Posts Tagged ‘goals’

The Mastermind Retreat (A Few Days Like Thoreau)

Thursday, January 12th, 2012
I have some incredible friends… Truly incredible, inspiring, change the world type friends. Last Thursday three of these friends and I traveled up to the remote woods of Napa to get away from the fast paced life of the valley and SF for a few days.  However, it was less about pressing the “reset button” and more about charging up the console for 2012. We called our four day retreat a “Mastermind Retreat”.  The purpose: to create a platform for shared wisdom, knowledge and to have us all come out in planned action mode, working to accomplish our goals and mission for the year.  Sounds valuable and virtuous right?  Well…with a group of guys in their mid-twenties and no sight of anyone else for a few days you get some behavior that is far from valuable and virtuous.  No need to elaborate.  Still, the actions and results are worth elaborating on…

Thursday Night

A large cardboard box that has been converted into a bookshelf dumps out about 20 books that are cornerstones of business, self-development, spirituality and more.  As a group that has been firmly dedicated to self growth for a long time, we dive right in to accessing the titles, reading the intros and smelling the pages (don’t act like you never did that before your Kindle).

We relax around the cabin coffee table and openly discuss what we’re looking to get out of the weekend.  One thing is consistent, we all stated in some form that we are looking to create unprecedented results in our lives and a solid framework that will lead us to those results. Kyle passes out a work book that was created by Seth Godin and Zig Ziglar  that’s called “Pick Four“.  This will be our tool book for creating results in our work over the next three months. Soon after it’s off to bed…

Friday

In the Napa woods…it’s hard not to wake up early.  I get up, walk around the property to take in the views and take deep breaths of pine soaked air. After a little reading and solo time we get together at the dining room table at the cabin to start brainstorming our goals for this year.  Recently I have been a bit resistant to setting hard goals for a few reasons.  First off, much of the time they’re too linear, they don’t allow room to discover new possibilities or to iterate.  Second, if you work top down off a big dream, it’s often too hard to create small incremental progress.  If you can’t break a large dream into little goals, you set your self up for failure and to be disempowered.  However, this time I was dedicated to discussing what I felt works and doesn’t…and even more open to adopting a new system for track results. With that all aired out…we listed out all our high level goals…dreams.  I surprised myself as I found I wasn’t dreaming big enough…point taken.  From there our job was to filter those goals based on the feasibility of getting it done in 3 months and the importance to you and your overall mission.  And the there were 11.  Next step, write down “why” you chose that goal.  The impact achieving the goal can have on you and others (a super super important part of the exercise).  Lastly…break the list down to the top 4 and make each goal super specific and results oriented.  Before fully commiting to those 4 we all decided to sleep on it…but it was only 2pm at that point so we went down “into town” at that point. While in town: the most freakishly astounding display of synchronized flying by over a thousand black birds–no joke (D-Man…get the video up!). We went back up the hill and had an awesome dinner with the guys, my dad and step mom.  We switched out the wine for coffee and decided to pull and all night “hack sesh”.  Kyle was writing a new book he’s working on, Derek got strategic with ConvoSpark, Cam when off to bed early and I started working on some Be Social Change work that I have been wanting to work on for the past few weeks. An “all nighter” ended up being a strong session until 2am (I swear Napa is in a different timezone).

Saturday

Never felt so fresh after 5.5 hours of sleep. After pacing around the property for a while I decided to post up at the bottom of the hill to meditate.  Since I had set a goal to meditate consistently, there was no better place or time to dive deeper into myself.  For a moment my mind was still, I felt the profound power of silence and when I finished the session I felt more alive than I have in some time…like woah. On the theme of “wholeness”, you know…mind, body spirit, it was time to give the body a little love.  Well…maybe love isn’t the right word.  Trainer Derek put Kyle and I through an intense MMA inspired work out.  We were not fully functional after. After regrouping a bit, it was time to fully commit to our detailed goals.  We gathered around the table…took out our notes books, and on the signature page, put the pen to the paper (Kyle wanted to do the good old fashion way, mark it in blood).  Here’s what I committed to:

  1. 275 drop-ins on JoynIn by April 1st
  2. Release the Be Social Change MVP
  3. 100 sales (more details on that later :) )
  4. Meditate 60 out of the 90 days.

After the signing, we ended up reading some more, having breakout discussions, then went into town.  It was time to enter back into the world of beer, YouTube and unproductive chatter (you know…the norm).  We ended up going to an awesome South American restaurant, drank a few beers and watch Drew Brees be a bad bad man to the Lions secondary.

Back up at the cabin we took a detour from our work and watched 10 too many Chael Sonnen (best of Chael) and Fula videos (best of Flula).  We then moved to a semi productive mode by playing a game of Apples to Apples with a “pitch your card” twist…people got buzzed, it got heated, we all became better sales people. …ya I know what you’re thinking…”this is not how Thoreau lived at Walden Pond”…ya we know.

Sunday

Last day…woke up (a bit later)…meditated…connected with the guys. Sunday was all about being pragmatic and action oriented.  We went one by one discussing an individuals needs, roadblocks and ideas when it came to there four goals.  We pulled from out wide range of skilled and experiences to help fortify each other’s plans.  We know from experience than when a simple yet actionable plan is not laid out…it’s easy to stray away from that goal due to inertia alone.  We spent a good four hours diving deep into each goal, highlighting weaknesses, discussing strategies and ultimately making each goal a living entity. It was then time to say goodbye to our very own Walden Pond.  We all took time to reflect on our short yet transformative time in the Napa Woods by walking, reading and finding other ways to go deeper into the present moment.

What I Took Home With Me

You know that post vacation feeling?  You come back home bronzed and relaxed to a world polar opposite of the one you came from.  This trip was not like that…it was not a vacation…it was a retreat.  It helped us dive back into our world of chaos more powerfully than before.   To take the chaos…look at it as art, yet approach it scientifically. I came back to my new apartment that I share with my girlfriend excited for new possibilities.  I came back with map that will help guide me towards my destination…everyday I take out my machete and start blazing the trail that is beginning to look clearer and clearer. It’s important to regroup, refresh and reestablish yourself.  I would suggest everyone finds there own way to create their own retreat.  A time and place where you can work off an clean canvas and organize your palette.

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Posted in Inspiration, My Life | 4 Comments »

Intentionally Foul: How Jake Sasseville Changed How I Create My Reality

Thursday, June 2nd, 2011

About three months back I got a Facebook message from a guy named Jake Sasseville that read:

hey — zach hurst tells me i need to know you? true?

I wrote back:

“Need”…tough to say :). But I’m sure it would be great if we knew eachother!

Heard you’re going to be in SF. Feel free to shoot me a call before you come here or while you’re here. I’m in the social media/ startup space which Zach told me you’re interested in.

Hope to meet soon.

At that point all I knew about Jake was the little that a mutual contact of ours (Zach Hurst) told me about him.  If I remember correctly, Zach felt that Jake was a guy that I needed to meet and he was moving to San Francisco.  Sounded like all other San Francisco transplants to me.  Even with that tiny bit of cynicism I am always about meeting new and interesting people and Zach is a guy I inherently trust, respect and he’s always helping me out!

Diving a little deeper into Jake’s Facebook profile the first thing that stuck out, naturally, was his outrageously fluffy hair.  Second was that he is the host a late night series called “Late Night Republic“.  Intrigued by the hair, his show and his seemingly innate audacity that came through his Facebook message we set a time to meet and that was that!

A week or so later we were all set up to get some coffee at one of my favorite places of earth and my frequent remote work office Philz Coffee by the ballpark in San Francisco.  Jake was late…but telling from the text messages he was shooting off as he was running from the Bart to the coffee shop it wasn’t typical for him to be late (he basically shot me off a play by play of his sidewalk trot as he was approaching Philz).  When he finally got there he was sweaty, apologetic and full of life.  We greeted each other with hugs and Jake greeted me some interesting speech patterns that I quickly got used to.  He was like not one I ever met: he looked crazy and composed at the same time, he had the energy of a 5 year old, and most importantly he cut through all the bullshit.  I could tell he was a very REAL person in the first minute of getting to know him.

Quickly diving into discussions about spirituality, entrepreneurship, friends and his TV show (which I thought was only a web serise before I met him…it actually airs on over 50 million households across America) I felt like I knew Jake for years.  Our meeting made me realize two simple things about Jake:

1. He was going to be a good friend.

2. He knew how to make S#!t happen!

The friendship would flow naturally I knew that; but I knew I would have to dig a bit deeper if I was going to figure out how he accomplished so much at such a young age.  His stories were those of a vagabond, movie star and slightly manic person mixed into one.  The stories were incredible…but even more incredible was that I could see that he was living that life right then and there…NOW.

The second time we met up after a meeting I had in San Francisco.  This time we shared our philosophies and methods in greater depth.  Then we honed in on one specific topic.  In essence the conversation was about how we created our reality.  I shared my thoughts on how our realities our often limited by the identity we create for ourseves.  That those identities (who we are to the world) govern what we create and how far we can go.  Jake then took it to a whole new level…he started to talk about how he can create anything…literally ANYTHING.

He began to talk about the power of intention.  How he used to set goals but found them to be counter productive.  ”You set a goal you loose track of peripheral opportunities…you don’t hit your goal your’re discouraged.”

I agreed emphatically.

He said he instead creates intentions.

Go on…

Before he takes on a task or objective he thinks about what his intention is behind it.  Why does he want to obtain what he is looking to obtain?  He works to feel this on the level of the soul.  He then imagines what it would feel like to have it.  Really feel the joy, abundance and creativity that emboides that possibility.

So if Jake wanted to buy a private island he would create the experience for himself before he even owned it.  He would envision the process of negotiating on the deal.  He would create the experience of walking through the island for the first time and roughing it in a hammock made of bamboo.  He would feel the emotions of owning and island and sharing it with others.  He would own that experience already…now it would just be up to him to execute it in the real world.

This concept stuck with me…

I needed to create my intentions and be extremely intentional about it!  I have started to know exactly what I want out of every situation and just simply take the steps to get there.  I now work on feeling what it will be like to fulfill on those intentions and the impact it can have on the world.

We can create our custom realities.  Work off a blank canvas…understand your intention behind what you will create…and start to paint!!

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Posted in Inspiration, My Life | 3 Comments »

If 2012 Is For Real…We Better Make 2010 Incredible!

Monday, December 28th, 2009
2012 Movie Poster

What Will You Do Before John Cusack Gets Another Leading Role?

The Mayans have done one of two things with their calendar.  Either, they have predicted the end of the world, in which we have only few years to live in a state of constant anxiety or with absolutely no reservation…ORRRrrrr they were too lazy to count beyond 2012, which means we will live beyond 2012 and wished we lived the past two year with no reservation instead of being anxiety ridden.

Just for the sake of positive pressure, why don’t we all assume that the world is going to end in 2012.  What would you do in 2010 that would make you’re entire life meaningful?  The world is changing rapidly, the people that are going to facilitate that change are the people that are going to be able to picture what they want, plan out how to get it and make meaning  behind their entire course of action.

You may get the sense that I intend on making the most of my upcoming years!  And it all begins with 2010.  We need to make this the year that we go beyond New Years Resolutions and achieve what we are meant to achieve.

With all that being said it takes a little more than putting your mind to it.  It takes understanding, planning and action to accomplish great things in 2010.

Understanding- Start With Resolutions

We have all fell victim to poor New Years Resolution planning before…there is no need to be ashamed.  Typically what happens is you jot down a few things you would like to do in the new year.  The resolutions are normally 180 behavioral shifts from stuff you did the year before.  That paper you jotted down your resolutions on is supposed to keep you accountable throughout the new year…full proof right?

Try this…

  • Jot down everything you want to accomplish in the new year.
  • Explain to yourself why you want to accomplish each item.
  • Move you resolutions onto a goal list and see if each resolution fits within your master plan.

Planning- Set Goals

Goal setting is where your real planning takes form.  These are the items that you are a 100% accountable for.  These goals should be near and dear to you and act as a constant reminder of what needs to be accomplished.

Here are the steps you can take to make sure you don’t only set goals, but you accomplish your goals:

  • Take your resolutions and begin to separate them based on category.  Example) write for Mashable goes in the Personal Branding/ Social Media category –> Finish my first course of French goes in the Personal category.
  • Start building goals around resolutions you have set in each category.
  • Make sure each goal is measurable.
  • Give a timeline for the accomplishment of that goal.
  • Access all your goals and begin to reduce your list.  Begin to take away the extraneous and time consuming goals that won’t fulfill your overall mission.  Note that reducing your scope of goals can be even more important that building you goal list out.  If your list is too big, you may be overwhelmed and discouraged by your lack of progress because you spread yourself too thin.

Last but not least…

Action-Track Your Milestones

I learned that goal lists often get lost in the shuffle (just like resolutions).  Therefore, I made an effort to break down my yearly goals into monthly action plans.  Monthly action plans is much easier to manage than a list full of goals.  I have seen the best results when I:

  • Take goals from each category which need to be addressed right away.
  • Break them down into quantifiable goals that can be met over the course of a month.  Example) If your goal is to have 20 guest posts published in 2010, your action plan for January should be to write 2 guest posts for x and y blogs.
  • Create milestones for each week.  Over the course of 7 days, what will need to be finished in order to finish up your monthly goals?
  • Take a Post It and write out what you need to accomplish for that day.  Make sure to keep it short and sweet (maximum 3 medium sized tasks).  This will make sure you never loose site of the task at hand.

What I will be doing…

In case you were curious…here are a few things I am focusing on in the upcoming year.

  • Less time in front of the computer and more time reading and being physically active.
  • Exploring the outdoors.
  • Building up myself as a go to resource in the social media and young entrepreneur niches.
  • Become even more active in meeting new and interesting people.
  • Start a highly successful business (more on this to come).
  • Create multiple streams of income.
  • Begin to put money away in reserve.
  • Begin to learn French.
  • Hang out more with family.
  • Hang out more with friends.
  • Love my girlfriend more and more each day.
  • Live everyday with gratitude.

For me, 2009 was the fastest year of my life.  I hope I was able to absorb everything I took in.

For everyone, I hope 2009 has been amazing and even more importantly, I hope you accomplish all that you truly want to accomplish before the world ends :)

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Posted in Innovation and Ideas | 4 Comments »

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