Climb Your Mountain: Three Questions that will determine if you summit

by James Duvall | Jul 1, 2020 | Personal Development, Productivity, Self Leadership

Climb Your Mountain: Three Questions that will determine if you summit

When you look at this picture, what does it say to you? Does it inspire you? Maybe it is a metaphorical reminder of that big goal, the dream, or aspiration that you want to accomplish? Can you see yourself in the picture, victoriously looking over the terrain you climbed and traversed to get to the top?

And what is the mountain? Is it a career goal? A physical goal? Maybe it’s a financial goal? There are numerous mountains to climb. Some are a little higher than foothills, easily scaled. However, there are those dreams and desires that tower above like a Mount Everest, beckoning you, daring you to climb.

I did a little digging to find more information about Mount Everest. It’s the highest mountain in the world, towering at 29,029 feet tall. On May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first people to reach the top of Mount Everest. Did you know that as of 2016, there had been just over 4,000 successful climbers to summit Mount Everest? More than 300 people have died attempting to reach the summit.

Climbing Mount Everest is not just an activity; you make the decision, go, and do. So it is with the life-changing mountain(s) that you want to climb. There may have been many who have attempted it in the past, but failed. However, there are those few who know the life-changing experience of breathing rare air on the summit.

So if you have that mountain in your mind (career, finance, relationship, health), here are three questions to answer to determine if you have it in you to summit.

1. What are you willing to pay?
Nothing of value is free. To summit, your mountain will require a price to be paid. Freelance journalist Anusha Subramanian, in her article Why the only thing tougher than climbing Mount Everest is raising the fund for it, shares excellent information about the cost of having the opportunity to summit Mount Everest. The training alone can cost a minimum of $8,000. The equipment required to scale Everest can range between $25,000 and $75,000, sometimes as high as $100,000. It all depends on the creature comforts a person desires along the trek. Finally, there is the “sherpa” or guide. Subramanian says that the typical cost starts at $20,000.

Well, those numbers disqualify a lot of people from even thinking about summiting Everest. But what about your metaphorical Everest? Have you considered the cost that you are willing to pay? It may not be tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, but it SHOULD cost you. If not, maybe you should question if it’s a mountain worth climbing.

Here are some expenses to consider. Ask yourself, “How much am I spending or are am I willing to spend to get to the summit?” Books, Seminars, Conferences, Coaching, training experiences, health equipment, gym memberships all cost money. What are you willing to invest in your dream?

To be transparent, I personally spend, on average, around $300 to $400 per month on my continual climb of personal development. I purchase a lot of books, I have a membership to GiANT TV, an online learning platform, I don’t have a gym membership. But I do have a bike (cha-ching!)

2. What are you willing to give?
Not only will summiting your mountain cost you financially, but it will also require you to give yourself physically, emotionally, and even relationally.

Training is hard. Back in 2015, I heard Dr. John Maxwell say, “Everything worthwhile in life is uphill!” As people, we have a natural tendency to resist anything difficult or uncomfortable.

Let’s face it, the idea of going to the gym and being physically cut, or running a half or full marathon, tough mutter or Spartan race, or losing that stubborn twenty or thirty pounds that have accumulated over the years, or being a leader of leaders is each a really good idea.

However, when you think about getting up early to go to the gym, or putting on running shoes to trudge out in the heat (I live in South Florida where it is always hot) or cold, or saying no to the food that tastes so good, or doing the hard work of self-awareness and self-management to be the leader of leaders, they each lose a bit of their luster.

Summiting your mountain, your goal, your dream will require much of you. Jeff Olsen, in his book The Slight Edge: Turning Simple Disciplines into Massive Success and Happiness, wrote, “Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do.” And, I would add, they do it consistently day after day.

Here is one more thought to consider as you wrestle with the question of what you are willing to give. Reaching the summit is not necessarily one big climb, instead it is a series of shorter climbs done numerous times. Michael Bungay Stanier in his book The Advice Trap: Be Humble, Stay Curious & Change the Way You Lead Forever writes,

“Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay didn’t just arrive at base camp and then zip up Mount Everest the next day. They went back and forth, up and down, for seven weeks making some progress, acclimating, establishing a new norm, retreating a little to gain strength, pushing forward to the next camp, and so on. If you add them up, they had over forty phases from their first day on the mountain until they summited.”

Too many people start the climb and abandon the mountain because they are not willing to give what it takes. As Austin Kleon puts it in Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad, “Lot’s of people want the noun without doing the verb.” They want the title, success, accomplishment without doing the work. You can’t be a “marathon runner” without doing the running. Kleon encourages us to forget the noun, do the verb.

What does that mean for you? Is it giving up that extra hour of sleep to get up early to read, giving your body permission to hurt by pushing your self to new limits in exercise, doing the additional research and work to eat healthily and consistently saying no to the desert? Only you can determine what you are willing to give to summit.

Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay

3. Who will help you summit?
Edmund Hillary was not able to climb Everest on his own ability and training. He needed a Sherpa. Sherpa is an ethnic group that lives in the most mountainous regions of Nepal and the Himalayas. Sherpas are regarded as expert mountaineers. Today, the term “sherpa” is used for almost any guide or climbing supporter hired for mountaineering expeditions in the Himalayas, regardless of their ethnicity. It also is a word given to practically any kind of guide or mentor in non-mountain climbing endeavors. Sherpas’ exceptional climbing ability is the result of a genetic adaptation to living in high altitudes. They are acclimated to the altitude.

If you are going to summit your mountain, you will need someone to help you. Someone, who like a Sherpa can calibrate support and challenge to keep you moving upward. Find someone who had already summited the mountain you want to climb.

A Sherpa can not and will not do the work for you, but they can help you, challenge you, and encourage you along the journey. They will lend you expertise and guidance all the way to the top.

As a side, if what you are trying to accomplish is a bit like hiking the Blue Ridge mountains, you can probably find all the support and help you need on Google. But if the mountain you are wanting to climb is so big that just the process of climbing it will be life-changing, you need to find yourself a Sherpa, even if there is a price to pay.

I think this statement by Anusha Subramanian is fitting to close, “Climbing the Everest is the dream of most climbers until they realize the price that has to be paid — monetarily, physically and mentally. Not all can afford to climb the Everest.”

Are you ready to climb?

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Time To Clean Out the Closet

by James Duvall | Jun 17, 2020 | Personal Development, Productivity, Self Leadership

Recently, I had the opportunity to teach in one of our staff meetings. I was asked to teach on productivity in anticipation of life returning to some form of what was considered normal. As I was planning to teach, my mind went to the times I clean out my closet. I think some lessons are transferable to preparing for the new season we will soon be in.

There is a great sense of pride that I feel every time I clean my closet. My shirts all hung, color-coded with the hangers facing the same direction. My jackets all are smartly ordered from casual to formal, hanging organized on another bar. There is a meticulousness to the way my jeans are folded and stacked on a shelf by color; blue, black, and grey. Even my shoes are sorted and put away. Dress shoes in one bin, causal shoes in another bin, and athletic shoes in yet another.

Usually, when I’m finished cleaning out my closet, I fill a large bag with clothes and shoes that I’ve decided to send to Goodwill. The results of this incredible accomplishment that left me so proud, last about three weeks. I don’t know how it happens, my shirts are out of order, jeans are in a pile on the shelf, my shoes are mostly lying on the ground in a heap.

After a couple months of living with this disorganized mess, I repeat the work of cleaning out my closet again. Here lies the mystery. After a short time from when my closet was last cleaned out, I have another large bag of clothes and shoes ready to be delivered to Goodwill. Where does all that stuff come from? A small purchase here, a new shirt there, the white tennis shoes I have to have collected and added to the disorganization and clutter.

I think COVID may end up being like that time between when my closet is clean and organized and right before I need to clean it again. Before COVID, Like me, you may have had a pretty organized routine to your life. You may have had a set schedule, you knew your priorities, you may have even had a functional productivity system.

But some of those priorities look more like my once nicely organized now disheveled jeans piled up on a shelf. I want to remind you of some principles that you can use to clean your “priority” closet. These fundamentals will help you reset your priorities, maybe even filling up a proverbial Goodwill bag with activities that won’t fit you in post-pandemic life.

Growth-Minded People:

A valuable indicator of a growth-minded person is how he or she chooses to use their time. The fact that you’re reading this blog indicates that you would consider yourself a growth-minded person at some level. To continually grow, be productive, and have a sense of ease and balance to your life, you can’t allow your use of time to prohibit you.

Could it be, it’s time to “organize the closet of your life” and re-prioritize your time. When you are clear on your priorities, it clarifies what you say yes to and to what you say no.

This visual reminds me that we really don’t consider time in it’s entirety. We think in moments or in chunks of time. But looking at how, on average, people use time may cause a person to ask, “Am I really okay with where my time is being spent or worse, waisted?”

The most common tool for determining how you will prioritize the activities in your life is the Eisenhower Matrix, which calibrates Urgency and Importance. Let’s extend the analogy of cleaning our closet and how to organize life using the four quadrants.

The Essentials:

Things on the top left are Urgent and Important. They are essential to your wellbeing, and they have a timeframe associated with them. These include activities like the responsibilities of a job description, deadline-driven task, paying your bills, and events that need your immediate time and action.

In your closet, you have items that are essential to any wardrobe. For each person, it may be different. For me, it would include blue jeans, black jeans, and black t-shirts. They are foundational to everything else in my closet. Without these essentials, the rest of my wardrobe doesn’t work.

In the same way, some activities have to happen for your life to “work”. This is the group of activities that require your focus, energy, and attention.

The Ugly Christmas Sweater:

On the bottom, left are the things that are Urgent but NOT Important, at minimum, not important to you. Many times these are someone else’s priority. They come in the form of interruptions, unnecessary meetings, or busywork. These activities tend to be inconsistent, but can be predicted based on seasons of life.

They are like the ugly Christmas sweater that you have to keep for when someone has the hair-brained idea to have an ugly sweater contest. You don’t want to disappoint or act like you don’t care, so you hang on to the sweater.

Literally, right now, I have an ugly sweater, a silver sequenced sport jacket, and a complete 80’s outfit to be ready to respond to someone else’s idea.

Just like the ugly sweater contest, these activities in this quadrant should be avoided.

The Little Black Dress or Black Suit:

Supposedly Coco Chanel said, every woman should have a classic, little black dress. And I have heard it said that No man’s wardrobe is complete without at least one classic black suit.

As a guy, I can’t speak for the black dress, but I can say that having a black suit is really important, but not urgent. That is why I relate it to the activities in the top right quadrant that are NOT Urgent, but they ARE Important.

Like my black suit, these activities are many times forgotten about or cut from our schedules. These could be things like spiritual disciplines, exercise, personal growth, sleep, health, and relationship building.

Because they are not urgent, we don’t see or feel the immediate effect of not doing them. Then the day comes when you have to wear a suit or the dress, and for some reason, it doesn’t fit…it has shrunk while hanging in the closet.

It is crucial to prioritize this area of your life. Get a plan and learn to manage these activities. There are things worse than not being able to fit in your suit. And when the reality of the effects of not prioritizing this area hit, it will be too late.

Trevor Moawad, in his book “It Takes What It Takes,” says it clearly, “Our challenge every day is to ignore the choice that makes us feel better now so we can make the choice that can sustain us.”

Sweatpants and Board Shorts:

Finally, on the bottom are activities that are NOT Urgent and NOT Important. Some of the things in the quadrant would be various forms of entertainment, social media, and gaming. None of which are bad, but binging on any of them is simply a waste of time.

Like sweatpants of board shorts, they are incredibly comfortable to wear. Still, there is definitely an appropriate time and place to wear them. The same with activities in this quadrant. Learn to limit these activities.

Many people spend too much of their time doing things that are not essential or not building them into the person they want to become. These same people would not claim Netflix binging or allowing themselves to be continually interrupted with other people’s agendas to be their priorities. But actions say otherwise.

So if you were to review your life over the last eight to nine weeks, what adjustments could you, would you, should you make to your priorities? No better time than the present to clean out your closet.

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Be Productive While Working From Home

by James Duvall | Apr 4, 2020 | Productivity, Self Leadership

The coronavirus has caused life to look different over the past couple of weeks. As a result, like me, maybe working exclusively remotely for the first time for an extended period, and it can be a bit disorienting.

The lines that loosely defined the start and end of a traditional workday are blurred now more than ever. The kitchen table where you eat your breakfast and dinner now plays double duty as your desk or work station. Instead of an environment filled with peers and colleagues, who may, at times, act childish, you are continuously interrupted by your real children. And let’s face it, there is a daily temptation to replace appropriate office attire with “comfy” clothes. Even regular grooming acts of shaving for guys and applying make-up for the ladies seem less critical.

But don’t let the acclamation to this new environment cause you to back away or slow down in your forward progress. You can still be highly productive in this season, but it may take more effort and intentionality. Here are three strategies that will assist you in being productive while settling into your temporary new normal.

1. Be Consistent

Your work environment may have changed, and the work you are doing may even be different, but you have the choice to be consistent in the things that you control. Create a new rhythm. It may look slightly different, especially if you have young children you are also caring for at the same time, but make it compatible with your new work environment. Here are are few things to consider.

Wake up at your regularly set time. You may actually find that you need a bit more time in the morning to get your workspace arranged.
Keep a morning routine that you are familiar with; quiet time, reading, exercise, breakfast, etc.
Get ready as if you are “going into the office.” Shower, put on something other than pajamas or sweat pants.
Set regular working hours. Set a start and a finish to your day. Take a lunch and coffee breaks.

2. Be Persistent

James Clear, in his book Atomic Habits, says, “The most useful form of patience is persistence. Patience implies waiting for things to improve on their own. Persistence implies keeping your head down and continuing to work when things take longer than you expect.” Who knows how long we will be dealing with the effects of COVID 19. It seems like there are new assumptions made with every news cycle. We can not control the timeline of this crisis. What we can control is the effort we are going to put into moving forward with our responsibilities, our dreams, and our lives.

Focus not only on the urgent. Maintain work and persistence around those things that are also important. You may find that you have extra time during this season. Are there some large projects that you have found it hard to work on because of time? Maybe now is the opportunity to make progress. Is there a book you have wanted to write or a blog that you have wanted to start? What if the “Stay At Home” mandates are actually an unexpected gift of time? Don’t patiently wait for things to get back to normal. Be persistent to be ready to excel in the new post-COVID 19 normal.

3. Be Interdependent

One of the hardest realities of being forced to work remotely is the loss of the organic socializing that happens in an office, retail, or any other work environment. When business meetings and interactions have transitioned to primarily happening via video conferencing and phone calls, it could be easy to avoid these same mediums for relational connections. However, it is essential to leverage technology in new ways to lean into relationships. This is especially crucial for social extraverts. Intentionally simulate some phone calls or video chats with friends for the sole purpose of being relational. Set up some online coffee connections to talk about things you would usually talk about with your co-workers.

“Social separation” will probably end up being the slogan of 2020. But, maybe the focus should be called “Physical separation,” and a concentration of intentional digital “social connection” be a driving objective during this time.
The current reality of COVID 19 will pass, and life will return to normal or some version of normal. Many of us will soon re-occupy an office, cubicle, or workspace. But in the meantime, you can stay productive by focusing on being consistent, persistent, and interdependent.

The current reality of COVID 19 will pass, and life will return to normal or some version of normal. Many of us will soon re-occupy an office, cubicle, or workspace. But in the meantime, you can stay productive by focusing on being consistent, persistent, and interdependent.

Three Practices That Will Move You From Time Poor to Time Wealthy PROVERTIVITY: "Lost time is never found again."

by James Duvall | Oct 19, 2018 | Productivity, Self Leadership

The headline of a 2017 article of Forbes magazine referenced a study that stated time as “the most valuable commodity.” Unlike money, where there are unlimited opportunities to make more, time is a non-renewable commodity. Once time is used, it’s gone.

One of my favorite quotes about time is by AW Tozer. He said, “Time is a resource that is nonrenewable and nontransferable. You cannot store it up, slow it up, hold it up, divide it up or give it up. You can’t hoard it up or save it for a rainy day – when it’s lost it’s unrecoverable. When you kill time, remember that it has no resurrection.”

It will not surprise you, we each get the same amount of time, twenty-four hours in a day, one hundred and sixty-eight hours a week. There’s not a select group of people or location on the planet that gets more or less. It doesn’t matter how rich or poor, educated or uneducated…we all have the same amount……no more no less.

That’s why author Kevin Kruse, in his book 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management: The Productivity Habits of 7 Billionaires, 13 Olympic Athletes, 29 Straight-A Students, and 239 Entrepreneurs says, “Time is unique because it’s the one true equalizer.”

The big differentiator between the “time wealthy” and the “time poor” is not the amount of time but what’s done with the time one has.

When I was a kid, every time I earned a couple of dollars, I would want to go to the store and spend it as quickly as possible. My dad would always say, the money was “burning a hole in my pocket.” I was not a good manager of money. The same could be said of many people. They blow through time, not realizing the value of it.

The truth is time cannot be managed. However, you can control what you do with the time you have. Here are three practices that, if done regularly, will keep time from “burning a hole in your pocket.”

PRIORITIZE YOUR TIME

Jason Selk in the book Organize Tomorrow Today writes, “The most successful people don’t get everything done. They get the most important things done.” But how do you determine the most important things?

Here is a framework that I have found helpful to dial in priorities.

MUST DO, SHOULD DO, COULD DO, SHOULD NOT DO

I base this framework on the Eisenhower matrix, made famous by author Stephen Covey in the Seven Habits of Highly Successful People. On a sheet of paper create a box with four quadrants. Label the top left MUST DO. Namethe bottom left, COULD DO. The top right quadrant, label SHOULD DO. Finally, name the bottom right quadrant SHOULD NOT DO.

Now, make a list of all the things you are responsible for and the way you use your time include projects you are working on, regular tasks and assignments, activities that you do on a regular basis, and goals that you want to accomplish. All items that are urgent AND important write down in the MUST DO quadrant. These activities should take first priority. They are activities that need to be dealt with immediately. The goal would be to reduce the number of items that land in this quadrant. You can cut these through prevention and preparation.

Now do move to the COULD DO quadrant. Place activities that are both urgent and NOT important. The items in this quadrant are often the result of someone else’s sense of urgency based on their priorities. Living out of this quadrant, you may feel rushed to get things done as well as a lack of satisfaction when they’re completed. Many times the tasks in this quadrant are distractions!

In the SHOULD DO quadrant write down all the things that are not urgent BUT important. The activities in this quadrant need to be your focus. These are the activities you should begin to prioritize. Too often this quadrant is pushed aside to the tyranny of the urgent. However, you can only push aside the things that matter most like relationships, health, and learning before time runs out.

Finally, put all the things are NOT urgent and NOT important in the SHOULD NOT DO quadrant. Activities in this quadrant are merely time wasters. Strive to minimize the amount of time you spend on activities falling in this quadrant.

There will be times when your priorities compete with one another; times when there simply is not enough time to accomplish the things you must do and the things you should do This is where the lens of “significance” can be helpful.

Significance takes into account the impact of the priority. To use a business concept, which priority will produce the highest ROI (Return on Investment)? One priority may have an immediate impact and seem like the thing to do. However, another activity could have a longer lasting impact and needs to take precedence.

Here’s the benefit of prioritizing your time. When you know your priorities, it gives clarity on what you say YES to and to what you say NO.

The most powerful word in your vocabulary is NO! Every time you say YES to something, you are saying NO to something else.

“YES lives in the land of NO!”

PROTECT YOUR TIME

Protecting your time is such an important practice. If you don’t protect your time, it is vulnerable to be stolen by something or someone else. You have to control what goes on your calendar and in your schedule. An excellent process for this is time (calendar) blocking.

Time blocking is a productivity practice for scheduling your time around your priorities. It does what it says; it blocks other people’s agendas that are not your priorities from getting on your calendar. Time blocking encourages discipline around your priorities. By creating a proactive schedule, you can pace your progress toward your deadlines. Time blocking gives guardrails for saying “No.”

Numerous blog posts teach the specifics of time blocking. However, let me give you a quick overview of how you can begin time-blocking your calendar.

Start with a blank calendar app or paper calendar. One of the features of most app-based calendars is the ability to mark BUSY and OUT OF OFFICE for each of your blocks, an easy “NO” without the need to say no.

Now, begin by putting your priorities (commonly referred to as “Big Rocks”) on your calendar. Include your standing appointments, items from your “should do” quadrant, family vacations or personal trips, etc. Block out the time or the day(s) needed for each.

“Spending your time on paper before the week begins makes all the difference in how your weekends!” — Teresa McCloy

Next, fill in the blanks. These are your “must do’s” and “could do’s.” Teresa McCloy, A friend of mine, teaches four P’S for Time Blocking; project, process (preparation), people, and presence (Mindfulness) blocks. I like to add a fifth “p,” play blocks (you can’t be productive 24/7).

You can personalize your time blocking system in ways that work for you. I like to use color coding, labeling and adding travel time to activities or events.

Here is a statement you should remember and take to heart. If it doesn’t make it on your calendar, it probably won’t make it in your life.

MAXIMIZE YOUR TIME

The third way to move from time poor to time wealthy is to practice mastering your time, which is about thinking in smaller units of time. One of the characteristics of highly productive and successful people is that they focus on minutes where most people focus on hours.

There is a principle called “Parkinson’s Law” that says work expands to fill the time available for its completion definition. If yourself 3 hours to accomplish a task, it will take you the entire 3 hours to complete. However, if you give yourself 30 minutes to finish the same project, you will get it done in 30 minutes.

Here are two things you can start doing immediately to maximize your time.

COMPRESS TO PROGRESS

Our default is to think in a half-hour or hour chunks of time. What would happen if you began to reduce your default thinking to smaller segments of time? Imagine what you could accomplish. An easy way to start compressing time is by changing the defaults. Instead of scheduling a meeting for one hour, compress it to 45 minutes. In the same way, shorten a 30minute meeting to 20 minutes. Put Parkinson’s Law into practice with any project, assignment or task.

BE PREPARED

There are always unexpected, unscheduled chunks of time that pop up during the day. What do you do with that time? A lot of people take the opportunity to exhale, spend a few minutes chatting with co-workers, surf the web, or check out their Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram feed.

Don’t be like other people. Be prepared to maximize those soft spots in your schedule with something productive. Determine the minimum amount of time needed to accomplish something on your task list. It could be as few as 2 minutes. If a meeting ends early and you have 15-minutes of freed up time, or something gets canceled last minute on your calendar go to your list of tasks find the most important things you can knock out in that freed up window and just like that, you have won back time by being prepared.

My favorite tool for being prepared is Nozbe. Where ever I am, I have my current task and project list with me on my phone. I can see what priorities I need to accomplish, the amount of time I have projected each task to take, and the resources I need to complete them. So, if I find myself with unexpected time, I can see the tasks that I can accomplish in the amount of time I have, in the place I am, with the resources (phone, computer, etc.) I have.

I once heard it said that if you master your minutes, you can master your life. Kevin Kruse reminds us that each of us only gets 1440 minutes each day. By applying the three strategies of prioritizing, protecting and maximizing your time you can avoid losing time and use the time given to you effectively.

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Who Are You Listening To? "Without counsel, plans fail, but with many advisers, they succeed." Proverbs 15:22

by James Duvall | Aug 17, 2018 | Personal Development, Productivity, Self Leadership

Thanks for checking out another installment of Provertivity, where I take a proverb or wise saying and combine it with a productivity principle. I really appreciate your comments and encouragement. If you have a proverb/wise saying that you would want to be considered for a future blog post, add it to the comments below.

I love the book of Proverbs. It is full of wisdom for today. Proverb 15:22 is a great proverb. I like how another version of this proverb reads,

Your plans will fall apart right in front of you if you fail to get good advice. But if you first seek out multiple counselors, you’ll watch your plans succeed.” We all want to find success. Whether that is in our relationships, business, finances, or health, the goal is to succeed, not fail.

My wife Lisa and I have the privilege of working with couples who are getting ready for marriage. One of the first things we share with them is this proverb. Why, because we know that marriage is beautiful but sometimes challenging. Having wise counsel when things get tough or when new seasons emerge is so vital to the success of a marriage relationship and any other endeavor in which we invest ourselves.

You have probably heard the adage, “Learn from mentors or learn from mistakes.” I have personally found it less painful and more productive to learn from mentors. There is a perspective that comes with experience. And failure to tap into that perspective will, as the proverb says, lead to failed plans.

Here’s some hard truth; You are good, but probably not good enough to make it on your ingenuity alone. Everyone needs other people who have greater wisdom or insight. We all need the voice of those who have previously traveled the road we are on to help us avoid the pitfalls that may lie ahead.

Nothing can kill effectiveness and forward progress like doing things inefficiently or making bad decisions that cost time and resources. You can have the grandest plans but have weak strategies and systems to make them happen. Having the right counsel can increase the odds of success.

The proverb says that with “many advisors” there is success. So, here are five types of advisors that you can leverage as you move forward in your life.

Accountability Partner

Everyone needs accountability. We all need checks and balances to push us to be our best self. A lack of personal accountability can lead to the inevitable and sometimes devastating consequences that result from living an unhealthy and unchecked life. An accountability partner will call you out on broken promises and the failure to keep commitments. Making yourself accountable to trusted people can be a safety net from making wrong decisions that lead to failure.

Mentor/Coach

As Bill Gates put it, “Everyone needs a coach.” The good news is that coaching is becoming increasingly more accessible. A coach is going to be objective, knowledgeable, skilled in listening, and someone who cares. A good coach will ask the right questions and sometimes the hard questions. A good coach will provide honest feedback and helpful insight. The right coach can be a guide in providing the direction and tools needed for growth and finding the right path forward. You may need a coach for a specific area where you are hitting a lid or in areas where you do not see the growth you desire. These could be in areas like spiritual growth, health, finances, relationships or productivity.

Counselor/Therapist

You may be thinking, isn’t a counselor and a coach the same thing. No. A coach focuses on helping people achieve their goals, giving motivation for, and creating plans for change. A counselor works with people to solve the problems that make them feel bad emotionally or keep them from functioning well. There are times when we need to get help overcoming issues from our history that hold us back from moving forward into our destiny. Anxiety, depression, and many other emotional matters require the services of a trained professional counselor to move forward.

Expert

Who are the people already doing what you want to do at a higher level than what you are currently doing it? For most of us, we will never have the opportunity to meet and get direct counsel from these people in a face to face setting. However, many experts make their counsel and advice readily accessible through the books they have written, blogs and podcasts that they have posted online and seminars that they teach. Today, you can leverage most experts on demand, twenty-four, seven.

Wise Sage

Merriam-Webster defines a sage as a person of great understanding of people and of situations and an unusual discernment and judgment in dealing with them. A wise sage is a person farther down the road than you who has through reflection and experience, greater wisdom and insight about life and how to be successful at it. When I think of a wise sage, I think of Mr. Myogi from the Karate Kid movies. More than teaching Daniel LaRusso karate, he taught him how to live a better life (wax on wax off).

Life can be challenging and complicated at times. Getting the right voices around you is so important if you are going to succeed. History is littered with people who failed due to inadequate or no counsel. Recently I heard Brian Houston, Senior Pastor of Hillsong Church say, “There is a big difference between opinion and good counsel. Opinion is forced on you; counsel is invited.” I encourage you to think about the “advisors” you have around you. Maybe it is time to add to your “many advisors” and invite the voice of an accountability partner, coach, counselor, expert or wise sage to speak into your reality and enjoy the success that results from the input.

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Provertivity A Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Moment

by James Duvall | Jul 16, 2018 | Productivity

A proverb (from Latin: proverbium) is a concrete, straightforward, wise saying, widely known and shared that teaches a truth based on common sense or experience. I am always on the lookout for new ‘proverbs” that I have not heard, ready to jot them down and store for later contemplation and teaching content. At times these morsels of wisdom can inspire me to feel like nothing is impossible. And, at times they can cut like a surgeon’s scalpel to reveal the issue of my soul. I am also a student of productivity. I strive to be very intentional in living my life in a productive manner, not to get more done, although a byproduct, instead to get the right things done. Intentionally living this way, I enjoy living with more of a sense of ease and wellbeing. So I had one of those peanut butter meets chocolate Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup moments. You know, two entirely different things collide and create a magical blend of candy goodness. Okay, maybe this idea is not quite that. But I thought, what if a great proverb were to collide with a productivity principle? You would get my new made-up word PROVERTIVITY! Each month, I plan to take one proverb and a productive principle and provide a few thoughts around the combination. Now, I am a Christ Follower and have grown up with proverbs being a reference to a book of wisdom, in the Bible, entitled Proverbs. Although I will pull some of these timeless, biblical truths into this series, I will also share wise sayings from around the world and from some of my favorite modern-day mentors. I will release a new post each month. I would love to get your feedback on the posts, and if you have a proverb that you want to share with me, leave it in the comments below or email me at james@liveleadlast.com. Now for the first installment of POVERTIVITY…

“The faintest ink is more powerful than the strongest memory.” — Chinese Proverb

How many times have you heard something, been asked something, or you had an idea, only moments later to forget? I can’t keep count of the number of times I have run to the grocery store to pick up one item, arrived at the store, filled my cart with everything but the one thing, checked out, returned home, only to then realize that I had forgotten the item I went to the store for in the first place. It’s real life, people! Our memory will undoubtedly let us down. And, unfortunately, it will sometimes be at the worst possible times. I love this proverb! It seems like common sense to write things down, so you don’t forget. But we all know that common sense is not common practice. So, instead, we think we can remember all the little pieces of information swimming around in our fishbowl brain, oblivious to the predators of time and distraction that are waiting to eat one of our small fish for a snack. Most studies show that you can hold around four pieces of information in your working memory. That is not a lot! And, the information in your working memory begins fading as quickly as thirty to sixty seconds.

“Your brain is for having ideas not holding them.” — David Allen

Michael Harris, in his book The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We’ve Lost in a World of Constant Connection says memory is an “inventive act.” Unlike computer data, human memories are dynamic, not static. When you recall something, your brain assembles the memory from neurons in different regions of the brain, each contributing different aspects, such as appearance, sounds, feel or taste. This would be why the recounting of a story may vary in detail each time retold. Harris quotes psychologist Charles Fernyhough saying, “memories are created in the present, rather than being faithful records of the past.” So, let’s get practical. Here are three things you can start right now, never to let another one of your ideas, notes, or tasks get lost and to remember to pick up the milk or whatever that thing was you were supposed to get when you went to the grocery store.

1. GET A TOOL

Always have a tool with you to capture information. I use an app on my phone called Drafts 5. The reason I like it is for the ability to very quickly open the app and instantly start typing the information. I also love that it integrates with all my other tools including, Evernote, Nozbe, One Day and Fantastical. You may not be digital and like to roll old-school, analog. That’s totally cool. Have paper and writing tool with you at all times. I have good friends who use the pocket size moleskin journal. It’s pretty easy to whip out and write down a note.

“I would advise you to read with a pen in hand and enter in a little book short hints of what you find that is curious, or that may be useful; for this will be the best method of imprinting such particulars in your memory.” — Benjamin Franklin

2. HAVE A TRIGGER

A trigger is an event or action that will kick off an automatic reaction. Having a trigger to remind you to use your tool will be very helpful as you begin the discipline of writing everything down. One easy trigger to use is “If This Then That.” My friend Frank Bealer wrote a little book called, The Myth of Balance: Thriving in the Tension of Ministry, Work, and Life, where he lays out some practical teaching about the “If This Then That” trigger. Here is how it works. You tell yourself “If this happens, then I will take out my note-taking tool and write it down immediately.” Here are a few examples. “If anyone asks me to do anything, then I will immediately take out my note-taking tool and write it down. Or, “If anyone gives me information, I will immediately take out my note-taking tool and write it down.”

3. REVIEW THE NOTES

The magic in writing everything down is that you have the confidence that you can go back and read the notes you have taken and make a plan to accomplish the tasks that you have been asked to do. There is a small caveat. You have to review the notes and do something with them. Just writing them down does not help, if you never look at or review what you wrote. I would recommend that you take time on a daily or at the minimum weekly basis and re-read all the information that you have put in your tool. So, whether your ink is on a moleskin journal, a yellow legal-pad or digitally shining back at you through the glass of your smartphone or a computer. It will, without doubt, help you be more successful and productive than trying to keep it all in your brain. Oh, you may even remember to get the milk.

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