Noisy Story Tellers - STOP IT!

**This is a rather frank, bold entry. Let me know your thoughts after reading it. I'm particularly interested in what ways you see yourself reflected in the experience I wrote about.**

We're now one month into the new year. Almost 8.5% of the calendar year is behind us. How are you doing on that New Year Resolution?

Have you kept up the good and challenging work of creating the new, effective habits necessary to get better results this year than last? Or are you back to eating cake, talking smack, procrastinating, avoiding learning that critical new skill, playing your same old tunes being the same old partner, coworker or friend?

By this time most people have settled and slipped back into their comfy old-ways. Habits die hard. Last year's goal-setters and resolution-makers are telling the same tired stories. They are selling the same tired excuses. Are you one of them? I was, if only briefly.

Yesterday I caught myself BS-ing myself and the person I was talking with about why I couldn't get something important done by my self-imposed deadline. Blah blah blah. He had heard it all before, from me and a hundred other people. And he told me so. THAT was a shock! In my face, called on my BS. Ouch.

Thank GOODNESS he did it! Because I couldn't bear becoming one of those noisey story-tellers at Starbucks who spend their time talking about how little time they have instead of spending that small amount of time taking one small step forward.

Don't get me wrong. Life is no constant picnic. Sometimes it's hard. Big goals are hard to reach. Priorities change. Sometimes obstacles are big and real and immovable. But, for most of us, those are not the obstacles we face.

The bigger obstacles we face are in our heads, and in our memories. How nice it would be to forget what we know and start with a clean slate of fresh, optimistic thinking.

If you're one of those Starbucks storytellers - STOP IT! Instead of telling the storied excuses ONE MORE TIME ask your conversation partner to call you on your Bologne and STOP letting you get away with wasting your life and theirs with silly stories that swirl like trash in a parking lot and go nowhere. Make something happen now! Get help figuring out what to do and how to do it. Move ahead. Otherwise your New Year's Resolution can't possibly become anything more than pure fantasy.

Information Overload = Decision Underload

Jeez! I've had it! I am positively and permanently done with feeling overwhelmed by "information." I get too many emails and too much physical junk mail. I get too many industry publications. I subscribe to too many e-zines and e-newsletters. I surf too many websites.

Now, I can't control people making requests for my time. I can't control getting five pieces of direct mail from my insurance company this week alone. I can't control San Diego Chamber of Commerce members putting me on their company direct mail lists.

I I could feel a bit out of control, given all I can't control. But, not anymore. I can control the most important thing that governs whether I feel overwhelmed by information overload: Where I invest my attention.

So, to all you wonderful businesspeople who believe that sending your stuff is good marketing (most marketing money provides no positive return on investment), just know this; I am not paying attention to you anymore. Your emails will be deleted by a secretary. Your direct mail tossed in the trash, no matter how compelling you make the offer. Your "personalized" invitations via telephone will be ignored, too.

To focus on achieving my strategic goals and properly executing the many little step needed to get there I will only pay attention to what I need, not what you need.

In the end, information overload is a problem because of decision underload. Poor individual decisions about where we put our attention cause us to bog down our minds in pools of informational nonsense. No more! Won't you join me? How about doing what I did: Delete YOURSELF from five email lists today. Tell a friend to stop sending his newsletter to you (even if that friend is me. I totally support you in focusing on success.) Stop surfing CNN when you're bored. Focus on what matters most - achieving your strategic goals. Everything else is just noise.

Lack of Poise Costs Charges Superbowl Hopes

Successful execution of most plays in Sunday's playoff game against the New England Patriots could not save the Chargers from the underminining effects of poor decisions at crucial moments. Immaturity and poor critical-moment decisions cost San Diego the game, and a big dream.

It is time for the Charger leadership to put an end to the silly and immature, self-centered and aggressive behavior after great plays are made. Those childish in-your-face who's-yo-mamma antics contributed to the organization's failure to meet its goals. Are the players on the gradeschool playground or are they professionals responsible for consistent high-level execution in a high-stakes professional sport? Those antics are selfish and individualistic when the welfare of the whole should be a player's top concern.

A head butt after a great play, unsportsmanlike conduct, and failing to fall on a fumble instead of trying to pick it up and run with it (perhaps the most Football-101 decision every pee-wee leaguer learns around age 8) are prime examples of poor decisions made by players at the crucial moment during Sunday's game. Maybe too much time is spent on technical skills and not enough on the character of a San Diego Charger player.

Most of the plays the Chargers ran during the day were executed well. But, the mistakes they made were at important times. And, because those mistakes went against the fundamentals and rules of the game, the whole organization paid dearly. May the spectators of San Diego take note: You can dodge the effects of bad decisions only so long before major failure wins. Even our most poised player lost his cool.

San Diego Chargers leadership, in the front office and on the field, should step up and address a major problem with this team: poise. Let's not kid ourselves, good technical execution will only get you so far. Eventually success comes down to character.

Read Less and Do More

I received a monthly book offer for summaries of 32 business books. Each year they promise overviews of 24 of the latest titles plus eight classics. That's 32 book summaries for the year. They encourage me to listen to them all before deciding what book to buy.

There is some wisdom in their offer. They want me to be an educated book buyer. But the thing is, I already have enough to read. I have unread management classics on my shelf right now. Why do I need the latest and greatest?

One answer might be that the lastest is fashionable and to be relevant in current conversations I have to know what it says. Maybe. To be relevant I need to contribute something that helps the company execute better. That doesn't have to come from today's best seller.

Everything we know about learning and expertise development says repetition is one of the most critical behaviors. Pete Samprass didn't need the latest and greatest ideas on hitting a forehand with consistent accuracy and swiftness. He developed a method that fit his body and playing style. Then he practiced it relentlessly, modifying it as needed to the current situation. He didn't need a new approach for every new situation. And, because he kept it simple and practiced like someone determined to be the best, he achieved consistently high results.

Some new books are instant classics. Most aren't. The latest fashionable books won't make us experts. Practice will. For example, research shows that to followers, listening is one of the most supportive leadership behaviors. How many books do you need to learn the fundamentals of listening? One should do. What you need then is practice. An every day, moment to moment deliberate use of the skill.

Rather than try to keep up with the 24 fashionable books, I want the eight classics. But, what I really want is to become a master of the fundamentals. So, I think it makes more sense to find two or three books that rock your world and cover the essentials of your craft and read them three or four times each. Then commit to doing what they teach. Concepts won't make us good. Only practice can do that.