Yep, we’re at Day One of 2012.

It’s time for a lot of resolutions.

Change this.
Do this.
Be this.

All of these ideas and all of these pursuits have merit. We should strive to be better.

But far too often we get way too discouraged and abandon ship way too early. We stumble and because we are no longer 100% perfect in our quest, we give up.

The best success stories are never perfect. Those achievements we celebrate are often the result of many failed attempts.

The difference is the process. Those that succeed celebrate the process, not just the end result.

So now in 2012, as we write out our resolutions, let’s focus more on the shift in habit, rather than just the end goal.

Happy New Year!

So I signed up for Barry’s Bootcamp in San Diego.

I’m three days in and I’m totally exhausted and sore–but in a good way. Each 60 minute workout has burned 900+ calories according to my heart rate monitor. Even though I’ve worked out with a personal trainer in the past, I still haven’t had this intense of a cardio workout in a very long time.

So last night, I’m finishing up my second session at the gym. I’m on my last round on the treadmill (from my first few classes, there seems to be 3 rounds on treadmill, 3 rounds on the floor with weights/bands/bench/etc). I’m actually down to my last minute of the intense part of the workout. The instructor asks us all to do a sprint.

And so I start sprinting… and I really want to quit after the first 5 seconds.

I’m tired.
I’m sore.
I’m lacking energy.

But then the instructor says, “This is the most important minute of your workout. This is when you decide why you came here today and how hard you really want to work. What type of results do you want? C’mon. You now only have 30 more seconds. You can do anything for 30 more seconds!”

And so I run.

And when the walk recovery finally kicks in, I enjoy it thoroughly.

And 10 minutes later, after a cool down and stretch, I leave the gym feeling great…
totally tired…
totally sore…
totally spent energy-wise…

…but great.

I’ve got a ways to go for me to back to 100% fitness, but I like the direction I’m heading.

But this isn’t a fitness blog.

Sure, you can use that same principle to your workout, but what if we used it for our lives.

We have one more month left in 2011.

Yes, a lot of us began the year with resolutions. A lot of us broke those resolutions before January even ended.

But we have 31 more days left in the year. We have goals that we want to accomplish.

Why did you begin your year? What type of results do you want?

Make this month the most important month of the year. Let’s dig deep. Let’s stretch. It’ll be tough, but I imagine we’ll all enter 2012 feeling a lot better about where we are and where we are now able to head.

In 5…4…3…2…1…

Now GO!

The famous scene:

So on November 11, 2011, a bunch of people want it to be “Nigel Tufnel Day.”

While I LOVE the joke, I’m wondering if we can actually try to do this. No, not just celebrate Spinal Tap, but celebrate the idea of going above the limit.

Let’s not be those “blokes” who only live life at 10.
Let’s do more this Friday.
Let’s purposefully connect with the important people in our life.
Let’s purposefully serve those around us.
Let’s take on that one task we’ve been putting off.

Let’s live at 11.

Please do it, and share the awesome results.

“STONEHENGE!”

Oh yeah, and go watch This is Spinal Tap.

I hope you’ve enjoyed Part One & Part Two in Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink. I’m glad I spent time rereading it and getting ideas I missed the first time. This week is a good catch-up week for those that started later and a good reinforcement week for those that read quickly.

Assignment #1

Read Part Three in Drive.

Type I for Individuals: Nine Strategies for Awakening Your Motivation
Type I for Organizations: Nine Ways to Improve Your Company, Office, or Group
The Zen of Compensation: Paying People the Type I Way
Type I for Parents and Educators: Nine Ideas for Helping Our Kids
The Type  Reading List: Fifteen Essential Books
Listen to the Gurus: Six Business Thinkers Who Get It
The Type I Fitness Plan: Four Tips for Getting (and Staying) Motivated to Exercise
Drive: The Recap
Drive: The Glossary

While it still is about 60+ pages of reading a lot of it is a recap and a place to go next. It reads quickly and helps you put a lot of the ideas into practice. We’ll spend next week with the discussion questions and then we’re done with this great book.

Assignment #2

Take Notes.

We’ve done this over the past two weeks, we’re doing it again.

What surprises you?
What do you disagree with?
What might you already change in your own world?
What would you want to share with your organization?

Utilize Evernote and jot down your thoughts.

We’ll spend Week 5 really discussing the book, so don’t worry about going to a facebook discussion page yet. Your notes will help out down the road.

Thank you for participating in Summer School 2011!

Yay, you’re back. I hope you enjoyed Part One in Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink. I’m glad I reread it this week. Some great ideas I missed the first time. We’re continuing with the book this week. Like last week, if you spend 10-15 minutes on it a day, you’ll more than complete the two assignments for it this week.

Assignment #1

Read Part Two in Drive.

Chapter 4. Autonomy
Chapter 5. Mastery
Chapter 6. Purpose

I know it seems like a lot of reading. It is to a degree–just over 60 pages in the hardcover edition of the book.

But think about that. 60 pages in 7 days. That’s less 10 pages a day. LESS than what we read last week. You can do it!

I love this section–it’s where Daniel Pink stops telling you what doesn’t work, and starts demonstrating what does work and the major change that can occur if we implement these three ideas.

Assignment #2

Take Notes.

We did it last week, we’re doing it again.

What surprises you?
What do you disagree with?
What might you already change in your own world?
What would you want to share with your organization?

Utilize Evernote and jot down your thoughts.

We’ll spend Week 5 really discussing the book, so don’t worry about going to a facebook discussion page yet. Your notes will help out down the road.

Thank you for participating in Summer School 2011!

This week we really dive into Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink. I read this book in a day on a flight back east. We’re going to be going through it gradually over the next few weeks. If you spend 10-15 minutes on it a day, you’ll more than complete the two assignments for it this week.

Assignment #1

Read Part One in Drive.

Chapter 1. The Rise and Fall of Motivation 2.0
Chapter 2. Seven Reasons Carrots and Sticks (Often) Don’t Work
Chapter 2A. …and the Special Circumstances When They Do
Chapter 3. Type I and Type X

I know it seems like a lot of reading. It is to a degree–just shy of 70 pages in the hardcover edition of the book.

But think about that. 70 pages in 7 days. That’s only 10 pages a day. Not too bad.

This section is REALLY important. Daniel Pink really points out how a lot of our current methods of motivation aren’t working. You’ll get a bunch of the history and even some insights. Next week, we’ll explore the methods that ARE effective. Spending some time with this section is paramount to understanding the NEED to change our current habits.

Assignment #2

Take Notes.

I know. I said this wasn’t going to be super school-like.

I just don’t want you to lose some of the ideas as you read.

What surprises you?
What do you disagree with?
What might you already change in your own world?
What would you want to share with your organization?

Again, you have four chapters over seven days. I think you’ll really like the way that Daniel Pink organizes his thoughts. Jot down some ideas as you go. Better yet, utilize what you learned during Week 1 of Technology and see how a camera phone and Evernote can really help you out here.

We’ll spend Week 5 really discussing the book, so don’t worry about going to a facebook discussion page yet. Your notes will help out down the road.

Thank you for participating in Summer School 2011!

This track will help you do that. By giving just a few hours each week–no more than 10-20 minutes a day, you’ll really grow with this track.

You have two assignments for this week.

Assignment #1

Get a copy of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink. This New York Times Bestseller remains one of the top 5 books I’ve read in the last five years. It will change the way you approach the way you work with others and even the ways you challenge and motivates yourself. Last time I checked, the hardcover was $16.04 on Amazon and the paperback was going for $9.60

Once you have a copy, read INTRODUCTION: The Puzzling Puzzles of Harry Harlow and Edward Deci. (It’s about 11 pages in the hardcover version of the book)

Assignment #2

While you wait for your copy of Drive to arrive, watch 3-4 TED Talks on the TED website. Take notes on a few of the main ideas and post them in the discussion section of my facebook page. Read comments from others who post. You can watch any 3-4 TED Talk you’d like, but here are 15 of my favorites to help get you started.

J.J. Abrams’ Mystery Box (18:05)
Tim Brown on creativity and play (27:54)
Tim Brown urges designers to think big (16:50)
Chip Conley: Measuring what makes life worthwhile (17:40)
Ric Elias: 3 things I learned while my plane crashed (5:03)
Bill Gates: How state budgets are breaking US schools (10:16)
Malcolm Gladwell on spaghetti sauce (17:33)
Seth Godin: This is broken (20:14)
Steve Jobs: How to live before you Die (15:04)
Jamie Oliver’s TED Prize wish: Teach every child about food (21:53)
Neil Pasricha: The 3 A’s of awesome (17:33)
Tony Robbins asks why we do what we do (21:48)
Stefan Sagmeister: 7 rules for making more happiness (9:34)
Derek Sivers: Weird, or just different? (2:42)
Adora Svitak: What adults can learn from kids (8:13)

Thanks for participating in Summer School 2011!

Here is the announcement.



Want to join me? Check out the details here.

Unfortunately, due to the brief nature of our interaction, I rarely hear from one of those students again, so I can never be quite sure if she was able to reach her goal. I like to think that she did.

Sadly, I know for most of us, we struggle to keep that fire going. We fall back into hold habits.

I’m guilty of this too. If I accomplished half of my goals I have after attending a personal development conference, I’d be sitting in a much different place than I do right now.

In recent weeks, I’ve become frustrated with my own status quo and have a real desire to change some things. I’m looking to create a bit more than consume and reawaken more of that drive I have inside. I’ve been looking over notes and clippings from the past, reflecting on some inspirational quotes, revisiting old goals, and considering those moments that provided me the most inspiration–where I wanted to go out and say how I was going to change the world.

One illustration popped out at me today. I was reflecting on a 2008 conference I attended in Illinois that featured Francis Chan as its closing speaker. Chan asked if we ever really saw butterflies crawling around in the dirt. He went on to say that caterpillars live their lives in the dirt, they struggle, they crawl, and then they go through this incredible metamorphosis, and emerge as beautiful butterflies able to take flight. Why would we not take flight?

The illustration has continued to resonate with me over the years. Why do we claim to experience a metamorphosis only to go back to old habits? Why would we continue to crawl in the dirt when we can take flight?

So take a moment right now and stop crawling in the dirt. There is one thing right now you know you can do differently.

Begin there.

Gradually add.

Let’s all work to get back to that place of flight we once desired. Our campuses and communities NEED us to soar.

But it wasn’t.

No, Rebecca Black’s Friday was unfortunately real, and it became a huge hit–or at least–widely viewed. People loved to hate the video making it the most disliked video on YouTube.

And yet people kept on sharing it.

Soon, Black was a guest on ABC, and the media raised the question of cyberbullying. Were people being too cruel?

(quick note: While I think the song is horrible and the video is ridiculous, I do think some of the online comments were beyond mean as people encouraged Black to kill herself. Wrong, mean, disgusting. But that is a different blog post).

Still, Black continued to appear in facebook newsfeeds and as a twitter trending topic. Reports of sales on iTunes became public. Was Black getting rich off this horrible song?

And then we come to today. The song really hit its stride just over two weeks ago and now there is hardly a mention of it online other than the publicized removal of the video earlier this week and its quick reinstatement.

I’ll admit I’ve wanted to write a blog about this video since I first saw it. Two weeks ago, I visited with several students out in Connecticut and we talked about the video before the start of a leadership conference. We all agreed it was a horrible song and video.

But it was published. It became popular.

Is this success? Is Rebecca Black a famous pop artist now? Will we still be talking about her a year from now?

My guess is no.

Rebecca Black’s family attempted to purchase instant fame. Pay $2,000 and record a music video. We’ll provide the music. We’ll provide the lyrics. We’ll upload it.

I don’t fault Black for a desire to be a performer. I don’t doubt that she loves to sing.

I take issue with the method that Black went about reaching this goal. A method we all tend to favor from time to time.

The Shortcut.

If Black really wanted to sing and perform, why did she write her own song? Why didn’t she wait for the right song? Why didn’t she take a few more vocal lessons instead of relying so heavily on autotune?

The answer: the shortcut is easier.

I watched the full ABC news story on her and listened to her acoustic rendition of Friday. Her singing voice isn’t perfect yet, but it’s definitely way better than my voice is even now. With some extra lessons, she might actually have a chance to one day do something although maybe not on a national stage.

Still, she (and her parents) picked this song and recorded this video and put their stamp on of approval on it. Sadly, she will be known for quite sometime as the Friday girl.

Contrast that with another YouTube sensation, Boyce Avenue. Their covers of popular songs have combined for over 250 million views on YouTube. They started posting in 2007. Their first videos lacked a lot o the polish of their latest, but their talent is present throughout. (Check out their recent covers of Just the Way You Are, Firework, and Fast Car.) During this time, they were also able to write and record their own original pieces. Now, they are in the middle on an international tour.

Long story short, there are far too many one hit wonders, and very few overnight successes.

Most people who achieve success spend countless hours perfecting their craft and enhancing their skill. Yet, we tend to get addicted to the quick route. We follow American Idol and cheer on the winner, but very few of those winners are still popular today. We want our path to success to simply be “fun, fun, fun, fun” but the truth is that while we may have joy during the journey, it tends to be a longer journey and it requires hard work.

We shouldn’t live the CliffsNotes version of life. We need to grow. We need to develop. We need to stretch ourselves.

It’s definitely difficult at times, but the end result is always worth it.

Enjoy your Friday!