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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Ratgeber
- Sprache: Englisch
An inspiring new exploration of how to maximize your life, your work, and your productivity
In Reclaim the Moment: Seven Strategies to Build A Better Now, internationally recognized speaker and author Greg Bennick delivers a practical and inspiring take on improving focus and enhancing peak performance for individuals and teams. The approach is fun and energetic, offering fresh ideas for generating authentic motivation. In the book, you'll find hands-on advice on how to revitalize and energize both yourself and your team using the author's unique combination of seven time-tested, and thoroughly researched, principles.
From the alluring idea to “Keep Your Eyes on the Knife” as a reminder about the importance of focus, to a call to “Leap Into the Dark” as a guide to explore creative leadership and explore new ideas, to an invitation on “Start a Reverberation Effect™” as a means of amplifying your vision, the book offers solid approaches for peak performance. You'll discover how to strengthen teams, lead with direction, and to escape pessimism and self-doubt as you and the people around you learn to Build a Better Now.
You'll also find:
- Personal and true stories drawn from the author's remarkable life and career
- Evidence-backed insights taken from contemporary sociology, cultural anthropology, and futurist literature
- Strategies to encourage the taking of joyful risks and increasing the amount of laughter and happiness in your life and the lives of the people you encounter
Perfect for executives, managers, directors, and other business leaders, Reclaim The Moment is also a must-read resource for anyone seeking to build genuine inspiration, productivity, and connection in themselves and in the teams they work with.
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Seitenzahl: 438
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024
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Table of Contents
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Preface
Notes
Setting the Stage: Lying to Yourself Is Dangerous
Notes
1 There's a Madness to My Method
Notes
2 A World Changer's Guide to Life
Notes
3 Mickey Mouse, a Thunderstorm, and Anarchy
4 BELIEVE IN THE POSSIBILITY OF KINDNESS to Escape the Trap of Pessimism
Notes
5 KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE KNIFE to Resist the Allure of Distraction
Notes
6 CULTIVATE A REVOLUTIONARY MINDSET to Break Free from the Deception of Defeat
Notes
7 LEAP INTO THE DARK to Embrace the Possibility of Success
Notes
8 ENGAGE WITH LAUGHTER to Connect Amidst the Weight of the World
Notes
9 BUILD RELATIONSHIPS to Outsmart the Dread of Isolation
Notes
10 START A REVERBERATION EFFECT to Build a Better Now
Notes
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Illustrations
Chapter 7
Figure 7.1 The Sine Wave of Creativity
Guide
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Preface
Setting the Stage: Lying to Yourself Is Dangerous
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Index
End User License Agreement
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Praise for Reclaim the Moment
“Greg's perspectives on focus are essential for a world in which we are pulled in every possible direction.”
—Jocelyn Hamilton,President, Marco Ophthalmic
“Edgy and incisive and full of ideas and insights, Reclaim the Moment is a roadmap for those looking to improve their business and their life.”
—Joseph C. Davis,Managing Director and Senior Partner, Boston Consulting Group
“In the thirty years that I've known Greg and his work, he has always inspired with both rapid-fire intellect and deep laughter.”
—Richard Birkenhead,Partner / Creative Director, DBOX
“Our business is rooted in solid relationships. Greg gets it. He offers ideas to strengthen true connections.”
—Brian Kendrella,President, Stacks Bowers Galleries
“Whether he is singing in a punk band, giving an inspiring keynote address, or sharing his accumulated insights in this book, Greg Bennick's passion for growth and change is infectious. With wisdom and grace, humor and vulnerability, Greg shows how what we do matters and how our lives can matter even more. Staying true to ourselves, developing focus and creativity, and cultivating compassion for self and others helps us build a better now. Through gripping storytelling informed by insights from philosophy, sociology, psychology, and literature, Greg moves us from pessimism to possibility, ready to take the risks necessary that lead to more intentional, fulfilling lives.”
—Ross Haenfler,author and Professor of Sociology, Grinnell College
“Reclaim the Moment is a masterclass in balancing life's seriousness with its lighter side. Greg Bennick, a former punk rocker and current juggler—because why not?—brings his humor to every page, turning deceptively profound insights into fun, and often funny, lessons. If you're looking to improve your focus, leadership, and overall outlook on life, this book offers the perfect mix of strategies and smiles. A truly inspiring and entertaining read!”
– Bill Stainton,29-time Emmy Award winner, CSP, CPAE
“Building, cultivating, and retaining a cohesive team takes commitment and focus, and a clear plan that's actionable. Greg's book is full of tools that can be used by leaders to further develop themselves and their teams to be their best.”
—Shelley R. Schoenfeld,Chief Marketing and Client Services Officer, GoMo Health
“Greg Bennick has had a big life, from fronting a punk rock band to keynoting and juggling knives on stages across the world. In Reclaim the Moment, he brings his distinctive, gifted voice as well as his decades of experience entertaining, uplifting, and learning from people globally to some of our most impactful everyday concerns: productivity, connection, and focus. This book offers innovative insights for new ways to understand how creation is powerful, strategies for how we can turn mistakes into wins, and tangible approaches to how we can build a better now for ourselves and our organizations. It is an unforgettable, joyful, and indispensable read for anyone striving for more powerful human connection in our always-on world.”
—Dr. Heather Ashley Hayes,Assistant Professor of Communication and Information Sciences, University of Alabama
“Greg Bennick's powerful book Reclaim the Moment was a wakeup call. What I found in this page turner was a thought blueprint for personal introspection and intentionality. Reclaim the Moment is a marvelous book, one you didn't know you needed to read—but you do.”
—David Avrin, CSP, GSF,author of Ridiculously Easy to Do Business With (2024 Classified Press)
“Knowing Greg's ability to energize and connect with an audience intellectually and emotionally like few can, it's not a surprise that Reclaim the Moment is cannon fire from the soul. This book is the product of that personal journey and is essential for galvanizing one's own experience.”
—Mike Gitter,Music Executive/xXx Fanzine 1983–1988
“Bennick's strategies and tactics will get you back on track when the world throws you off course.”
—Shep Hyken,CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author
GREG BENNICK
RECLAIM THE MOMENT
7 STRATEGIES TO BUILD A BETTER NOW
Copyright © 2024 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved, including rights for text and data mining and training of artificial technologies or similar technologies.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.Published simultaneously in Canada.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 750-4470, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permission.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Names: Bennick, Greg, author.
Title: Reclaim the moment : seven strategies to build a better now / Greg Bennick.
Description: Hoboken, New Jersey : Wiley, [2024] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2024013147 (print) | LCCN 2024013148 (ebook) | ISBN 9781394247684 (hardback) | ISBN 9781394247707 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781394247714 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Organizational effectiveness. | Organizational change. | Teams in the workplace. | Leadership.
Classification: LCC HD58.9 .B449 2024 (print) | LCC HD58.9 (ebook) | DDC 658.4—dc23/eng/20240418
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024013147
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024013148
Cover Design: Paul McCarthy
To my parents, Dian and David, for a lifetime of unconditional love and for always believing in me.
Preface
THIS BOOK IS about amplifying your life, regaining your focus, and transforming your world.
Note that I said your world. Not the world. When we think of trying to transform the world, it might be romantic and exciting, even awe-inspiring. But it is largely unrealistic. Existential writer Franz Kafka made this clear when he wrote if it's you against the world, bet on the world.1
Perhaps not the most inspiring sentiment, but what he wrote makes sense. You, versus the entire world, doesn't offer the best odds. This doesn't mean giving up trying to make improvements to where you work or how you live. But it does mean thinking in terms of better rather than perfect, and working in stages toward making the improvements you want to manifest. This mindset is the think global, act local of personal and organizational development.
Taking care of your world is more accessible and easier to define. It is a world that you have ownership of, and for which you hold responsibility. We are developers and designers of our lives and contributors to the lives of those around us. Your world is where you work, create, and expand. You have a vested self-interest in keeping your world in order, and helping it grow.
To reclaim the moment is to regain your focus from a place of feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or underdeveloped, all of which are too common today. These ideas are about getting back on track.
If you're reading this book, it means that you care about growth and expansion. You consider where other people and their psychological well-being fit into that process. It means that you want things to be better in your business, your potential, and your outlook.
To take care of your world includes stewardship over your projects and approaches to them, and having a willingness to risk, shift, and change in order to improve the things you want to be better. It means embracing discipline and putting in a little (or more than a little) extra effort so that your relationships, potential for leadership, clarity, and pathways to the future can be better than they are today.
Because let's be realistic, while we want improvement and stronger connections, it is often easy to lose faith in possibility, especially these days. In the last few years life has often felt out of control. Socially, we are forging new norms at a feverish pace. Our desire for success outpaces our stamina. Frustration feels like it is increasing. Our world seems more selfish and, at times, even mean. We are pitted between what we want and a social framework that leaves us behind even as it drags us forward. Self-esteem is in a battle on many fronts, including our online identities, which both are, and are not, who we are. People feel disconnected – ironic in a digital world. We seem intensely ego-driven and ruthless in our judgment of one another. We are overwhelmed with input. We are too greedy and shortsighted. We feel stressed, disoriented, ineffective, and unsure.
These aren't trends with limited effects. Globally, the planet is suffering, and I'm referring to the literal earth. We take out our rage on where we live, because we aren't wise enough to think about the consequences of our actions and reactions. Our selfishness has real effects. In case you're someone who doesn't believe in science, here's a quick news update: the warming of the earth and the effects on its health are real.2 Have you noticed more people mentioning that the weather in their city wasn't as hot years ago, or that there was less rain, more rain, or noticeable changes having taken place over time? Anyone notice that summers these days always seem to include wildfires? I certainly have.
The effects on us aren't just that we are hotter in the summer or colder in the winter. Everything ties in and around itself. The changes we are experiencing affect our emotional and psychological health. They influence customer behaviors, too. We feel the impacts of retail shifts due to disruptions in supply chains and changes in energy sources. Emotional imbalances, social unrest, and environmental upheaval intertwine and the trickle down from this is becoming a flood. Our shortsightedness and disconnection from ourselves and our loss of focus, both in business and in life, is extending beyond our capability to manage. This leads to even more arguments and upheaval, and the cycle begins again. Things feel, to say the least, a bit out of control.
My mind often slips into hopelessness.
In January 2024, as I was finalizing the edits to this book, I took a month off in Thailand to recenter after I finished the first 99 percent or so of the text. I was in need of experiences rooted in compassion, as focus and clarity often accompany them.
I spent ten days between Malaysia and Myanmar in the Andaman Sea, living on a scuba boat with a predominately Thai crew, and spending a good part of each day in the water and under the surface. Scuba is like deep meditation, plus fish. In the water, a world within our world offered lessons in focus and reflection that supported the ideas in this book.
While the reefs I saw were vibrant, I was told that they were no longer as vibrant as they had been. The water was getting warmer evidently, year after year. The new temperature levels were impacting life under the surface. The dive leader, who had been diving the waters for decades, commented that in addition to the impact the climate has on the ocean, people wanting selfies underwater were disregarding the natural landscape. Coral is often kicked and broken and sea life is disrupted so that people can get that perfect photo under the surface. He was seeing a lack of focus amidst tourists, a self-centeredness and vanity. It was a priority shift that was having wide-ranging effects. I started thinking that the world might be out of balance, but people's imbalances were driving that. The impact was real.
We spoke on the boat one night as the sun was setting over the horizon. “The world is doomed,” he said. He added, “The only hope is that it wipes us clean and starts again with a new kind of human.”
I sat by myself on the deck under the stars after he went to bed and thought about that for a good long while. A new kind of human. What would a new kind of human look like, sound like, or act like? How would a new kind of leader lead? What would a new kind of communicator say? What could a new kind of teammate contribute?
I realized that I don't agree that the only hope for the future is that humans are wiped clean. For if that is the case, then why write books in the first place, or become better leaders or communicators, or wake up in the morning, or eat vegan coconut ice cream, or love our kids and partners, or do most anything?
The work to transform our world starts with humans. It doesn't end with them. We need a ramping up of what it means to be human, not a diminishment of it.
It struck me that this is the world as it is. We have built it up, we have fouled it up, and we have done so not just in terms of nature or kicking coral. Our way of treating one another is out of line. Our systems are off balance and off course. Our selfishness and greed are utterly ridiculous. The wreckage of humanity, both psychological and physical, has been strewn across the land, and an hour of desperation is at hand. We have reached a point of reckoning. Our inching toward accepting meanness and cruelty without judgment and our propensity for, and acceptance of, violence has begun to spin out of control and has led us off the proverbial rails. Our lack of focus and our acceptance of it as normal has started to shift us in ways that are off course from where we could be if we worked to shift back to center. We need to get back on track in many ways.
Our ability to be managers of people, effective teammates, inspirers to others, and supporters to them has taken a serious hit. We have so much to learn about focus, leadership, communication, teamwork, ambition, compassion, and our own potential. We have given in to our base desires without consideration for the impact that they have on others.
My friend's words were a deep condemnation, rooted in despair to a certain degree. But the ocean gives all sorts of lessons. One of them is about space and how one might experience it. Amidst vastness, what is one's place in it? What can you affect and change when the world is so immense?
If it's you against the world …
As I sat on the deck of the boat, looking out over the Andaman Sea, with 360 degrees of horizon around me, and immensity on a seemingly incalculable scale, I realized that we can either believe we are doomed and hopeless because we decide that the issues we are facing at work or in life are too overwhelming … or we can get active and creative about how we treat both our world and others in it. We can try new things, do some deeper self-work, and hear some new perspectives. We can move beyond however we've gone astray and commit to being better. We can regain our focus. We can reclaim this moment.
We can decide to build a better now, and from there build the future that we want and need.
With that in mind, in these pages we will be committing to the idea that change for ourselves and the systems we have developed is indeed possible. Opportunities abound for our experiences to get better.
Thomas Hardy, in a celebrated poem called “In Tenebris II,” described a path toward a future that requires asking hard questions. He said that “if a way to the Better there be, it exacts a full look at the Worst.”3 Translation: if we want to build a better future, we have to build a better now, and we need to take a hard look at what's wrong first and foremost.
Solutions, or a determined shift in direction, start with looking deeply at situations, standards, and systems that need to change. That look at the worst while hoping for better can lead us to what we want to improve. It starts with not being satisfied with what is, and from there, wanting something more.
When people ask me what I speak about, I often say I offer strategies for increased focus and peak performance. But it's more than that. I speak about creative strategies for world changers who want to make solid advancements and operate at a peak level.
This is a book for those who want to build better systems, better businesses, better mindsets, and better selves. It is for those who want to take care of themselves and their team, and ultimately, to not give up, and instead to embrace hope and explore the possibility of change.
This book is ultimately for those willing to do the work to be that new kind of human.
Notes
1
Franz Kafka, “The Zürau Aphorisms,”
The Aphorisms of Franz Kafka
, ed. Reiner Stach (Princeton University Press, 2022), 106. Translated from the German, “Im Kampf zwischen Dir und der Welt sekundiere dir Welt,” or “In the battle between you and the world, second the world.”
2
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,
Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment
(Cambridge University Press), 37–118,
https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/chapter/technical-summary/
(accessed March 2024).
3
Thomas Hardy,
The Complete Works of Thomas Hardy
(Prometheus Classics, 2019).
Setting the Stage: Lying to Yourself Is Dangerous
“You can’t fight what gives you life. That’s treason.”1
– Naked Raygun, “Treason”
WRITING THIS BOOK almost killed me.
That's not a statement about my work ethic, which wavers between laser-focused and distracted by everything. It's a literal statement about me, in the early process of figuring out how to write this book, almost becoming actually dead. Good times.
I seem to have a habit of getting hit by cars. I wouldn't recommend it. There are countless other hobbies you might like better, from coin collecting to baking. But for a while I was seemingly really good at being in the exactly wrong place at the exactly wrong time.
To be clear, not getting hit by a car is actually very easy. I could draw you a diagram, but instead I will just describe it simply: When a car is coming at you, gently step approximately 3 feet to your left or your right of the car. Your choice. You can't go wrong either way. The idea is to let the car pass without directly impacting your body and causing you to be seriously wounded or dead. It is simple in theory. At least it is for most people.
It was my fault really, looking back. Strange things happen when we aren't honest with ourselves. Have you ever gotten off track because of a lack of focus, and then only later realized just how far you'd strayed? This is happening more and more, everywhere I look. I can definitely relate, because a few years ago I was so off track that I decided I wanted to compromise my ideals and totally sell out.
That's not something I do. In retrospect, how I came to that decision makes sense in a way, even if it was a terrible idea and completely went against everything I believed in. The world has a way of piling on influences and ideas until we can barely navigate which come from within, and which have been thrust upon us from elsewhere. The cumulative effect of this mayhem is that we end up completely discombobulated and making bad choices, disconnected from what we truly want. Choices about career, desires, partners, what we eat, and where we put our attention all get affected. And more.
It often isn't even major turning points that cause the shifts in course. All it takes is having an unstable base, and then even small influences, little tweaks to our minds, maybe the slightest allure or suggestion, and a cascade or domino effect begins, which has much larger impact later.
We are like sponges with the potential to absorb the worst of everything. For me, when I ignore my heart and listen too much to what people say instead of what I might tell myself, I end up spiraling out of control like Darth Vader (spoiler alert) as he spins away at the end of Star Wars. Once down that path for long enough, I find myself already deeply committed to goals that don't make any sense. It is as if that mode of being off track becomes my new reality, one that I never wanted in the first place, and it becomes so normal itself that I don't even question it.
Losing focus impacts possibility and negatively influences your now…
I find at times that I become influenced by too many different angles, and too many different voices, telling me that this little decision or that one is right. Once I am past a particular fork in the road, something else convinces me that this way or that way is best. Eventually I am miles away from center, having made wrong decisions at half a dozen forks and listened to everyone other than myself. I am on the other side of the map, and I didn't even want to be on this particular road in the first place.
Focus is a challenge when everything is massively appealing, or made to look like it is.
At the time of my (almost) selling out, the world had presented itself to me in the form of other people's successes. It seemed to me that people – I wasn't exactly sure who, but it felt like everyone except me – were making a lot of money and I wasn't. That's easy to think all the time when everyone online looks so cool and has so many toys and vacations and all the right everything, and you still have last year's phone model. You know, the one with the camera that has one less lens than the camera on your friend's phone? How embarrassing.
At the time, algorithms had placed an idea in front of me, making it seem that there was an easy solution. The algorithms do that. They figure out what you don't want and can't really afford, and then present it to you in such overwhelming and insidious ways that you can't help but want it, or want to buy it.2 And you will do anything to get it.
For me, the algorithm gods had decided that I should write a self-help book.
The self-help concept is rooted in the idea that we are attracted to people who seem to have more than we do or who know more than we do. When somebody who seems to be in perfect condition and has an unbeatable process for being a human being describes that experience to us, it is no wonder that we immediately are attracted to them and want to be like them. Thus, the self-help industry, thus the profit margins.
I think that was the allure for me, both to be perceived of as having my life together and to reap the benefits of that facade. This, even though decades ago I wrote on my band's well-known record (at least in our small subset of a particular microcosm in the punk world) that “I am incomplete, damaged and imperfect. This world is not divided between saints and sinners. Forgive me for being human.”3 The point of the lyric was to invite the idea that we can all have flaws and still be very much alive, and thriving, regardless.
Self-help relies on a constant longing, wanting, never getting, overextending, and looking outside of oneself. It demands that I always feel that I am less than, that you have something I want, and – because I am not willing to literally steal it from you – that I have to follow and worship you to acquire some version of it for myself. Self-help is the ultimate profit-yielding manifestation of knowing that there are people coveting thy neighbor's stuff that we've been warned about for the last few thousand years in a globally successful work by another publisher.
I started to notice self-help books everywhere. You know how it goes. When you get something in your mind, even something seemingly inconsequential, you start to see it all over the place.
Believe in the Possibility of Kindness
Be kind with yourself and with those around you.
Say yes in your mind before you say no.
Know that kindness is up to you.
Around that time, I went to Southern California for a vacation. I mentioned to a friend there that I wanted to cash in and sell out. It was like I had momentarily, completely, thoroughly lost my mind. In this moment, all I could think of was money and buying airplanes and eating off of plates made of gold. I figured writing that kind of book would be the way to do it.
It was like someone buying a guitar expecting that the next day they will be asked to join Metallica. And that this would happen not because they have brilliant abilities for music inside them and are worthy of the role but because they dream of being onstage listening to all of the cheering. It's the question I was asked when I decided to go to acting school in my early twenties: Do I see myself in the theatre or do I see the theatre within myself? Chasing a payday is backward. It is never the way to create or to operate. History is filled with stories of individuals who had their careers thrown off track or destroyed as a result of chasing success down that errant path. Creative process and developmental process for business have to be rooted in deeper values than just profit.
I am not sure exactly what inspired me with the idea of writing that kind of book. It definitely wasn't motivated by any authenticity or connected to a sense of purpose as the book you're reading/listening to in this moment. At the time, I didn't care what my book would be about. It didn't matter that the content meant anything to me, or for that matter that it meant anything to anyone else – the goal was simply to fill my pockets deeply with unfathomable riches.
What a terrible idea. To position myself as someone with problems solved rather than more genuinely as someone who is a work in process like anyone else. But at the time, my perspectives and perceptions were skewed.
It is no surprise then that my friend looked at me quizzically when I brought up this idea. Selling out had never been my path, and he knew that. The very idea had caught him off guard, and he immediately asked me a critical question: “Have you ever actually even read a self-help book?”
I had to admit that I hadn't. He wisely suggested that I go to a local bookstore to have a look at some in order to see what they were all about. I think in retrospect he was trying to dissuade me by having me realize for myself, once I got to the store, that the entire genre often feels like chewing a giant piece of flavorless gum. Without a doubt, there are some incredible self-help books, but that's not what I was necessarily looking for. I was looking for the easiest one I could emulate.
The thing is, I misread the moment and took my friend's suggestion as encouragement, and off I went to the local Borders Books, may they rest in peace.
I walked into the bookstore and felt unusual from the start. It was like I didn't belong. It wasn't because I don't like books, but rather because I was there for suspicious reasons. I wasn't there to honor books. I was there to undermine them. Books are the repository of our knowledge and are to be respected. Amidst glowing rectangles on our wrists, desks, and in our pockets and cars, books offer very tactile, enduring, and powerful experiences. They are a force of their own.
But I was there not for the force. I was there to add to the proverbial dark side.
I had a sneaking suspicion that I was in the wrong place and on the wrong path, but I chose to ignore that faint but clear voice, which is never a good idea. After all, I was there to cash in, not think. I walked up to the cashier's desk in the front of the store and asked the woman behind the counter where the self-help section was. She pointed and offered a half smile, as if she could see right through me. Or maybe she just hated her job. Either way, I followed her directions directly across the store to where an entire wall of self-help books awaited.
I'd seen this particular wall from the outside of the store many times. You see, the highway through Mission Viejo, California, I-5 south, runs right along and above where this bookstore was situated. As one drives south on the highway, you can see the bookstore down below beneath the road to your right, at the bottom of a steep embankment. It was as if the bookstore was in a little valley, nestled seventy feet down on the valley floor and up against the road. It was strange to be inside the store now, on this side of the wall, and on this particular errand.
Keep Your Eyes on the Knife
Focus your attention on the one thing that is the most mission-critical.
Distractions will always be there, increasingly so as time goes on.
Your productivity is connected to your ability to prioritize.
I walked over to the self-help wall and sat down in front of it. I had a 180-degree view of books. I sat cross-legged and looked up at the sea of help and realized that any problem I might have faced in that moment had a solution within arm's reach. Too much to eat? Solved. No one to love? Solved. Not enough friends? Solved. It was a one-stop cure-all, we've got all the answers and you don't, social club. And I not only wanted a ticket to get in, I wanted the club to be renamed after me.
I noticed a book by Tony Robbins. Well, that was a familiar name. He'd definitely been successful in inspiring people and as a result, manifesting piles of money. I pulled the book off the shelf and started to flip through it. I wasn't even sure what I was looking for. Perhaps a wink directly from Tony in the margins that said, “Hey buddy. It's me. Do exactly what I did and we will race yachts together soon.” There was nothing of the sort. I didn't even consider that maybe Tony actually had something really valuable to say, as he actually does for countless people. As I flipped through the book, I found myself thinking, “What am I doing here?” I pondered that question for a few moments as I put the book back on the shelf.
I decided to shift a few feet to my left and reposition myself along the wall. There I saw a book jumping out at me: 50 Self Help Classics. I picked it off the shelf, and realized that it not only had Tony Robbins, but forty-nine other gurus who were ready to tell me how I had to be living my life. Maybe, I thought, this fifty-pack of experts was a better deal financially on a dollar per book or dollar per guru basis. I sat there for a moment and thought about it.
And then there was an explosion.
In an instant I was covered in a pile of books and shelves, choking on dust and totally disoriented. I couldn't see and couldn't breathe, from what I thought at first was chemical warfare, or maybe something worse. I turned to my right and saw through the dust that the entire wall had exploded.
My first thought was a terrorist attack, perhaps perpetrated by someone who hated sellouts and who therefore had specifically targeted me. My second thought was that I knew Tony Robbins was powerful but that this was ridiculous.
To say that there was an explosion isn't even loud enough. I had no idea what had happened. After a few moments of coughing from the dust (third thought: “Asbestos, I'm dying early now. Thanks, Borders Books.”), I rolled over and got up and looked back at the self-help wall. Just a few feet away, almost exactly where I had been sitting when I took the first Tony book into my hands, I saw something that didn't quite make sense.
Rather than seeing a wall of books each telling me how my life would be so much better for $29.95, there was the front end of a pickup truck where the bookshelves had been. It was thrust through the wall and was halfway into the bookstore. Yes, you read that correctly.
Bookstores can be hazardous to your health.
We pieced together later, that evidently the truck's driver had lost control on the highway and had careened over that embankment at seventy miles per hour and flown down the hill, crashing through the wall of the bookstore exactly where I had been sitting. Had I still been looking at that first book by Tony Robbins and thinking through all the ways that I could make my billions inauthentically with him as my guru and guide, I would have caught that truck right in the face.
I stood up, and as I did, I heard the driver say, “I'm alright. I'm alright.”
His reassurance aside, he had actually not been my first concern. Fortunately, no one else in the bookstore was injured, either. The driver was later found to not be intoxicated, and thankfully, also was not terribly wounded. He had a broken nose and a broken leg, but otherwise was fine. As I stood there in that first moment, listening to him call out from inside the truck and let shoppers know that he was fine, I reflected on the moment, ears still ringing, confusion reigning supreme, with Tony Robbins and his forty-nine friends clutched in my hand.
The entire situation was bizarre but what I did next fully enhanced the weirdness. Logic would dictate that I should have dropped the book and gotten out of the store immediately.
Instead, without thinking, I took the book and walked across the room to the cashier I'd spoken to when I'd first walked in. I looked at her blankly. She looked at me blankly. She was completely in shock and staring over my shoulder at the truck that was sticking through the wall of her store. I said to her calmly, “Hello.” She replied, emotionless, “Hello.” I said, “I'd like to buy this book, please.” And she replied, “OK.” I might have been a bit in shock. The cashier rang me up like an automaton.
Cultivate a Revolutionary Mindset
See defeat as simply the next step of your process.
Imagine possibilities at every turn even if they require breaking the rules.
A revolutionary thinker considers options that are new, unusual, and challenging.
I walked out into the parking lot with my new purchase. Once outside, I called my dear friend, former professor, and life mentor John Wilson. John is the greatest genius you've never heard of. John is the one I turn to when I need to make sense of the world or something unexplainable going on in it.
Case in point, a year prior in Laguna Beach, California, while trying to catch up to someone I was way overextending emotionally to reach, I'd been almost run over when a car screeched to a halt. I'd rolled up onto and over the hood while passersby screamed, and fell into the street. Thankfully, I was largely uninjured except for a sore back, a weird hip, a partially damaged ego, and some pain in my heart. At the time of that accident, I had called John too once I was released from the hospital. John had a bit of sympathy, but he'd also rightly criticized me for going against my better judgment and against myself and literally running after someone across a busy street filled with cars. Smart, that John.
As I stood there covered in bookstore dust, he listened closely to every detail of my story. He didn't say a word. Once I was finished, I heard him take a slow deep breath. I knew I was about to get my head handed to me.
“Let me get this straight,” he said. “Last year you were lying to yourself about your relationship with someone and a car ran into you. And tonight, you were about to lie to the world about who you are, and while you were inside a bookstore, a truck almost ran you over?”
I reflected for a moment and said, “Yeah. That's about right.”
John said, “Greg, you'd better renegotiate your deal with the universe.”
I knew exactly what he meant.
Leap Into the Dark
Get started today on the thing that seems impossible.
We might not yet see the end, but we'll never get there without a first step.
Dive fully into the Creative Sine Wave.
He was talking about being myself and approaching the universe with integrity. This, instead of trying to be something I'm not. He was talking about getting my head together and working to reverse my course before I got too far off balance. He was warning me about being on a trajectory I didn't want to be on, and desiring things I didn't really want, in order to acquire a sense of satisfaction that wasn't going to materialize.
You can sink your teeth into whatever vision you want, but if it is insincere, the universe always bites back.
I told John that from this moment forward I would renegotiate the deal. I told him I would rework how I approach the precious few moments in my life I have. I would get serious about focus. I would redefine the potential I enjoy to live fully before I disappear from this mortal coil into the ether.
Well, that's what I thought at least. What I actually said was, “You're right.”
John agreed with this, reminding me that the less I am honest with myself and the less I value the time I have in the world and how I approach the moments in my life, the more the universe would send me warnings to stop doing exactly that. And given that these warnings were in the form of cars, he politely suggested that it was in my best interest to start listening.
We hung up. I brushed as much dust as I could from myself. I looked down at the book in my hands, a book that remains unopened to this day, but which I still own. I have it framed on the wall. It is a symbol first and foremost, after all.
It's a symbol of me being completely disconnected and off center. Of being inauthentic. It's a symbol of being dishonest with myself and a reminder about where that can lead. It's a symbol of how important it is for me, for us, to stay true to what we want, to our vision, and how in a moment, we could lose it all.
I realized that when we are off track, and spiraling out of control, we need to center ourselves and reclaim the moment before we become too far lost and lose sight of our goals, or worse. We can transform and elevate but only when we make these moves with integrity.
Imagine living as if every moment matters, because it does…
We want something more. We can feel disillusioned, overwhelmed, off center at times, and confused. We are often unable to navigate the maelstrom that the world and society have placed before us and thrown us into. Of course, “the world” and “society” is us. We have contributed to and participated in the chaos we are trying now so hard to navigate. That's part of a double bind. It is when two opposites exist at the same time, and in this case was the path of doing one thing while contributing to the opposite of it. That's what happens when we are off center, like my mission to the bookstore, and we ignore the voice in our minds which says, “Stop. Go back. Turn a different way.”
To want something more and to go after it requires reclaiming the moment from the double bind. If we want to build a better now, for ourselves or for anyone else, it starts with techniques and strategies that can bring us back to center when we have been thrown, or more accurately, when we have thrown ourselves, off course. Being able to envision what we want is one thing, but being able to take steps toward it requires being grounded first. These strategies can help.
I shook the dust off and I started living the rest of my life. I thought about how I could remind myself about what I really wanted even when allure was everywhere. I started thinking about how I could bring myself back to center when I'd spiraled away from where I knew I wanted and needed to be.
When our foundation is centered, we can make solid choices and create the reality we want from there. For me, it often starts with patience with myself, and then coming up with words to reframe my position. Our words create the world, bringing into reality abstract ideas that otherwise would jumble around in our heads without form or direction. So, for example, why wouldn't we aim toward clarity as a baseline and once we have that established, move forward from there. The strategies in this book can help us take that first solid step.
Imagine an archer aiming for a target. Now imagine that same archer aiming for a target while their friend is tickling them, and someone else is throwing paper balls at their head. Life sometimes feels like that with too much happening at once. These strategies help keep that arrow pointed at the target amidst the distractions and give our intentions the best possible shot at a bullseye. Our ideas and inspirations matter, and yet they are likely to miss the target entirely when we ourselves aren't grounded in this moment.
Now, instead of pursuing self-help gurus, when I am feeling discombobulated, I use the strategies in this book to get back on track.
Engage with Laughter
Laughter is a tool you can use to uplift yourself and those around you.
Think of laughter as fuel for productivity.
A shared laugh will drive your team forward.
From that moment forward, I took John's advice. I renegotiated my relationship to being more sincere with myself, and to rediscovering focus and intention in order to refine my direction and my now. We all could benefit from doing that.
Since then, I have paid very close attention to the people in my life from whom I draw inspiration in terms of what they do, and more importantly how they do it. The thought leaders, creatives, and businesspeople. There is an entire network of them. More often than not, their success comes by way of their integrity and devotion to ideas. They are clear about what they are doing. They aren't wandering into bookstores trying to be something they are not. They spend their time doing things that are aligned with who they actually are.
I'd like to share two examples of that integrity: one from a business that has seen exponential growth, and one from an extremely successful journalist/writer.
Overcast Merch Inc. (https://overcastmerch.com/) started small. My friend Wolfe Bailey started the company as a T-shirt screen printing company, operating in the basement of his rented home in Seattle, Washington. Shortly afterward, my other friend Andrew Doyle relocated to Seattle and they became a two-man operation. They had synergy and were a perfect combination.
Their mindset about business was determined by a pact they made with themselves to serve their clients first and foremost with integrity. The approach was simple and direct: Provide excellent quality, at good prices, with good customer service. This bucked the traditional concept that when choosing between quality and price and service, one can choose only two of the three. Bailey and Doyle worked on all three fronts, choosing to work with people they liked, and doing so honestly and fairly.
They faced issues as the popularity of the company grew. How could they provide for the number of clients who were attracted to that triumvirate of quality, price, and service? Would they sell themselves out or stay true to their ideals?
They had to take some massive risks and expand. They moved to Southern California, and began a process of expansion, utilizing new decoration methods, and expanding their services, offerings, and hiring to make up for the demands on their time. But they stayed true to their values.
After a decade, Overcast has grown to a massive operation, employing 100+ full-time employees with offices stretched across the United States, Canada, throughout Mexico and the United Kingdom. They serve major touring bands with a global footprint. Overcast has set up production and eCommerce solutions across the world. National and regional companies as well as countless small businesses print merchandise and hard goods of all kinds with Overcast.
When I asked Bailey how he grew and about his approaches to business and integrity, he said:
“I've learned a lot over the years, far more than I could have ever imagined. The journey started from the idea of printing some tees in my basement for both my friends’ bands and at the time mine. This seemed like a “good enough” deciding factor for starting a print shop. All of it has far surpassed any idea, goal, thought or desire I could have possibly dreamed of. In the beginning I didn't have a clear idea of what Overcast was to be. I knew I wanted to continue to work in music, and I had always enjoyed a challenge. I “knew” a multitude of reasons that I wanted to do the shop in some sort of capacity but it took time to find our groove, and to really be able to dissect what the DNA of what Overcast was, who we are and what defined us as a company. During those years and as time went on you are quick to learn that you can do worlds more together. We partnered with another shop, owned by Sam Liskey, and we aim to learn the uniqueness of each client we serve and cater to individually through the lens of a partnership – not just as a company that printed some shirts and says let me know when you need more.”
Their company grew immensely because they stayed true to their ideas and their ideals. They didn't try to sell themselves out. If you keep your integrity intact, even as you grow in business, people will be attracted to you like a magnet. That's way better than cars being attracted to you like a magnet. Overcast Design and Print is proof of that pathway to success.
Let's switch gears to a different successful friend.
I first met national security reporter and journalist Spencer Ackerman when he was just a teenager. I was only a handful of years older, on tour with my band Trial, and Spencer would come to our shows in the New Jersey area. While the band members from the touring bands would stand around after the shows talking about politics, Spencer would approach and interject his ideas into the conversations. At first, we wondered who the upstart young kid was. Then quickly we realized that everything this upstart said was always more astute, insightful, and wise than anything we had to offer. By far.
