Brees shared with the audience what he called his 5 pillars to success, which were collectively represented by the acronym FAITH. Some notes and comments on each:

F is for Fortitude

Fortitude is defined as “mental and emotional strength in facing difficulty, adversity, danger, or temptation courageously.” You could also define it as the mental and emotional strength to carry the 40-year-old hopes and dreams of a wounded city on your shoulders.

The Saints had a good run in 2006. They could have left it at that, figuring they’d done their part. But Brees and company wanted more than a good run. They wanted it all. They had to endure disappointing seasons in ‘07 and ‘08, but all the while they stayed strong and they believed in themselves. They knew that if they could persevere through the tough times, they’d eventually get what they deserved.

Do you have fortitude? Can you keep your head up when times are bad?

A is for Attitude

You have to have the attitude that adversity equals opportunity. Brees signed with the Saints after Hurricane Katrina laid waste to New Orleans. Most people just saw adversity, Brees saw opportunity. New Orleans was where he would resurrect his career and help build something bigger than himself.

Brees mentioned guys on the team he loved being around because of their attitude (e.g. Billy Miller). If you want to win, what kind of people should you surround yourself with? Who are you most likely to succeed with? People with great attitudes of course.

“There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative.” – W. Clement Stone

How’s your attitude? Would you want you as a teammate?

I is for Integrity

Brees spoke about keeping promises and doing your part. Be there early for practice if you say you will. Help your teammates get better rather than stand back and criticize them. Say what you mean and mean what you say.

A word from M. Scott Peck:

The word integrity comes from the same root as integrate. It means to achieve wholeness, which is the opposite of compartmentalize. Compartmentalization is easy. Integrity is painful. But without it there can be no wholeness. Integrity requires that we be fully open to the conflicting forces and ideas and stresses of life.

Would those who know you best describe you as a person of integrity?

T is for Trust

“Trust is the cornerstone of every meaningful relationship.” Brees paused after speaking those words, then repeated them. He has to trust his linemen to protect him. He has to trust his receivers to run the routes as practiced so they’re in the right place at the right time and the pass doesn’t get picked off.

The message: You can’t do it all yourself. Sooner or later, to really be at your best, you need to put your trust in others.

Do you trust others and work as part of a team to achieve great things?

H is for Humility

Brees quoted Harry S. Truman: “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”

A great leader never asks someone to do what he’s not willing to do himself. Brees stays back after practice and helps guys get better. He busts his ass on every sprint, leading by example. It makes a big difference to have your superstar going all out for every drill. The rest of the team follows suit.

Do you have humility? Are you willing to accept blame and share praise?

Goals

One other thing that stood out from Brees’ speech was his few words about goals and their importance. He has goals written on the inside cover of his notebook that he reviews every day. His goals are concrete and measurable, so he can evaluate his progress daily.

One of his daily goals is to show at least one small act of leadership, whether that be staying back at practice, offering a few encouraging words to a teammate, working harder than everyone else during drills, whatever.

Brees noted that it’s also important to have team goals, and everyone must know how their individual goals fit in with the team goals. Everyone must know their purpose.

If you don’t have goals or a purpose in life, these two articles from the archive may help you:

• Finding your life purpose
• Prioritize your life

The 2010 NFL season starts this Thursday. Two Dat!

First, let me remind you of the kind of life I’m trying to build for myself: This November I will be quitting my nice-and-steady 9-to-5 web design job, leaving New Orleans and heading back to Ireland. There I will set up my own business and spend a few months figuring out how to make a living online without working crazy hours. I’ll be working on projects I’m passionate about, building my audience and reputation, and setting myself up for location independence.

Before the calendar flips to May 2011, I will quickly and easily relocate to Spain and spend a maximum of six months there, learning the language from scratch. I will be fluent by the time I leave in the Autumn.

Beyond that, I’m not sure. I will probably travel on through Europe, experience several different cultures en route to Southeast Asia, and I intend to be back in the USA in 2013 for an epic 3-month road trip.

All along the way, my aim will be to help and inspire people to live the life of their dreams. I figure I’ll be somewhat of an authority on the subject, since I’ll be living mine.

So where do you fit in?

I will be pouring my heart and soul into this blog in the hopes of inspiring you to be the best person you can be. I don’t want you to live vicariously through me, reading about my adventures and thinking “Wow, I could never do that.”

No, I want you to go write your own script and live it, too. I want you on this journey with me.

If you read this blog regularly for the next twelve months and your life ends up looking exactly the same, then I’ll have failed you. I’d rather not waste your time like that. Hence this post.

The kind of people I’ll be writing for

• Action-oriented people
• Goal-oriented people
• Open-minded people
• Passionate people
• Heretics
• Change-makers
• Risk takers
• Positive people
• People who love learning
• People who want to change, and want to make change
• People who want to be part of the solution
• People who want to help others

If the above sounds like you, or the person you’re aiming to become, stick around. I think we’ll get along great. In fact, I’d love to get to know you better. Send me a message via e-mail, Facebook or Twitter.

The kind of people who are wasting their time here

• Folks who spend hours watching TV or playing video games each day
• People who expect life to be easy
• Destructive critics
• Pessimists, doomsayers and energy vampires
• People who settle for mediocrity
• People who think material possessions will make them happy
• Anyone who thinks one person can’t make a difference
• Anyone who thinks they don’t have a choice
• People who run from their fears
• People who project their own limitations onto others
• Disrespectful people

(A special message for the last crowd on the above list: I’m fine with you disagreeing with my viewpoints, but you must be respectful. One person left two disrespectful comments on my last post, and I promptly deleted both of them. Sorry, but I’m not going to spend any time or energy arguing with trolls. I’d rather spend that time and energy writing a new post that will help and inspire respectful people.)

If you find you identified more with that second list, well then this is where we part ways. Don’t worry, there are plenty of other blogs out there that you can read instead of mine. No hard feelings. Have a nice life.

If you’re still with me, great. I really appreciate you taking the time to read my blog. I’ll keep trying hard to add value to your life and help you be the best you can be. I’m just getting started on this journey of mine, and I’m looking forward to your company.

So I gave vegetarian a try in January of 2009, and six months later I ended up vegan. I found that those diets worked great for me. Here’s why you should get selfish and try them, too.

1. Practice self-discipline

I believe in building positive habits. The more you practice something, the more ingrained it becomes. Before you know it, it’s second nature. You can’t accomplish much in life without self-discipline, and self-discipline is something I get to practice every meal and snack time thanks to veganism. I know all that practice has helped me in other areas of my life. I’ve become very good at forming new habits and sticking to plans I make for myself.

Of course, you can practice self-discipline at meal times without being vegan. Maybe you cut out gluten, or you use the Weight Watchers point system, or you don’t eat anything with primary colors. While not every restrictive diet will be good for your health, it will help you build some self-discipline muscles.

2. Less choice, more happy

If you’re vegan, you’ll undoubtedly have less menu items to choose from when you go to a typical restaurant. I see this as a good thing. Less choice leads to less indecision and less regret. Before I was vegan, I would often spend ten minutes scouring a menu, then order the chicken dish while wondering if maybe I should have ordered the meatballs or the fried shrimp instead. But these days I usually only have a handful of options to choose from on the menu, so I can order faster and not worry so much about the opportunity cost.

See, more isn’t always better. Smart people call this type of thing the paradox of choice, noting that folks are usually happier when they have less to choose from. That could be you!

3. Focus better, think clearer

The main thing that attracted me to plant-based diets initially were the reported mental benefits I heard from various people who had already made the switch. Sure enough, I also found that I could think more clearly and focus better once I cut animal products out of my diet.

One explanation I’ve heard for this is that animal products require a lot of energy for your body to digest, energy that could otherwise be used for mental functions. Foods like fruit and vegetables are digested much faster and more easily. I believe this ties in with modern cancer treatments, which increasingly involve putting the patient on a plant-based diet so the body has more energy available to fight the disease.

Please note that I have no scientific evidence to back this up, so take my words here with a grain of salt. All I know for sure is that I’ve experienced these mental benefits after switching to a plant-based diet, and many others report the same. Try it yourself and see if it works for you.

4. Embrace change

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but rather the one most adaptable to change.” – someone not named Charles Darwin

Routines and habits are important, but it’s equally important to try new things regularly and push yourself out of your comfort zone. That’s how we learn and grow. I believe my experiments with plant-based diets were among the best learning and growth experiences of my life. I learned a lot about food and the food industry, discovered the truth behind a lot of veg myths, and met some great new people. More importantly, I got to know myself a hell of a lot better. Change and adversity will do that.

…

Beyond those four, there are lots of other positive things veganism can do for you. For example, you’ll undoubtedly become a better cook, your skin and overall health will improve (as long as you’re not just eating vegan junk food), and you’ll find it easy to fight the flab (how many fat vegans do you know?).

So get selfish. Be good to yourself and try a plant-based diet for 30 days, see how it makes you feel. I’d advise against going straight from omnivore to vegan though. Take the vegetarian bridge to avoid overwhelm.

Good luck!

(Want to learn more about going veg? I wrote a lengthy piece about my experience here.)

Let me break down the plan:

20 lbs of muscle

This morning I weighed in at 185 lbs. My body fat was 8.21% (15.2 lbs) when I measured it last weekend. To gain 20 lbs of muscle, I need to get up to 205 lbs while lowering that body fat percentage slightly.

Six weeks

Why six weeks? Well, adding 20 lbs in four weeks seems just a little too ambitious given my inexperience with body hacking. Tim was no stranger to this kind of stuff when he started, plus he was eating animal products (easier to get ridiculous amounts of protein). He was also muscular a few years before, so he may have benefited from some kind of muscle-memory type thing.

I’m lowering the bar a little. Six weeks feels about right.

Vegan diet

I’ve been vegan for over a year now, and it works well for me. I didn’t want to go back eating animal products just for the sake of this experiment. I’m more curious to see if I can add muscle rapidly on a vegan diet.

Tim Ferriss ate lots of meat during his training, consuming 5000-6000 total calories per day. He also took supplements.

I’ve worked out a vegan meal plan that will see me consuming an average of 5000 calories per day, which is double my regular intake.

I want to stick to real food as much as possible, so I won’t be taking any supplements or protein shakes. My carb-fat-protein ratio will be approximately 3:1:1.

You can check out my spreadsheet on Google Docs for more detailed info.

One hour of exercise per week

This is the part where people usually start thinking I’m crazy

To put on 20 lbs of muscle in six weeks, you’d think I’d have to be hitting the gym almost every day, but I’m only planning to do two half-hour sessions per week (Wednesday evening and Sunday morning). I’ll be working out my whole body each session, doing slow (10-15 seconds) reps with resistance both ways. The goal is to exhaust my muscles completely each workout, and then build them back up stronger with the protein-heavy diet.

I’ll have a trainer I’ll be working with. I did one test session with her a few weeks ago. She’s agreed to push me to my limits and beyond once we start for real next Wednesday. This type of slow training is intense and painful, but I believe it’s the most effective form of weight training out there. Quality, not quantity.

My current health

In preparation for this experiment, I’ve been doing all sorts of measuring and testing. I’ll be taking the same measurements and tests after the six weeks and comparing the results. I don’t just want to put on 20 lbs of muscle. I want to do it safely, without negatively impacting my blood pressure, cholesterol, etc.

Below are some results from tests my doctor ordered last week. Apparently I’m in fantastic health

• Blood pressure: 124/80
• Cholesterol: 129
• Triglyceride level: 81
• White blood cell count: 5.47
• Red blood cell count: 5.12
• Fasting blood glucose: 92
• Calcium in blood: 9.3
• Protein in blood: 7.4
• Urine pH: 7.0

My body measurements, as taken last Saturday:

• Chest fat: 4 mm
• Abdominal fat: 14 mm
• Thigh fat: 10 mm
• Body fat %: 8.21
• Neck: 386 mm
• Chest: 953 mm
• Shoulders: 1145 mm
• Thigh: 590 mm
• Calf: 397 mm
• Upper Arm: 283 mm
• Forearm: 282 mm
• Waist: 832 mm
• Hips: 1013 mm

The why

For a while, when people asked why I wanted to put on 20 lbs of muscle in the first place, I’d respond that I just wanted to challenge myself, much like I did when I tried to finish in the top 200 of the Crescent City Classic. But the challenge isn’t the main reason I’m doing it. Mostly, I just want to look better naked

It would also be nice though to prove that this works and inspire other folks to give it a try.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Then I took a few minutes one day to think about the problem.

When did the applications start running slowly? I realized it was about the time I last updated the software. Hmm. So maybe there was a bug in that software update and I should try update it again to see if Apple had a fix. Sure enough, they did. After another update the phone was back loading applications good and zippy.

But I was still stuck on the Edge network. I first noticed that particular problem when I returned from Italy in June. Initially I assumed that there was just something wrong with the coverage in the New Orleans area, but then no other iPhone user I talked to seemed to have the same issue. I took a weekend trip to Las Vegas in July and my phone still couldn’t pick up the faster 3G network there.

Eventually I had to admit that I alone must be doing something wrong, so I took a few minutes to Google “iPhone stuck on Edge network” and found some advice about checking if the Enable 3G option was turned on in the network settings. Sure enough, that option had been disabled for me all that time. I must have turned it off as an extra precaution to avoid crazy roaming charges when I went to Italy.

Take the time

So now my iPhone is back working as good as new. I was the problem the whole time. I kept making excuses, telling myself it wasn’t a big deal, assuming everyone else was in the same boat and it wasn’t just something I was doing wrong. It was only when I accepted responsibility and took the time to stop and think that I was able to get the issue resolved in a matter of minutes.

Sure, this was just a dumb problem with a glorified gadget, but I’ve come to believe many problems can be solved by slowing down, taking the time to look and listen. We miss out on obvious solutions when we rush or are too eager to escape a situation.

Try not to get frustrated with a problem. Accept it, then study it for a while without doing anything.

Patience > Smarts

Another example:

Just yesterday I was at Whole Foods, and a middle-aged guy in front of me struggled separating two small carts for a few seconds before giving up and opting for a bigger one. With people walking past and looking at him, he felt embarrassed not being able to separate the small carts, so he didn’t take that extra moment he needed to see what was keeping them stuck. After he moved on, I took one good hard look at the carts, saw how they were attached, and was able to separate them before middle-aged dude had even pulled out his bigger cart. He looked at me and remarked, “Ah, it takes a smart person, I guess.”

But smarts had nothing to do with it. I just took an extra couple of seconds to analyze the problem.

Design/programming problems

This slow-down approach often serves me well in my work as a web designer. Trying to solve design or programming problems by brute force rarely works. You can sit there and hammer away on the computer for hours, trying a million wrong solutions, only to think of the right one as you’re walking home that evening or taking a shower the next morning. Letting your mind relax for a while does the trick.

Slow down to get ahead

Einstein said that problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them. Since most problems are created in a rush, it makes sense that slowing down will help us solve them.

Where have you been rushing and struggling? Slow down for a bit and let the solution come to you.

In short, this guy is doing the type of things I’m aiming to do, so I figured I should pick his brain and see what he can share about living life on one’s own terms and making a positive difference in the world. I asked, Raam answered…

1) Why are you on this journey? How did it all start?

I grew up dreaming of traveling the world as a nomad — exploring jungles, climbing remote mountains, and spending weeks out on the ocean. Even after starting a career in the IT industry, those dreams never left me. So many years went by sitting in front of a computer staring out the window dreaming of “what could be”.

Finally, late last year, after discovering the lifestyle design community and learning of others who were younger than me and who took action and made their dreams a reality, I felt my inner spark dying. I was losing the ability to keep those dreams inside me alive. I knew that I was reaching a turning point; if I didn’t do something soon, those dreams were going to die.

So I began selling all my possessions, at first moving everything into a storage unit and then, as the departure date got closer, moving things to my parents basement. I practically gave stuff away just to get rid of it. I sold my pickup truck on CraigsList three days before I was scheduled to leave and I sold my triathlon bike a few hours before I got on the plane.

I arrived in India with one backpack and almost no plans for what was next. My purpose wasn’t very clear either, except that I was following my heart — I was following dreams that had been with me for most of my life.

2) I loved your most recent post entitled Discovering the Real Nepal. You wrote a bit about purpose at the end of that article, about how you feel yourself losing interest in doing things just for the sake of doing them. Can you elaborate on that?

When I embarked on this adventure, I felt no sense of direction. I was simply breaking free from the status-quo and following my heart. I was a cloud floating aimlessly over an open ocean and I had no idea what kind of person would emerge on the other side or what would happen when the initial six-month journey was over.

If there was something I was traveling with though, it was an open-mind and a willingness to help. Slowly making my way from south India to north India, I witnessed all sorts of poverty and suffering around me, day after day, month after month. It began to have a big effect on me and I wanted to help. At the same time, I felt the universe pointing a big finger at me as if to say “you’re supposed to be helping fix this”.

It was the strongest and most in-your-face sense of finding purpose that I had ever experienced. I couldn’t sleep at night and I woke up every morning eager to continue brainstorming solutions. With that purpose so clearly defined — with that direction so obvious — everything else seemed to fade into the background.

As the days and weeks wore on and I began walking in this new direction (the Small Ways to Make a Big Difference ebook was one step), I began to feel myself becoming less interested in anything that wasn’t directly advancing me towards this new goal. Anything that didn’t help me work towards making a difference in the lives of others felt detrimental to the journey.

I recently went on a planned five-day trek in the Himalayas to relax and experience the mountains of Nepal. However, it left me feeling so lost, unfocused, and disinterested in simple pleasures that when I got back I decided to cancel the one week trip in north India where I was going to visit several touristy places like Darjeeling, Varanasi, and Agra (Taj Mahal).

I will instead be spending my last two weeks in Delhi working on my laptop and having lunch with a school teacher who connected with me through my blog to discuss education for poor children in India — an opportunity for me to learn more about something that will help me on my mission. Visiting a bunch of touristy places will do absolutely nothing at this point.

3) Another article you wrote that really made me think was entitled Sustainable Distribution of Abundance or Why I Don’t Haggle in the Third World. You’ve obviously seen a lot of hardship and poverty on your travels. I’m curious to know if such experiences have dampened your positivity and optimism. Do you ever feel overwhelmed by it all?

Even more than the scale of the problems, the sheer number of people who are already trying to help is overwhelming. As all of this is very new to me, I’m constantly learning everything I can about what’s already being done and it never ceases to amaze me how many people are trying to help and how little it seems to be having an effect.

My optimism will never be dampened, but at the same time I have a healthy dose of realism embedded in me. I see a future that I am confident will be a reality… some day. I’ve already accepted that it’s not likely I will live to see my Utopian vision, but that’s not important. What’s important is that enough people see the possibility for a future where poverty and suffering don’t exist and recognize that their own actions are determining how soon that will happen.

I have several little notes on my Mac dashboard that I look at whenever I’m feeling overwhelmed. One of them reads “Humans have a natural tendency to over-complicate issues AND solutions.” Another one says, “Helping people is NOT complicated.” And lastly, my favorite, “Nobody said saving the world would be easy. ”

Every mountain looks challenging before we start climbing it, but no climber ascends to the top staring at the summit the entire time. He looks at the ground in front of him and takes one step. Then he takes another. And then another. Once the climber knows where he’s going, the steps behind him aren’t important. The summit isn’t important. It’s only the next step that matters.

Remembering how fortunate I am and how much I have going for me in comparison to all those people who are living on the street and scraping by just to feed themselves, that always eliminates any feeling of negativity or self-pity I may have.

4) Who inspires you?

Everyone. I’ve never met a single person who doesn’t inspire me in some way.

Speaking more generally though, children are an incredible inspiration. They can be born into the most difficult conditions with absolutely nothing and yet they’ll find ways to play and have fun. No matter what their circumstances are, they will always find ways to enjoy life and make the most of it.

One of my favorite things is to just watch kids play. I try to put myself in their shoes and see the world through their eyes. I feel the simplicity of life that they’re experiencing and suddenly all the problems in the world seem solvable.

5) Tell us about your greatest strength and, if you’re feeling strong enough, your greatest weakness.

Six months ago I would’ve told you my greatest weakness was my lack of direction. Now I’d argue it’s my greatest strength.

My inability to socialize, to really make people feel comfortable around me and hold a conversation (especially in groups) is a big weakness. I’m very sensitive to changes in emotions, but I’m often entirely oblivious to what they mean. I’m also extremely reserved and I have a hard time forming opinions and speaking my mind when it’s not entirely made up (which, due to my being extremely open-minded, it rarely is).

Instantly being able to learn and understand new concepts and technologies has been invaluable in my life. My ability to control my emotions and not let them get out of hand is also invaluable. I’m extremely observant, dedicated, patient, and analytical but most of all I find that my ability to accept criticism and then work towards changing myself is a great strength.

And on that note, please send over all the constructive criticism you can conjure up!

My only criticism is that Raam has not yet figured out how to clone himself. You should all go check out his free e-book, read his blog and follow him on Twitter.

My sincerest thanks to Raam for taking the time to respond to my questions so thoughtfully.

Madness ensued, as Travis and I dropped to all fours and unleashed our best dog-chasing-cat act. I barked and growled and pursued. Travis hissed and scampered and threatened me with fake claws. We did this for a minute or two, in a room of 30 people.

And then it was my turn to be master.

CGW4

Last month I attended Steve Pavlina’s fourth Conscious Growth Workshop in Las Vegas. All in all, it was one of the best weekends I ever had, as I got to meet a bunch of exceptional people and learn lots about myself.

The scene described above happened during the first day of the workshop. Steve had the attendees divide into groups of three, and each person took a turn being the master while the other two acted as servants. As servants, we were allowed to refuse an order if it made us feel uncomfortable.

The goal of the exercise was to discover which role we were more comfortable in. Some people had no problem taking orders and preferred not to be in charge, while other folks reveled in their role as master, really enjoying the feelings of power and control.

We actually did the exercise twice, taking about 15 minutes each time. During the first round, the masters mostly instructed their servants to do silly things, like have a dance-off, poke other people in the room or pretend snow ball fight. Afterwards, Steve sat everybody down for a few minutes and had us reflect. We were asked to recognize where our hesitations were, and consider how we could be better masters and servants when called upon.

Then we started into the second round.

What I learned

The master/servant exercise was one of the highlights of the workshop for me. I learned a lot from it. Three primary lessons:

1. Go your own way

For my first turn as master, I fell in with the crowd and got my servants to do silly, trivial things. It was only during the break that I asked myself what I really wanted them to do. This is something I — and I believe most people — often struggle with. It’s easy to just do what everyone else is doing and not question it. It takes a lot of courage and consciousness to decide your own course of action — the course of action that feels most true to you — and follow it.

2. Push people

During the first round, I realized that I was only giving my servants tasks that I knew they would do, tasks they wouldn’t object to. I didn’t try to push them out of their comfort zone. This comes down to an irrational fear I have of rejection, and a weird double standard I have in my head. See, I love it when others push me, but for some reason I hesitate to push others and expect much less from them than I do from myself. Having realized this, I was more assertive and pushed my servants a bit more during the second round, and I know we all got a lot more from the session because of that.

3. Ask to be pushed

When considering how i could be a better servant, I realized that I just patiently awaited an instruction during the first round of the exercise, and then carried it out. The tasks didn’t really push me out of my comfort zone. What if I asked my master to give me some harder tasks, tasks that would stretch me? In the second round, when Travis was master, I asked him to push me. So he did, asking me to take my shirt off in that room of 30 people, then go around asking everyone else to join me in shirtless rebellion. That was definitely out of my comfort zone, so I did it, and it wasn’t such a big deal. I found what Steve Pavlina had told us to be true: “Beyond fear, there’s lots and lots of fun.”

Are you more comfortable being the master or being a servant?

Ideally, you should be comfortable in both roles. There will always be times when you’ll be called upon to lead, and there will always be times when you’ll be called upon to follow. Becoming aware of your strengths and weaknesses in those roles now will help you perform better in the future.

The creative among you know exactly what I’m talking about.

But flow is somewhat elusive. The garden hose analogy only goes so far. You can stop and start the flow of water by turning the tap, but there’s no easy way to stop and start creative flow. That said, I believe I’ve gotten much better at cultivating flow, and I’d like to share with you how I do it.

First, some background

When I started this blog almost a year ago, my goal was to write and publish just one blog post per week. That doesn’t sound like much, and I figured it would be easy, but truthfully it was a real struggle at times. My self-imposed deadline was Thursday before midnight. I had to publish something by that time every week.

Fast forward to today, and I’ve been publishing two blog posts per week for a couple of months now. I find it easy to meet my deadlines. In fact, I have an excess of finished articles sitting there unpublished, and I feel I’m providing more value with each new article than I did a year ago. I’ve accomplished this without devoting significantly more time each week to writing.

Making the leap

How did I go from struggling to publish once per week, to publishing twice per week without breaking a sweat? I believe I’ve just gotten much better at cultivating flow. Whereas before I would sit down and spend agonizing hours trying to write a single ho-hum post, I can now sit down and crank out something I feel proud of in less than an hour.

How do I cultivate that flow? Well, this may sound counter-intuitive, but something that’s made a big difference for me has been creating a writing schedule (and sticking to it, of course). I used to just write whenever I felt like it, or whenever a deadline was looming, but now I get up and write for 30 minutes every weekday morning. Sometimes I find myself in a state of flow, and sometimes I don’t, but I make myself sit there and write for those 30 minutes regardless.

This discipline seems to have paid off. I believe the consistent practice helps me stay prepared, so when I do feel a wave of inspiration coming on, I can jump on it and ride it to the shore. My writing skills have sharpened and I’m able to articulate myself better. I’m not as likely to agonize over punctuation and other nit-picky things that can stop flow dead in its tracks.

A new norm

It seems whatever muse I have has come to realize that I’m better prepared these days, and she rewards me by coming to visit more often. I get struck by inspiration regularly now, and not just in the mornings when I’m scheduled to receive it. I do my best to be receptive to inspiration at all times (like now, when I pushed back doing my weekly planning session to get these words out of me). I may skip a nap or a meal or an hour of work (sorry, boss) to make the most of it, to get it down on paper before it’s lost forever.

This is definitely paying off for me. An hour I spend writing now produces a hell of a lot more value than an hour I spent writing last October.

What helped

Three things stick out in my mind that have helped me in this regard:

1. Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED speech on creativity
She talks about having a genius rather than being one. With that approach, she’s not fully to blame if her work sucks. Her job is simply to show up and put in the time, punch that clock every day. If genius decides to punch in too and flow through her, great. If not, she can still sleep well at night knowing that she did her part.

2. Steven Pressfield’s book, The War of Art
He’s smelling what Liz Gilbert is stepping in. The book has much the same message: Creativity is an energy that flows through us; we just need to show up regularly and be good conductors. It takes practice and hard work and discipline to become a good conductor, but it’s worth it.

3. This blog post: How to Become an 800% Faster Writer in 12 Weeks
That’s a guest post on Think Traffic, written by J.D. Bentley of Wage Slave Rebel. The important advice there for me was “challenge yourself.” In Bentley’s words, “You’re going to be afraid, but it won’t be because you can’t do it. It will be because you aren’t giving yourself enough credit.” It may sound ridiculous that I was afraid to step my posting up to twice per week, but I was. I struggled to publish one good post per week, what made me think I could double that? Well, J.D.’s post did, and he was right.

That’s all. Go let it flow.

1. Number your points

If you have several points to make in an e-mail, number them. This helps you be precise and allows the responder to address each point individually. If you are the responder, and the other person didn’t number the points they made in their initial e-mail, go ahead and number them yourself as you respond. Resist the urge to use Roman numerals.

2. Cut out the soft questions

If you must use niceties, don’t use them as questions. “How are you?” is fine if you really want to know how the other person is, but more often than not it’s just used as a formality, and the last thing you want is the other person to come back with a three paragraph response to that throwaway query. “I hope you’re well,” is a better way to go.

3. If… then…

I picked this tip up from The 4-Hour Workweek. Many questions asked by e-mail simply lead to more questions and therefore more back-and-forth, but often you can anticipate what the follow-ups will be and answer them before they’re even asked. For example, if you’re planning a nighttime ninja expedition with a friend and you’re not sure if he has his own nunchucks, you could e-mail and ask “Do you have nunchucks?” and wait for him to get back to you. Or you could take the initiative and send something like this in your first message:

“Do you have nunchucks? If you do, bring them along. If not, I have some throwing stars you can borrow instead.”

Now your ninja buddy doesn’t have to respond at all.

4. Empathize

Before you send an e-mail, always read back over the message and try to interpret it as the recipient would. What questions do you envision them having? Are there any parts that are likely to confuse them? Revise and elaborate as necessary.

5. Offer solutions instead of asking questions

If you know what the problem is, offer a solution or two instead of asking “What now?” Just be sure to offer solutions that you’re in favor of. There’s always a good chance that the other person won’t be in the mood for thinking and so they’ll get on board with whatever you propose.

6. Check e-mail just once or twice a day

My least productive days are those when I start out checking e-mail. Before you know it, I’m chasing after “urgent” requests, at the expense of important work. I’ve gotten into the habit though of not checking e-mail until after 10am, and those first couple of hours in the morning are easily my most productive and effective because of that.

It’s also important to let people know that you only check it once or twice a day. That way they are more likely to try to solve the problem themselves before e-mailing you about it, or they might solve it after e-mailing you and follow up with a “nevermind” before you even see the first message.

Checking e-mail just once or twice a day also results in batch processing. You can zip through all your unread e-mails in a few minutes, separate the important from the unimportant, then take effective action. Only when you check e-mail every two minutes does every message seem urgent and important, but really most are neither.

7. Keep it brief

This may sound contradictory to some of the other points above, but it’s important to keep your e-mails brief. You want to cover all the bases and be as clear as possible, yes, but you also don’t want to spend all day writing. After all, the more you write, the longer the response is likely to be.

As such, set yourself a sentence limit for e-mail and try to stick to that. Include a link to five.sentenc.es in your e-mail signature if you like. Keep in mind that a one-word response will often do for a confirmation; the length of your reply does not have to match the length of the original message.

8. Don’t reply to every e-mail

Nobody says you have to. Many of the e-mails we receive do not warrant a response. Know that nothing bad will happen if you let a few forgettable messages slip through the cracks.

9. Illustrate your point

If your e-mail references a certain webpage, include a link or a screenshot. Don’t make the other person guess or go scouring the web to see what you’re talking about. That’s where the bulk of those 14,000 hours are lost.

…

Example

Now, let’s put the tips above into practice. Here’s a fake real e-mail that I found lying around. The names have been changed for my own amusement. I believe many people still send messages like this, not realizing how much better the communication could be.

Hey Seamus,

How are you? I hope the summer is treating you well. I’ve been extremely busy here but I know I shouldn’t complain. How’s business on your end?

More to the point, I was just playing around with the new version of the website and I have a few questions and comments. I was wondering if we can change the background color? I hope it’s not too late. I’m just not a big fan of that orange. And what about the headline text? I’m also not sure if I like the way things are ordered in the sidebar. I think we should revise. Maybe we could add something different at the top, make it stand out a little more. Do you have any suggestions?

There’s also the page I talked to you about on the phone last week. Have you been able to work on that?

I think that’s everything. Call me if you have any questions. I think we’ll be close to finished once we get these few things straightened out. Thanks for all your help.

- Finbar

The above e-mail is terrible. Finbar rambles on, throws out questions as he thinks of them and is very vague and uncertain on several points. Sure, he comes off sounding like a nice guy, but he’s making Seamus’s job much more difficult and time-intensive than it has to be.

Here’s a revised version of the e-mail showing how Finbar could have communicated more effectively. The word count is about the same and it wouldn’t have taken him any longer to write.

Hey Seamus,

A few things regarding the new site. I think we’ll be done once we have these straightened out.

1) I’m not satisfied with the orange background. Is it too late to change it? If not, let’s try yellow instead, the same shade they use in the background of this site.

2) I also want to change the color of the headlines in the main content area. Right now they’re black. Let’s try a dark blue/navy. Send me screenshots of three different shades and I’ll pick one.

3) Reorder the blocks of content in the sidebar like so: About, Subscribe, Calendar, Latest Posts, Ad Space.

4) Related to the above, I want the About block to stand out more in the sidebar. Please cut out the attached picture of me and add it alongside the text (right aligned). The image should be clickable and link to the full About page. If you think this will look terrible, please advise of an alternative way to emphasize the About block.

5) Have you been able to work on the Contact page like we talked about last week? Please send an update.

Let me know if you have any questions/comments. Thanks for all your help.

- Finbar

With this revised version of the message, Seamus should be able to get right to work. Finbar has eliminated the need for lots of back-and-forth, thanks to the clarity and precision of his message. Good man, Finbar. Have a biscuit.

Try it yourself

Keep these few tips in mind next time you’re doing business via e-mail. It won’t be long before you see them paying off.

If you have any additional tips that have worked well for you, I’d love to hear about them in the comments.

If you find yourself just going through the motions every week and not really moving any closer to your goals, read on for my tips on how to use weekly planning effectively, then give it a try yourself.

Tip 1: Write it all down

Yup, I’ll start with the obvious. You need to have easy access to your weekly plan so you can check it regularly. Since I’m usually online multiple times a day, I use a spreadsheet on Google Docs, but you can use something like Excel if you prefer, or create a template that you can print out, fill in by hand and carry around with you.

I’ve created a demo plan on Google Docs so you can see what my spreadsheet typically looks like. Click here or on the screenshot below to get to it. (If you have a Google account, you should be able to save a copy to your own Google Docs. If not, you can just download it and open in Excel or something similar. Check the file menu for options.)

That’s actually an exact copy of the weekly plan I was working from when I started writing this post last Friday morning.

Tip 2: Know your priorities

I wrote a post earlier this week entitled Prioritize your life, in which I described the method I use to set priorities so I can make best use of my time. Knowing your priorities is a must if you want to plan your week effectively. I have my current priorities listed bottom left of my spreadsheet, and from those I’ll derive priorities for the week (top left).

When you know your priorities, you can ensure that you’re investing your time wisely, working on things that are important to you and not merely going through the motions.

Tip 3: Be flexible

You should be the master of your schedule, not a slave to it. You list out the tasks and use the plan to keep yourself accountable, but should you feel inspired to blow off what you had planned for a Thursday evening and go spend some quality time with friends instead, then do it. Do it, and don’t feel guilty about it. A deviation here and there isn’t going to kill you. Just make sure that over the course of the week, you’re devoting a significant amount of time to your priorities.

I try to account for such urges when I create my plan. I list tasks in a rough chronological order, but I allow myself to do them in whatever order I wish. Sometimes I’ll do a task a day early or two days late, just because I felt more comfortable doing it then. For example, in the sample plan above, I ended up hanging on a friend’s porch and drinking a few beers on Saturday evening instead of going to Borders, and I went for a bike ride in the morning instead of running in the park.

I also try to leave chunks of time free for me to just go with the flow. Often I’ll have a task in there that simply says “Do something fun.” I believe it’s important to allow yourself such spontaneity and flexibility. When I was in Italy for two weeks in June, I didn’t have any plan and I had a blast.

Again, be the master of your schedule, not a slave to it. The plan should serve you, not the other way around.

Tip 4: Experiment

This is more of an art than a science. You don’t need to list everything. I prepare almost all my own meals, but you don’t see “cook dinner” or “eat breakfast” in my plan. I just don’t feel the need to list those things, unless I want to make enough time to try a new recipe for dinner or I want to go have breakfast across town with a friend.

As such, I encourage you to play around with your own plan, come up with tasks that make sense to you. You might be more comfortable and find you’re more effective when you give yourself just three primary tasks per day. Great! If that works for you, run with it.

Tip 5: Set the bar high

I used to have “Work at Loyola” in my plan, but I changed it a few weeks ago to “Work hard at Loyola.” It was easy to just go to work. I could do that even if I was feeling lazy or hungover. I’d sit there and push a few buttons, make myself look busy and get nothing significant done. But hey, I was at my desk, so I could turn that box green at the end of the day and feel like I’d accomplished something.

But when I have to “Work hard at Loyola,” that green box isn’t so easy to earn. I have to ask myself every evening, “did I really give them my best today?” If I can answer with an honest Yes, then I go ahead and turn that box green.

So challenge yourself when you make your plan. Don’t just list out a bunch of meaningless tasks and go through the motions to turn them green. Make yourself work for them. If at the end of the week you look back and you have no white boxes left behind, you’re not setting the bar high enough.

Tip 6: Don’t edit on the fly

Once the week starts, don’t allow yourself to change the plan. You can deviate from it, but don’t change what you wrote on the spreadsheet. Two reasons for this:

1. If you let yourself edit tasks whenever, you’ll be tempted to list what you really did instead of what you were supposed to do and thus satisfy your ego with more green boxes.
2. If you’re adding and subtracting tasks on the fly, there’s a good chance you’re focusing on the urgent rather than the important. Sometimes urgent stuff is important, but not always. Most of the time, it just distracts you from the important stuff.

That’s it.

Give weekly planning a try and see how it works for you. Start small with just two or three important tasks per day and build from there. Before you know it, you’ll be reaching unprecedented levels of effectiveness.