As i watched Cliff Lee and the Texas Rangers blank the Yankees last night in game 3 of the ALCS, an intriguing thought popped into my head…How good am I at my job?
Am I Cliff Lee or Derek Jeter or A-rod good? Maybe Rafael Nadal or Tiger Woods good?
These guys are at the top of their professions and reliably perform at the highest levels. Is making a comparison between a business career and elite athletes totally misguided? I don’t think so.
We’ve both got a job to do, both getting paid for the application of our top skills & abilities, and both have results to deliver.
It’s fun to watch someone at the top of their profession. Yes, I enjoy witnessing the dominance. Mostly though, I like watching because it helps me raise my game and motivation to win at my game, when I put their performance in context of a paid job – just like you and I have.
But sometimes I like wack-jobs. Especially those with occasional intriguing or insightful thoughts. This video proves that too – with emphasis on the “occasional” part. Enjoy.
I’m reading productivity guru David Allen’s latest book “Making it all Work” and have encountered an eye opening and insightful quote about life and the wants and needs we have at various life stages, particularly from the perspective of getting organized. Hope it’s as useful for you as it is for me…
“For the first 25 years of my life I wanted Freedom. For the next 25 years I wanted order. For the next 25 years, I realized that Order is Freedom.”
-Winston Churchill
I just spent a few minutes perusing David Allen’s latest ‘Productive Living’ newsletter and felt compelled to share a very thoughtful and interesting portion of it with you. For those of you who know about David’s Getting Things Done system, it should come as no surprise that he is recommending (and guiding you on) a year-end review in an effort to put closure to 2009 and providing some goal oriented questions that allow you to move into 2010 with focus. To check out his newsletter in full go here. To walk through his process of mentally closing out ’09 and moving into ’10, set aside a half hour and answer the below questions. It’s a fun exercise that’s somehow confidence building and motivating too. Enjoy….
COMPLETING AND REMEMBERING 2009
Review the list of all completed projects
What was your biggest triumph in 2009?
What was the smartest decision you made in 2009?
What one word best sums up and describes your 2009 experience?
What was the greatest lesson you learned in 2009?
What was the most loving service you performed in 2009?
What is your biggest piece of unfinished business in 2009?
What are you most happy about completing in 2009?
Who were the three people that had the greatest impact on your life in 2009?
What was the biggest risk you took in 2009?
What was the biggest surprise in 2009?
What important relationship improved the most in 2009?
What compliment would you liked to have received in 2009?
What compliment would you liked to have given in 2009?
What else do you need to do or say to be complete with 2009?
CREATING THE NEW YEAR
What would you like to be your biggest triumph in 2010?
What advice would you like to give yourself in 2010?
What is the major effort you are planning to improve your financial results in 2010?
What would you be most happy about completing in 2010?
What major indulgence are you willing to experience in 2010?
What would you most like to change about yourself in 2010?
What are you looking forward to learning in 2010?
What do you think your biggest risk will be in 2010?
What about your work, are you most committed to changing and improving in 2010?
What is one as yet undeveloped talent you are willing to explore in 2010?
What brings you the most joy and how are you going to do or have more of that in 2010?
Who or what, other than yourself, are you most committed to loving and serving in 2010?
What one word would you like to have as your theme in 2010?
I’ve spent the the last week and a half playing around with Google Voice and have a few thoughts to share. I’m not going to run through all the features (though for convenience I have listed all below), just the most important features from the point of view of someone who is constantly starved for time.
Overall: For people who have a hard time staying on top of calls and voicemail from work, mobile and home lines, it provides some very powerful and helpful features. However, it’s not without its drawbacks. Let’s cover the Pro’s first and then move onto Cons, followed by what needs to/should/I would really, really like to come next Read the rest of this entry ?
Sometimes when you least expect it a brand leaves a lasting impression on you.
My quest for new running shoes started unbeknownst to me when I began a job hunt (with perfectly good running shoes) that lead me to R/GA. Reading a case study for the Nike+ running community I found my way to the Nike+ site and got distracted by this well designed, but small and humble banner for the new Nike Free 5.0 running shoes.
On the landing page there’s another small but compelling call-out to “Get Naked” and “watch the video”. Intriguing, right?
Turns out this is a viral video (see ‘bear butte running camp’ below) with world class runners like Lauren Fleshman, Nick Symmonds and Kara & Adam Coucher promoting the new Nike Free 5.0 running shoes by running high altitude and in the buff (except for their Free 5.0 shoes… of course). Nike uses this shock factor video approach (with minimal camera blurring) to drive home the idea that these shoes provide a near nude running experience for your feet. Point taken, seed planted.
Digital technology, in the broadest of strokes, carries the possibility of making goods and services faster, smaller/bigger, cheaper and more accessible than ever before. Today we cover several devices that deliver on this promise by slicing off and optimizing the experience around just one of the core (specialized) tasks of personal computing. When you step back and think about it, there’s almost nothing that a personal computer can’t do really, really well. But can a personal computer, with so many uses bundled together, ever be exceptional at everything?
As a digital marketer (agency side) I’ve been lucky enough to work and push the digital gauntlet forward on many consumer products brands. Without exception, these brands have all wondered and asked, “is Social Media right for my brand”? This is a fair question because most of them don’t sell online. Quiet honestly, I am hard pressed to think of a business which could not benefit from Social Media. Here are 4 reasons to consider Social Media for your brand:
“Where the fish are“. The reigning king of US social networks, Facebook, now boasts over 200 million registered users and is rapidly approaching the elite company in terms of monthly reach as measured against Google & Yahoo.
I just had a chance to browse through the Interactive category winners at last month’s Clio Awards. For those that aren’t familiar, the Clios are an annual competition judging top creative advertising, across a variety of marketing channels. A few thoughts came to mind when seeing the two Sprint campaigns that won Interactive Clios: Read the rest of this entry ?
The longer answer, and more objectively, I’d say it depends on your goals and maybe even your life stage. If you want to share the intimate details of your personal life with your network of friends in a multi–media fashion, go with Facebook. If you want to briefly share what you are thinking, or reading, or doing, and no more, then Twitter is the way to go.
I’ve been on Twitter about 6 months now and was pleasantly surprised to discover that’s it’s not simply a place where users share that they’re now on a coffee break or on their way to the restroom. No. While some of that still happens, more advanced and community minded members are using the Twitter for information sharing. It turns out when people you follow shared links, Read the rest of this entry ?
