.  The same responsibility that is trapping us offers a path for escaping the noose we have around our neck.

Consider this story.

Kevin is happily married with three kids. His wife Amy is a stay-at-home mom. He wants to find a more fulfilling career. He wants to have more autonomy and be more actively involved in decision-making. Kevin likes his current job but it does not give a sense of purpose. He feels constrained by levels of bureaucracy and lack of information sharing. He blames his lack of motivation on the inability to get anything done.

His thinks employer should be doing this and they should be doing that. He would love to find another job that provides work that is more meaningful. When ask what that job might look like, his first response is about money. He has placed a financial noose around his neck.

Do you see the paradox here?  Kevin is accountable for his family responsibilities. There is nothing more important to Kevin than providing for his family. He blames his employer for not providing work that is more meaningful to him. Ironically, he is not accepting personal accountability in his search to find work that is more meaningful. Money is just a symptom of the challenge Kevin is facing. Responsibility has gotten the better of him and is controlling his actions and in actions.

Is responsibility keeping you down, or are you keeping responsibility from helping you up?

Related posts:

1. Unwanted Behaviors
2. Snow-Pocalypse
3. Learning and applying is the road towards mastery

We cannot escape the noise. Noises interrupt our life. Noise distracts us from focusing on what is important to us. Noise slows our progress towards accomplishing our goals and dreams. Noise blocks us from listening to our internal intuition. Noise stops us from taking purposeful action.

Not all noises are distractions we need to restrict from our diet. Reading expands our learning and teaches us about current thinking and trends. Listening to music brings calmness and stimulates our creative thinking. Watching videos helps us see the world through the creative lens of the content provider. Playing video games opens the door to competitive fun. Interacting with kids teaches us about ourselves and creates a window opportunity to see the world through curiosity and wonderment of a child. Engaging in conversation on a social media platform gives us a chance to share, connect, and learn about how we show up in the world.  Talking with friends and loved ones warms the heart.

Too much noise is the problem. We make a choice to succumb to the noise or to allow it to distract us from our personal growth. Like it or not, noise is a part of our lives and is here to stay.

We need to find a way to separate the distraction noise from purpose driven noise.

Wait….I like all the noises in my life. Of course you do. We are social animals and we like to keep ourselves busy. We like to go-go-go. We like instant gratification. Noise is an addiction.

Do you ever complain about not having enough time or being overwhelmed?  Do you wish you could do more of the things you love? Do you feeling trapped by your current situation? Answering “yes” to any of these questions, is a sign of noise controlling your life. The noise is keeping us from finding out who we really are and what we really want out of life.

We need to become more discipline and pragmatic with our approach to noise. Setting time boundaries around when and for how long we engage in noises is not good enough. Rigid structures tend to feel trapped and confining. They take away our freedom. They crush our spontaneous creative enjoyment of life.

We can navigate our way through the noise mind-field with a more nimble and flexible engagement plan. To be successful, we have to slow down and pay attention to what is happening inside us.

Slowing down creates new possibilities for ourselves. We think more creatively, make better decisions, and move rapidly towards our desires. We aligned with what matters most to us.  We act on purpose. We do away with the noise.

Is the noise controlling you or are you controlling the noise?

Related posts:

1. What do you want to be when you grow up?
2. Is responsibility keeping you down?
3. Listening to the voices of doubt will get you nowhere fast

Many self-help books offer up the question “What gets you up in the morning?”  The answer to this question provides insight into what you love most about your life. Conversely, the question “What keeps you up at night?” attempts to pinpoint what bothers you most about your current life situation.  Together, meaning and direction can be found by answering them.

To maximize the potential benefits of these questions, I suggest the following approach for each question.

• Find a quiet spot. Close your eyes. Take a few deep breaths.

Relax you body and release your tension with each deep breath.

Ask yourself the first question. “What gets me up in the morning?” Continue breathing.

• When it feels right, write your response for next fifteen minutes.  Getting out our top of mind superficial responses happens in the first five minutes. The good juicy stuff comes after we clear the path for it.
• Summarize what you have written in three words.  Read this post on why “three words .”
• Do these three words epitomize my current state of being? Are you happy with your answer? Does this answer give you meaning and direction?
  • If yes, move on to the next question, “What keeps me up at night?”
  • If not, repeat the process until you are satisfied with your answer.
  • If you are still having trouble after two or three attempts, it begs the question, what are you going to do about it?

Create a visual reminder with your answers. Here are some ways to create a visual reminder.

• 3×5 index cards. Write each question and 3 word response on one side of the card
• Post-it notes.
• Calendar Task. Set a recurring reminder.
• Screen saver or wallpaper for your computer or phone

Use whatever method works best for you.

Re-visit your answers from time-to-time.  Do they still resonate with you? Are they still supporting the meaning and direction you wish?

There are no perfect answers here. There is only a life-long journey of learning and discovery.

Related posts:

1. Power of Three
2. What dream are you ready to begin living?
3. Are you ready to unwrap your gifts?

After days of talking about it, the snow has begun to fall. Anticipation has built all week. We expect a historic snow of 16-24 inches. It is all we can talk about. It is all the Media can talk about.  We do not want our daily lives to be disrupted. We do want our freedoms to be restricted. We resist anything that might take this away from us. We fear the snow-pocalypse.  Panic and fear is ruling the day.

Grocery stores are sold out of milk, bread, and eggs. The local hardware store had a line of 20 people 30 minutes before opening today. Businesses closed in advance of the storm. Schools closed in advance of the storm. County governments are telling people to prepare to be trapped in their houses for 3-5 days.  We are becoming a soft society consumed by our fears.

Dec '09 Snow-pocalypse

Fear mongering did not exist in the December 2009 blizzard. Why you ask? The answer is simple, the media only prepared us for 6-8 inches of snow. The 16-24 inches we received was a surprised to all.  We dealt with the situation, we did not panic; we did not fear the unknown. We accepted our faith and made the best of it.

This time is different. Fear of the unknown has taken control of the conversation.  Snow-Pocalypse is pulling our inner fears to the surface. These raw fears and emotions are controlling our decision making and actions.

What we focus on drives our perception of the world.

When we choose not to succumb to our fears, we can choose to focus our energy and thoughts on more positive snow-pocalypse outlook.

I look forward to spending quality time with my wife and kids.  I want to make snowmen, to sled ride, to have snowball fights, to make snow angels, to shovel my sidewalks, to help my neighbors, to have fun, and to witness all the beauty Mother Nature has to offer.

Is panic and fear controlling your life? Are you afraid of a little snow?

Related posts:

1. Is responsibility keeping you down?
2. Noises here, noises there, noises everywhere

Yes, I am a huge hockey fan and I know you may not be.  The following story is about how the leadership of a hockey franchise transcended the game into leadership lessons we can use. Thanks for sticking with me, and let me know what you think.

(Courtesy of Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post )

On December 28, the Washington Capitals traded their Captain Chris Clark.  When the trade occurred, the Caps had just beaten two top teams, and won four out of their previous five games. The team was clicking on all cylinders. General Manager George McPhee saw an opportunity to improve the product on the ice. The Caps traded Captain Clark and Milan Jurcina for a big speedy rugged forward name Jason Chimera.

Did GM McPhee find a missing puzzle piece? Hockey players are people just like you and me. Players can resist change just like the rest of us.  React they did. Turmoil set in. The Caps lost their next three games and played very poorly in two of them.

Regardless of the reason, it is never easy to change leadership.  With the ice flooding with water, the Capitals announced Alex Ovechkin as team Captain on January 5, 2010 hours before game time. Moments into the game the PA system introduced to the sold out crowd their new Captain.  The energy in the building changed from a flat calm to a fiery un-leash the fury celebration.

That night, the Zamboni left a smooth sheet of ice for them to skate on. Their team transformation and maturity took an earnest stride forward. The Caps have adopted a team identity of skating harder and faster than their opponents do, playing more physical and defensively responsible, and have an unquenchable thirst for scoring goals. They are crushing their competition with an undeniable killer instinct.  They play the game the same way as their 2 time MVP Captain Ovechkin plays it.

Last night’s win in Boston gave the Caps an 11 game franchise best winning streak and a 14-1 record since their new captain took the ice on January 5^th.  Getting on the same page has truly benefited the Washington hockey community.  Their competition would surely like to have the old team back.

I was talking to Brendan Morrison after they had won five in a row.  I asked him if he was tired from the compressed NHL schedule and the multiple west coast road trips. My recollection of his response goes something like this.

“Winning makes it fun to come to the rink. We have more energy to skate extra hard.  We feel confident that every chance we take will be rewarded. We expect to win.”

Consider these comments from the post-game interviews last night.

Coach Bruce Boudreau said. “When you’re on a winning streak, you find ways, good things happen. When you’re losing, you hit crossbars and the other goalie makes incredible saves like Theo did tonight.”

Tom Poti said “It’s nice to have streaks and stuff, but we have bigger goals for this team.”

Brook Laich said “Proud of our guys, proud of our coaching staff” and “lots of fun, we have some interesting characters (in the locker room)”

We can learn a lot by digesting this leadership story.

I am reminded how important leadership is to success. People and organizations take on the identity of their leaders.  Leaders have great clarity and perspective. They do not let adversity bother them. They lead from what makes them internally strong. Leaders have fun and are not afraid to take risks. They cannot be successful without people believing in their leadership. Diverse groups of people are important to successful teams. Being successful in whatever endeavor you under take begins and ends with you.  Defining what success means to us can define what success means for our team.  No challenge is too big to overcome. Overcoming our challenges begins with the recognition they are not challenges they are opportunities to learn and grow.  Setting our sights on a much large vision creates energy and focus to making ourselves a better version of ourselves each and every day.

What leadership stories are missing from your story?

Related posts:

1. Our stories shape how we see ourselves

How many words do you need to summarize something?  I could ramble forever and a day and you will be able to summarize everything I said in THREE words or less.

Somewhere along the way, our society adopted this attitude of more is better.  Journalists are paid by the word, not the article. Professors set guidelines for the length of our research papers.  Book publishers contract authors to write a book of X number of pages. Speakers for hire, give presentations based on time, not content. With all this unnecessary filler and noise, is it any wonder we struggle to retain what we read and hear.

Talk about rambling and unnecessary filler…..let me get back to topic.

Three words are sticky and easier to remember.

Scott Ginsburg occasionally tweets THREE WORDS OF ADVICE .  Chris Brogan sets his annual new year’s resolutions using three words.  Kimberly Rattley teaches three-word playback in her leadership training to corporations.

Marketers use this technique all the time to create memorable slogans.

• Wendy’s: “Where’s the beef?”
• Coca-cola: “Coke adds life” “Coke is it” “Make it Real” “Always Coca-Cola”
• Nike: “Just Do It”
• BMW: “Ultimate Driving Machine”
• Avis: “We try harder”
• Kellogg’s Rice Krispies: “Snap! Crackle! Pop!”

I use them to:

• Summarizing conversations
• Setting priorities and goals
• Taking notes and remember ideas
• Making commitments

“3” is a magical number.  Don’t take my word for it, experience the power of three for yourself.

• Go read another post on this site and write a comment summarizing it in 3 words.
• Use 3 words to describe what you clients expect from you
• Can you summarize the last request made of you in 3 words?

With a little practice, it is as easy as saying your A-B-Cs.

What can you accomplish by using the ”Power of Three?”

Related posts:

1. Lost and searching for meaning and direction
2. What dream are you ready to begin living?
3. Information overload is driving me crazy