Momentous occasion!!

The new and improved Natural Professional website is up!

I am soooo happy. And for more reasons than it 1) looks Super Duper, and 2) makes me smile ear to ear.

Namely, investing in this site represents my recent 100% commitment to the Natural Professional (NP), which is no small thing, I assure you.

Looking to the Project Simplify archives, the first article about the NP was back in July 2008. Three and a half years ago??!?!

Wow, it’s taken that long to fully embrace this concept? Considering that I’ve known this is my destiny, that almost hurts… but hey, timing is what it is and who am I to question the mysterious ways of the Universe?

Let’s just get back to partying with excessive exclamation points and effusive gratitude, eh? =)

A big shout out of Thank You!! to Lisa Wood of Sprout New Media for the fresh design and amazingly speedy turn-around. This woman knows how to make it happen.

In addition to the About page for what this site is all about, check out Continuing the Journey for the big vision leading the charge.

I hope you love the new site and infusion of energy into the Natural Professional. We are going to be making serious waves in unexpected ways!

XO

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Photo credit:
Fireworks – 5th November 2011 by Dark Dwarf

Are you ready for an entrepreneurial revolution that’s fueled by you expressing your beautifully authentic self?

No more playing small. No more Should Gremlins cramping your style. No more waiting for your time to come–it’s here.

In other words…

Are you ready for the era of the Natural Professional?

If you want to:

• realize crazy amazing success in more dimensions than you ever thought possible,
• streamline your efforts to kick butt in the world and stay in a delicious space, and
• be a part of creating a new work ethic

…then you’ll be ready for the big change that’s coming up.

Big, BIG NEWS

New year, new direction: I’m closing the chapter that has been Project Simplify and will be devoting my efforts to developing the Natural Professional.

This may come as a big surprise (unless, of course, you read the most recent newsletter!), but it makes perfect sense. Check it out:

For a few years now, I’ve been flirting with the Natural Professional concept. In my heart, I’ve known that bringing it to the world is where my destiny’s been leading. The question that eluded me was how.

With Project Simplify, we’ve been focusing on simplifying as a means to focus on what’s important to you. This has been good, and it’s time to go great!

Based on the premise that “the era of struggle is over,” the Natural Professional takes simplifying to a whole new plane by asserting that not only can you make your work flow smoothly and easily, you are a vital player in the entrepreneurial revolution. 

I know I’m almost sounding political here, but we’re not talking about occupying Wall Street, we’re talking about ”occupying” your right to create a happy existence based on sane, healthful priorities.

Supporting you and your business for this means cultivating tools to:

• make confident, solid decisions quickly;
• be productive with constantly shifting priorities;
• be a positive change agent, sustainably;
• navigate stormy times with ease; and
• uncover and share more of your gifts through business.

Here is the Natural Professional mini-manifesto…

Sign me up for
Natural Professional updates!

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Email:

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We, the Natural Professionals, are bringing human values back into the equation of our success. Work is easier because we are flowing rather than pushing and we act in line with our values. 

We have greater economy of effort because we use intuition for guidance. We gain greater satisfaction because we’re making decisions based on respect for the whole.

How are we going to do this?

Being in this unprecedented time in history, we are in the perfect position to create a new way of working. 

We’ve rejected corporate values in favor of an entrepreneurial lifestyle, now it’s time to reject the habits and stress that seemed inherent in the corporate world.

The Natural Professional as a business is dedicated to supporting you in developing a personal navigation system that, no matter what situation you find yourself in:

• supports you in sharing your True Genius with the world,
• recognizes and short-circuits self-sabotage, and
• helps you confidently make the best decisions for your long-term health and success.

You’ll get access to the three-part Natural Professional Program:

• Mastering Your 21st Century Workflow organizational system in step-by-step video format for *free*.
• Cultivating Your Flame ’shops and e-courses to reconnect and solidify your purpose and passion.
• Bathing in Bliss ’shops and e-courses to realize and revel in your full potential.

If you’ve dug Project Simplify, you’ll love the new direction of the Natural Professional.

We will change history, my friend. (Especially yours!)

Declare your intention to boogie down on the Natural Professional journey by signing up for Natural Professional updates in the form above or by clicking here.

Then grab your groovy garb and get ready to roll!

XO

Shawn Tuttle
Natural Professional

Fine print:

• The new Natural Professional site is scheduled to go live on January 20th.
• The Simplifier newsletter and podcast will cease to be published.
• Posts on the Project Simplify website will become archive info.
• The Weekly Review and Planning Sessions will continue under the NP banner. (Haven’t heard of the Weekly RAP Sessions? check it out here)
• You must opt-in to receive the Natural Professional’s New WOW updates. I want to know that the folks on this list want to be on it!

NOTE: The links that are mentioned throughout this recording can be found in the web version of this newsletter.

(If you don’t see an audio player or link above, you can access the mp3 file directly here.)

Read the full issue here.
Listen to the audio version here.
Subscribe to The Simplifier here.

For many people, this was quite an uncomfortable process because we were pushed to declare what was important to us–how else can you know what to keep and what to let go of?

Those who took seriously the urge to slim down on the irrelevant and minimize distractions, this final push in 2011 to “let go” of anything that didn’t serve them came easier. Those who resisted and instead insisted on bumbled forward without discretion had a much harder time of it.

Personally, my year was, well, kind of chunky. It didn’t feel all that fluid, truth be known. However, once I ‘fessed up to myself why that was in December, you might say the water started a-flowin’ with a passion!

You’ll remember that I reported in the last newsletter that I was about to begin working with a coach. . .

All I can say is, “Oh My.” Well, I have a little more to say, like, “Wow.”

There are a few changes afoot that you should know about because they affect you directly!

After an impressive run of six + years, Project Simplify and the Simplifier newsletter are, as I write this, in their final days. In fact, this is the last issue of this fine publication. Zoinks!

Logical next question: Is this IT?? Am I done with my work?

Logical next answer: Hell No!!! (Pardon my french.)

Watch your email inbox tomorrow for the unrolling of the next phase… (Which, if you’ve been reading for a while, isn’t all that surprising. Hint: 2 words. The first starts with a N and the second with a P, Yeehaw!!)

Which means that this is an adieu to the completion of a phase of my life that has been so incredibly rewarding and so amazingly affirming.

Even more importantly, it’s a perfect opportunity to say, Thank You! You are the reason for exploring new ways to simplify and discover easier ways of working. I am so grateful for your interest in this work and these ideas–I hope to continue the journey with you for a long time.

I also want to thank the ever-versatile Lance Brown, who has been a columnist for this newsletter, and had a presence in The Simplifier from the beginning. In fact, if it weren’t for him prodding me toward the first newsletter all those years ago, I may have been too chicken-s#*t to ever get it going. From idea-man, to coder, to editor, to columnist, his digital fingerprints are on just about every part of the Project Simplify website and newsletter.

So it’s with a twinge of nostalgia and a lightening bolt of excitement that I’ll wrap up this note to you.

Well, almost. How about one more thing to touch back to what I wrote above about the energy flowing once I ‘fessed up.

There have been a ton of posts and newsletters flying around talking about goals, goal setting, and the one I prefer, a word (or three) for the upcoming year.

However you decide to set the tone and intention for the year, my encouragement to you is to do it honestly. And the person to be most truly, deeply and radically honest with is yourself.

Listen to the little hints and messages your spirit is sharing with you. Denying them the attention they deserve is a sure source of chunkiness, a fact I did my best to deny for a good part of the year.

Listen, trust, fly! Booya!!

—

When I started this column two years ago, I had no idea if it would work.

I knew we were heading off together toward the elusive goal of “simplicity”, but beyond that, I had no idea where it would take us. Or, more to the point, me. (No offense.)

I certainly didn’t expect to achieve total simplicity in two short years. Which is good, because I certainly did not. But I have made progress, and often as a direct result of having this opportunity to shine a light on the main problem areas in my quest for a simple life.

Here’s a look at my progress on some of the primary anti-simplicity demons that I’ve been trying to tame since I began searching for a simpler life, many years ago…

Procrastination & Self-Sabotage

Let’s get the ugly beast out of the way first. The two-headed monstrosity made up of self-sabotage and procrastination.

Just last week someone said to me, “I think things could happen easier for you if you could get out of your own way.  I’m certain you have no idea what I’m talking about.”

And I was like, (paraphrasing) “Oh YEAH? Shows what you know, because look, I wrote three different columns about being in my own way. So there!”

Yeah, person who tried to reach out and help, so there! I know so much about how I’m interfering with my own progress that I can write three columns about it and STILL have no idea how to stop doing it. Ha! In your face!

Wait—what?

Still got some work to do on this one. I’ll get around to it eventually.

Email Inbox

On January 1st of this year, at 7 minutes before midnight (a.k.a. Procrastinator’s New Year’s Eve), I got my email inbox down to zero items—for the first time since I’ve had an email inbox, in 1996. And just to show it wasn’t a fluke, I’m going to get it back down to zero right now. Hang on.

There. Empty again. I’m not happy that it took me 15 years to get to this state, but I’m thrilled to finally be here. For most of that time, dealing with my inbox has felt like trying to stop a waterfall with my hands. But, even more problematically, it had become my taskmaster–serving as the main place I’d look to see what I should be doing next. And that’s not what an email inbox is for. (A fact that only truly becomes clear once your inbox is completely empty.)

I’ve been in an unhealthy co-dependent relationship with my inbox for so long that I really don’t know what life will be like now that that’s over with. But I’m really looking forward to finding out.

Papers & Stuff

I still have a considerable backlog of papers, and several boxes of annoyingly-disorganized stuff, but I did have a genuine breakthrough on that right around a year ago.

Switching my perspective on all that stuff—from “ever-looming overdue dark cloud from the past” to “just a regular current/future to-do item” made a huge difference. If I hadn’t spent half of the year since then moving from place to place, I’d probably have it all winnowed down to ideal levels by now. But even without reaching that nirvana, I have found a certain level of peace just by taking away the power I had granted to those dumb inanimate objects.

The task of “taming the dreaded Backlog” is neither as awful nor as big nor as important as I had been making myself believe, and just recognizing that fact has been one of the biggest stress relievers of my whole life.

Another giant turn-around in the stuff department has been in the acquisition side of things. I had been a “pack rat” since I could remember, and until just a couple years ago, every place I had lived by myself had become packed wall-to-wall with, to use the scientific term, crapola.

I can honestly report that those days are over, at least as far as I can see. I’ve developed a much more stringent approach toward taking on new things—and this is probably the 5th year in a row that has shown a net decrease in my number of possessions. Very little new comes in—and only after it has firmly justified itself.

I can picture four different places I’ve lived that you had to be careful walking through because parts of them were so crowded with stuff. (I wasn’t kidding when I said at the outset of this journey that I would’ve almost qualified to be on Hoarders.)

In contrast, the place I’m living at now could legitimately be called “Spartan”. Every hallway is clear, two rooms are essentially empty, the majority of closet space is unused, and I barely have any furniture. And I couldn’t care less.

Whatever it was that had me thinking stuff could solve things somehow is gone, or at least deeply dormant. This is probably my greatest victory so far.

Getting Things Done / To-Do List & Mind Map / Getting Help

I must confess I never ended up turning my life into a TV schedule, as I discussed doing in late 2010. As regular readers know, I had a tree disaster early in the year, and spent much of my time and energy in 2011 on moving and re-establishing myself.

As a result, my grand plan to mind-map the year into submission never really took off. And “mastering the to-do list” is still on my (world’s largest) to-do list.

But one major thing has turned around since back in the old days: tasks and to-do items are no longer my main controlling force. Which is pretty huge.

If you make your to-do list your top priority, and then you make a to-do list so huge that you only have .01% of the resources needed to get it done…well then, you’re very likely to burn yourself out from stress and over-commitment, like I did.

Out of necessity and, let’s call it “wisdom”, I’ve changed my whole approach to life, so that my to-do list is not my dominant priority. Happiness, and feeling good about the actual moments that I’m living in is instead.

Feeling a certain way—a good, healthy, simplified, in-control way—is now my top priority. And it turns out it’s much easier to focus on that than constantly trying to conquer a to-do list that can’t be conquered.

Or I should say, a to-do list that can’t be conquered without a lot of help. My quest for an assistant who can survive in my alien atmosphere continues, but I still count a victory on that front, just in my fundamental recognition that I do need help to get where I want to go. Lance of the Early 2000’s had not accepted that fact. (Which is why that Lance unceremoniously crashed and burned.)

Spawning New Projects / Voice Recordings

Purchasing a digital voice recorder and working it into my daily routine has been a blessing and a curse for sure. On the one hand, I’ve been blessed with a means to draw more than 9,000 recorded notes out of my crowded head—everything from song lyrics to grand plans to product ideas that will never come to light (and shouldn’t). Not to mention hundreds of jokes for my comedy routine, hundreds of story and screenplay ideas…and hundreds of dizzying folders and subfolders in an ever-growing area of my computer’s hard drive.

Which is to say, I haven’t entirely solved the voice recorder problem. But I have made leaps and bounds in the right direction—and I can report here that in the time since this column started 2 years ago, I have turned the tide on organizing my massive archive of recorded notes. The bulk of them are sorted out to some extent, and the top task of sorting through my “Creative” folders so I can get at all the notes that have been holding up my writing projects will be done by the end of this month. That is HUGE.

Perhaps even more importantly, I’ve gotten a handle(-ish) on my tendency to constantly spawn whole new projects. I have a natural tendency toward workaholism, in the form of a never-ending desire to be creating, producing, learning, and growing. I don’t think that’s going away. And until I finish finding the way to truly serve that desire in the best possible way, I need to make sure it doesn’t drown me in new responsibilities. I now have a sort of “idea triage” system that only lets truly critical ideas through, and keeps the others sitting out in the proverbial lobby until I have the staff available to deal with them.

The system still needs improvement, in order to better serve my ideas and help me manifest them. But the most important thing is protecting me from the onslaught of new potential projects, and I’m having real success there. That’s not a problem anymore. Mostly.

Do I still have a long way to go to achieve “the simple life”? Is that a real question? Of course I do! I may very well end up chasing after simplicity for the rest of my life, as I said in my previous column. But as I also said there, and in the related podcast discussion with Shawn Tuttle, the important thing is trying, and doing good work, and making whatever progress you can toward your goals. And when it comes to the goal of simplicity, I’ve made so much progress since I began my quest in 2005 that I barely recognize myself as compared to the guy from back then.

While it’s always easy to judge myself harshly, and find elements of my quest for simplicity that seem too daunting to overcome (I’m looking at you, procrastination, and you self-sabotage—you big jerk), it’s also easier and easier to find victories and ways that I have been able to turn things around completely. Change hasn’t come easily, or quickly, but it has most definitely come about, in dramatic and very satisfying ways.

Thanks for joining me on the journey!

—

Lance Brown can be found at http://lancebrown.org. Archives of his column can be found here (blog-style) and here (listed by title). His podcast Estranged can be found on iTunes or at http://estranged.me.

Daily look for the following within you. Then, playfully explore the suggestions:

1. A desire to slow down
(This is your True Self; listen to it.)

2. A yearning to be quiet
(Rest inward and let your awareness move toward the quiet; you can do this—trust your inner ability to go toward the right place.)

3. Wanting more sleep
(It’s natural to sleep more in the winter; enjoy healing your body and being.)

4. Wanting more time for yourself
(You will find the time if you give up your excuses.)

5. Less interest in the world around you
(Take a break from what’s not necessary; question what you believe is “necessary.”)

6. Less drive
(It’s OK to do less for a while; your world will not fall apart. As you recognize your inner quiet as part of who you are, you will naturally learn how to get more done with less effort.)

7. A simple happiness that is not based on anything in particular
(It’s in you. Notice, however, that it can be obscured by excessive thoughts or emotions. Choose to awaken this happiness; it is found within your Heart Presence.)

You can use the above as a daily practice. The more time you give it, the greater and more permanent the rewards.

Jeff Krock is dedicated to helping people thrive in the 21st Century. You can find him at JeffKrock.com.

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Photo credits:
Snow scene, Doe Lea valley by foto footprints

Read the full issue here.
Listen to the audio version here.
Subscribe to The Simplifier here.

He wants to be a bad-ass member of the Axe Gang, the most feared gang around, but he’s not mean enough, scary enough, or strong enough to pull it off. 

All of his plans to impress the Gang Boss backfire, his partner in crime is prone to falling asleep, and he’s haunted by a humiliating bullying incident from his childhood.

I feel for the guy. Not that he didn’t get to be in the gang, but that he didn’t know how to get what he wanted. 

Which is as perfect a segue as I’m going to get for the admission that I’ve been feeling like I don’t know how to get where I want to go with my business.  

Destination Unclear

Several months ago I decided it was time to shift my business model online.

Theoretically, it oughta be easy enough:
Define vision + set goals + make plan + execute plan = Success!

Practically, I got lost somewhere around define vision. You see, I very quickly found myself wandering around the Lands O’ I-have-no-idea-what-it-actually-entails which was then confounded by I-don’t-know-what-I-don’t-know. Confusing, you know? 

So it’s been a period of coming back to the basics: clarifying purpose, defining niche, experimenting and getting educated–hence classes, podcasts, interviews, workshops, blogs, reading, listening, watching. 

Destination Clear… or is it?

In Kung Fu Hustle, our wanna-be bad guy keeps trying different schemes to get accepted into the gang, until after one last humiliation, he gives up.

Which is, of course, when two bad-guy goons show up and take him to the boss. He’s given an almost impossible task and, somehow, he slides through that sliver of “almost” and earns his place in the gang. 

The problem is, he’s out of place in the gang. You could say that he made progress but, was it in the right direction?

Destination Kinda Clear

I know I’m going in the right direction, that much I’m clear on. It’s just that in the deluge of new incoming information, the direction has lacked context, which pretty much leaves me feeling lost. 

It’s a little Kafka-esque. You show up for a meeting and there’s a sign on the door saying the meeting has been moved. You go to the new location and there’s a sign on the door, again saying that the meeting has been moved. You go to the next new location and it’s the same thing. You keep thinking you’re at the right place but finally realize you don’t know what’s going on. That’s been me. 

[A few side notes:

1. I feel like I'm really out on a limb here because people seem to assume that since I'm "The Organizer" I must have all my s#@t together. Welcome to being human.
2. Another confession: I don't have a coach. (This should elicit a gasp of horror.)
3. I've shared this little tidbit before: one of my clients several years ago interviewed over 100 6-figure solopreneurs to see if there were similarities among them. There was. Each and every one worked with a coach. Is it ego? Is it being cheap? Why in the world do I think this wouldn't apply to me? Anywho.
4. I fibbed just a little when I wrote "don't have a coach". I almost have a coach--my first appointment is on Thursday.

/side note]

Destination… screw it, just have a good time

Let’s face it. Sometimes we don’t know where we’re going, and that’s OK. Not only that, it can be FUN.

Honestly, once I get past the self-inflicted disappointment of not having a new marketing engine in place, several products completed and linked up with auto responders and shopping cart, and a couple of collaborations under my belt, I admit that this process has been a blast.

I’m learning about a whole new world out there filled with awesome people doing fantastic work. It’s full of integrity, people showing up to help, and folks looking to build community.

Where are you right now? 

Conveniently we find ourselves at the end of the year, i.e. the perfect time to take stock of your current situation. Hopefully your year has been more fluid than mine, though I hear it’s been quite the challenge for many. 

Wherever you are and whatever phase of your business you’re in, you’re in the perfect place for you and that’s completely awesome!

If, for whatever reason, you don’t share the enthusiasm, let’s make sure that your expectations are in line with your status. Because if there’s one other thing I am completely convinced of, it’s that:

 The Era of Struggle is Over.
(Remember that you heard it here first, folks.

With that in mind, do you need to get some reality check action on any of the following?

1. Easify production expectations. If you’re in the process of reinventing yourself or in a major educational phase for your business, give yourself a chance to learn the lay of the land and assimilate what you’re learning. 
2. Be honest with yourself. Is it time to get help? Don’t be like the dork above (oh, that was me) insisting that you can go it all alone. Get the clear eyes of someone who’s gone before you. 
3. Ask good questions. As silly as this one sounds, it’s powerful. Asking a specific question pushes you to drill down to the real issue at hand. For example, Instead of asking “What should I do next?” ask,”What is the best next step for getting clarity on my niche?” Then be patient, the answer may need to percolate while you sleep and then show up the next day.

I know this is the time of year that we typically talk about goals and goal setting, and let me tell you, I’ve been researching some fascinating stuff on the subject that you may not have heard before. I look forward to sharing this stuff with you soon. Real soon. 

For now, you can tip toe through Lance’s musing on goal completion in his column below in The Not-So-Simple Life.

Destination Wildly Fantastic Success

You’re probably wondering what happened with the hero of Kung Fu Hustle (of course you knew he’d be the hero). 

(SPOILER ALERT!!) Well, he got beaten to a pulp which, instead of killing him, unleashed his chi and thereby allowed him to become a kung fu master in the style of the House of the Palm of God as he was destined to be.

I personally am opting for the metaphorical beating which, as far as I’m concerned has been fulfilled in this past year of struggle through epic attempts to run through water.

2012 is the Chinese Year of the Dragon, a symbol of good fortune and sign of intense power. For ALL of us. 

Are ready for your chi to be unleashed?

NOTE: The links that are mentioned throughout this recording can be found in the web version of this newsletter.

(If you don’t see an audio player or link above, you can access the mp3 file directly here.)