Everyone wants more, everyone wants a better life, everyone wants to get it faster.  So…what is the difference between those who get what they want, better, faster versus those who don’t? They are in alignment. Their actions each and every day are in alignment with what they want.  And those who don’t get what they want, better, faster are typically all talk. They are not in alignment. They say one thing, but do something completely different.

They want to make a lot of money, but work and act like someone who makes minimum wage.

They want to be fit and healthy, but don’t exercise and eat healthy.  Not only do they not exercise much, but they don’t exercise at all, and not only do they not eat healthy, but they eat like crap.  Fast food, grease, fat, no  fruits and vegetables. They smoke, and drink. Talk about a train wreck waiting to happen.

They want to have a great relationship with their kids, but don’t ever spend quality time with them.  When they are with them they are on the cell phone, computer, watching TV, etc.  Not talking and playing with them, not listening, not going for a bike ride. They tell them “we will do it tomorrow, next week, next month, next year”.  Then, you wake up one day and they are gone, out of the house.

They want to have a great relationship with their spouse, but never spend quality time with him or her. Sure they talk about their bills, the “stuff” they need to do, watch TV in the same room, etc.  But they never actually go on a date and enjoy each other like they once did before the got married, before they had kids. Then before you know it, you don’t know each other anymore and…

It all starts at a very early age.  If we wanted to get A’s in school and not C’s, we had to do the types of things people who get A’s do.  Study our ass off, not wait until the last minute, be disciplined and accountable in our study habits. We had to attend all of our classes and be fully engaged. If we wanted to start on the football team, drill team, chess team – we needed to do and act like a starter.

Well, it does not stop once we graduate high school or college. if we want X, we need to start acting and doing the kinds of things someone who gets X does.

Do you want to know the trick to getting what you want, better, faster? Build a map, then write out detailed right/left directions on how to get where you want to go and then FOLLOW YOUR DIRECTIONS. That map is your plan and the directions is your schedule.  Figure out what it is you need to do (specifically) to get what you want, better, faster. This is your map. Then take that list of stuff and plug it all into your schedule. Don’t just do it for a week or a month, but plug that “stuff” in your schedule for an entire year right up front.  Then when you wake up, open your schedule and DO EXACTLY what it says. Follow the directions. Don’t try a shortcut – remember you spent the time to figure out the detailed directions. The last thing you want to do is get lost trying to take a short cut.  If you make your plan, write out directions, and then follow them NO MATTER WHAT. It will be like magic.  Before you know it you will start getting what you want, better, faster.

So, to get more of what you want, better, faster.  Start acting and doing the things of people who are getting what you want, better, faster.

Make it a GREAT week!

Ever find that you’re trying to get into the office system, email or the MLS for one last-minute thing before you button up your business for the day only to realize you’ve been logged out and can’t seem to remember your password? It’s happened to all of us. But there’s no need to continue to let passwords stand in the way of your productivity and your bottom line.

LastPass could very well be the last password you’ll ever have to remember. Sign me up!

How it works is you download the LastPass add-on for your web browser and it begins saving and storing your passwords for all the sites you visit. These all get saved behind one master password. LastPass will even autogenerate a strong password for you if it’s the first time you’re using a site. This can help you with added security rather than using the same password for every website (which many of us are guilty of at times).

The app helps you in a number of ways:

• You’ll never have to remember passwords to all of the sites you use.
• Automatically syncs your data for anytime, anywhere access.
• It works across platforms – Macs, Windows, Linux.
• It’s secure – encrypts your data locally for your protection.

And if you’ve already tried another password manager, but want to give LastPass a whirl, it supports importing passwords from some of the more popular ones.

Apps like this enable you to take rule over your passwords and not let them rule you or your precious time. And it’s free, which is always a nice feature.

What’s also cool about this app is that it’s been around for a little while so you don’t have to be the early adopter guinea pig. In fact, the service has won praise from the editors at PC Magazine and ZDNet, among others.

So if passwords are dragging you down – or worse, you are using the same one for every site and app you use – then give LastPass a try.

People often ask the same three questions about leadership:

1. Can anyone really become a leader?
2. Is leadership a quality you either have or don’t have?
3. Aren’t leaders born that way?

On the surface, it may seem that leadership is innate. But it’s not. Leadership is developed over time. In fact, the best leaders are those that have grown through experience, not those who were born into powerful positions.

Look around and you’ll notice that more leaders are created through time than just born that way. The U.S. military, for example, is full of recruits who often – though not always – come from troubled childhoods. Many in the Army, Navy or Marines have not attended college. Most often, they would seem to be missing the essential ingredients to succeed, yet many times these recruits go on to display great leadership as their careers evolve.

As Warren G. Bennis says in a famous quote about leadership, “the most dangerous myth is that leaders are born, that there is a genetic factor to leadership.”

Leadership takes a lifetime to learn. There are always ways to improve, skills to pick up, and lessons to learn. A leader constantly reflects on life experiences, learns from them and builds them into skills. That collection of skills comes together to produce results.

“Leaders are made rather than born.”

The only born ingredient in the leadership recipe is desire. The desire to lead creates the motivation that drives leaders to lead. Everything else they learned along the way.

So the next time you’re admiring someone who would seem to be born with leadership qualities, think about what life experiences may have contributed to their strengths. Reflect on your own challenges, how you reacted, and how you can learn from those experiences.

This process is essential to your leadership success.

I think the real reason I tried to talk myself out of it was that I didn’t want my trainer to be disappointed in me. Talking myself down from the ledge, I knew that he wouldn’t. In fact, he’d be MORE impressed that through a challenging day, I still showed up. So…I DID. I relished the 40 minutes I had and felt fantastic afterwards and (after the first 2 minutes), didn’t miss a beat!

Now, do I wish I would have been able to make the full hour? Of course! But, in life, we often run into so many obstacles which throws us off our schedule, that if we always gave in to the “all or nothing” mantra most of us would do “nothing.” In fact many of us do just that…Nothing!

I can think of multiple situations where either I or a client of mine was running late. Quite honestly, if a client of mine runs late, I’m ok with it; as long as he or she is also ok with it and it doesn’t make me late for someone else! I’m always happy when someone “shows up.” That shows commitment.

In my perfect world, I would wake up, energized and full of zest and arrive early for every appointment. I have and I try and do just that! However, as much as I try, sometimes “life” gets in the way and when it does, I reconnected and think how important it is to do what I can and simply show up, even though I wasn’t on time. When I have done this I’m always glad I did!

We can feel this way about our health, our relationships, our job – we can feel like we are stuck in a rut, good or bad, about anything in life.  So, how do we get out of a bad rut? The bad news is it takes a lot of work to get out of it.  The good news is, when we are in a good rut it’s also hard to get out of it.

The key is to get stuck in as many good ruts as possible. I call them the ruts of life. Look at all aspects of your life – health, family, spirituality, business, financial, etc.  What kind of ruts are you stuck in – good or bad? Are you happy or are you sad, inspired or not inspired, purpose driven or not purpose driven, healthy or unhealthy, motivated or not motivated, have good relationships or bad relationships? I think anyone who tells us “its okay” or “I’m fine” is in a bad rut – they’re just in denial. They just don’t know it and/or don’t want to admit it.

In life we can’t live between the ruts, its just too hard. It’s like trying to balance on a tight rope for your entire life. Eventually you will get tired and fall to one side, so don’t be indecisive. You have to accept the fact you are going to get stuck in one of two ruts – the good one or bad one.  In the book The Purpose Driven Life it say’s “Nothing shapes your life more than the commitments you choose to make.  Your commitments can develop you or they can destroy you, but either way they will define you.”

Let’s make the commitment today to scrape and claw our way out of the bad ruts. Once we are out – fall into the good ruts. There will be short-term pain with getting out, but it will pass and then you will experience the long-term gain of living life in the good ruts.

Get stuck in the good ruts and make it a GREAT week!

Take Email. Though obviously not a new and exciting technology, few of us can live without it. The problem is, it’s often inefficient and sucks up a lot of time maintaining it. What if there was an app that helped us organize it and allowed us to mine its rich data as well – the currency of our modern livelihood?

Ask and you shall receive. Xobni turns your inbox inside out – in a good way. The Outlook plug-in simplifies email management and helps you make the most of your email and time spent on it. It’s easier, faster and more intuitive than your standard out-of-the-box inbox.

What does Xobni really do? It enables faster, more accurate search of your inbox, for starters. And it brings together contact information right beside every email message.

Xobni’s best feature is the easy access it grants to information you will use. For instance, say you get an email from someone whose contact info has not been stored in your contacts folder. No need! Just glance over at the side of the email and you’ll see this person’s contact info nicely organized for your use. You’ll also see links to their Facebook and Twitter accounts if they have them.

OK, this feature may be even better: trends reporting. See who sends you the most email, who sends the most email that you delete without reading, who sends the most email that you consistently respond to. Folks, this is real-time intelligence for your email, which, if used right, can cut some serious time suck that clogs up your life.

Best of all? Xobni requires no additional input from the user. You just plug in and poof … you’re off and running. It’s kind of like slapping a CRM tool right into your Outlook. Only now you don’t have to mess with importing contacts and learning a new platform.

Xobni’s basic version is free and it costs $29.95 for the Plus version. The company also recently launched a mobile version for the Blackberry that costs a one-time charge of $9.99.

Don’t hate email, but do make it smarter and work harder for you. You’ll be much happier for it.

• Include others. People need to feel closely connected to the actions and process that lead to decisions and the accomplishment of goals.
• Feel passion and share it. The inspirational leader is passionate about the vision and mission of the organization. This leader is able to share that passion in a way that spreads it to others.
• Possess genuine integrity: Integrity inspires others to follow.
• Listen. When others feel you are listening to their opinions and needs, they will be inspired to work with you.
• Provide solutions. An inspirational leader gives people what they want within his or her capabilities.

So, you might ask, how can you become an inspirational leader?
 
Realize that inspirational leadership is a fundamental shift in your state of mind. Understand how important personal appreciation and recognition is to maintaining a motivated workforce. Once your team has an inspirational vision, involve everyone in how you will achieve this picture of success.
 
You can build a personal brand identity as an inspirational leader by embracing the mindset that you will be the one who brings out the best in your people.
 
Choose to be an inspirational leader today and convert work into purpose.

For instance, if you’ve been working out consistently, do you consider how easy it is to climb the stairs at a moment’s notice or grab 2 bags of groceries at the same time without thinking twice?

How about the friend who calls you up last minute and asks you to join him or her on a hike? All you need to do is grab your shoes, water bottle and headset and you are good to go!

Then there’s the football party (the season is here!) and you can safely navigate through the chips and dip and find something healthy without having a panic attack.

When we have worked so hard for big goals, we sometimes forget to take notice of the little endeavors which have created a very healthy day to day lifestyle. There’s always another mountain to climb – they make life interesting at the least; but remember to relish all the little ways your life is better because of the bigger picture!

It’s been 4 years since my cousin Amy passed away from breast cancer at the age of 41. In the final year of her life she received Monday Morning MOJO every week and loved it. We shared thoughts back and forth via e-mail many times after I would send it. This is the MOJO I wrote after she passed away on my flight back home from her memorial service. I have made a commitment to send this out as a Monday Morning MOJO every year at this time as a tribute to Amy and her life. I think there are great thoughts in this MOJO that one can never hear too often.

I walked into my home on Saturday night from one of the most emotionally draining experiences of my life.

Attending and presenting a reading at the funeral of my 41 year-old cousin, Amy.

Amy was beautiful, healthy and living the American dream. She had a storybook marriage and two beautiful daughters (12 and 14) when tragedy struck sixteen months ago.

In the words of her daughter, “It was a clear blue spring day – well, at least it was outside, because inside it was raining. We felt sadness and disbelief from the bad news. Not just regular bad news – but the kind where your life seems to fall apart in just two simple minutes. We listened closely to mother as she whispered, ‘Its cancer,’ and immediately feelings of shock, anger, and fear rushed through us all.”

Under her tears her daughter said faintly “Just never lose faith. Nobody knows what it’s like until it happens to them. And when it’s YOUR Mom how you view the world begins to change. You look at the mountains and now see their magnificence, just as seeing my Mom smile became everything to me. I started to appreciate life so much more. During those final months we would spend time gazing at the night sky, and I treasure everyday what she would say, ‘I love you more than all of the stars in the sky.’ Looking back at how it used to be, and how it would have been, and how it’s going to be without her by my side – truly it will never be the same.”

Her words I repeated over and over in my mind. It felt as though someone had shook me – forcing my eyes open to see the world for what it really it was. Forcing me to take a hard look at the ultimate truth, the truth that has the power to wake us up and make us live before it’s too late.

“Amy is gone,” the truth told me quietly, “and someday you will be, and so will all the people you love – it’s just a matter of time.”

So I ask you – are you doing what you want to do right now with your life, or are you putting off living your hopes and dreams because you think there will always be a tomorrow? If my cousin were here she’d tell you differently, she’d say “there will come a time when tomorrow doesn’t come, and you are wasting your time if you are not loving and laughing and enjoying your days now, while you can.”

This leaves us with a choice – we can delete this message because we find it too depressing, or we can let this message be a force that pushes us over the tipping point into the life we dream of. That is most often what it takes, something so strong it carries us past our fears and doubts and the terrors that come when we think about finally doing the things we’ve been dreaming about for so long.

Let Amy be your inspiration this morning. And realize she had a great life, doing the things she loved, with the people she loved – and she would want you to do the same.

I’ve heard it all; it’s just not possible, I’ve got obligations, responsibilities, and don’t forget the economy, and of course the - I can’t just DO what I want – I’ve got a job, bills, yada yada yada…

All those excuses mean nothing when your time comes, and who knows when that might be. All I know is the days are passing quickly and now is the time to do what YOU KNOW you need to do. Don’t put if off, or you may just be too late.

We will miss you Amy.

Using an excited tone of voice? Being able to use your body language with your words? Adding just the right amount of humor? Having a strong voice? Maintaining eye contact? Brilliant stories? An abundant vocabulary?
 
Most definitely, all these skills are very valuable and should be perfected daily. But none of these amount up to the single most important part of communication in a leadership situation:
 
Listening!
 
Why does leadership mean listening?
 
A leader must listen closely to the world around him or her to be able to react to it.
 
Business leaders all over the nation are asked about communication and one theme comes up repeatedly – great leaders are great listeners. Extraordinary men and women apply feedback, listen to opinions, and act on that intelligence.
 
Genuine listening generates respect, understanding and trust between talker and listener. Great listening skills are an important resource, educate, build business, innovate and motivate. In particular, employees like, and respond better to, supervisors who they think are listening to them.
 
Pat Croce, a nationally renowned motivational speaker explains in his book Lead or Get off the Pot, the Seven Secrets of a Self-Made Leader pg. 120-121, “The best listeners are those who learn to listen with a leader’s eye. This supernatural-sounding skill doesn’t call for magic spells, but when it’s practiced and consistently applied, it does lead to magical results.”
 
Listening skills have always been important in the workplace. View the possibilities. Observe the body language behind the words and identify the emotions. Listen with an eye toward making a connection. And keep all lines of communication open to all things. If you keep the big picture in mind, you will listen with a leader’s eye.