A manual for daily adventure

It’s easy to get stuck in a rut. Go to work, come home, throw together dinner, veg out on the couch.

You’ll never live the life you secretly wish for if you become routine’s slave. You have to shake things up.

When you enjoy your life, you’ll inspire people around you to test limits they’ve drawn for themselves. Passion and excitement are contagious. Improved relationships, enhanced creativity, boosted productivity, discovery of yourself and the…

Invest in yourself.

Success and anything worth doing comes with sacrifice.

Money, time, pride, effort, energy, friends, family, hobbies, confidence, reputation — these are just some of the things that end up on the table when you go all in.

How are you spending them? Where are you channeling your time and attention and means?

Fear often pulls up a chair and convinces us we have limited resources. When fear starts talking, the stakes are…

When was the last time you did one thing?

Read that again.

When was the last time you did one thing?

Not two, not six, not four.

Checking email, eating breakfast. Halfheartedly listening to your partner while making a list of grocery items. Calling your mom while watching CNN and scanning your iPad for Facebook updates.

We’re bombarded. We’re hungry for information and validation and surprise, and we are impatient.

One of the most valuable things you can do for yourself and for your clients…

Show up.

You have something unique to share.

You have an interesting perspective that is valued.

You have a secret, something that could make her work better.

You have an experience that could shed light on his challenge.

Someone has something for you.

But you have to show up.

Whether standing in line at the post office, refilling your mug at the water cooler, asking a question in today’s lunch seminar, or hesitating before sending that email,…

What’s the dress code?

A commonly asked question, no matter what kind of event. The answer is usually simple:

Dress how you’d want to represent yourself.

By asking, “What is everyone else going to wear? What is acceptable?” think of the position you’re placing yourself in. Are you wanting to see if you’re most comfortable shoes, the ones that have taken you across continents and through cities, would be appropriate? Did you want to sport…

We’re so careful.

We carefully plan our days, scheduling meetings and appointments to maximize our energy and time. We plan our evenings, scheduling outings and time at home in an attempt to balance work and play. Yet what if this careful planning is actually getting in our way? What if we’re creating a series of insulated experiences and limiting ourselves from true magic?

It seems (too often!) that moments of inspiration—those flashes of…

First encounters

When you meet someone, what’s the first question you ask?

“What do you do?”

“Where are you from?”

“Who are you with?”

“Why are you here?”

Your question says just as much about you as their answer says about them.

Life’s a set up.

We all know the crime scene where the good guy is framed by the bad guy. “It’s not fair,” we say. “He was framed!”

We set ourselves up every day.

Happiness, good friends, a rewarding career, an organized household — they’re the result of choices. The places we go and the people we surround ourselves with result in particular outcomes.

The choices aren’t always easy, but that’s why not everyone is successful.

Set yourself…

Please take your (assigned) seat.

We can’t help it. Our titles are plastered onto our business cards, resumes, and online profiles. Our calling cards for connection are marred by our need to assimilate information quickly and efficiently. We’re grouped in terms of experience, what we can offer, where we’ve been, or even who we know.

But we don’t have to view this as a hard boundary.

C-level, mid-level, entry level, outsider — there’s something to be…