Michael Hyatt

Advice to First-Time Authors

2008-08-07T07:14:33-05:00

As you might imagine, I receive a lot of email from would-be authors who are trying to get published. Because I make my email address public, it’s pretty easy to get to me.

However, by the time I hear from people, they are usually frustrated. They can’t get anyone in the book publishing world to respond, and they are convinced that they have a killer-idea. “If only someone would just read my manuscript,” they plead.

The problem is that most publishers will not review unsolicited proposals or manuscripts. I personally receive hundreds every year; our staff receives thousands. We simply don’t have the resources to review these. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack.

So as an author, what do you do? Here’s what I recommend:

Educate yourself. If you want to publish with a general market publisher, read 2008 Writer’s Market by Robert Brewer. If you want to write for the Christian Market, read Christian Writers’ Market Guide 2008 by Sally Stuart. Both books include writer’s guidelines and submission procedures for publishing houses. These books will give you a good overview of the literary marketplace.
Read blogs written by agents. You can get some incredibly helpful advice and straight-talk from people who pitch proposals for a living. I recommend three: Terry Whalin, Chip MacGregor, and Rachelle Gardner. There are other blogs, but I have found these to be the most useful.
Write a killer book proposal. If you want to write (or have written) a non-fiction book, I recommend my article, Writing a Winning Book Proposal (this is a PDF file). It will tell you exactly what publishers want in a proposal. I wrote this years ago, and it is still used by numerous literary agents and publishers. If you intend to write a novel, you can modify my format or search for another. (Just Google “fiction book proposal” and you will come up with several great resources.)
Have someone review your proposal. If you have a friend who teaches English or is a professional editor, ask them to review your proposal. You might even barter something with them. In addition, the Editorial Services section of Literary Market Place, 2008, lists over 500 entries, many of which provide some kind of critique service. (This is a very expensive book, so you may want to try and find it in your local library.)
Find a literary agent to represent you. This is usually the only way to get in the door with a publishing company. Most publishers do not accept unsolicited proposals or manuscripts. Instead, publishers let the literary agents do the filtering. If you want a list of general market agents, you can buy 2008 Guide to Literary Agents. I have also compiled a list of agents who represent Christian authors. This is the only list of Christian agents I have been able to find.
Consider submitting your proposal to Christian Manuscript Submissions. This is a site sponsored by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA), an industry trade organization. It provides an opportunity to get your work in front of Christian publishers who use the site to discover new authors. I don’t know of a similar service for the general market.

Finally, don’t lose heart. This is probably the most important thing I can say to you. Yes, you will be rejected. I had over 30 publishers reject my first book proposal. However, it went on to be a New York Times bestseller. I know scores of authors with similar stories.

Like many things in life, nothing worthwhile comes easily. But if you have a great idea and are persistent, you will eventually succeed.

Why Obama’s Faith Matters

2008-08-05T12:48:17-05:00

Today is the official pub date for The Faith of Barack Obama by Stephen Mansfield. I am very excited about its publication. Of all the books about Obama that have been or will be published, this is the only one I know of that deals exclusively with his faith.

Note: If you are a blogger and want a copy of this book to review, please send an email to Lindsey Nobles, our Director of Corporate Communications. She will send you a free copy of the book in exchange for your promise to blog about it. We don’t care if your review is positive, negative, or somewhere in between, so long as you write at least a 200-word review of the book. This offer is limited to the first 100 bloggers who respond. Update: By popular demand: we are extending this to the first 200 bloggers.

Two years ago, virtually no one outside of the state of Illinois had heard of him. Today, he is a household name, not only in America but around the world. Millions find him to be an inspirational and articulate leader—just what we need at this moment in history. Others find him calculating and dangerous—the same old liberalism in a different package.

But love him or hate him, Obama is a force to be reckoned with. He is not going away any time soon, even if he’s not elected this time around. As Mansfield points out, he could run for the presidency as often as he likes over the next 24 years and still be younger than John McCain is today.

And at the center of his identity is his religious faith. As Mansfield himself says, “If a man’s faith is sincere, it is the most important thing about him, and it is impossible to understand who he is and how he will lead without first understanding the religious vision that informs his life.” Obama makes no bones about it: his faith informs every aspect of his political vision.

This is a slim book with a big agenda: to explain Obama’s faith, to put it in historical context, and to explore what it might mean for our collective future.

Here are five reasons why I think The Faith of Barack Obama is important:

The book explains Obama’s drive and vision for America. As the CEO of a Christian publishing company, I am fascinated by the fact that Obama’s religious faith is at the center of who he is. Believed by supporters or disputed by detractors, it seems clear to me that Obama’s faith is the fuel of all that he has achieved and the source of his greatest challenges in his pursuit of the presidency.

Obama is the first liberal presidential candidate in a generation to speak openly about his Christian faith. Is that faith sincere? I have been surprised by the adamant opinions of people who have yet to read Mansfield’s book and stridently insist that Obama’s faith is a sham. Frankly, I don’t think it is helpful to dismiss him so quickly. There is too much at stake not to dig deeper and attempt to understand what motivates him.
The book counters many of the myths about Obama’s faith. Scores of these have circulated on the Internet. You’ve probably heard most of them: “Obama is a radical Muslim who will not recite the pledge of allegiance.” “Obama was sworn into office on the Quran.” “The Book of Revelation describes the anti-Christ as someone with characteristics matching those of Barack Obama.” The list goes on. The only thing these myths all have in common is that they are false.

It is true that Obama was raised in a non-Christian home, under the influence of an agnostic mother and a Muslim father. Mansfield explores how that shaped Obama and continues to influence his religious vision. But he also describes Obama’s remarkable conversion to Christianity after working in Chicago’s inner city and how even today he describes himself as “a follower of Jesus Christ.”
The book explores the difficult aspects of Obama’s faith. Mansfield discusses Obama’s membership at the controversial Trinity United Church of Christ under the pulpit of Rev. Jeremiah Wright. He even reports first-hand from the church, after sitting through a Sunday morning service and then interacting with the parishioners. In doing so, he provides a broader faith context than you get from the endless loops of media sound bites.

Probably the biggest objection traditional evangelicals have to Obama is his support of abortion rights. Many evangelicals, including some well-known authors, have told me that this is the only thing that is keeping them from voting for Obama in November. Mansfield deals with this issue head-on and explores the rationale for Obama’s position.
The book provides a window into contemporary Christian culture. Mansfield contends that Obama’s popularity represents a fundamental shift in the religious landscape. For the first time since Jimmy Carter, many younger evangelicals (and even a few older ones) are embracing an agenda that is religiously conservative and politically liberal.

In this new, post-religious right environment, these evangelicals feel no obligation to vote Republican. In fact, they see it as their Christian duty to vote against a party they believe has pilfered the economy, savaged the environment, and propagated a needless and costly war.

Whatever one’s take on Obama himself, his message clearly resonates with these voters. And if you want to understand what’s going on culturally and politically in America today, Obama’s life and faith serve as an important vantage point.
The book provides a new model for public discourse. This is probably the thing I personally enjoyed the most about the book. When I was a young boy, my grandmother loved to watch professional wrestling. We used to laugh at her, knowing that the wrestlers were merely performers entertaining an audience.

But since the late 1980s, we have had to endure a form of “intellectual mud wrestling.” Pundits have sensationalized the issues and polarized the American public—all in the name of building a larger audience for themselves and their advertisers. Something is dreadfully wrong, and I, for one, am tired of it.

Mansfield takes the admonition of the Apostle James seriously: “So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (1:19-20).

In my view, we need more listening and less talking. We need to understand our opponents point-of-view before we start criticizing it. And most of all, we need to treat everyone with respect and dignity, even those with whom we violently disagree on the issues. Mansfield models that in a way that I find very compelling.

Mansfield, who also wrote the New York Times bestseller, The Faith of George W. Bush, states clearly that he does not intend to vote for Obama. Nevertheless, he believes it is crucial we understand the faith that drives the man who may be the next president of the United States. Unless we do so, we may very well find ourselves fighting yesterday’s battles and missing the opportunity to have a richer dialog about what it means to practice our faith in the public square.

Creating a Sense of Urgency

2008-07-30T14:15:35-05:00

Twenty years ago, Robert Wolgemuth and I started a publishing company. We had a dream to publish books that truly made a difference, in people’s lives and in the overall culture.

The only problem was that we didn’t have much money. Our competitors had seemingly every advantage, including piles of working capital (or so we thought). All we had was a dream and our ability to respond quickly.

As it turned out, we signed numerous authors for less than the competition was willing to pay, simply because we moved fast and got the deals done. Many authors were willing to give up some advance money, believing that our hustle in signing them would translate into similar hustle in selling their books. More often than not, they were right.

Thus, responsiveness became our competitive advantage. We could never pay more than our competition and usually offered much less. But we could out-maneuver and out-flank almost all of them. We were lean and mean. As a result, we grew rapidly.

Unfortunately, in the 20-plus years since we began that venture, I have learned that there seems to be an inverse relationship between a company’s size and the sense of urgency embedded in the culture.

More often than not, small companies have a sense of urgency. Why? Because their very survival is at stake. If they don’t move quickly, they get squashed by larger, more established competitors.

On the other hand, it is rare to find large companies that truly have a sense of urgency. Their circumstances rarely demand it. They can continue with business-as-usual and do pretty well. Nothing has to be done today or even this week. Nothing is really at stake—or so they think. Often, by the time they wake up, it’s too late.

But in today’s environment, no one can afford to drift along with the status quo. Growth is not a foregone conclusion. Even survival cannot be taken for granted.

The companies that thrive in today’s economy will be those that can shift their cultures from the slower pace of business-as-usual to urgency. Because of this, I have made “Urgency” our annual theme for Thomas Nelson. I want this attribute to permeate every aspect of our culture. I know we have a long way to go.

But first, we have to understand it. To create a sense of urgency, we must do four things well:

Activate. Like many larger organizations, we do lots of analysis. Obviously, this can be helpful. No one wants to go into battle without a carefully thought-through battle plan. But as everyone knows, analysis can easily lead to “analysis for analysis sake.” When this happens, the organization becomes paralyzed.

Often the real issue is courage. The point of absolute certainty never comes. It is foolish to assume that it does. Instead, urgency requires that we activate quickly: Make a decision. Get off the dime. Do something!

As the old adage goes, “it is easier to steer a moving object.” If you’ve made the wrong decision, you can adjust. But if you wait too long, you miss the opportunity entirely.

More than ever, people want fast decisions. Speed can be a competitive advantage. But this requires leaders who are willing to activate and get themselves, their teams, and their projects into motion.
Accelerate. Urgency requires more than activation. Yes, you have to start quickly, but you also have to keep things moving. Getting a project green-lighted is only the beginning.

There are hundreds of impersonal forces (and some personal) that will conspire to slow you down—paperwork, approvals, processes, committees, budgets, etc. Some of these things are necessary—but not as many as you think or the organization would like you to believe.

It is the nature of bureaucracies to become self-serving. When they do, the process becomes an end in itself. As a leader, you have to fight this. You have to identify obstacles and remove them. You must keep the pedal to the metal and keep things moving. If you don’t, inertia will take over and your project will die.
Achieve. Cultivating a sense of urgency is all about producing results. All the stuff that it takes to produce results—paperwork, approvals, processes, committees, and budgets—are not an end in themselves. They are only the means. If you do all this and don’t accomplish your goals, you have lost.

Too often people think that the objective is to complete their task list. If they do so, they think they have actually accomplished something. This is not necessarily the case. Tasks are a necessary but insufficient condition of achievement.

My goal at Thomas Nelson is to create a culture that is outcome-focused rather than task-focused. I don’t care how we produce the results (within the appropriate ethical boundaries), so long as we produce them. We need to stay focused on the what and give our people room to decide the how.
Assess. Urgency does not rule out assessment. In fact, it demands it. If we are going to get faster at producing results, we have to assess what is working and what is not. We must then eliminate the waste.

Everything should be questioned in light of whether or not it impedes or facilitates the outcome. Does a meeting enable us to move more quickly? If so, great. Call a meeting. But so often we call meetings as a way to procrastinate the decision. Then a single meeting begets more meetings. Before you know it, you’ve built a slow, lumbering bureaucracy.

The only antidote is to this is to eliminate everything that does not facilitate the desired outcome. Our job as leaders—as opposed to bureaucrats—is to remove the obstacles and give our people the best chance of achieving their goals and ours.

What specifically can you do to create more urgency? Try these:

Walk faster—show some hustle.
Respond faster to emails and voice mails. Don’t allow yourself to become someone else’s excuse for not getting their work done.
Get to the point quickly and insist that others do the same.
Keep meetings short and on-point. Always insist on an agenda.
Eliminate every piece of paperwork that doesn’t facilitate a specific outcome. My motto: “When in doubt, throw it out.”
Be quick to change tactics. If something is not moving you toward your desired outcome, do something else.
Do it now!

It’s easy to see a lack of urgency in others, but can you see it in yourself? What else can you do, beginning now, to create a sense of urgency in yourself, your department, and with your projects?

My Daily Reading Habits

2008-07-16T20:19:49-05:00

I love reading. I guess that’s why I got in the publishing business to begin with. After almost thirty years, I am still a content glutton. I have in insatiable desire for input.

I read all kinds of stuff: books, the Bible, magazines, newspapers, blogs, and even microblogs like Twitter. I also read a wide variety of genres. My tastes are very eclectic. Mostly, I just enjoying discovering and experiencing new things.

In the past couple of months, several people have asked me to write about my reading habits and my daily reading list. I currently read in three daily blocks.

First thing in the morning, I read the Bible, then about 200 RSS feeds from various blogs and news sites. I use Google Reader to collect these feeds, so I can move through them quickly. It usually takes me 45 minutes to an hour to scan these feeds and read thoroughly the articles that catch my attention.
After this first burst of reading—and a couple of cups of coffee—I go running. But only four days a week. During this time, I listen to audio books on my iPod Shuffle. I have a membership to Audible.com. Currently, I am listening to Made to Stick for the second time.
At the end of the day, right before bed, I try to read for 30 minutes or so. This is always a physical book. I am currently reading a book on Search Engine Optimization (SEO). I have to be careful, because if the book is too stimulating it keeps me up thinking!

If I don’t have a lot of meetings scheduled, I also read snippets throughout the day. However, these are usually related to some specific project or speech I am preparing for.

What RSS feeds do I subscribe to? You can get a taste of this by viewing or subscribing to my Shared Items feed from Google. As I am reading through my RSS feeds, I mark articles that I want to share. These go into the feed. I also add my comments, which gives you my perspective on why I chose to share this post.

Thomas Nelson Wins Evangelical Book of the Year

2008-07-13T22:12:00-05:00

The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) just announced that our Word of Promise audio bible won the “Book of the Year” award for 2008. Wayne Hastings, Senior Vice President and Group Publisher for our Bible & Reference Group, accepted the award at the Christian Book Awards, held in Orlando, Florida, at the International Christian Retail Show (ICRS).

The amazing thing is that it is the first time in the 30-year history of the award that it went to a non-book. Think about it. First, it’s an audio Bible, rather than a traditional print book. Second, it’s a Bible rather than a book. This is fascinating. What does it mean for the future of publishing?

Personally, I think that this proves the Bible is more relevant than ever. We live in desperate times. People are seeking hope. They want a transcendent perspective. They want something that connects them to ultimate reality. Something that gives meaning to the events of their lives.

I am so proud of Wayne and our whole Bible team. This is a break-through in every sense of that word. It is so significant that even USA Today reported on it.

If you want to sample the Word of Promise, you can do so here. Enjoy! It is an auditory feast.

Top 10 Reasons to Buy the New iPhone 3G

2008-07-05T09:54:39-05:00

The new iPhone 3G launches next week. July 11 to be exact. You’ve seen the ads. You’ve read the hype. Now let’s be honest. You’ve already made the decision to buy an iPhone 3G. You fell in love the first time you saw it. Now, you just need to justify the decision and enroll your brain in the process.

Here are my top ten reasons to buy (or upgrade to) the iPhone 3G. These might also come in handy in trying to convince your spouse!

Fast 3G cellular network. 3G technology gives iPhone fast access to email and the Internet on cellular networks around the world. iPhone 3G also makes it possible to multitask. You can surf the web, download email, get directions, and watch video—even while you’re on a call. Apple claims the iPhone 3G is 2.4 times faster downloading pages, email, or attachments.
Enhanced contact functions. Yon can now find a contact by typing a name into the new contacts search field. iPhone then shows you the matching names. (If you have a lot of names, as I do, this is a God-send.) If you use iPhone with Microsoft Exchange, you can even look up contacts in your company’s Global Address List (GAL).
Push email, calendar, and contacts. Up until now, the iPhone used “pull technology” to retrieve my email from my company’s Exchange Server. To sync the calendar or contacts, I had to physically connect to my computer via a USB wire. With iPhone 3G, those days are over. Now iPhone has the same capabilities as the Blackberry. New emails, calendar appointments, and address contacts are synced wirelessly as they happen. If my assistant changes an appointment on my calendar, I will have those changes in a matter of seconds on my iPhone. I can even wirelessly accept or decline meeting invitations.
Better Email management. iPhone users have long complained that they are forced to work on one email message at a time. This doesn’t sound like such a big deal, but when you are dealing with more than 100 messages a day, it becomes an issue. Now the iPhone supports mass email move and delete. So you can delete many messages at once and organize groups of messages by moving them into different mail folders.
Email attachment support. The iPhone already reads more than a dozen file formats, including PDF, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Excel. However, the iPhone 3G will now display iWork and Microsoft PowerPoint files. You can open them in email and view them right on your iPhone—even in landscape mode. (I predict that showing iWork or PowerPoint presentations on the iPhone will create a whole new category of one-one-one presentations.)
Maps with built-in GPS. By utilizing the Global Positioning Satellite system, iPhone 3G always knows your current location. It can also show you what is close to your current location. So, for example, if you are taking a stroll in downtown Chicago, you can instantly find all the bookstores near your current location. Via Google Maps, it can also give you directions, using your current location as the starting point. It can even indicate the current traffic conditions—green streets where the traffic is flowing smoothly and yellow and red streets where the traffic is congested or at a complete stop.
Third-party applications. Until now, iPhone has been a closed ecosystem unless you were willing to “jailbreak” your phone and install third-party apps. Even I haven’t been geek enough to do that. But with iPhone 3G, Apple as unleashed an army of third-party developers. And if the applications that Steve Jobs demoed in his keynote at the recent World Wide developers Conference are any indication, we are in for some treats. These apps are unlike anything we’ve ever seen on a mobile phone. That’s because they leverage all the groundbreaking technologies of the iPhone, including the accelerometer, Multi-Touch, 3D positional sound, and GPS.
MobileMe Support. Apple is finally re-branding and upgrading it’s .Mac service. The new name is MobileMe. It boasts several new features, including “Exchange for the rest of us.” It provides a simple way to keep everything up todate. If you make a change on your iPhone calendar, for example, it pushes the change into the Internet “cloud” and then automatically updates any other devices you have connected to MobileMe. This creates true device independence. It doesn’t matter if you work on your iPhone or your laptop. Changes will automatically be synced to the other.
Additional Languages. iPhone now offers complete language and dictionary support for English (U.S.), English (UK), French (France), French (Canada), German, Japanese, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Portugal), Portuguese (Brazil), Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Korean (no dictionary), Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Russian, and Polish. You can even draw Chinese or Japanese characters, and the iPhone will recognize them.
Scientific Calculator. iPhone already provides a simple business calculator. I use it all the time. But now, in iPhone 3G, if you rotate the iPhone to landscape mode, the business calculator is transformed into a sophisticated scientific calculator with dozens of functions for solving complex scientific and advanced math problems. I’ll probably stick with Excel for this, but the investment bankers and scientists amongst us will find this useful.

In addition to all of this, the iPhone itself is cheaper: $US199 for the 8GB model and $US299 for the 16GB model. However, AT&T is charging $US10 more per month for access to its 3G network. (The rationale is that you will be using more of their available bandwidth.) Prices will range from a US$69.99 monthly plan with 450 anytime minutes and 5,000 night and weekend minutes, to a US$129 plan with unlimited minutes. Each of the plans will include unlimited data transfers.

SMS will be separate, with prices ranging from US$5 per month for 200 messages to US$20 per month for unlimited messages.

Finally, you may want to watch the iPhone 3G Guided Video Tour. The Apple spokesperson will take you through all the major iPhone features.

Media Correction: PW Says I Went Ape Over the Lynne Spears Tell-All

2008-07-03T14:39:25-05:00

Usually, Publishers Weekly (or “PW,” as industry insiders call it) gets it right. Through the years, they have been very good to Thomas Nelson and to me. But today, I think they missed the boat. In “The PW Morning Report,” they said:

Britney’s Mom’s Memoir “Totally Compelling,” Thomas Nelson Editor Tells Gawker

Michael Hyatt of the Christian publisher goes ape over Lynne Spear’s tell-all: “I can’t put it down,” Hyatt gushed, “People are going to be surprised. The media have it so wrong.”

It’s hard to believe such a brief article can have so many errors. But, for the sake of my Thomas Nelson colleagues and my friends in the industry, I want to set the record straight:

I am not the book’s “editor.” I am Thomas Nelson’s CEO. I don’t edit any of our books, though I sometimes offer input.
I didn’t “tell” Gawker anything. As I was reading through the second draft of the manuscript on Tuesday night, I Twittered about it. Gawker reported my “tweets” (or, as they called them, “microblogs”) accurately and word-for-word.
I didn’t “go ape” over the manuscript. It’s true; I did like it. (I wouldn’t have Twittered about it if I didn’t.) I think it is a fascinating and a thoroughly compelling read. People are going to be surprised at what a normal person Lynne is. She’s made plenty of mistakes, and she admits that. But so have all of us who are parents. Perhaps I gushed a bit, but, I don’t think I would describe that as “going ape.”
The book is not a “tell-all.” Nor have we advertised it as such. Don’t get me wrong. It tells plenty. There’s a lot here that the public doesn’t know. But Lynne is discreet. She understands the boundaries of propriety and good taste.

The good news is that the quotes PW attributed to me are 100% accurate.

Creating a Life Plan

2008-06-29T21:07:41-05:00

I have met very few people who have a plan for their lives. Most are passive spectators, watching their lives unfold a day at a time. They may plan their careers, the building of a new home, or even a vacation. But it never occurs to them to plan their life. As a result, many end up discouraged and disillusioned, wondering where they went wrong.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. You can live your life on purpose. It begins by creating a “Life Plan.” This won’t insulate you from life’s many adversities and unexpected twists and turns, but it will help you become an active participant in your life, intentionally shaping your own future.

About six years ago, Daniel Harkavy, CEO and Head Coach of Building Champions, helped me create my very first Life Plan. It was the first time I ever thought systematically about what outcomes I wanted to see in the major categories of my life.

About a year later, Dan Meub, one of Daniel’s associates, began to work with me. He’s now been my executive coach for almost five years. During this time we have reviewed and updated my Life Plan numerous times. I now also review it formally during my Quarterly Review.

This process of creating and regularly reviewing my plan has been transformational. As my family, friends, career, and other interests have grown, this document has kept me on track, ensuring that I keep everything in balance (more or less). When things get chaotic, it serves as a map, telling me where I am and how to get back on the path to my intended destination.

In this post, I want to share with you how to create such a plan for your life. My comments will get you started, but I would also suggest that you read Chapter 5, “Your Life Plan,” in Becoming a Coaching Leader by Daniel Harkavy. The whole book is excellent, but this chapter in particular will describe the process in more detail. You should also note that my Life Plan outline is slightly different than Daniel’s. I have modified it through the years, but the essence remains the same.

My Life Plan is surprisingly short; it is only five pages long. It consists of three sections:

Outcomes
Priorities
Action Plans

Outcomes

In the Seven Habits of Highly Successful People, bestselling author Stephen Covey says that Habit 2 is to “Begin with the End in Mind.” Similarly, Daniel asks, “How do you want to be remembered?”

This is an incredibly powerful question. To answer it, you have to “fast forward” to the end of your life and look back. You are forced to think about the things that matter most.

I selected six key constituents or audiences: God, My Spouse, My Children, My Parents, My Colleagues, and My Friends. (You may have others.) I then simply answered the question, “How do I want them to remember me?”

For example, I said this under the “My Spouse” category:

I want Gail to remember how I loved her, understood her, and helped her accomplish her dreams. I want her to remember specific times that we shared together—times we laughed, times we cried, times we spent discussing things that were important to both of us, and times we just held one another and watched the sunset.

Under the “My Colleagues” category, I said this:

I want my colleagues to remember my servant-leadership, my integrity, my humility, and my commitment to having fun. I want them to remember how much they learned and grew as a result of knowing me. Most of all, I want them to remember how I empowered them to accomplish far more than they ever thought possible.

As you go through this exercise, I would encourage you to visualize your own funeral. I don’t intend this to be morbid, but you must understand that life is short. When you are gone, the only thing left are the memories that you have created.

What will people be saying about you at your funeral? What will think as they reflect on their relationship with you and your impact on their life? The good news is that you can shape these conversations beginning today.

Priorities

Next, you need to identify and prioritize your “life accounts.” As Daniel explains in his book, life is like a collection of bank accounts. Each has a certain value. A few have giant balances, a few others might have respectable balances, and a few might be overdrawn.

For example, your career might be going great, but your health account is overdrawn—you are eating too much junk food and you are getting absolutely no exercise. Or perhaps you’re in great shape physically, but your marriage has gone flat. You and our spouse have become two strangers living in the same house.

In the Priorities section, your goal is simply to answer the question, “What is important to me?” Identify your key accounts and list them in priority order.

By way of example, I have eight accounts:

God
Self
Gail
Children
Friends
Career
Finances
Ministry

I actually cheated a bit by creating three sub-accounts under my Self account. Under it, I have Health, Growth, and Rest accounts.) Fewer accounts are better, of course, but you also want to make sure you cover everything. If you want to know why I put Self second, read my earlier post in answer to the question, “How do you balance work with the rest of your life?”)

Action Plans

This is where it all comes together. You take each account and think through where you are and where you want to be. I break each account down into five parts:

1. Purpose Statement:

This is where you state what your purpose is with the account. Again, using my Health account as an example, I say this:

My purpose is to maintain and care for the temple God has given me.

The Statement of Purpose for my Friends account is this:

My purpose is to befriend and love a few people well who will in turn love, challenge, and hold me accountable.

2. Envisioned Future:

This is where you describe how the account looks when you have a positive net worth. In a financial account, it is easy to see. If the number is positive it is good; if it is negative (or red), it is bad.

Here, however, you have to do a little more work. You need to describe the account when it is functioning at its best, using the present tense, like it is already a reality.

For example, here’s the Envisioned Future for my Health account:

I am lean and strong, possessing vibrant health and extraordinary fitness. My heart is strong and healthy. My arteries are supple and clear of obstructions. My auto-immune system is in excellent condition; I am disease-, infection-, and allergy-resistant. I have more than enough energy to accomplish the tasks I undertake. This is because I control my mental focus, workout six days a week, choose healthy foods, take supplements as needed, and get adequate rest.

3. Supporting Verse:

A Bible verse is optional, of course. It may not be important to you. But it is important to me, because I want my life to be built on transcendent values that have stood the test of time.

The Bible verse I chose for my Children account is this:

“Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth.” (Psalm 127:3-4, NKJV)

The Bible verse for my Career account is this:

“So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’” (Matthew 25:20-21, NKJV)

4. Current Reality:

Now it’s time to be brutally honest with yourself. Where are you in relationship to your Envisioned Future? Don’t pull any punches. The more honest you can be, the more progress you will see.

I list these as a series of bullets and try to write down the first things that come to mind without too much analysis. For example, here’s what I wrote a couple of weeks ago in my Health account:

I feel great. My stamina is great. It's been a long time since I have been sick.
I feel good about my weight and my overall fitness.
I am running (or cross-training) four days a week for at least 60 minutes.
I am not presently doing any strength training. I am concerned this will eventually catch up with me.
I am eating pretty well, but I could be more consistent in choosing more healthy foods.

I would share more, but, frankly, it’s too personal. And that is just how you want it. You want it to be so personal and so honest that if anyone else read it, you would be embarrassed.

Keep in mind that you will not be sharing this document with anyone, except for one or two people you will intentionally enlist to keep you accountable. (In my case, I only share my Life Plan with Dan, my coach, and Gail, my wife.)

5. Specific Commitments:

This is where you specifically commit to certain actions in order to move from your Current Reality to your Enhanced Future. Again, I list these as a series of bullets. Again, using my Health account as an example, here are my specific commitments:

Run (or cross-train) four days a week.
Do strength training three days a week.
Drink four liters of water a day.
Make healthy food choices, as recommended in The South Beach Diet.
Get an annual physical and semi-annual dental check-up.

When you initially create your Life Plan, I recommend that you set aside a full day to do so. It’s not the writing that takes this long. It’s the thinking. In fact, this is the most important aspect of Life Planning: thinking long and hard about your life and where it is going.

To get you started, I have created a Life Plan template. It is a simple Word document, which you can modify to meet your needs.

Life Is Like a Tapestry

2008-06-18T18:32:53-05:00

This morning I had breakfast with Fitz, an old college roommate. We hadn’t seen each other in twenty-two years. To my surprise—and delight—he looked almost exactly as he did the last time I saw him. The only difference was that his blond hair was mostly gray.

We spent an hour or so eating and reminiscing. We talked. We laughed. And we listened. I shared with him pictures of my family, both of us laughing at the fact that I was a grandpa. I was amazed at how much we still had in common, even though both our lives and taken so many unexpected turns.

I was especially proud that Fitz was still married, still in the ministry, and still growing as a person. He was no worse for the wear, but much wiser and, somehow, deeper and more thoughtful. I know that if we lived closer together, we would be good friends once again.

As he dropped me off at the airport and drove away, I teared up. I knew I would probably not see him again any time soon. After all, he's a busy pastor. I'm a busy CEO. We have our own lives, not to mention the fact that we live at opposite ends of the country. But, still, it made me sad and pensive.

But I think something resonated at an even deeper level. As I was catching him up on the events of my life, I got another high-altitude panoramic look at my own life. I saw the beauty of my journey and how very much I have to be thankful for. I have had a rich and meaningful life. I am so grateful for every experience.

Not that it’s always been easy. Hardly. Frankly, there’s been a lot of pain. Bad decisions. Expensive mistakes. Words and actions that I regret. But, by the grace of God, I have made it this far. I have no complaints. And by the grace of God I will continue on.

It made me also think again how much life is like a tapestry. (Corrie ten Boom originally introduced me to this metaphor.) As it unfolds in real time, it’s like viewing the backside of a tapestry. It appears to be nothing more than a jumble of thread—tangled, frayed, occasionally knotted, and seemingly random. Nothing really makes sense. It’s no wonder people lose heart, give up, and abandon their commitments.

But things are not always what they seem. It’s only when you turn a tapestry over that you see the art: the rich colors, the texture, and the patterns that can make a tapestry a thing of astonishing beauty.

Likewise, occasionally God gives us a glimpse at what He is weaving into the fabric of our lives. That momentary peek at glory gives us the courage to soldier on, knowing that nothing happens by accident. No thread of experience—good or bad—is wasted. When it appears to be that way, we just have to remind ourselves that we are simply looking at the backside of a tapestry. And the One weaving it together, knows precisely what He is doing.

Yes, You Can Stay on Top of Email

2008-06-17T08:58:21-05:00

Last week, one of my friends asked, “How do you get through all of your email. It’s killing me. I just can’t seem to get on top of it.” I know the feeling.

Actually, I get asked this question a lot. Despite all the current technology and software tools available, many people are falling further behind with each passing day. They just can’t seem to keep up with the avalanche of digital messages hitting their inbox.

But it is really possible to get caught up on your email and stay caught up? Yes. I’ve done so for years, even as the demands of my job have increased. I’m not bragging; it’s just a fact. But I should warn you: there is no easy fix. Taking control of your inbox means changing your behavior. You must be willing to make the investment.

But in my opinion, making the investment is well-worth the effort. When you are not on top of your email, you feel out of control. It is like a dripping faucet that gnaws quietly away at your psyche and your self-confidence. It can also torpedo your career, since people tend to associate responsiveness with competence. Therefore, becoming an email ninja is an essential survival skill.

If I had to boil it all down to four behaviors, I would recommend the following:

Empty your inbox everyday. This must be your goal. You want to be able to go to sleep with every message processed. That doesn’t mean you answer every message. However, it does mean that you have processed every message. There’s a big difference, as I will explain in a minute.
Don’t get bogged down, keep moving. The key is that once you start processing your inbox, you must move quickly. Read each message once and answer this question: “Is this message actionable?” In other words, “Am I being asked to do something?” If so, there are only three possible actions:

Do—take action on the task now. I follow David Allen’s two-minute rule. If I can do what is being requested in less than two minutes, I do it immediately. This gets stuff off your to-do list before it ever gets on it. This has the added advantage of making you look responsive.
Delegate—pass the task along to someone else. I’m not talking about “passing the buck.” But oftentimes someone else is better equipped to fulfill the sender’s request. Dawson Trotman once said, “I purposed never to do anything others could or would do when there was so much of importance to be done that others could or would not do.” In other words, try to focus on where you add value and offload everything else.
Defer—consciously decide you will do the task later. This only applies to asks you cannot complete in two minutes or less or can’t delegate to someone else. You can either add the task to your to-do list or schedule an appointment with yourself to complete it. Fortunately, in Entourage, I convert an email message to a task or an event (i.e., appointment) with a single keystroke.

Delete—determine if you might need the information later. If not, delete it. My own assumption is that if it’s really important, someone, somewhere else in the world, has a copy of it.
File—if you think you might need the information, file it. But do not create an elaborate set of file folders. This is the single most important piece of advice I can give you. Just file everything in one folder called “Processed Mail.”

If it is more complicated than this, it will lead to procrastination. Trust me on this. You will have to decide, Should I file this under Tami because it is from her or under Max because it is about him? And then what happens if the email covers more than one subject? Do you make copies of the email and put one copy under each folder? Things can get complicated fast.

Forget all of that. File your email in one folder and let your email or system software (e.g., “Spotlight”) find it when you need it. The search capabilities of almost every modern email program will enable you to put your hands on any message whenever it is necessary. It may take you a few minutes longer to find the message using this method, but this is offset by the hours you waste trying to figure out how to file your messages.

Use keyboard shortcuts and avoid the mouse. The mouse is a horribly inefficient input device. Nearly every mouse action has a keyboard equivalent. In Mac OS X, you can even create keyboard shortcuts for any menu item in any software package. (Check under  | System Preferences | Keyboard & Mouse | Keyboard Shortcuts.)

My personal goal is to never use the mouse. Everytime I do, I must take my hands off the keyboard. It doesn’t sound like that would cost you much time, but it adds up. KeyCue is a Mac program that will help you learn the shortcuts for any program. It is worth the investment. Alternatively, you can check the program’s help file and look up “keyboard shortcuts.”
Let email rules filter the low-priority stuff. If you haven’t discovered email rules, you’re missing a great time-saver. (In both Outlook and Entourage, the select Tools | Rules.) They sounds a little geeky, but they are not that difficult to use. Like everything, it will take a little investment, but it will save you hours of time.

For example, I have a rule that moves email messages I am just copied on to a “CC Mail” folder. I assume that these are lower priority messages. I don’t want them cluttering up my main inbox. I get to them when I can, but it is not high priority.

I also have Bacn folder for email newsletters, receipts, and other automatically-generated reading material. (“Spam” is unsolicited bulk email. “Bacn” is solicited bulk email.) Entourage has a Mailing List Manager that makes this a breeze. And, like CC mail, it keeps it out of my inbox.

Don’t give into despair. You can keep up with email. You don’t have to be a geek. But you will have to make some new commitments and learn some new behaviors. But in the end, a little extra effort will save you time and give you the satisfaction that you are in control of your workflow.

What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains

2008-06-15T11:55:03-05:00

The debate about the future of book publishing is largely focused on two questions: First, how will books be sold (bricks and mortar vs. the Internet)? And, second, how will the content be delivered (traditional bound books vs. digital)? Both of these issues are, of course, being driven by the new realities made possible via the Internet.

But I think something even more profound is happening. While the Internet is shaping how we read, it is also shaping how we think.

In the current issue of Atlantic Monthly (July/August 2008), Nicholas Carr asks, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” He then goes on to describe what the Internet is doing to our brains. This is a must-read for anyone in the book publishing industry.

He says,

Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going—so far as I can tell—but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.

I can definitely relate to this. Something is happening to me, too. I am finding it increasingly difficult to focus when I read books or even long articles.

Carr notes that he no longer really reads. He just skims:

And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.

He goes on to say that it’s not just reading. Something is happening to our brains:

When the Net absorbs a medium, that medium is re-created in the Net’s image. It injects the medium’s content with hyperlinks, blinking ads, and other digital gewgaws, and it surrounds the content with the content of all the other media it has absorbed. A new e-mail message, for instance, may announce its arrival as we’re glancing over the latest headlines at a newspaper’s site. The result is to scatter our attention and diffuse our concentration.

What does this mean for book publishing? I don’t know. But I do think Carr is onto something significant. If he is right, then how books are sold and delivered are the least of our worries.

What do you think?

When WOW Becomes Not-WOW

2008-06-09T18:03:23-05:00

When Apple introduced the original iPhone last summer, it was a complete WOW experience. People expected a new phone, but their expectations were shaped entirely by their previous experiences with cell phones. As a result, Apple exceeded the market’s expectations. The company reinvented the cell phone and WOWed the market.

Among other things, Apple redefined voice mail and Web browsing on a mobile device. The company married a phone to an iPod and threw in an amazing touch-screen interface to boot. The device has proven so popular that Apple has sold five million phones in the last year.

Today, Steve Jobs announced a new version of the iPhone at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). For the past several weeks, the press and the pundits have speculated about exactly what he would introduce.

The consensus seemed to be that the new iPhone would include 3G network capabilities, GPS, third-party apps, a push email and calendar system, a slimmer design, and a lower price. And, that's exactly what Apple delivered. This time, however, they only met the market's expectations. Consequently, my sense is that people were not WOWed. They were left a little, well, underwhelmed.

As I pointed out in my post last week, The How of WOW, creating WOW experiences is all about exceeding the customer’s current expectations. A year ago—before the first iPhone was announced—today’s announcement would have blown people’s socks off. But unfortunately, yesterday’s WOW experience is today’s expectation. For Jobs to have WOWed people today, he needed to exceed their current expectations. In my opinion, he didn’t do that. As a result, not-WOW.

Evidently, I am not alone. Apple’s stock price fell $4.03 or 2.17% today. The crazy thing is that the new 3G iPhone compared to any other mobile device is amazing. By any other standard—except Apple—this is a WOW product. (And, for the record, I do plan to buy one.) Such are the perils of delivering WOW experiences. You must keep raising the bar or people will be disappointed.

Update: The presentation is much more WOW when you watch it than when you merely hear about. Maybe I am just falling under the influence of Steve’s “reality distortion field.”

The How of WOW

2008-06-05T13:20:38-05:00

Recently, while on vacation, Gail and I saw two movies in the theater. (I’m not going to mention which movies, because whether you agree with my assessment is not the point.) Both movies sounded great. We eagerly looked forward to seeing them.

Unfortunately, we were disappointed in both movies. We left the theater regretting that we had made the investment in terms of money and the time.

On the morning after the second movie, I went running. I began to think about my experience of disappointment with the movies. Suddenly, I had a revelation. The essence of WOW is this:

You must exceed the customer’s current expectations.

That doesn’t sound all that profound. But I think it has big implications for those of us who are committed to creating WOW experiences.

First of all, each person brings a set of expectations to each experience. Those expectations may be conscious or unconscious. They may be general or specific. They may be vague or clearly defined. Regardless, no customer comes to any experience without some kind of expectation. It’s just the way the human mind works.

In the case of the two movies I described above, several things shaped my expectations:

My previous experience with the series (both were sequels)
My familiarity with the book on which the second movie was based
The movie trailers I had seen
The few reviews I read online before seeing the movies
The recommendations of a few close friends who had seen the movies

The point is that I came to each movie with a very defined set of expectations. Note also the use of the word “current” in my definition. My expectations for movies were different twenty years ago. They were even different a few years ago, before movies like The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Each successive WOW creates a new threshold for the next one.

In any event, I could have had three different experiences relative to my expectations:

Please note that only the green light is a WOW experience. The other two are NOT-WOW. Good is not good enough. If you are committed to creating a WOW experience, then only the green light is an acceptable outcome.

By the way, you don’t have to make every experience in life a WOW. If everything is a WOW, then pretty soon, nothing is a WOW. But you must be able to identify which experiences you want to make a WOW, and then have a process—or a “technology”—for creating that outcome. I call this “the how of WOW.” It involves asking five questions:

What is the experience I want to create or transform into a WOW?
How will the customer feel as a result of this experience? (In other words, what is the specific outcome we want to create?)
What specific expectations does the typical customer bring to this experience?
What does failing to meet customers’ expectations for this experience look like?
What does exceeding customers’ expectations for this experience look like?

These questions can be used on your own or in a group setting to create a WOW conversation.

To illustrate, let’s say that we have realized that our product is more than the artifact we produce (e.g., inspirational books). It is the total customer experience, and it begins from the moment our customers walk into our corporate lobby. We determine that we want to make this a WOW experience. Here’s one way we could apply the questions:

What is the experience I want to create or transform into a WOW? The customer’s lobby experience.
How will the customer feel as a result of this experience? (In other words, what is the specific outcome we want to create?) They feel that we must be an extraordinary company because they have never had a lobby experience like this. They assume that we are somehow really different, and they can’t wait to experience more.
What specific expectations does the typical customer bring to this experience?

They expect the lobby to be clean, neat, and well lit.
They expect the receptionist to be friendly and professional.
They expect the receptionist to call the appropriate person and notify them they have a visitor.
They expect to be asked to sign-in and put on a visitor’s name badge.
They expect to be seated while they wait.
They expect to wait 5–10 minutes before being admitted.
They expect a few, probably slightly out-of-date magazines to thumb through.
They expect to be met by the person they are meeting.

What does failing to meet customers’ expectations for this experience look like?

The lobby is dirty, messy, or dimly lit.
The receptionist is distracted, cold, or rude.
The person gives them the third degree, almost as if they are asking them to prove that they have an appointment.
They are told (not asked) to sign in and handed a cheap, adhesive label. They are told to print their name on it. They affix the label to their coat, but it keeps falling off.
There is no where to sit or all the seats are occupied. They must stand.
They have to wait for more than 10 minutes.
There is either nothing to read or the magazines are badly worn and outdated.
They are told where to go and have to navigate a building they have never been in.

What does exceeding customers’ expectations for this experience look like? (I am going to describe this as though it were my lobby here at Thomas Nelson.)

The lobby is clean, neat, well lit, and beautiful. It is decorated with interesting artifacts from the company’s history with little cards explaining the significance of each one. A running fountain and a small indoor pond creates a soothing oasis from the noise of the street outside.
The receptionist has the title of “Director of First Impressions.” She understands the strategic importance of her job and takes great pride in her role at the company.
The receptionist always refers to visitors as “guests.” The term visitor implies someone who doesn’t quite belong and whom everyone hopes leaves quickly. The term guest implies someone who is to be honored and shown hospitality.
The receptionist warmly greets the guest by name. The guest wonders, How did she know that? The receptionist extends her hand and introduces herself. She says, “It so nice to meet you (or see you again). We’re glad you’ve come by today!” or “It’s so nice to see you again. The weather is a lot warmer than when you were here in March.”
She then hands them a pre-printed “guest” badge. (If the person came in unannounced, she quickly prints a badge.) It is magnetic, rather than adhesive or a pin. It sticks to their jacket without damaging the fabric. The guest’s first name is in big letters. Their last name is printed in smaller letters underneath it.
The receptionist asks the guest if they care for something to drink. “I have bottled water, soda, or freshly brewed Starbucks coffee,” she says. If the guest says, “coffee,” the receptionist asks how the guest likes it.
The receptionist then says, “If you would like to have a seat, I will call [Name] and tell him you are here. I know he’s looking forward to seeing you. While we’re waiting for him to come down, I’ll get your coffee.
The guest sits down on a comfortable chair and notices a selection of the most recent edition of several popular magazines, as well as a few industry journals. In addition, there is a stack of one of our newly published books. A small card next to the stack invites guests to take a copy with our compliments.
The receptionist signs the guest in herself, after the guest is seated. This process is completely invisible to the guest.
Within five minutes, the person with whom the guest has an appointment steps into the lobby and warmly greets the guest. As they leave the lobby, the receptionist says, “It was good to meet you, [Name.] I look forward to seeing you later.”

This is, of course, just an example. But I think it illustrates how you can transform any experience (even an “ordinary” one) into a WOW experience. This process can really be applied to anything—a family vacation, a date with your spouse, a company meeting, or, yes, even the creation of a new book.

As I said previously, you don’t have to make everything a WOW. But once you learn the distinction between WOW and NOT-WOW, it is difficult to be satisfied with anything less.

Top Ten Book Publishers in America (Through March 2008)

2008-06-03T11:17:55-05:00

It’s been more than a year since I updated our list of the Top Ten Publishers in America. Because of some changes in the available point-of-sale data, we were not able to get create a reliable ranking. However, we have seen an improvement in recent months. It’s not perfect, but we do believe it represents the best data currently available.

These lists are based on revenues for the twelve months ending March 31, 2008. We created these lists from a proprietary database we have assembled at Thomas Nelson. It is based on various point-of-sale systems from multiple sales channels.

We maintain two lists internally. First, we track the Top Ten Trade Publishers. (Publishers whose books are primarily sold through retail booksellers as opposed to, say, textbook publishers.) The various imprints are consolidated into their parent companies. So, for example, HarperCollins includes William Morrow and Zondervan. Simon & Schuster includes Free Press, Pocket Books, Howard Books, Scribner, etc.

Second, we track all Christian publishers. In this case, we break out the Christian imprints of the trade publishers and rank them against each other. That’s why Zondervan, for example, is on the second list but not the first list. (Click on the images above to enlarge them. If you want to save the files to your hard drive, right-click and download the linked files.)

What’s changed since the last time we published the list? A couple of things. First, on the Top Trade Publishers our ranking has dropped from #6 to #7. This is due to sales of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows from Scholastic. This one title propelled Scholastic from #10 to #6 and bumped us down to in the process. If you remove this one title from the database, we are still #6.

Pearson also overtook HarperCollins for the #2 slot. The other percentages within the list shifted slightly.

You may be wondering how John Wiley and Scholastic (without Harry Potter) could be smaller than Thomas Nelson. Keep in mind that our ranking only considers trade sales. Both Wiley and Scholastic have giant academic, professional and technical publishing programs that aren’t considered trade sales. In addition, Scholastic has a book fair program, whose sales are not included here.

In terms of the Top Christian Publishers, the ranking of the top five publishing houses remained the same, though the market share percentages changed. We gained market share (180 basis points), along with Tyndale and Baker. Zondervan and Waterbrook Multnomah lost market share.

The bottom five on the list swamped positions and NavPress fell off the list entirely. They were replaced by Moody at #10.

The Single Most Important Key to Achieving Your Goals

2008-05-29T13:04:55-05:00

Several years ago, I wrote out a list of “100 Things I Want to Do Before I Die.” It’s really an amazing, audacious list. Whenever I review it, I am both inspired and stunned by how many of the items I have already accomplished. And yet, there is so much more. The list keeps growing.

I’ll bet you have a list, too. Perhaps you’ve written it down; perhaps not. Regardless, you doubtless want to accomplish things—probably a lot of things. Really important things. Unfortunately, life is short. I have more to accomplish than I could probably do in seven lifetimes.

So how do you actually make significant progress on your goals? How can you get more things done and squeeze as much juice out of life as possible?

One of the most important things you can do, of course, is to write down your goals. I have written about this in The 90-Day Challenge, so I won’t repeat myself here. But assuming you have done that, what’s next?

I’m going to tell you the single most important thing you can do to make your dreams become reality. I have done this over and over again in my life. To the extent I have achieved any level of success, I believe this is the secret:

Enlist the help of the best coaches and instructors you can afford.

My assumption is that someone, somewhere has already done what you are attempting to do—and done it well. If you can tap into their experience and learn from it, you can get to where you want to go faster and with fewer missteps along the journey.

There are basically three ways you can do this. These are arranged from least expensive to most expensive. However, you can often find free alternatives if you look hard enough.

Read the best, most relevant information.

My journey into uncharted territory always begins with a search on Google. There is a ton of free information on the Web. This will give you a feel for who the experts are and what they have to say. If I want to go deeper, I then buy the best books I can find on a given topic.

For example, when I took up digital photography, I bought the three books with the highest Amazon ranking and the best customer reviews. I did the same when I decided to start running or wanted to learn how to program in Visual Basic. This is a relatively inexpensive way to learn the basics and get a broad working knowledge of the topic at hand.

But this step doesn’t just apply to new interests. I continue to read in areas where I am already proficient. I want to deepen my knowledge and my skills sharp.
Sign-up for specialized classes.

I have a short attention span, so full-length, longer-term courses don’t work for me. I get bored. I prefer the all-day, three-day, or (occasionally) one-week course. For example:

When I wanted to figure out my purpose in life and where I fit into the totality of God’s plan, I attended John Eldredge’s Wild at Heart Boot Camp. It was so good that I went back two more times. The last time I took my two sons-in-law with me.
When I wanted to learn how to build a great marriage, Gail and I attended several courses on marriage, some taught by Gary Smalley. (A bit of trivia: Gary and his wife, Norma, introduced Gail and me to each other. He actually performed our marriage ceremony.)
When I wanted to learn how to create alignment in teams, I took a one-week course from Gap International called “The Alignment Intensive.” It blew my mind. I use the tools I learned in this course almost every day.
When I wanted to improve my writing skills, I signed up for an intensive one-week course from American Writers & Artists, Inc. called, “The Copywriting Success Bootcamp.” This was one of the best professional investments I ever made.
When I wanted to improve my golf short game, I signed up for a one-day course with Nancy Quarcelino, one of the best golf teachers in the country. Though my game is still not all that great, it’s a lot better since taking this course.
When I wanted to learn how to use Photoshop to edit my digital photos, I took a one-day course from Ben Willmore called, “Photoshop for Digital Photographers.” (Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like he is teaching this any longer. But he does have plenty of other great resources.)
When I wanted to learn Byzantine Chant, I attended the Sacred Music Institute at Antiochian Village in Western Pennsylvania. It was a week-long course with one track for chanters and one track for choir directors. It was so good, I took the course again the next year.
When I wanted to get proficient with a handgun, I took four courses from Personal Responsibility, Inc.: “Handgun I: Carry Permit,” “Handgun II: Intermediate,” “Handgun III: Advanced,” and “Handgun Speed and Accuracy.” I also took several tactical rifle and shotgun courses.

you can afford.

Hire world-class experts.

Next, I enlisted the help of real people who could hone my skills beyond what I could learn in a book or garner from a course. For example,
- When I wanted to create sustainable work/life balance, I hired Daniel Harkavy, the president and founder of Building Champions. He helped me craft my very first “life plan.” He then held my feet to the fire until I got my equilibrium. (He is also the author of the excellent book, Becoming a Coaching Leader.)
- When I wanted to create a comprehensive strategic plan for my company, I hired Dan Meub, also of Building Champions. He has consulted with me now for almost five years on every aspect of corporate strategy. He also is one of my most trusted personal advisors.
- When I wanted to take my personal leadership skills to the next level and really see how my own thinking was impacting our corporate results, I hired Ilene Meuthing of Gap International. She’s basically done a brain transplant on me. However, she's not done. I'm still a work-in-process.
- When I wanted to figure out why I kept slicing my drives, I hired Nancy Quarcelino for a two-hour session. She videotaped me, so I could see the problem in my swing and fix it for good. Last week when I played, I hit every drive but two into the middle of the fairway.
- When I wanted to get in the best shape of my life, I hired Tom Gmitter at my local YMCA as my personal trainer. He designed a plan that I could have never developed on my own. He also kept changing up my routine, so I wouldn’t get bored. He worked out with me twice a week for more than a year.
In addition, in the course of my life, I have hired nutritionists, counselors, music teachers, accountants, lawyers, fishing guides, agents, and various kinds of instructors and coaches. Some have been short-term; some have been long-term. My philosophy is to use them as long as they continue to provide value.

In the end, you can accomplish more than you ever thought possible. And you can do it faster and with better results if you just enlist the assistance of the right guide and do what they say. I can’t think of anything else that will help you accomplish your goals more than this.