A Real Gold Medal

Do you know one of life’s most under rated yet critical success factors?

Most people have such a casual approach to this gold medal secret that many of their challenges in life could be remedied, or at the very least, alleviated.

Still have no idea right?  Bet it’s not even on your radar screen.

Sleep.

When was the last time you had a year’s worth of consistently adequate rest?  Most adults require 7-8 hours of sleep per night.  As a student, and teacher of excellence, I confess to focusing hard on this.

I also confess to have had my clock rocked since (traveling to Finland in) August 2009.

Bottom line is, I’ve been struggling for a long time with this.  Having slept for eight hours each of the past three nights has felt like a major accomplishment.  And then this morning, this email article hits the inbox.

Click here to read it if you want a professional opinion on what I just wrote.

Get your sleep, or you’ll be miserable for the rest of your life.

Turn Around Or Keep Going?

Here’s an excerpt from an email I sent yesterday.  It started as a simple note to encourage a friend (purposefully maintaining anonymity), and fellow blogger, who had sent the link below.

Thanks for the tip on the website design link. Book marked http://Flavors.me

I often think that writing for a year has allowed the opportunity to create a vault of content. Which comes first, content or candy?

Anyway, while others fuss about stuff, I simply wake up and write. Closing in on 2,000 posts.  In a year. It’s because the first priority is to write. That’s what a blogger does.  Write.

Over time, people will either like it or not. The blogger then has to decide to continue or quit.

Most quit.

People like people who don’t quit.  People also like people who have big dreams, for the right reasons. People like honest, open, real people.

They also like people who have something to say that makes them laugh or think. I’m not that funny when I write. And those that don’t want to think about what I write are free to move on.

And yet, last month, there were over 15,000 unique visitors and well over 30,000 visits.

Hits (different from visits) and page views are off the chart (between 100,000 – 200,000 monthly). This means, slowly but surely, content trumps candy. If you want to generate more visitors, where do you think you should focus?

PS.  You know why, and who, I write for.  The rest, as they say, is a bonus.

Burning Desire

What is it that is the one thing that will move you to action?

What’s that “hot button” that makes doing what you need to do, no chore at all? The trigger that lights your fire?

I hate to say it, but most people, myself included, don’t have a ready answer.

Once this realization was etched in stone – on my heart and soul – magical things, transformational things, began to happen.

Your clock is ticking. No one wants to admit it, but it is.  The older (and wiser) you become, the clearer this becomes.

The secret is to find your hot button that will unleash your motivation and untether your excuses, your barriers, your worries, your fears, your doubts.

You really do deserve the best life has to offer, but it ain’t gonna fall in your lap.  Ya with me?

Edgy Or What?

Have you noticed it the last few days?

Is it happening to you too? I can’t be the only one.  There has to be a ton of us. A ton who are really impatient as we wait for our economy to turn around. Perhaps the whole world feels this way.

And yet, in our dissatisfaction, the predictable happens.  You already know the answer don’t you?  What happens is what always happens.

Nuthin’.

Nuthin’ happens.

This is why the past few days have been unusually exciting. I’ve come to the realization that this time last year, I was on fire.

And then things started to hum, and by August, jungle jeff, Mid Life Celebration, Lane 8, jeff noel.org and jeff noel.com were cranking out the numbers. (humbly, everything has more than doubled since then)

This led to a feeling of relief, and a feeling of panic.  And both emotions impacted these five daily blogs.

There are some writers and bloggers that write for the numbers, the traffic.

That makes me nauseous. Seriously. I pray that none of these blogs ever become status quo or worry about being mainstream.

But when it does happen (and it will), it won’t be because I caved, but because I pushed and pulled and didn’t accept bull crap excuses for why people have to accept anything but excellence.

And the part of the equation that’ll make it all possible is the core group of you who get it. Who act on it.  Who transform themselves.

And then they’ll start to influence others around them in a transformational way, and this ripple effect is what will make the world a little better before I die.

• Fear
• Uncertainty
• Doubt
• Bull

Yeah, It's Bull....

So the million dollar question is this: “Are you piling it up or cleaning it up?”

Guts?

What do you do to stay ahead as a great leader?  The trends, technology, social media, innovation, results, inspiration, challenges. Most leaders are good at these things.  Some are very good. And a few are excellent.

Which are you? Do you even know if you are a great leader? Most of us aren’t.

In today’s world, we need people with vision and guts. Ya with me?

What do you do to create a visionary wildfire?  What are you willing to risk to see your visionary flames spread?

I’d really like to challenge all you jungle jeff readers to list your top three strategies or tactics. Not to publish in the comments, but just to satisfy your own accountability. Here are mine:

Fanatical focus on my purpose (vision).  Insatiable learning.  Daily risk taking (launch, learn, revise).

PS. If you want to share them, please go ahead.

Linchpin?

Indispensable Linchpin?

Most of you don’t have any idea what this is about, do you?  That’s okay.  That’s where jungle jeff comes in.

You see, in my insatiable quest for business excellence, leadership excellence, customer service excellence, brand loyalty excellence and creative excellence, you can count on jungle jeff to discover the stuff that most people despise, and therefore, are utterly clueless to.

(This makes the linchpin’s job even easier)

You know the stuff – the information, the ideas, the inspiration, the permission, and the actual people doing it differently.

These are the people who can’t stand to listen to “what we’re gonna do”, but are actually the ones who just make up their minds and start doing it – differently, better – with greater reach, greater relevance and greater impact.

There’s a catch here today, or else nothing here matters. The catch is you have to click here to watch this video. It’s like two minutes of conversation about what a linchpin is.

If you don’t know what a linchpin is, you are already behind.  Is today your day to catch up?  To reinforce the obvious?

Did her description sound like who you are, or who you want to be?

Self-Conscious?

The hall mark of quality is consistency.  Seriously.

In world-class customer service, it’s critical to know your audience. My customers are my immediate Family. Our son is the one who is looking for a great role model.

Many professional speakers and business authors, talk a great talk, however, closer inspection would reveal an interesting truth – most teachers are teachers, because, they can not actually do very well at what it is they are teaching.

If they could, wouldn’t they be making their living doing it, instead of teaching it?

And to that end, we should be inspired everyday. We should inspire everyday.  And we should be “walking the talk” everyday.

The harder you work, the luckier you get. And a friend sent this email three days ago:

“It was great to see my mentor/role model yesterday.  You always inspire me.  You mentioned that while you were here at the D.U. you guys were looking at the Leadership content and talking about the importance of a vision.  I found this quote that I wanted to share with my teacher.

“It’s hard to run blindfolded.  You have to see where you’re going in order to be able to get there fast.  The clearer your vision, the faster you can go.”

“Make it a great day!” Part of your language and culture on your many YouTube clips.”

We Are Closer Than You Think

“Social media in all forms are becoming the dominant form of interaction on the Net, whether blogging, Twittering, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Six Pixels of Separation clearly describes this new family of media, offering realistic ways to get involved and productive in a hurry.” — Craig Newmark, founder of Craigs List

Is Disney World Our Hometown?

Living in Central Florida, surrounded by Palm Trees and Sunshine is well, glorious. (That’s just wrong to write something like that in the middle of Winter, isn’t it?)

Alright, let’s try this – living next to Walt Disney World, with all it’s Theme parks, luxurious Disney resorts, stunning landscape, friendly Cast Members, spectacular entertainment, and first class dining is well, glorious.  (Okay, strike two, right?)

Well, last night I began planning today’s work.  It started with a vision for what I need to do today and how well it should be done.

Is there ever a day when we can not worry about delivering exceptional customer service, or as Disney labels it, magical Guest experiences?  No seriously, Disney has a standard where 99 out of 100 is failure. There is never a day where mediocrity is acceptable.  NEVER.

One of the secrets of great leaders is to begin the day’s work the night before.

But you already knew that, right?