See below for how you can get 30 minutes just for yourself.

When he asked me if I tried my own T3 technique, I answered, “Bro, I take a full day off like that every month, and I used to do it weekly!” But interestingly, my client also didn’t give in and asked if I had done the 30-minute approach, and he challenged me to do it that week. 

I thought that this would be easy! Surprise: It was not. In some ways, it was harder to justify 30 minutes than it was a whole day (what I call the 12-hour day from 6 am to 6 pm). 

What I have come to realize is it’s all about planning and building the muscle (discipline) to pull it off and do it regularly. 

Here is your simple three-step plan:

1. Schedule a 30-minute block on your calendar.
2. Commit to the time you’ve scheduled and leave your phone behind or switch it to airplane mode.
3. Use the questions below or attached to keep your mind focused on generative things.
   • What’s made me smile lately?
   • What’s making me smile less? Why?
   • What am I being hopeful for?

The payoff is worth it including more energy, creativity, and focus!

By the way, I did painstakingly get in my 30 minutes of T3. I spent my time walking from my office to a small park with a lake. No shoes, grounding time, and I got 3,000 steps in. And yes, my client is progressing with T3 time, too. 

And since sitting is the new smoking, I now do at least 30 minutes a day. And I recommend you follow suit!  

Live, love, lead,

-AC

• 12 Hour Day T3 How-to
• Book – 40:40 Principle (talks about taking time off for yourself)
• Book – Win the Day

Thus, it would be easy to conclude strong-is-wrong, but strong is not wrong; strong is just strong. But, there are ways to improve how we process and communicate to the (strong) dominant personality.

Here are four pro tips to better communicate with dominant leaders, co-workers, or family members:

1. Be assertive once a week: Strength respects strength. Without “some” they will grow to lose respect for you.
2. Give two options: Choose two options that work for you and most likely will work for them. They will quickly pick one. Win-win.
3. Listen actively: It’s essential to actively listen to what the person is saying and try to understand their perspective.
4. Don’t take it personally: They may appear aggressive or intimidating. Try to remain objective and not overreact.

Click here for a four-minute audio message to help you navigate the strong/dominant style.

Are you a dominant leader?  Click here for a free one-pager full of pro tips to communicate or lead better.

Go be masterful,

• What if their personality seems like a personality disorder? Click here.
• Need leadership coaching? Click here.
• Set up a leadership workshop, live or remote, for your team. Click here to schedule a free inquiry call.

The meek style (blue color in our assessment) by design is kind, trusting, and reserved and does not, and will not, waste time or energy powering up until necessary. One of their drivers is maintaining relationships. In their mind, why do anything disruptive relationally and risk harmony?

If you are a (color blue) trusting style, try these to have more influence:

1. Power up: At least once per week, make a request, own it, and ensure it happens. Yes this is an energy drainer but necessary to earn or maintain respect. Do you want to be liked or respected? Strength respects strength!
2. Take initiative: Once per month, initiate a meeting or project.
3. Stay in your comfort zone most of the time: Don’t try to compete with other styles. Own your style. Let people around you know you are a user-friendly leader, a kinder gentler type. Then surprise them at times to keep them honest with #1 and #2 above.

For a deeper dive of this style click here for a summary.

For an audio message about this type, click here.

• What if their personality seems like a personality disorder? Click here.
• Need leadership coaching? Click here.
• Set up a leadership workshop, live or remote, for your team. Click here to schedule a free inquiry call.

Surprisingly, he suggested something that shocked me. He told me to go waste a day away! Not waste the day away, but rather waste a DAY-AWAY. Away from work. Away from the city! Of course, I immediately questioned how that would help with all my demands.

Here is your simple three-step plan to pull off a 12-hour (day) experience:

1. Schedule two 12-hour days away from the office on your calendar one week apart. Two because, for sure, one will blow up, and you’ll have the reserve ready to go.
2. Position a coworker or boss to help block for you. This person should know you’re offsite on a focus day and be willing to fill in for you or put any fires out in your absence so you’re not disturbed.
3. Build a general game plan for your 12-hour day. Click here for a sample.

Since my first day away, I have completed over 400 12-hour get-out-of-the-city days. I typically leave my house at 6 a.m. and arrive home by 6 p.m.

The payoff is always laser focus, vision clarity, renewed energy, brighter creativity, less anxiety, project completion, or momentum!

Leave me a DM here with your questions or a 12-hour day story.

• Book: Atomic Habits, by James Clear
• Book: Time Off, by John Fitch
• Book: Focus, by Al Ries

1. Trust: A feeling of psychological safety with one another
2. Growth: Access to professional development opportunities
3. Acceptance: A sense of belonging to teams and companies
4. Flexibility: An adaptive workplace that promotes work-life balance

The best book ever to come out on this topic is CULTURE IS THE NEW LEADERSHIP by Benjamin Ortlip. In it, he masterfully outlines how to pull this off in your own workplace.

What I love best is you can contact the author’s company to customize a culture assessment for your team or organization to scientifically determine how well your culture is performing. Click here for details.

Remember to,

The Culture MRI

I am aiming to influence 100 million people to change the world as they define it by the time I’m 100 years old. I’m currently at 6 million with plenty of time to spare.

The biggest thing holding people back from defining their own North Star or pursuing one actively is fear.

F.E.A.R. = False Evidence Appearing Real

Broadly, fear takes on two forms: fear of failure or fear of success. A brief Google search shows us people search the term “fear of failure” 40% of the time, or 229M hits, compared to the phrase “fear of success,” which is searched for 60% of the time, accounting for 343M hits.

Aside from fear, other reasons people don’t establish a North Star are that they simply haven’t taken time to think about it, don’t believe it matters, have a limitation like anxiety or depression, or think it’s too complex to undertake.

1. Place: Get yourself in a quiet, generative place. Choose a beach, park, or corner of a cafe or pub, whatever place allows you to calmly focus and reflect.
2. Mindset: Calm your mind by taking a brisk walk or run and by doing deep breath work and meditating for 15 minutes.
3. Answer: Jot down a response to one of the questions below on a bar room napkin (or whatever you have handy) in under 60 seconds and in 25 words or less. They are all the same question asked a different way. Pick one, then turn on a timer.
   • What would you do if you could do anything?
   • What would you do if you knew you could not fail?
   • What would you pursue if you had 10 million dollars in the bank?

For additional consideration: Regardless of whether or not you are a person of spiritual faith, consider how your beliefs factor into the below concepts:

• Spirituality is the recognition that something exists beyond human existence. It can be seen as an existential quest for meaning. Ultimately, God determines your fate and meaning since he put it inside of you.
• Existentialism is the idea that we exist and create meaning for our own existence. Existentialism is rooted in phenomenology, which studies perception and meaning. Ultimately, we determine our fate because we are the center of the universe.

Get clear, get free, get going,

Traction, Get a Grip on Your Business, by Gino Wickman

How Will You Measure Your Life, by Clayton Christiansen

Chart Your Lifeline, Chart Your Story, Your Purpose, by Andy Christiansen