#readmorebooks

Atomic Habits will change your life! 10 takeaways.

Atomic Habits by James Clear is one of those rare books that I immediately read twice in a row. It is filled with dozens of science-backed and actionable nuggets of wisdom. Do you want to improve any habits in your life? I heartily recommend Atomic Habits to you! We are all driven by our habits - many of which are unconscious. Below are 10 quotes and takeaways from this life-changing book:

1. "Getting 1 percent better every day counts for a lot in the long-run." Atomic Habits explains why the little things you do every day matters. Your little habits matter. It may not seem like a big deal to skip a workout or to be kind, but it is a big deal. Imagine if you improved your habits by only 1% every day. You'd be dramatically a different person in a year. Then imagine if you let your habits decline by 1% every day. You'd be in a much worse spot in life overall a year from now. Your little habits - atomic habits - count for a lot in the long run. What little habits are you improving upon (or neglecting...) today?

2. "You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems." This is such an important point in the book. Oftentimes we focus on goals in our life, while neglecting to focus on the systems that help us achieve goals. As an example, I had a friend who had the goal to complete a triathlon.  He achieved this goal!  And then he quit working out for the next year and got out of shape... He was so focused on achieving a goal that he neglected his underlying systems of being healthy. Goal achievement can actually set us back if we don't get set up sustainable systems.  Get the systems right and then we'll indeed also achieve our goals. Systems > Goals. 

3. "Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity." I love this quote from the book. Every action - every habit - you take casts a vote for the type of person you want to become. Do you want to be a more organized person? When you develop habits and systems that organize your life, you are casting votes for thinking of yourself as an organized person. You think to yourself, "hey, I'm an organized person." And then you reinforce that belief with your habits and actions - a virtuous cycle! The flip side of this can be true too. What if you often show up late to meetings? You're casting votes that may make you think "well, I'm just a person that is always late." An un-virtuous cycle.  Be careful to make sure that your habits and ultimately your beliefs cast votes for the type of person you want to become and, indeed, who you truly are.

4. "How long does it actually take to form a new habit? You just need to get your reps in." Atomic Habits answers the question of "how much time does it take to form a new habit" with a better answer of : X number of actions.  Meaning, you may need to simply complete a new habit 100 times for it to stick, which could be done in 3 days or 3 weeks or 3 months, depending on the new habit. It is better to think of forming new habits in terms of consistently taking action, versus trying to stick to a habit for just X number of days. Get your reps in.

5. "Reduce friction. Decrease the number of steps between you and your good habits." The inverse of this is also true - increase friction between you and your bad habits! I think about this a lot when it comes to eating healthy. I need to reduce friction by having healthy food in the house and healthy snacks at work. And I need to increase friction by not having candy in the house or in my office! Out of sight, out of mind. In sight, and I eat it. :)  (which of course reminds me of the Dad joke I often tell my girls: "I'm on a seafood diet. I see food and I eat it...) 

6. "Use temptation bundling. Pair an action you want to do with an action you need to do." This is a powerful concept. I put this in practice by only "watching TV" when I'm on the treadmill. I am able to run at a 6 MPH pace and watch TV or videos on the iPad when I'm on a treadmill. So, I generally only watch sporting events or movies or 80s music videos on YouTube when I'm running on the treadmill. This approach actually allows me to run longer if I want to watch a full half of a game, for example. And 80s music videos will often give me the energy to run that extra mile. :)  Think about a new habit you want to start and how you can bundle it with an action you're already taking. Stack them together - i.e. habit stacking.

7. "Use a habit tracker. Keep track of your habit streak and 'don't break the chain.'" Atomic Habits does a nice job of explaining the importance of tracking your habits for success. What gets measured gets managed. One of my favorite habit trackers is a FitBit/Apple Watch, which tracks steps, heart rate, sleep, weight and can even track food intake/calories, if you input this data.  My behavior definitely changes thanks to these habit trackers. Atomic Habits gives you additional habit tracker resources.

8. "Never miss twice. When you forget to do a habit, make sure you get back on track immediately." We all will have days where we fall off the bandwagon and our habits go in reverse. Well, that's okay for one day. Don't let it happen twice. Get back on track as soon as possible. (And, yes, sometimes we miss a habit two days in row. Just don't let it become three days...)

9. Author James Clear gets to the point quickly in Atomic Habits and with actionable advice. James has been blogging about habits, health, happiness, creativity and productivity since 2012. Check out a sampling of his writing at www.jamesclear.com/articles.  (While you're there, subscribe to his terrific weekly newsletter with 445,000+ subscribers!)  James is also fun to follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/JamesClear.  Atomic Habits has 20 relatively short chapters that open with compelling stories and end with helpful chapter summaries. If you listen to books on Audible, I highly recommend the audio book as James reads this book very passionately. 

10. Check out a great interview with author James Clear about Atomic Habits below:

https://youtu.be/xRse5I_p7tA

Have you read Atomic Habits yet? If so, please share your thoughts on the book in the comments section below. Thanks!

Be well,
Mike

p.s. I plan to blog regularly about "Read More Books" in 2019. I'd be honored if you'd subscribe to my blog's emails at: www.mikepritchard.com/subscribe.html

My Dad's Eulogy. The Top 10 Traits of Michael Pritchard

On December 28, 2019, I shared the eulogy below at my Dad's Memorial Service. We celebrated his life well and then laid him to rest at Olinger Chapel Hill. Their team was terrific to work with throughout this period of grief. You can view the nice obituary and memory sharing page they put together for my Dad, including a tribute video to him with 200 photos from his life at this link. For the eulogy, I decided to share my Dad's top 10 traits along with a related memory for each trait. Note that I have abbreviated the eulogy in this written format. I spoke from the heart when giving the actual eulogy, which is not fully captured below. Dad, I hope this eulogy honored you and celebrated your life well. We love you. We miss you. Rest in peace.

Good afternoon. Thank you all for being here today. It means so much to Justin and me to have you all here to celebrate our Dad's life.  Thank you to my cousin Jessica for being such a great caregiver for my Dad and Mom these past few years. Thank you to Anna for playing the piano today. Thank you to my beautiful wife and daughters for all of their support of me as I've spent many hours with my Dad and Mom over the past few years. Thank you to Chris for being our celebrant today.

Today is a day of grief and mourning. My Dad was taken from us far too young at the age of 73 because of Parkinson's disease. It is a disease that my Dad valiantly battled over the past 8 years. What makes today especially sad is that my Mom passed away only 2 months prior to my Dad this year. Many of you were sitting in this same chapel celebrating my Mom's life. My Mom was the faithful primary caregiver to my Dad until she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease 2 years ago. I will say that both of my parents navigated these brutal diseases with grace and strength. They lived life as fully as they could until their last days.

Most of you here today know that my parents were born in the same small hometown of Hopewell, Virginia. They lived about half of their lives in Virginia and half of their lives in Colorado, raising Justin and me. I want to share with you all that we will be doing a joint Memorial Service for both of my parents in Hopewell on March 21, 2020, at 2:00 PM at St. John's Episcopal Church. This is a beautiful old red brick church founded in 1840 that my Dad attended growing up. This joint Memorial Service will be an opportunity to celebrate both of my parents lives with their many family and friends in Virginia.

Two months ago I shared my Mom's eulogy and here I am today sharing my Dad's eulogy. I wrote my Mom's eulogy by sharing the top 10 traits of my Mom and a related memory. I'm going to follow that same format today. And yes, my Dad was a big David Letterman fan, so I think he'll be okay with me borrowing Dave's top 10 list idea for his eulogy. :)

So, here we go. Here are the top 10 traits of my Dad, Michael Douglas Pritchard:

1. Loving: My Dad loved his family and friends deeply and well. This can best be seen in his marriage to my Mom for 51 years. They were high school sweethearts that met when my Dad was 16 years old and my Mom was 14 years old in their hometown of Hopewell, Virginia.  My parents married in 1968 and then moved to Colorado in the early 1970s to be close to my Mom's sister, Phyllis, and her husband, Barry.  My brother and I were both born and raised in the Congress Park neighborhood of Denver. My Dad loved my wife, Marcia, and our daughters so very much, often babysitting for us so he could spend time with his granddaughters.  Memory: You also saw so many great photos before the service of my Mom and Dad together. They were always together. I will always carry the memory of how much my Dad cared for my Mom in their final years in their retirement communities. When my Mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, the care giving roles were reversed. My Dad became a caregiver for my Mom. He talked to her all of the time, even when she couldn't really reply back due to Alzheimer's. After my Mom passed away on September 22, my Dad entered a season of deep grief, losing his best friend of 57 years. (married 51 years) The caregivers at my Dad's retirement home said that he clearly had a broken heart and was ready to go be with my Mom. They are back together now.

2. Provider: My Dad was an incredible provider for my Mom, brother Justin and me. He had a very successful career in investor relations at Public Service Company of Colorado, New Century Energies and Xcel Energy. My Dad was frugal and loved to save money rather than spend it! A bit of a rarity these days. :) Memory: My parents wisely bought a house in the Congress Park neighborhood on 9th and St. Paul. It was a small house. I actually just went on Zillow this week and learned it was 1,200 square feet. I remember once asking my Dad, "hey, why can't we have a bigger house like my friends?" I remember my Dad wisely replying to me, "Well, do you want us to help you pay for college? Do you want to go on family vacations? I presume so. We won't be moving to a bigger house."  :)

3. Friendly: My Dad was a true Southern Gentleman. He was incredibly polite to everyone he ever met and he could make small talk with the best of them. Memory: My Dad's friendly nature really came out in his later years the retirement communities he lived in.  While his body was failing him, his mind was sharp. Every single nurse and care provider that worked with my Dad said he was so incredibly friendly. Which, if you've spent much time in retirement communities, you will know that not everybody is friendly when they are in their later years....  My Dad's caregivers just loved him because of how friendly he was and his great sense of humor, which leads me into his next trait.

4. Funny: My Dad had a terrific sense of humor! Truly. It was a dry and wry sense of humor, but it always put the other person at ease. He'd lightly make fun of himself or a situation to keep the mood light. Memory: My Dad's nurses and caregivers constantly told me and Jessica how funny my Dad was, and we saw it in action. My Dad would make jokes when getting bathed or clothes by his caregivers. He'd often crack smiles. He just knew how to make another person feel good when around him, which was a wonderful gift. I hope when I am old I am funny and friendly like my Dad was!

5. Athletic: My Dad stayed active and fit throughout his life, even working out in his last days with Parkinson's. He was a marathon runner, who completed both the Denver and New York City marathons. He also loved shooting hoops.  My Dad had this unique goal of making sure he made at least as many free throws in a row as he was in age. So, this meant at the age of 30 he had to make 30 free throws in a row. He would often stay on the basketball court for an hour or so until he made the right number of free throws in a row. I am pretty sure he was able to carry this tradition forward until about the age of 65 when he was diagnosed with Parkinson's. Memory: One of my favorite childhood memories was my brother and I going to the downtown Denver YMCA with my Dad on Saturday mornings and playing basketball with him. I think this is in large part while I have the great habit of working out regularly - thank you Dad.  I actually still go to the downtown Denver YMCA and remember those Saturdays with my Dad when I'm there. Another fun related memory, after we worked out at the Y, my Dad would take my brother and me to the Delectable Egg on 16th and Court for breakfast, which we loved. I still go to the Delectable Egg these days, in large part to remember times there with my Dad. 

6. Music Lover: My Dad loved listening to music! Pretty much anything from the 1960s. Motown music, Elvis, the Beatles, the Beach boys, you name it. Music lit him up.  I'd say I have that same characteristic of loving music, as my family knows. Memories:  I have a couple memories here. I distinctly remember as a child putting my Dad's records on the record player in our house on 9th and St. Paul and just listening to music for hours while lying on the couch. One of my favorite records I recall listening to as a child was the rock opera, Jesus Christ Superstar, over and over again. I loved the music, the lyrics and have no doubt I was intrigued by who was this superstar named Jesus they were all singing about. The other memory to share is that in my Dad's last days at his retirement I found the oldies music channel on cable TV and softly played oldies around the clock for him. I know he loved music so much, that I figured the oldies music would be soothing to him in his final days and hours. I have shared with my wife, Marcia, to please do the same for me in my final days and hours. Just play me a mix of Chris Tomlin songs and I'll be good to go.

7. TV Lover: Do you remember NBC's Thursday night's Must See TV in the 80s? My Dad loved Thursday night TV! And my Mom, brother and I often watched it all with him. This included the shows Cheers, Seinfeld, Family Ties and Night Court. Classics. Memory: I remember that Thursday nights meant my Dad would always have pizza and wine when watching the Must See TV line up.

8. Sports Lover: My Dad loved to watch sporting events, mostly on TV, but sometimes in person. He in particular loved watching the Broncos, the Nuggets and Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) College Basketball. He loved talking about sports too, particularly in his later years. Memory: One of my favorite memories of my Dad was when he was a volunteer usher for University of Colorado Buffaloes football games on Saturdays in Boulder in the late 70s and early 80s.  He did this volunteering with my Uncle Barry, who is here with us today. They wore CU colored blazers and ushered in the east stands during the 1st half of the game. During the second half of the game they'd then be able to sit and watch the game. I think this might be in part why my brother and I both attended and graduated from CU Boulder. Thank you, Dad, and of course: Go Buffs!  :)

9. Traveler: My Dad and Mom loved to travel. My Dad's job in Investor Relations at Xcel Energy gave him the opportunity to travel throughout the United States and he would often bring along my Mom or my brother or me, when he could. Also, one of his favorite travel destinations since his childhood was Nags Head beach in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. He would go there as a child and continued going there late into life. If I recall it was generally the last week or two of August that my Dad and much of his family would pack up the car in Virginia and drive down to North Carolina. Memories: Justin and I of course went to Nags Head many times with my parents growing up. I have such great memories of playing on the sand dunes there, close to where the Wright Brothers took their first airplane flight! My other fun travel memory with my Dad is when he took me to San Fransisco as a teenager on one of his business trips and toured us around Fisherman's Wharf. It was such a great trip. I remember staying in some fancy hotel room for the first time and just looking out the window marveling at the big city sights and sounds, including the trolley cars.

10. Left a Legacy: Okay, so I might be biased, but I think my Dad left a great legacy in my brother, Justin, and me. :) He and my Mom were great parents that provided so well for us. Thank you, Dad and Mom. Memories: My Dad leaves with us all an incredible legacy of memories, many of which we saw on the slide show pictures earlier. Thank you so much for all of the memories of my Dad you all have shared on the obituary website, via emails, via sympathy cards and by being here today. It is so great to read about all of wonderful memories of my Dad. He leaves behind such an incredible legacy.

In closing, I do believe that my Dad and my Mom are in heaven now. I believe in God. I believe in life after death. I believe my parents are watching us right now. I think if there was something my parents might want to say to us as we remember and celebrate their lives, it might be these three short but powerful words: God is good. All the time. Even in the midst of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. Even in the midst of the our grief over the loss of my parents. God is good.

Thank you all again for being here today. Again, thank you to Chris Anderson for being our celebrant for both of my parents memorial services. (Learn more about his celebrant services at this link.)

You can read my Mom's Eulogy at this link: My Mom's Eulogy: Top 10 traits of Joyce Pritchard

My Mom's Eulogy: Top 10 traits of Joyce Pritchard

On November 2, 2019, I shared the eulogy below at my Mom's Memorial Service. We celebrated her life well and then laid her to rest at Olinger Chapel Hill. Their team was terrific to work with throughout this period of grief. Check out the nice obituary and memory sharing page they put together for my Mom, including a tribute video to her with 250 photos from her life at this link. For the eulogy, I decided to share my Mom's top 10 traits along with a related memory for each trait. Note that I have abbreviated the eulogy in this written format. I spoke from the heart when giving the actual eulogy, which is not fully captured below. Mom, I hope this eulogy honored you and celebrated your life. We love you. We miss you. Rest in peace.

Good afternoon. Thank you all for being here today. It means so much to my Dad, Justin and me to have you all here to celebrate my Mom's life.  Thank you to my cousin Jessica for being such a great caregiver for my Mom and Dad these past few years. Thank you to Anna for playing the piano today. Thank you to my beautiful wife and daughters for all of their support of me as I've spent many hours with my Mom and Dad over the past few years. Thank you to Peter for being here today to help take care of my Dad, so that he could join us at this service.

Writing my Mom's eulogy is one of the hardest and one of the most beautiful things I've ever done in my life. The idea came to me of sharing with you all the top 10 traits of my Mom and a related memory. And, yes, my Mom and Dad were David Letterman fans, so I think she'll be okay with me borrowing his top 10 list idea for her eulogy. :)

Before I celebrate the top 10 traits of my Mom, let me first acknowledge this is a day of grief and mourning. My Mom was taken from us far too young at the age of 71 because of Alzheimer's disease. It is a brutal disease that moved rapidly in my Mom over just the past 2 years. Prior to this my Mom was the faithful primary caregiver for my Dad, who has had Parkinson's disease for 7 years now. I do want to share this with you: my Mom was smiley and happy until the very end of her life. Sometimes Alzheimer's can turn people agitated. Fortunately, in my Mom's case, the disease moved her into what I called "happy land." She was always smiling and laughing, when she wasn't sleeping. Her happy countenance was a blessing. Okay, onto the top 10 traits of my Mom as we celebrate her life today.

1. Loving: My Mom loved her family and friends deeply and well. This can best be seen in her marriage to my Dad for 51 years. They were high school sweethearts that met when my Mom was 14 years old in their hometown of Hopewell, Virginia.  My parents married in 1968 and then moved to Colorado in the early 1970s to be close to my Mom's sister, Phyllis, and her husband, Barry.  My brother and I were both born and raised in the Congress Park neighborhood of Denver. My Mom loved my wife, Marcia, and our daughters so very much, often babysitting for us so she could spend time with her granddaughters.  Memory: My Mom baked a cake for every wedding anniversary with my Dad, with the anniversary number prominently displayed on the cake. You saw several of those cakes in the slide show. You also saw so many great photos of my Mom and Dad together. They were always together. This is a season of deep grief for my Dad, losing best friend of 57 years. (married 51 years)

2. Friendly: My Mom made friends literally every where she went! She never met a stranger. Each of you here today is a great example of how my Mom made friends and kept them over the years. It has been humbling to receive so many sympathy cards, emails and phone calls from Mom's friends from over the years. Everyone misses her so very much. Memories: One of my favorite memories growing up was spending each Easter Sunday afternoon at Missy and Trevor's house in Congress Park with so many of my Mom's friends. Many of you are here today. I also remember so many fun Thanksgiving's and 4th of July's at the Goldmuntz home in Manitou Springs - thank you, Barry. And of course my Mom has so many friends in her hometown of Hopewell, Virginia. Thank you, Hopewell!

3. Serving / Energetic:  So, I think it is fair to say that my Mom had a lot of energy. :) You all know this very well. She was always working on some project! She was never idle. One of you shared with me just a moment ago that my Mom only liked to sleep 4 hours a night, so that she could get more done in a day. Memory: Mom was always volunteering for a good cause. Celebrating and preserving her Czech-Slovak heritage was one cause she was so passionate about. In 2003 she co-founded the Virginia CzechSlovak Heritage Society with Marie Pearson, which you can learn more about at www.virginiaczechslovak.org.

4. Adventurous: My Mom was always up for an adventure! Often this meant accompanying my Dad on his business trips when he led investor relations at Public Service and Xcel Energy. In a way, it seemed like every day was an adventure for my Mom. She definitely lived by the motto carpe diem. Memories: My Mom loved to travel internationally. Four trips come to mind. First, she joined Marcia in Ethiopia to help her out when we were finalizing our first adoption and had to wait weeks for paperwork to get finalized. Second, she wanted to see Machu Picchu, Peru, so badly and my Dad didn't really want to go. So, she took me. :) It was an awesome trip of a lifetime with my Mom! Third, my Mom traveled to Ecuador to meet up with my brother, Justin, when he was traveling throughout South America. Fourth, she traveled to Czechoslovakia with her sister, Phyllis, to find and meet distant relatives. Mom was always up for an adventure.

5. Creative: My Mom was incredibly creative. She quilted, macramed and designed labyrinths, to name just a few hobbies. Memory: One of my favorite memories of my Mom is the creativity she put into Justin and my birthday parties growing up. I distinctly remember my Mom having a Star Wars themed birthday party for me in the late 70s with an R2-D2 cake and she created light sabers for all of my friends. My Mom was definitely the coolest Mom in Congress Park that year. :)

6. Healthy: Mom was a health nut in the 70s. She fed my brother and me some interesting food when we were growing up. I don't think we had any white sugar until we got invited to another friend's birthday party.  :) I should mention that most of the cakes my Mom made for my birthday parties were free of white sugar. They were made out of dates, apricots, raisins, carrots and all natural carob chips. Memory: My Mom was an organic home gardener before it was hip. She created amazing food gardens annually at our home in Congress Park. She was a pro at tilling the soil and keeping birds, bugs and squirrels away. We had some amazing garden fresh vegetables throughout my childhood.

7. Learner: My Mom was always reading, studying or listening to radio shows to learn new things. She was one of the very few women in the early 80s to get a Masters Degree in Computer Science at the University of Denver. I proudly remember going to her graduation ceremony at DU when I was a teenager. Her professor and long time friend, Joel Cohen, shared with me that my Mom was a "super star student." She loved learning and discussing algorithms and FORTRAN language and mathematics. (I had to google search FORTRAN to see what in the world that is...)  Joel thought my Mom should get her Ph.D. in Computer Science and become a professor, but she told him she "wanted to make real money" and went to work for IBM.  :) Memory:  I have wonderful memories of my Mom bringing home gigantic computers in the early 80s that worked off reams of paper and connected to the DU network via its modem and our rotary dial telephone. I had fun communicating with her classmates on that computer as a kid. This was pre-internet and it was awesome!

8. Organized: Mom was super organized throughout her life. This has been helpful in recent years as Jessica and I have helped move my parents from various retirement apartments and communities. My Mom labeled every single box and saved pretty much everything of meaning and value. Memory: My Mom was a genealogist, researching and creating intricate hand drawn family trees before there were internet sites that could help do this. She also created wonderful scrapbooks with titles like "Women of the Family" or "Men of the Family."  It is so wonderful to have these family trees and scrapbooks, preserving my Mom's hours of work on our family's genealogies.

9. Left a Legacy: Okay, so I might be biased, but I think my Mom left a great legacy in my brother, Justin, and me. :) She and my Dad were great parents that provided so well for us. Thank you, Mom and Dad. Memories: My Mom leaves with us all an incredible legacy of memories, many of which we saw on the slide show pictures earlier. Thank you so much for all of the memories of my Mom you all have shared on the obituary website, via emails, via sympathy cards and via a Hopewell Facebook group. It was so poignant to read about all of wonderful memories of my Mom. Such an incredible legacy.

10. Spiritual: My Mom was on a spiritual journey throughout her life and I believe it continues for her today. She was raised Catholic and attended Catholic schools in Hopewell. She raised my brother and me Catholic as well, and I attended St. Philomena, Good Shepherd, Blessed Sacrament and Machebeuf Catholic schools. My Dad was raised Episcopalian in Hopewell, and later in life my Mom attended St. John's Cathedral and Christ Episcopal Church with my Dad. Until Alzheimer's took over my Mom's mind, she prayed regularly and kept a diary with her spiritual musings. Memory: One of my favorite early memories was going to 10:30 Catholic Community Church on 11th and Fillmore with my Mom. It was in the 70s and basically was a "hippy" Catholic Church. Everyone had long hair and sang a lot of songs and hymns with acoustic guitars. I loved it. It may be why I'm still such a big fan of acoustic songwriters today, such as David Wilcox.

In closing, I do believe that my Mom is in heaven now. I believe in God. I believe in life after death. I believe she’s watching us right now. I think if there was something Mom might want to say to us as we celebrate her life today, it might be these three short but powerful words: God is good. All the time. Even in the midst of the our grief over the loss of my Mom. God is good.

Thank you all again for being here today. Thank you to Chris Anderson for being our celebrant today. (Learn more about his celebrant services at this link.)

You can read my Dad's Eulogy at this link: My Dad's Eulogy. The Top 10 Traits of Michael Pritchard

Eat That Frog! 9 tips from an epic time management book

Eat that Frog by Brian Tracy has a catchy title for one of the best time management books on the planet. If you haven't read it yet, you should. It is a short 144 pages that can be read in a couple of hours. I try to read this book annually, because it has so many great productivity tips. Below are 9 takeaways and quotes from this epic book that can easily double your productivity - if you'll apply its teachings.

1. Eat that Frog is comprised of 21 short chapters, all on the topic of productivity and time management. Brian gets to the point quickly in each chapter, which I appreciate. He doesn't belabor each chapter with long stories, but quickly explains the productivity tip and how you can apply it right away. I find that many nonfiction books are about twice as long as they need to be, due to long stories. This book is just the right length. Brian is a prolific author and teacher who has written 70 books. Learn more about him here: www.briantracy.com

2. “If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first. This is another way of saying that if you have two important tasks before you, start with the biggest, hardest, and most important task first.” The title of this book is based on the concept that it is best to tackle your most important priority at work first thing in the day. Get it done before you get sidetracked on other less important but perhaps more seemingly "urgent" tasks that come up. If you have two important tasks, do the most important one first. Eat that frog!

3. “One of the very worst uses of time is to do something very well that need not to be done at all.”  This is one of my favorite quotes of the book. It's simple and yet so profound. How much time do we each waste doing things that don't need to be done at all? This quote reminds me of Jim Collin's advocating in his classic book, Good to Great, that we each should have a "stop doing list." What are some tasks in your life you should simply stop doing? We all have some. Perhaps many things we should stop doing... 

4. “Goals are the fuel in the furnace of achievement. The bigger your goals and the clearer they are, the more excited you become about achieving them. The more you think about your goals, the greater becomes your inner drive and desire to accomplish them.”  Brian Tracy is a big believer in goal setting. In fact, he wrote another favorite book of mine, Goals, which I heartily recommend to you. I confess that I haven't been the best goal-setter in my life. I'm naturally driven, which is generally helpful, but I see the wisdom in setting big and clear goals. As I type this, I realize that I need to read Goals again too... :) 

5. “Rule: Continuous learning is the minimum requirement for success in any field.” This is such a powerful quote and is so very true. We need to be continuous learners in our lives.  Never stop learning and growing. In fact, this is why I advocate on this blog that we should all #readmorebooks. :) Reading books is indeed one of the best ways to continually improve yourself. Brian does make the point in this book that you should aim to read 1 hour a day materials that are related to your career: books, articles, blogs, etc. 

6. “The Key to Success is Action." Okay this might seem like a no-duh quote, but it gives a great snapshot of this book. This is an action-oriented book that will encourage and propel you toward action. Planning is nice, but execution is everything. You will only be successful in work and life to the extent you are action-oriented. This book will give you some great tools to not only take action, but take the right actions every day. Go the extra mile. As another great quote says: "There are no traffic jams on the extra mile." :)

7. “Rule: It is the quality of time at work that counts and the quantity of time at home that matters.”  I will close with this quote from Brian because it is again epic. Work hard at work. Work smart at work. But then when you are at home, just spend time with your family. Don't try to be "efficient" or just have "quality time" with your family. We need to have "QUANTITY time" with our family. The hours matter. Be present with your family. Be efficient at work so you can spend more time at home with your family.

8. A fun animated 7-minute video overview of Eat that Frog is below:

https://youtu.be/y6mGuFe5YNc

9. Eat that Frog's 21 chapters, listed below, will give you a good overview of this book's structure:

1. Set the Table

2. Plan Every Day In Advance

3. Apply the 80/20 Rule to Everything

4. Consider the Consequences

5. Practice Creative Procrastination

6. Use the ABCDE Method Continually

7. Focus on Key Result Areas

8. The Law of Three

9. Prepare Thoroughly Before You Begin

10. Take It One Oil Barrel at a Time

11. Upgrade Your Key Skills

12. Leverage Your Special Talents

13. Identify Your Key Constraints

14. Put the Pressure on Yourself

15. Maximize Your Personal Power

16. Motivate Yourself into Action

17. Get Out of the Technological Time Sinks

18. Slice and Dice the Task

19. Create Large Chunks of Time

20. Develop a Sense of Urgency

21. Single Handle Every Task

 

Have you read Eat That Frog or any of Brian Tracy's other books? What are some of your favorite productivity tips? Please share in the comments section below, thanks!  

Read More Books,
Mike

p.s. I blog to encourage you to live a better life by reading more books. I'd be honored if you'd subscribe to my blog's emails at: www.mikepritchard.com/subscribe.html

 

Digital Minimalism! 10 tips to break your social media addiction.

Do you have a Facebook-Instagram-Twitter-LinkedIn account? If so, you need to read Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport! This book opened my eyes to the truly addictive nature of social media. Guess what? You are the product on social media. You essentially have no privacy, even if your account settings are set to private. Your data, your posts, and your likes are all being aggregated by massive advertising databases and algorithms so that products can be target-marketed to you. Worse than the privacy risk is the risk of literally wasting hours of your life on social media. Digital Minimalism is call to action to live a deeper life offline by minimizing or even quitting your use of social media. Below are 10 tips from this powerful book, including several quotes, a video and some actions I personally have taken recently to reduce my use of social media.

1. Cal Newport is one of my favorite authors on the planet. He blogs at www.calnewport.com and wrote Deep Work, which is a terrific book about personal productivity at work. Deep Work advocates that we each aim for 4 hours a day of "deep work," to truly make a difference in our jobs and world. Most of us do "shallow work" most of the time: meetings, emails, and low priority tasks. Deep Work has changed the way I work. I make sure not to over-schedule myself with shallow tasks during the day and I do seek to schedule at least 4 hours a day of "deep work." At the end of Deep Work, Cal advocates quitting social media, which is a very shallow activity. Digital Minimalism picks up where Deep Work left off. (If you liked the book Essentialism by Greg McKeown, you'll appreciate Deep Work.)

2. “The tycoons of social media have to stop pretending that they’re friendly nerd gods building a better world and admit they’re just tobacco farmers in T-shirts selling an addictive product to children. Because, let’s face it, checking your “likes” is the new smoking.” This is a bold quote from Bill Maher at the beginning of Digital Minimalism which throws down the gauntlet on Cal's views of social media. Social media is engineered to be addictive. Cal describes how Facebook changed their notifications from the color blue to the color red, because they found that the color red created a more urgent response in social media users to check their notifications. This is one small example of many ways that Digital Minimalism details how social media is engineered as a "virtual slot machine" where we keep scrolling and scrolling while looking for that next jackpot of a dopamine hit. 

3. “Digital Minimalism is a philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else.” Cal doesn't suggest in this book that we try to live life without the internet or digital tools. He recognizes that there are many technological advances that save us time. The challenge is when we can't turn off our connection to the internet, primarily due to our smart phones and social media usage. One of the problems with social media is FOMO: the fear of missing out. You will always see someone posting something on social media that you might wish you were doing, buying, or consuming. Cal gives some great tips in this book on how to turn your smart phone into a "dumb phone" so that you can focus on living a full and deep life offline. This book can help turn your FOMO into JOMO: the joy of missing out! :-) 

4. “Where we want to be cautious is when the sound of a voice or a cup of coffee with a friend is replaced with ‘likes’ on a post.” I appreciate that Cal doesn't simply malign social media in this book, but he explains what we might be missing out on in real life if we spend too much time online. Cal worries, and I think we'd all agree, that there are times when we or our kids or friends are looking at our smartphones when we should be actually talking to each other. This book does a great job of giving tips on how to turn off the phone and turn on real life engagement for a rich life. Social media promises friendship and engagement, but if we're not careful it can leave us feeling quite empty. 

5. "By cultivating a high-quality leisure life first, it will become easier to minimize low-quality digital diversions later.” Cal advocates in Digital Minimalism that we all develop offline hobbies and friendships to live a full and deep life. These high-quality leisure activities are so much more fulfilling than the low-quality digital distraction of social media. What are some hobbies, activities (exercise...) or friendships you feel like you never have time for?  Might cutting back your time spent online give you back the time you crave? (The answer is... Yes.)

6. Digital Minimalism describes how you can undertake a digital declutter:  "Put aside a thirty-day period during which you will take a break from optional technologies in your life. During this thirty-day break, explore and rediscover activities and behaviors that you find satisfying and meaningful. At the end of the break, reintroduce optional technologies into your life, starting from a blank slate. For each technology you reintroduce, determine what value it serves in your life and how specifically you will use it so as to maximize this value." Cal led this digital declutter experiment with readers of his blog and learned that many of his readers never went back to social media after taking a break from it for 30 days.  Others found that they could check social media for only 30 minutes total a week and get the same benefit of their prior 30+ minute daily usage before the digital declutter. 

7. Digital Minimalism's chapters, listed below, will give you a good overview of this book's structure:

1. A Lopsided Arms Race
2. Digital Minimalism
3. The Digital Declutter
4. Spend Time Alone
5. Don't Click Like
6. Reclaim Leisure
7. Join the Attention Resistance

8. After reading Digital Minimalism, here are the actions I have taken. I started with simply deleting Facebook and Instagram off of my smartphone. This is one of the most powerful steps you can take: get social media off of your phone. You won't have the compulsion to check it throughout the day. I haven't quit Facebook or Instagram, and still check them maybe once day on my computer, but my usage is way down. I am now also in process of getting family photos off of my social media accounts, primarily for privacy reasons. It has been a joy to share our family's adoption journey this past several years on social media, but I'm now wanting to protect my family's privacy going forward. 

9. Digital Minimalism doesn't go into details of cyber security, but it is a personal passion of mine at work and now personally too. I found a terrific 10 point guide that I shared with my team at work and I recommend you read it to protect your privacy and data online at this link.  You might also want to consider how your web browser is tracking your online activity data for advertising purposes and decide to switch to a privacy browser.

10. Check out this video interview with Cal Newport below, which gives a great overview of the book:

https://youtu.be/lHLoE4fCuZ0

Have you taken any steps in your life to reduce your usage of social media? Does anything above stand out to you as an idea you might want to implement? Have you read read Digital Minimalism or any of Cal Newport's other books? Please share in the comments section below, thanks! (I should note that Cal's 2012 book, So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love, is fantastic too! It is particularly great for 20-somethings embarking on their careers.) 

Read More Books,
Mike

p.s. I plan to blog regularly about #readmorebooks in 2019. I'd be honored if you'd subscribe to my blog's emails at: www.mikepritchard.com/subscribe.html

Measure What Matters! OKRs + Google + Bono + You?

This is one of those rare books that I heard rave reviews from friends in a diversity of sectors: startup technology companies, higher education and nonprofits. Measure What Matters by John Doerr is a book that describes the powerful concept of OKRs: Objectives and Key Results. John is the Chairman of Kleiner Perkins, which is a very successful venture capital firm. I heartily recommend this book to you. Below are 7 quotes and my takeaways from this treasure trove of a book.

1. “Objectives and Key Results are the yin and yang of goal setting.”  OKRs are a simple concept that have fueled the success of Google, the Gates Foundation and Bono's ONE Campaign to end poverty.  John describes in detail how you too can set compelling Objectives (the yin) and Key Results (the yang) for your organization. Objectives are what you want to achieve and Key Results are how you are going to achieve the objectives. Google generously shares in depth how they use OKRs at this link.

2 . “Healthy culture and structured goal setting are interdependent.” This book does a terrific job of explaining how structured goal setting actually improves an organization's culture.  Employees want to know what goals they should be working on to move the organization forward. OKRs provide a framework for every employee to be involved in an organization's success. This process improves culture.

3. “Leaders must get across the why as well as the what. Their people need more than milestones for motivation. They are thirsting for meaning, to understand how their goals relate to the mission.”  This quote from the book reminds me of Simon Sinek's TED Talk and terrific book, Start With Why. Employees are indeed thirsting for meaning in their work, and OKRs are a simple yet effective framework for employees to see how their work directly contributes to the organization's success. 

4. “We must realize—and act on the realization—that if we try to focus on everything, we focus on nothing.” The book describes how you ideally want only 3 to 5 Objectives and then 3 to 5 Key Results for each Objective. Less is more. You want a few focused OKRs that are measurable, transparent, inspirational and achievable - with some stretch to achieve them. This concept of focus in goal setting reminds me of the terrific book, The 4 Disciplines of Execution by Chris McChesney, which I reviewed at this link.

5. “Innovation tends to dwell less at the center of an organization than at its edges.” I absolutely love this quote and agree with it. Oftentimes leaders of organizations might think they have all of the answers, and won't listen to their front line employees. I have learned that often the opposite is true: the front line employees have the answers and the leaders simply need to stop and listen to them. OKRs are a way that front line employees can be engaged in an organization's goals and be heard by leaders.

6. “To win in the global marketplace, organizations needs to be more nimble than ever before.” Gone are the days of setting 3, 5 or 10-year strategic plans and thinking those will stand the test of time. Even in one-year goal setting, changes to the plan will come your way. OKRs advocate quarterly goals to be nimble. Every 90 days you set and review your OKRs.  I think there is a lot of wisdom in thinking about "90-day sprints" in goal setting.  Traction by Gino Wickman is another terrific book that advocates quarterly goal setting. 

7. “Annual performance reviews are costly, exhausting, and mostly futile.” I was pleasantly surprised to see this book discuss performance reviews in light of the concept of OKRs.  Instead of annual reviews, the book advocates the use of real-time CFRs: Conversations, Feedback, and Recognition. This is a process where you are having real-time conversations with your employees, giving them feedback right away and recognizing achievements when they happen. This builds culture and buy-in from employees more than the typical annual performance review process.

Check out John's 12-minute TED Talk below, which gives a great overview of the book:

https://youtu.be/L4N1q4RNi9I

Lastly, listen to this book on Audible if you can. Author John Doerr reads the book, but he also integrates in readers for their sections of the book, such as Bono reading about OKRs and the ONE Campaign to end poverty. It is fun to hear a rock star talk about Objectives and Key Results!  :)  There are also readers from Google, the Gates Foundation, and other tech startups in the book. This is a really well done audiobook.

Bonus: My internet friend Nick Gray wrote a great summary of this book, too. You can see it here:  Measure What Matters by John Doerr – Book Club Discussion

Have you read this book? Are you utilizing the concept of OKRs at your organization? How is it going? Please share in the comments section below, thanks!

Be well!
Mike

Humble + Hungry + Smart = The Ideal Team Player! Productivity & Hiring

Psssst.. Want to know the secret of how to hire the ideal person for your next job opening? It is a simple formula. Hire someone who is: 1. Humble, 2. Hungry, and 3. Smart.  While this sounds simple, it is rare to find these 3 traits well-balanced in a job candidate. When you do find someone with these 3 traits, hire that candidate fast! The framework of Humble + Hungry + Smart comes from Patrick Lencioni's book, The Ideal Team Player. This blog exists to help make you more productive. Hiring "rock stars" or "A-players" is one of the most productive things you can do. The right hire can transform your team toward world class performance and absolutely make you more productive.

(image courtesy of www.tablegroup.com/books/ideal-team-player)

Presumably you've heard of Patrick Lencioni's terrific book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team? His more recent book, The Ideal Team Player, is also in a parable format and walks through each of the components of the formula humble + hungry + smart, which I unpack in 7 points below.  The book and its companion website also give you practical tools, such as interview questions to help you determine if a job candidate is humble, hungry and smart.

1. Humble. You want someone joining your team who is humble. They're willing to listen to others and admit they don't have all of the answers. They appreciate the Stephen Covey principle of "Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood." They don't have big egos. They want to see the team succeed and not just themselves. They say "we" more than they say "I." Caveat: don't hire someone who is only humble. They may be "nice" but may not get anything done.

2. Hungry. You want to hire someone who has the energy and drive to do their work with excellence. They want to learn and grow. They want to be promoted and grow in their careers. They want to take on new projects and new opportunities. They don't need to be prodded to work hard - they are wired to work hard. Caveat: don't hire someone who is only hungry. They may bulldoze over others to get what they want for their own selfish reasons.

3. Smart. You want someone who is smart in both technical skills for the job and people skills.  Technical skills are of course important for any given job, but equally important are people skills. You want someone who demonstrates emotional intelligence and works well with others. They are self-aware and know how their words and actions can impact others on the team. Caveat: don't hire someone who is only smart. They may be liked by many, but probably won't get much done because they're too busy playing politics.

4. Humble + Hungry + Smart. When you are reviewing resumes and in particular when you are interviewing a candidate, ask yourself frequently: "Is this person hungry, humble and smart? All three? Or are they missing one (or more) of the traits?" You'll want to hire candidates that are well-balanced in these three traits.

5. Interview Questions. Author Patrick Lencioni graciously provides 3 pages of interview questions that you can use in an interview to assess if a job candidate is humble, hungry and smart. Download a PDF of the interview questions at this link.

6. Self-Assessment. Patrick Lencioni also graciously provides a one-page PDF for you to assess yourself. Are you hungry, humble and smart?  Find out quickly at this link.

7. The Ideal Team Player. I encourage you to read the book to get a full parable about why it is important to hire job candidates that are humble, hungry and smart. It's a great quick read. I listened to the book on my commute to/from work via Audible.com. Learn more about the book and additional resources at this link.

(image courtesy of www.tablegroup.com/books/ideal-team-player)

Do you agree with the concept of hiring job candidates who are humble, hungry and smart? Are there additional traits you look for when hiring? Do you have any other books or resources related to hiring that you would recommend? Please share in the Comments below. Thanks!

Read More Books,
Mike

 p.s. I blog to encourage you to live a better life by reading more books. I'd be honored if you'd subscribe to my blog's emails on my website at: www.mikepritchard.com/subscribe.html

12 reasons YOU need a coach! (life/business/health) "What Got You Here Won't Get You There" by Marshall Goldsmith

Do you have a coach? You should. I'll explain why in this article. We all have blind spots. We all have rough edges. Working with a coach will help you improve your relationships or business or health much faster than if you try to improve on your own. I just finished coach Marshall Goldsmith's epic book, What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful. This book reminded me of the importance of coaches in our lives. I'll share 12 reasons below why you need a coach. I'll also share the names of 8 coaches I personally know and recommend below.

1. Read Marshall's terrific book. It is an important book about how we succeed early in our careers based on our technical skills. As we advance in our careers, technical skills are not enough. We need top notch people skills. And those aren't always easy or natural for smart technical people. You need to pivot from being a technician to being a diplomat if you want to advance in your career. This book will lay out why this is the case and what you can do about it.

2. You need a 360 degree review. Have you ever done one? It's not exactly fun. But it is critical to do. Marshall smartly shares in his book how we all have blind spots. We all have behaviors that can hamper our careers or relationships or health. And sometimes the only way to bring these blind spots into the light is through a 360 degree review while working with a coach.

3. Coaches aren't necessarily going to tell you what you need to improve. Ideally your circle of colleagues or friends will tell you what you need to improve through a 360 degree review. The coach will then share the themes of the 360 degree review. What you're doing well. What you need to improve. And the coach will work with you to decide which one or two areas you should focus on for improvement. Don't try to improve more than a couple areas at once or you'll likely fail at making significant improvement in any area.

4. Coaches will hold you accountable to your goals. Once your goals for improvement are set, the coach will work with you to think through what action steps you need to take to meet your goals. The coach will then check in with you regularly to ensure you're making progress on your goals. 

5. A good coach will not "go easy" on you.  Look, if you hire a coach you should expect to be challenged. This is good. This is healthy. This is what you need to improve. If you hire a coach that only says, "wow, you're doing great. You're great. Nothing you need to really improve." Well, then you've hired a "yes-person" and this is not what any of us need. We need to grow. We need some friction to grow, just like muscles need friction to grow. You need a coach that will challenge you while also encouraging your growth. 

6. You can work with great coaches for your business or relationships or health. It's probably a good idea to only work with one coach at a time. However, you may want to find great coaches for different arenas of your life in different seasons of your life. One coach may be great at helping you grow your business skills. Another coach for improving your relationship skills. And another coach to help you improve your diet and/or fitness. It's possible to find one coach that can cover all of these arenas, but somewhat rare I think.

7. Hiring a coach is a good investment. Coaches are not free. They cost money. But I think it is generally money very well spent that is an investment in YOU.  Is there a better investment you can make than an investment in yourself? 

8. Ask if your company will pay for a coach. While I think most of us will need to pay for coaching on our own, sometimes your company will help pay for a coach. Particularly if the coach is helping you improve your business or relationship skills at work. Put together a plan and request for your boss as to how and why the company could help pay for a coach. You might be pleasantly surprised to find that the company will pay for 100% or maybe 50% of the coaching costs. I also think your boss will be impressed that you want to continue to grow and challenge yourself through coaching. 

9. There is no shame in working with a coach. In fact, I think it says something great about you if you work with a coach. It means you want to continue to learn and grow. You want to get better. You are okay being challenged. And you are making an investment in yourself. There is no shame in your game!

10. Sometimes you need a therapist, and not a coach. Coaches are awesome. But they are generally not therapists. If you are going through a significantly hard time in your life, please hire a therapist ASAP. Therapists are trained to help your mental health. If you've lost a loved one or someone near and dear to you is sick or you're feeling depressed, please hire a therapist.

11. Coaches, what points have I missed about why someone would want to hire you? I am sure coaches will read this blog post. I'd love to hear from you in the Comments section below about what additional points you'd like to share? Are there books or resources you'd recommend? Thanks in advance for sharing!

12. You can be "coached" by authors, podcasters, YouTubers and leaders you've never met. I read a lot of books. One a week is my goal. And I do absolutely believe that you can be "coached" to a degree by authors or TED Talks or other leadership resources you consume. However, this is only a one-sided coaching relationship, so you are very likely not addressing your blind spots and you won't be held accountable for growth. That being said, I do encourage you to consider some of your favorite authors or podcasters as coaches. Their experience and great work can coach you from afar. A few of my favorite long distance "coaches" include: Chris McChesney, Sheryl Sandberg, Cal Newport, Amy Cuddy, Gary Keller, Carol Dweck, Jocko Willink, Angela Duckworth, Darren Hardy, Melissa Faye Green, and Jim Collins, to name a few. 

I'll close this blog post by sharing some names and website links of coaches I personally know and recommend. Please consider reaching out to one of these coaches TODAY! Don't procrastinate on this one. Take the next step by contacting one (or more) of these coaches. Most coaches will do an introductory meeting with you to make sure they're a good fit for you and your goals.

Jenn Peppers: www.vergecoaching.com

Doug Slaybaugh: www.thecpacoach.com

Renelle Everett: www.insight-cc.com

Clay and Philippa Cousins: www.elevatemomentum.com

David Dye and Karin Hurt: www.letsgrowleaders.com

Kendall Colman: www.colmancoaching.com

Jan Rutherford: www.selfreliantleadership.com

Tasha Eurich: www.tashaeurich.com

If you have a coach you'd recommend, who is not listed above, please share the coach's name and website and/or contact information in the Comments section below. Thanks!

Productivity Equals Happiness,
Mike

p.s. I blog about "Productivity Equals Happiness." I'd be honored if you'd subscribe to my blog's emails on my website at: www.mikepritchard.com/subscribe.html

Jocko Willink's "Discipline Equals Freedom" will get you up early! +10 Navy SEAL learnings

Jocko Willink is a retired U.S. Navy SEAL who has inspired me to wake up early, which has been a game changer for my life. Jocko posts a photo of his watch on Twitter every morning when he wakes up at 4:30 a.m. I am not getting up that early, but I'm now waking up at 6 a.m. most mornings, which has amped up my daily productivity significantly.  Jocko's Discipline Equals Freedom is the book that motivated this change for me, along with the 2 videos below. I'll share 8 great things about Jocko and this book below.

1. Navy SEALs are tough, obviously. I'm probably the opposite of a Navy SEAL. I wouldn't have made the cut. However, somehow Jocko's intensity has encouraged me greatly. Jocko believes that waking up early and exercising is the transformational habit for your day. I believe him. I've been what you call a "night owl" for most of my life. I'm now waking up early consistently. Apparently a Navy SEAL can still motivate me here in my late 40s.  :) Below is a terrific interview Jocko did with Success Magazine where he discusses the book Discipline Equals Freedom and the importance of waking up early. Watch this only if you dare. It might change you...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3UkRFyaALI

2. Jocko believes in the word GOOD, even when things do not seem good on the surface. I'm sure this is some sort of Navy SEAL training Jedi-mind trick, but it works. It's taking life head on and all that it brings you. And some good can be found in whatever it brings you. The Stoic philosophers approached life this way as well. They encourage us to embrace whatever life brings our way. "Embrace it all." Check out Jocko's GOOD Tube video with 1.6 million views below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdTMDpizis8

3. Discipline Equals Freedom is split into three parts: 1. Thoughts, 2. Actions and 3. Workouts.  Jocko appropriately spends the first part of the book focusing on how important our thoughts are. We need to achieve discipline in our thoughts before we can hope to achieve discipline in our actions. This reminds me of Jim Collin's quote from his epic book, Good to Great, where he advocates for: "Disciplined People with Disciplined Thoughts taking Disciplined Action." Discipline your mind before you attempt to discipline your life.

 4. Jocko advocates that we all exercise daily. It doesn't have to be lifting weights daily, but some activity every day and ideally first thing in the morning to get your blood pumping.  It could be a walk. It could be a run. He does advocate for some strength training in the book, which I agree with. Jocko does have a number of daily exercise regimens detailed in this book that range from Beginner to Advanced. Most of these exercises can actually be done at home and don't require a gym.

5. Jocko writes about his passion for the martial art Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in this book. I have never done a martial art, but his advocacy for learning how to defend yourself by knowing a martial art is compelling. I am now motivated to find a self defense class that my whole family can take together.

6. I first learned about Jocko thanks to a terrific podcast interview Tim Ferriss had with Jocko about his first book, Extreme Ownership: How Navy SEALS Lead and Win. (I hope to write a review of this great book soon on this blog.  Stay tuned.)  This podcast interview from 2015 was actually Jocko's first public interview ever. It is terrific. Check it out here: https://tim.blog/2015/09/25/jocko-willink/

(image courtesy of https://tim.blog/2017/10/20/discipline-equals-freedom/)

7. Jocko has written three books for kids titled The Way of the Warrior Kid, all of which I have read with my youngest daughter and they are terrific. 

8. Jocko has a new book coming out this fall titled The Dichotomy of Leadership: Balancing the Challenges of Extreme Ownership to Lead and Win, which I'm very much looking forward to reading!

9. Jocko served our country for 20 years as a U.S. Navy SEAL. He is a veteran and a hero. I thank him for his service to our country and thank him for his new mission of service to motivate and train civilians like me.

10. Read at terrific Success Magazine article about Jocko titled "The Jocko Willink Way" here: https://www.success.com/article/the-jocko-willink-way

I hope this article has inspired you to wake up early and exercise daily. If you need more inspiration, check out Jocko's book Discipline Equals Freedom. Are there any other Jocko fans out there? Has he changed your life in any way?

Be well,
Mike

p.s. I plan to blog about Work-Life Happiness weekly in 2018. I'd be honored if you'd subscribe to my blog's emails on my website at: www.mikepritchard.com/subscribe.html

The 4 Disciplines of Execution is the best business book I've read. 10 reasons why.

Jim Collins’ Good to Great was the best business book I read for 15 solid years. That changed 2 years ago when I read Chris McChesney’s The 4 Disciplines of Execution (or 4DX), which transformed the way I approached goal setting & achieving at work and in my personal life. I hope this article inspires you to read 4DX and put it into practice. I’ll share 10 reasons why below.

1. Author Chris McChesney is the real deal. I’ve met him, as you can see in the photo above. I do judge a book by its author, and Chris, Sean Covey and Jim Huling are wonderful human beings who are passionate about helping businesses and individuals improve their practices. Chris is a high energy presenter that captivates audiences with his 4DX message, as you’ll see in two videos I’ll share below.

2. 4DX is ultimately about employee morale, engagement and culture building. Yes, 4DX will help your organization set and achieve goals, which is terrific. But it will also energize and engage your team in your organization’s mission and work.

3. 4DX principles work at any type and any size organization. 4DX was crafted by the team at FranklinCovey by consulting at over 1,500 organizations ranging from large corporations to small nonprofits to government agencies to churches. 4DX will work for your organization.

4. Discipline 1: Focus is a Superpower. 4DX leads in with the discipline of focus. We live in an age of distraction. 4DX is a process that forces you to focus on 1 or 2 “Wildly Important Goals” (or WIGs) at a time. Not 5 goals. Not 10 goals. The law of diminishing returns kicks in and the more goals you try to accomplish, the less you will actual get done. Less is more. WIGs should follow this simple formula: From X to Y by When. You should have a starting line (X), a finish line (Y) and a deadline (When).

5. Discipline 2: Acting on the “lead measures” is a game-changing concept. 4DX details the concept of “lead measures,” which are the actions you need to take to achieve your WIGs. Lead measures are 1. Predictive and 2. Influenceable. Most of us set goals and then incorrectly focus on the “lag measure” which is the WIG. Figuring out and acting on your lead measures will transform the speed and impact of your goal achievement.  Read 4DX to learn about lead measures alone.

6. Discipline 3: People play differently when they are keeping score. 4DX advocates that organizations create a scoreboard to track WIGs and lead measures. They scoreboard should be simple and ideally created by the team. The more creative the scoreboard, the better. You could also track everything in Excel, but that’s sort of boring. :)

7. Discipline 4: Create a cadence of accountability. And be agile. This discipline is magic. Your team working on WIGs should ideally meet weekly. It can be a brief 20 to 30 minute meeting.  During that meeting each team member reports out on what they accomplished on their lead measures the past week and what they are committing to work on during the upcoming week. The beauty of this “WIG session” is that it creates an “agile” goal achieving forum. Agile means that you can make adjustments to your lead measures based on what’s working and what’s not working. The world changes, and you may need to make adjustments to your lead measures as you work toward your WIG.

8. The “Whirlwind” of work/life is the enemy of execution. 4DX acknowledges that one of the biggest challenges to achieving WIGs is that we all have a whirlwind of responsibilities in our daily lives that are necessary to keep our organizations going. The whirlwind never stops. That said, 4DX details strategies for focusing and acting on your WIGs in the midst of the whirlwind.
   
   
9. 4DX works for personal goals too. I personally dropped 20 pounds of weight in 2017 using 4DX. I set a WIG: lose 20 pounds in 2017. But the key to my success was acting on several lead measures and keeping score. Basic lead measures for weight loss are: 1. Diet and 2. Exercise. However, I went deeper on thinking about lead measures and came up with several more, including getting 7+ hours of sleep a night.

10. 4DX has 2 great videos featuring Chris McChesney to give you an overview of the book, which I’ve embedded below. Video #1 is a great 6-minute video. If you have the time, I also highly encourage you to watch video #2, a 48-minute video, which is a terrific overview of the book’s concepts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEJDliThj7g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGpcnEJE1o8

I hope this article has encouraged you to read 4DX! Once you do read it, please come back to this article and post up your thoughts about it in the Comments section below. I’d love to know what you think about it.

If you have already read the book, please share in the Comments section below what you thought about the book. Have you used the concepts of 4DX in your organization or personal life in any way?

Be well!
Mike

How's your Sleep? 12 tips + 2 books = Sweet Dreams!

Sleep is so under valued in our modern era. Sleep is medicine for your body. And lack of sleep can literally kill you. 12 tips below and 2 books will improve your sleep, health and quality of life. 

1. Don't "jet lag" yourself every weekend. Going to bed and waking up at the same time 7 days a week is the #1 thing you can do to improve your sleep. Unfortunately, most of us stay up later on weekends and sleep in later. This literally is creating "jet lag" every Monday morning and potentially for several days into the work week. Change this habit. A consistent sleep schedule is critical.

2. No caffeine after Noon. Caffeine has a "half-life," so it takes up to 8 hours and sometimes more to get out of your system. Only drink caffeine in the morning and ideally not a lot of it. Green tea is a good substitute for higher caffeinated coffee. 

3. Track your sleep on a FitBit, Apple Watch, Garmin etc. I have been tracking my sleep this past year on my FitBit Charge 2 and it has been a game changer. FitBits track the 4 stages of your sleep: REM, Deep, Light and Awake. Seeing these metrics has improved my habits to have a more consistent bed time and try to get more REM and Deep sleep, the 2 critical stages of sleep. 

4. No screen time 1 hour+ before bedtime. The blue light from our smart phones, laptops and TVs cuts into our internal melatonin production, which is critical for getting to sleep. Shut it all down at night. Or get some blue light blocking glasses, if you must. I think being on screens keeps your mind firing too much, so you're not relaxing before bed.

5. No stress before bed. Relax. Stress is really not helpful to getting good sleep. Working before bed can be stressful. Instead talk to your family, read some fiction, take a hot bath or shower, or meditate. Chillax for a good hour+ before bed!

6. See a doctor. Get a sleep study. Sleep apnea can kill you. If you are having serious sleep issues I highly recommend you see a doctor as soon as possible. You might have sleep apnea, which can kill you. Sleep apnea is where you stop breathing hundreds of time during the night, so your brain wakes you up to get you breathing again. This is horrible on your heart and your sleep stages. A doctor and a sleep study can save your life. You might need a CPAP machine. Or, there is a new implant called Inspire that works like a pacemaker for sleep apnea. If you're in the Denver area, UCHealth has some great sleep doctors and an overnight sleep study clinic. Note that most sleep studies are now done in the comfort of your own bed. The clinics will train you on a device to take home, sleep one night, and bring it back. This costs only a few hundred dollars compared to a few thousand dollars for an overnight sleep study in a clinic. Your insurance hopefully will cover both, as needed.

7. Sleeping Pills don't really help you. CBTI does. I've read so much on sleep that I've learned that sleeping pills really don't help you get good quality sleep. They can knock you out like a sedative does, but they often don't allow you to get the nourishing REM and Deep sleep stages.  I am sure there are some scenarios where we do indeed need sleeping pills for a short period of time. But your goal should be to get off sleeping pills and CBTI can help big time.

8. CBTI - Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Insomnia. CBTI is really what you want to embark on if you have sleep issues. This is a process where a doctor will help you inventory all of your sleep habits or your "sleep hygiene." They will work with you to improve these habits and improve your sleep. This is therapy. And it is a beautiful thing. There is no shame in therapy for whatsoever you're working to improve in your life. Therapy works and can save your life.

9. Exercise helps you sleep better. Staying active helps you sleep better at night. Ideally you want to exercise in the morning when you wake up. However, exercising anytime of the day up until early evening is great. You just don't want to exercise late in the evening before bed. This will be counterproductive to your sleep, as your body is heated up.

10. Eating healthy nutritional meals helps sleep. This is pretty self explanatory. Eating too much sugar can spike your insulin, which can affect your sleep. Or eating rich foods that upset your stomach affect your sleep. Eat healthy for a myriad of reasons, with sleep being one. Limit alcohol too, as it can negatively affect your REM sleep.

11. Don't go cheap on your mattress or pillow or sheets. It is worth it to invest in a great mattress, pillow and sheets.  You are spending a third of your life on your bed, and I personally have found that a better mattress indeed helps with better sleep. I currently sleep on a hybrid mattress of memory foam on top and traditional springs on the bottom. I got a terrific deal on this at Mattress Firm, negotiating 25% off retail price. I also found an amazing curved pillow at a Sleep Number store. The nice thing about Mattress Firm and many other stores is that you can test out a mattress for up to 3 months and then return or exchange it if it is not working well for you.

12. Sleep sound machines are great. I have used a fan for white noise for many years. I've tried white noise apps on my phone, but personally haven't found anything great yet. This past year I used a Dohm white noise machine, which was pretty good but it broke. So, I invested a bit more into this Sound+Sleep white noise machine and I am loving it. 

Sleep Smarter by Shawn Stevenson has 21 practical tips to improve your sleep. If you have any sleep issues whatsoever, start with this book. It's terrific. The book expands on many of the tips in this blog post, and has some additional interesting tips such as the importance of getting sunshine on your skin during the day to improve your sleep. 

Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker is a scientific look at the importance of sleep. This book amazed me in every chapter. It explains how lack of sleep literally will kill us.  Protein plaques get built up in our brains during the day and we need sleep to clean out those plaques. If we don't get enough sleep the plaques can build up, which creates significant risk of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other brain related diseases as you age.

Check out this terrific video interview with Shawn Stevenson, author of Sleep Smarter:

https://youtu.be/LERJSdRdeB0

I hope this blog post has been helpful! Please share in the Comments section below any sleep tips or books you would add to this post? Thanks!

Be well,
Mike

p.s. I plan to blog about Work-Life Happiness at least weekly in 2018. I'd be honored if you'd subscribe to my blog's emails on my website at: www.mikepritchard.com/subscribe.html