“Your strongest muscle and worst enemy is your mind. Train it well.” – Anonymous

The pull, as we go through life,…

is to break it down into duality: fact or fiction, real or imagined, matter or mind.

For sure, the ingrained way to go is with the former.

A lot of folks poo poo the idea of impacting circumstances, conditions, what you attract, present-day “reality” and even the past with the mind. For them, what is, is. If I see it, I’ll believe it.

However, more and more pragmatic scientists and engineers, much less those in the healing or spiritual professions, are proving that there’s something outside of the hard-and-fast “facts” going on. They’re demonstrating that, if I believe it, I’ll see it.

And, over the years, there have been a lot of spokes developed under different names and processes which all lead to the hub of that wheel called co-created reality.

Without espousing any particular spoke, I do encourage the dabbling in and with these various paths to the same end: having a guided, joint, or collaborative say in the way life is going to go.

When the fear of a sudden career shift, an unexpected business challenge, or an unwelcome virus shows up on your doorstep…sure, deal with the “real,” but also take some time to create in the realm of the mind/imagination.

Where would you like things to go? What would it feel like when things go that way? Just how long can you allow yourself to feel that way right now?

Setting yourself up with a consciously designed inner game can only help your outer game. What better to march forth with?

Got a career change, business or personal game to design internally before externally? Schedule a session here for not only the practical steps but the “inside job” support.

Got mind over matter?

“It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.” – Edmund Hillary

The post March 4, 2020 – JOLT – March Fourth…with mind over matter appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“Persistence guarantees that results are inevitable.” – Paramahansa Yogananda

The truth is…

that we just don’t know what tomorrow will bring.

The stories are plentiful: of Oscar winners who had to borrow money to rent a tux for the gala; world famous authors who were rejected by publisher after publisher; and even luminaries who went through 1000 light bulb attempts before shining their light.

Seriously. The number of stories will amaze you…and with folks you never knew faced such challenges. Simply Google “stories of persistence paying off” and you won’t leave your screen uninspired.

The problem is, we often don’t connect the dots of those stories with our own story.

It’s just too darn compelling to throw in the towel, accept the loss, figure it wasn’t meant to be, or in any other way rationalize taking your foot off the gas.

Sure, there are no hard and fast rules in life, and you can bet there are times when you’d be better served to stop beating a seemingly dead horse.

But, given that the pull of that path is so comparatively strong and compelling, where do you draw your personal line of fight, fight, and fight before flight?

It’s a good inquiry to have with yourself, because we all have changes we want to make, dreams we want to see fulfilled, and ambitions we want to satisfy.

Remember though: it’s an inquiry to have with yourself…because the peanut gallery of everyone NOT involved in your changes, dreams and ambitions aren’t always the best opinions to seek.

Unless they are.

Some paradoxes are worth pondering.

Got a change, dream or ambition requiring persistence? Want some non-peanut-gallery input? Schedule a session here. Perhaps there’s only one more step into your blind spot needed for success.

Got persistence paradox?

“Only infinite patience produces immediate results.” – A Course in Miracles

The post February 26, 2020 – JOLT – The persistence paradox worth pondering appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“Awareness is the greatest agent for change.” – Eckhart Tolle

Unexpected change is simply not cool…

and, yet, it is the way life happens.

We shoot for having control and orderliness in our lives because it feels, well, controlled and orderly.

And that’s a fun game to play…as long as we realize that we are, in fact, playing a game while dealing with an inherently entropic Universe that has it’s own rules.

For example, your plans have likely been shifted in these past days or weeks by something coming out of the blue which you had no control over: an unexpected business challenge, an unforeseen family issue, an insistent need to wash your hands more than usual, etc.

The fact is that change happens and problems are. Whether we like it or not, change will continue and problems will arise.

Now, I won’t go so far as to propose that you actually, then, start to like them (unless you want to play at an elite level).

But, I will propose that you at least begin to play a game with change and problems…because they’re definitely playing a game with you.

So, to meet them on the playing field, look to see how can you approach them in a way that has you not be defeated and bruised but, rather, evolved as a better player.

One way to win every time is: “How can I grow in greater awareness because of this?

If you’re now having to wash your hands more than usual or to consider how much you touch your face and eyes because you’re “aware” of a need to be conscious, for health reasons, perhaps you can translate that into a similar conscious awareness of…
–how many times I spoke or thought negatively of myself today
–how often did I bite my nails, drive aggressively, or in any other way continue a habit I want to break
–how much time am I putting into my non-business-related self-care each day
…and so many other things it would pay to grow in awareness around.

If the Universe throws you only pitches that can improve your game, how might that awareness change the way you look at seeming curve balls?

Got what seems like a curve ball happening around career, business or personal life? Schedule a session here for support in using it as an opportunity to up your awareness and amp your game.

Got amped awareness?

“What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.” – Abraham Maslow

The post March 11, 2020 – JOLT – Amped awareness helps win the game appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.“ – Arthur Ashe

For the perfectionists among us…

it can be grueling to move something out of our private skunk works of development onto the tarmac to see if it will fly.

There’s a lot to be said about attempting to do things “right.”

There’s also a lot to be said against it.

Most well-meaning attempts to get it looking good and working perfectly result in delays that could have been cut in half or more if we were simply willing to let our ego sit out for a period.

Sure, if you’re a supposed “expert” and have a thousand of the same things out there like the one you’re about to introduce, maybe you have a reputation to watch.

For most of us, however, we have a long way to go before any substantial tarnishing of our image will result in more than a blip.

However, to at least get to an image, if you want one, you have to play.

The PlayGame Method of achieving goals allows players to experiment with a sense of freedom…because anything worth achieving is worth building a game around.

Remember when you were a kid in the mud? You didn’t worry about the mud. You just wanted to play.

You can argue with me that your reputation or image or income may drastically suffer if you took on a similar mindset today…but I’ll challenge you.

What ISN’T moving forward because you’re unwilling to play dirty? And, if that eventually flew, how would that look for your reputation, image or income?

It can’t fly if you don’t bring it out onto the tarmac…and start your own Kitty Hawk.

Just for today, how can you playfully open the door to the hangar of your own private plans to at least begin to at least get rolling, running, or flying?

Play.
See what you learned from playing.
Repeat.

Would you like to explore how your own ideas could take flight with a lot more play? Schedule a session here. Just for today, try a more playful approach, and see what happens.

Got cracks in the hangar?

“You don’t have to be great to start. But you have to start to be great.” – Zig Ziglar

The post February 19, 2020 – JOLT – You can’t fly if you don’t crack the hangar appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“Just for today, I will let go of anger. Just for today, I will let go of worry. Today, I will count my many blessings. Today, I will do my work honestly. Today, I will be kind to every living creature.” – Mikao Usui

The tough thing we don’t think about…

is that we don’t know when and where our game is complete. Not to get dour, but quite the opposite.

In just hearing from a friend that he and his girlfriend were slammed by a hit-and-run driver on a busy LA freeway, and went into a spin out, I was awakened again to the fact that today is golden… regardless of the challenges, hurdles or leaps involved in the games we’re facing.

Heck, are those challenges real, and boy, oh boy, are those hurdles tall and leaps long. And how great is it that we get to have them!

What we don’t often consider — in the midst of our growth curves — is, as Carly Simon reminds us, that these are the good old days.

These are the good old days… just for today.

Enjoy!

Like some support in relishing your challenges, hurdles and leaps? For help enjoying your career or business stretches, schedule a session here. Just for today, have an expert by your side.

Got today just for today?

“Just for today I will exercise my soul in three ways: I will do somebody a good turn and not get found out. I will do at least two things I don’t want to do.” – William James

The post February 5, 2020 – JOLT – Play gaming, just for today appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“Fall seven times, stand up eight.“ – Japanese Proverb

In a couple more days…

many folks won’t be referencing their New Years resolutions or how this year will be different…because the towel has already been thrown in.

None of us want to be reminded of our seeming inadequacies or failures, so we’ll just change the subject or find a way to laugh it off.

But, what if actually failing — time after time after time after time — is actually your only access to the changes you want?

So, maybe developing a new relationship with crawling back up is where to develop our skills this year, vs trying so hard to not trip or teeter to avoid falling down.

What if it’s the number of times you get up — and the cultivated grace, finesse and confidence with which you do so — that will be the barometer of your growth in 2020?

See you on the downside!

Need some support in standing up powerfully? For an erector-set viewpoint of your career or business goals, schedule a session here. You’ll move forward faster with a demolition and rebuild expert at your side.

Got skilled downsiding?

“What defines us is how well we rise after falling.” – Lionel, Maid in Manhattan

The post January 29, 2019 – JOLT – Is it how you play the downside that sustains your upside? appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“New weapons require new tactics. Never put old wine into new bottles.” – Heinz Guderian

For another few weeks, probably,

we will all continue to hear references to starting the New Year in a new way.

I’ll likely wind down my own references to it soon, and then, as mentioned in a JOLT two weeks ago, we’re back to the fact that we’re ALWAYS in the midst of change and improvement ALL the time…not just at the flip of a calendar page.

As that change is taking place continually, the scriptural reference to putting new wine in old bottles could not be more relevant and worthy of consideration.

Did you put your New Year goals and intentions inside of an old you, with the same beliefs and ways of operating as you had last year?

If so, consider this a wake up call…before all that luscious new wine of hopes and dreams ends up all over the floor.

An old you can’t hold or ferment a new result.

So, as those new goals start pressing against the walls of the old you bottle, know that the goals are not the challenge…but the re-bottling of you may be.

For this year, rather than cast aside your intentions when they seem to be going nowhere, look instead to where and how you can design a new bottle in which to let them brew.

And, even if old the bottles must break at times, an ongoing commitment to re-bottling will mean that at least some new wine will be created in this New Year of New You.

Want to do a bottle check at the door of 2020? For a new vintage review of your career or business goals, schedule a session here. You’ll move forward faster with a committed listener (and master bottler) involved.

Got re-bottling efforts?

“It is an age of stir and change, a season of new wine and old bottles. Yet, assuredly, in spite of breakages and waste, a wine worth the drinking is all the time being made.” – John Galsworthy

The post January 22, 2019 – JOLT – Check your bottle at the door? appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller

Self trust is a golden quality to cultivate…

and not enough can be said about developing a sense of inner guidance and self-championship.

However, there’s also something to be said for recognizing one’s own human-ness when it comes to the daily engagement with the ego.

Not to bash the ego, because ambition and drives are part of what moves people and life forward. However, the ego often has a very tricky way of keeping our “self” safe and comfortable…and sometimes inside our “own private Idaho.”

The ego generally drives us for more and better, but can often sabotage our efforts by attachment to old ways of seeing the world, worn out and familiar challenges, or limiting beliefs in our capabilities.

If you or I want to accomplish something we’ve never done before, we simply must act differently and think differently than we have before…and those changes don’t happen inside our comfy, fixed-beliefs bubble.

The answer? Masterminding and accountability.

No matter how smart and effective you already are (or aren’t), there’s only one direction that earnest, vulnerable, and open-kimono engagement with others in a mastermind setting can take you: progress.

Opening the kimono and being willing to reveal your rawness, because it goes against the ego’s desire to “look good,” is a hurdle…but a blessing.

Getting input outside of your own, internal committee of “best thinking” can be challenging…but liberating.

And, committing to another person certain actions you’ll take to move yourself forward — with a “by when” — is a secret key to real growth.

So, given that you are now 1/24th complete with 2020, ask yourself, “Am I serious about these 2020 goals? How will I get the new information I need to support their achievement? And, who will hold me accountable for making the baby steps to get there?”

Find a group. Join a group. Start a group. Masterminding accountability: it does a goal good.

Miss the New Year/New You starting gun? Already have a New Year/New Decade busily in full swing…with seemingly no time to get freshly goaled up? No worries, there’s still time.

For a year-end/year-start review of your career or business goals, schedule a session here. You’ll move forward faster with a committed listener (and questioner) involved.

And for a virtual team of players to hold your goals and commitments moving forward, find out about the upcoming PlayGame Mastermind Accountability Alliance here.

Got goal insurance?

“None of us is as smart as all of us.” – Ken Blanchard

The post January 15, 2019 – JOLT – Really want to achieve those goals? Buy this insurance! appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“The preparation for the ritual is the ritual.“ – Kate Green

So, now that the annual ritual…

of reflecting, recollecting, reconstituting, resolving and renewing ourselves from one year to the next is behind us, where do we go from here?

Forward. Always forward.

And, ritual or not, that’s the only direction we’re ever going. Yet, how cool is it that life created an arbitrary and invented break in eternity called the “New Year” so as to give us a stop in the regular action for such a valuable game huddle.

Now, just like it was before December, our goal is to keep playing and finding new ways to bring our best-is-yet-to-come onto the field.

A couple helpful concepts to remember, as you bring about the New You/New Year/New Decade, are…

Compassion: remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day…nor will your New You show up after only a week of being in the 2020 arena. (HINT: if you’re really intent on meeting a totally unrecognizeable You this year, he/she will likely only show up in 11 months or so.)

Baby Steps: a pyramid started first with an idea, then with a lot of ingenious thinking of how to get big boulders down a river and across hot sands, and then a system of construction, etc. If you’re interested in creating something to last, accept and nurse the baby steps it will take.

Team: keeping all those acts of initiative and creation to yourself is one sure way to have them fail. “There is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans”…and that is that your commitment to yourself alone will be weaker than your word given to another. Have a team hold you accountable for what you say you want to accomplish.

2020 has arrived. See you at the races!

Miss the New Year/New You starting gun? Already have a New Year/New Decade busily in full swing…with seemingly no time to get freshly goaled up? No worries, there’s still time…and getting support will help!

For a year-end/year-start review of your career or business goals, schedule a session here. You’ll move forward faster with a committed listener (and questioner) involved.

And for a virtual team of players to hold your goals and commitments in check, find out about the upcoming PlayGame Mastermind Accountability Alliance here.

Got ritualized and forward-fitted you?

“We make ourselves up as we go.” – Kate Green

The post January 8, 2019 – JOLT – Fit for forwarding your 2020? appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“Teacher says every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.“ – Zuzu Bailey

Although it’s been said many times, many ways…

Merry Hanukkah…

Happy Christmas…

Joyous Kwanzaa…

Cool Yule…

Spectacular Solstice…

Rockin’ New Year…

to You!

Find your 2020 TEAM.

I’ve been running local mastermind groups full of folks producing amazing results…and plan to offer the same opportunities virtually in 2020. If you’d like more information, simply respond to this email expressing your interest. We’ll chat personally to assess your 2020 vision and TEAM readiness.

And, if you’d like to explore the impact of a coach on your sidelines as you look to play bigger and better, schedule a session here. Even the pros — especially the pros — have a coach in their Big Game.

Got the universal season?

“The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer someone else up.” – Mark Twain

The post December 25, 2019 – JOLT -A universal season for a reason? appeared first on CareerGuy.com.