Make sure you check out the free resource library: https://firstactionbestaction.com/resouces With each passing day, going into my inbox feels more and more overwhelming. There are messages that I love, like those from my current clients, people who want to hire me, and my loved ones. Then there are the messages from people pitching me to redo my website, create an app for my business, or telling me how they can fix my business. To mitigate this feeling of overwhelm, I generally only look...

Make sure you check out the free resource library: https://firstactionbestaction.com/resouces Recently, at the start of one of my client coaching calls, my client "Deborah" said, "I want you to look at my website. I want to know if I have finally gotten it right." As a little background, for the previous three weeks we had been going back and forth via emails as she was updating her website. She was really excited for me to see all the progress she had made. She finally felt ready to share...

Make sure you check out the free resource library: https://firstactionbestaction.com/resouces I am a huge fan of goals. Goals serve two purposes. First, they give us a clear direction to shoot for. Second, they give us a way to measure our progress so we can recalibrate our actions and get to where we want to go. A number years ago I started adding a phrase to the end of all my goal statements. It is a simple phrase that has changed the way I work. You can tell what the phrase is from...

Make sure you check out the free resource library: https://firstactionbestaction.com/resouces My business partner and I were self-employed in our early twenties doing full time ministry work and making just enough to get by. There were a number of occasions when people were amazingly supportive of the work we were doing. People would buy one of our $15 tshirts for $1000. (That really happened more than once.) Or they would shake our hands after a presentation and slip us a $100 bill. I am...

Make sure you check out the free resource library: https://firstactionbestaction.com/resouces My calls with one-on-one clients usually start with them sharing all of the details about what they are currently struggling with in their business or life. Where the problem is complex, this description can go on for a number of minutes. It includes details about what is going on, plans that aren't working out, confusion they are facing, and the emotions they are feeling. One of the best parts of...

Make sure you check out the free resource library: https://firstactionbestaction.com/resouces One of my favorite albums (and yes I listened to it on vinyl) was the children's album "Free To Be You And Me". One of the songs was penned by poet and storyteller Shel Silverstein. It is called "Helping". The final verse goes: And some kind of help is the kind of help That helping's all about And some kind of help is the kind of help We all can do without It speaks clearly to the idea that...

Make sure you check out the free resource library: https://firstactionbestaction.com/resouces If you were to tell any of my childhood teachers that one of the main reasons my clients come to me is for help with creating systems, they simply wouldn't believe you. As a child (and for a good portion of my adult life), you certainly wouldn't have described me as organized or systematized. My homework was always late. I regularly lost important notes. In grade school my desk was frequently so...

Make sure you check out the free resource library: https://firstactionbestaction.com/resouces Recently one of my clients was sharing her frustration about how hard she was working. It wasn't that she minded the hard work, but it felt as if all the hours she was putting in were not actually moving her business forward. AND she was right. The tasks she was working on were not producing any sales in the short term, so they weren't fulfilling her mission of using her gifts to make an impact in...

Make sure you check out the free resource library: https://firstactionbestaction.com/resouces I'm an early morning person. For my social life this means that I am normally the first person to fade during a night out on the town. The people in my life are aware of this and other than some good natured ribbing about how I am a "party pooper" are supportive of me being the first one to head home. The only time this becomes a problem is when I am the one hosting the party and can't be the...

Make sure you check out the free resource library: https://firstactionbestaction.com/resouces The American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson often talks about how children are natural born scientists in the way that they are constantly experimenting. They think, "What happens if I hit this wooden spoon on the ground? On this pot? On the family cat?" With each strike they are learning about the world. As time passes and we age, we do less and less experimentation. Instead we try to learn...

Make sure you check out the free resource library: https://firstactionbestaction.com/resouces Most mornings I spend a few hours working from a local coffee shop. I find that starting my working day in a third space (not my home or office) is a great way to start my day. [Note: We will talk about why this is the case in a future episode.] I love the staff at the coffee shop. For the early hour of the day, the crew are invariably chipper and helpful and always bring a smile to my face. One...

Make sure you check out the free resource library: https://firstactionbestaction.com/resouces In 2013 I moved from Baltimore, MD to New York City. The move took me from a dying port town to one of the most vibrant and cosmopolitan cities in the world. The move also tripled my living expenses. No matter how much good financial planning you do, that is a little bit of a shock to the system. To make sure I was "getting my money's worth" from the move, I created a rule for myself. Following...

Make sure you check out the free resource library: https://firstactionbestaction.com/resouces In my twenties and thirties I made my full time living speaking and performing with a childhood friend. This means I have spoken and performed in all fifty of the US states, as well as large parts of Canada. Because we were the special guests coming to town to share our talents we were invariably treated with great kindness by our hosts. Everywhere we went people were asking "What do you need?" and...

Make sure you check out the free resource library: https://firstactionbestaction.com/resouces I am regularly asked by my clients how I am able to avoid being emotionally hijacked during my day. They ask this question mainly because when I am talking about my day, how I structure it, and what systems I use, it sounds easy for me to manage. In reality, the way in which I manage my day is straightforward, but simplicity doesn't mean that it is also easy. Staying on track throughout the day...

One of my favorite parts of living in New York City is the dating scene. As a general rule, NYC is a hard place to live. It is crowded, expensive, and it seems like everything takes just a little longer. At the same time, I find it an utterly magical place to live. If you love NYC the way I do, you are willing to put up with the hardships and inconveniences. Most of the people I go on dates with also love the city. They are willing to put up with the tough parts because there is something...

Make sure you check out the free resource library: https://firstactionbestaction.com/resouces In 1999 I was lucky enough to be Pope John Paul II's opening act in front of 25,000 high school students. At the time the pope was almost 80 years old and (even though it wasn't known publicly at the time) he was also suffering from Parkinson's disease, so he was slow and frail. To make things as easy as possible for the pontiff, the venue built some custom structures to accommodate his limited...

Make sure you check out the free resource library: https://firstactionbestaction.com/resources I am a dreamer. And I don't mean that I sit around all day dreaming. Instead, just because of the way my brain works, I always have a super long list of things I would like to do, be, see, and achieve. It seems that every time I cross one item off my list, I add another two. Even if you don't have an ever-expanding list of dreams, I am guessing that when it comes to doing everything you want to...

Make sure you check out the free resource library: https://firstactionbestaction.com/resources It is obvious that we want to take the right actions. To do that, it's essential to spend time clearing mindset blocks and being productive as possible when we are taking action. At the same time, it's easy to get consumed by worshiping at the altar of productivity. The goal is never to be perfectly productive. Instead, productivity is a tool and sometimes the best thing we can do is to have a...

Make sure you check out the free resource library: https://firstactionbestaction.com/resources One of the biggest struggles when taking action is all the comparison that we do with others. We look at how other people are living, the level of success they are enjoying, how seemingly easy it is for them to have that success, and the amount of energy they are putting in to achieve that success. Recently I heard former NBA coach Jeff Van Gundy say "Comparison is the thief of joy." It's a quote...

Make sure you check out the free resource library: https://firstactionbestaction.com/resources Even if you aren't self-employed you will find yourself in situations where you are supervising tasks, managing tasks, and doing tasks. This is doubly true if you are self-employed or running a small business because you are required to wear all those hats. Being the person responsible for multiple roles can make it hard to stay on task, or even worse, you may lose track of what you are supposed...

Make sure you check out the free resource library: https://firstactionbestaction.com/resources There are people in our lives who want us to succeed. They want us to thrive and be super happy! They might even be our biggest cheerleaders. They want your life to change for the better…with one important caveat…they want you to change and grow as long as they don’t also have to change. This isn’t because the people in our lives are mean or selfish. Instead, there are spoken and unspoken...

Make sure you check out the free resource library: https://firstactionbestaction.com/resources One of my clients recently said to me, “Gene, I want to be like you. I never ever want to be hijacked by my emotions again.” I was flattered by the sentiment, but I told her I was unwilling to teach her my strategy because what she was asking wasn’t possible. It wasn’t impossible because I didn’t think she could learn, or that it was a heavily guarded productivity secret. Instead, I explained...

Make sure you check out the free resource library: https://firstactionbestaction.com/resources I had reached breaking point. I was so tired of being productive in short bursts, only to fall right back into my old patterns of procrastination and self-sabotage. As I was evaluating my habits and trying to get to the bottom of my stubborn resistance, I came to an amazing discovery: I wasn’t procrastinating over everything. I was procrastinating over the most important tasks. As I dug deeper I...

Make sure you check out the free resource library: https://firstactionbestaction.com/resources About 10 years ago I was caught in a constant cycle of procrastination, feeling frustrated with my procrastination, trying some new ways of managing my tasks, having those tools work for a while…until they stopped, which was then followed by yet more procrastination and frustration…and repeat. Just because you know what to do, how to do it, and why doing it is important, does not mean that you...