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You can do a lot of things in 31 days. This is amplified if you focus those 31 days on improving one area of your life. By focusing in on one thing you want to change or do, and making it a priority for 31 days, you will make lasting life changes.

During the next 31 days you could:

• learn a new skill
• lose weight
• create a new habit (getting up early, exercising, etc..)
• start a new business
• put in massive action on your current business
• read several life-changing books (see my top ten book list)
• start, improve and grow your blog
• reinvigorate your marriage
• dramatically increase your website’s exposure
• start a debt free plan
• simplify your household possessions
• conquer a fear

Naturally the list keeps going. You can do so much in 31 days.

Guess what?

August is about to start, and it has 31 days!

What are you going to do in August?

The Success Professor’s 31 Day Challenge

During the month of August, this blog will be hosting a challenge. The challenge is for readers to pick something to focus on during the next 31 days to change your life.

The concept is pretty simple:

• You pick something in your life that you want to do or change in the next 31 days.
• You share in the comments of this article what you will change as part of the challenge
• You get started and do what you set out to do
• You report back how you are progressing

Throughout the month, this blog will feature several update posts. These will be opportunities for you to post your update and record your progress and challenges. The purpose is to provide you with the motivation and the accountability to make a change, to do something important and to make the next 31 days extremely valuable. Further, during each of these updates, I will profile one participant by sharing about their goal and experiences.

What I Will be Doing For the 31 Day Challenge

Naturally, I will participate in the challenge myself. My focus for this challenge will be to make improvements to and grow this blog. I will be following the guide book created by ProBlogger, Darren Rowse, called “31 Days to Build a Better Blog.” My hope is that you will notice the difference. I hope that you will see me in more places on the internet, and that many others will join us in this community. I will use the challenge updates to report on my progress as well.

If you are a blogger, you may want to join me in using the 31 days in the Success Professor’s 31 Day challenge to improve your blog. Pick up the ProBlogger workbook and comment below. There will be an optional email list set up for the people who are working towards a better blog this month. This will provide an extra support platform for this goal.

So what’s next?

Pick the one thing you will change, improve, or do in the next 31 days.
Share what you will work on in the comments below.
Get started!

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache
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Do you remember what you were like as a teenager? No, I am not talking about the awkwardness and struggles with self identity or the clumsiness as you wonder about who your next date will be. I am talking about how you looked at the future. The optimism you had about who you could become and what you could do in life. Chances are your thought process was much different than it is today after you have been beaten up by life a little. It is time to change that, to reconnect with your teenage-self, and start thinking big again.

Have Big Dreams

As a teenager you probably had big dreams about life. Think back to that time. What did you dream about? What were your hopes for the future? At one point, I remember dreaming about being able to retire young and play golf every day. Your dreams at this age are not limited by life experiences. There isn’t as much that you think “I couldn’t do that” or “that’s not possible”. Instead you believed that it was possible to live your dreams.

Do Anything/ Achieve Anything

Chances are you believed that you could do anything in life. You could achieve whatever you wanted to. What did you want to achieve? Did you have a list of what you wanted to do in life? If so, your list was probably very extensive. The world was in front of you and you could aim to do anything you wanted to. It was all possible.

Change the World

Not only did you believe that you could do things for yourself, but you knew that you could make a difference. You could change the world. Your dreams were not small dreams limited to yourself, they were world changing. What impact did you want to have on the world? What was the thing that you wanted to change, for the betterment of all humanity?

Unshakable Confidence

The most interesting thing is that your mindset didn’t stop with big dreams and a belief that you could do anything, achieve anything and even change the world. That dream was combined with an unshakable confidence that not only could you do it, but you would do it. You would achieve more, have more and be more. You would make a difference in the world. You would make your dreams come true.

So What Happened?

A drastic change occurred. Likely you don’t have those same dreams anymore. You likely do not see yourself changing the world, and while you have goals you likely have much smaller goals than the “teenage-you”. Somehow things changed.

This change didn’t happen all at once. It was a gradual change. It happened step by step in your life as things didn’t quite go the way you thought it would. One disappointment at a time, you slowly began to accept less in life. You started to lower your goals and to dream of smaller goals.

Photo by: The Consumerist

It started small. Maybe you didn’t get into your top choice for a college. Perhaps you didn’t get the summer job you hoped for. Later, the disappointments got a little bigger. You graduated from college and ended up working in a fast-food restaurant or a retail store. This wasn’t what you went to college for! You started to think more about paying off your student loans than about the dreams you used to have.

Over time, step by step, the burdens of life and the disappointments that occur have diminished your dreams. As a result, you set smaller goals, and you began to accept less and less out of life.

What Can You Do?

It is time to get your dreams back. No, they don’t have to be the same dreams you had as a teenager – although some of them might be. It is not the actual dreams that you need to get back, but your ability to dream; your ability to think big about life, to see the world as full of possibilities instead of full of limitations. It is about being able to see yourself as capable of achieving big things, and getting back your unshakable confidence.

The Irony of It All

The irony of the situation is that you are now in a better place to achieve big goals. You are now far better prepared to do big things, to live an extraordinary life. You have more skills and abilities. You may have more education, or at least a lot more life experience. You know your strengths and weaknesses. You have more connections, a bigger network. You have more potential!

Combine the Two

In the end, what you need to do is combine the two sides. Combine the energy, belief, and dreams of your teenage-self, with the knowledge, wisdom and abilities of the current you! The trick of course is to combine them without letting your current mindset and beliefs takeover again. Stick to your big dreams. Stick to your unwavering belief that you will achieve your goals, and stick to the attitude that comes from those beliefs. This change in mindset and attitude will take time. You will need to work at it and create a new habit of thinking. But if you do work at it, you can replace your current thinking with the type of dreaming that was true of your teenage-self.

When you combine the two, you will move forward rapidly towards your goals. You are better than you think you are and by connecting with the teenage-you, you can reach your dreams, achieve more than you imagine, and you can change the world.

Written by:

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache
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Hello everyone,

Summer Vacation trip is over, and I’ll be getting back to a regular blogging schedule.  We will start with a new edition of “Sunday Browsing”.

Let’s start off with a post from my favorite blog, Zen Habits.  Leo shares “A Beautiful Method to Find Peace of Mind” .

Next, Seth Godin shares a short but powerful post on mediocrity.

37 Signals shares “How playtime is responsible for Post-It Notes, Lasik and more”.

Lastly, I’ll leave you with a couple of videos:

1. Chris Guillibeau (from another one of my favorite blogs, The Art of Non-Conformity) is interviewed by Career Renegade Jonathan Fields.

2. A great talk from Gary Vaynerchuk

Enjoy!

Danny Gamache – The Success Professor

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We all know that personal growth is important if we want to move forward in life, get better, and achieve our goals.  But how consistent is your personal growth? If you are like many it goes in spurts.  You’ll have a period of time when you are doing all the right things: you are listening to CDs and podcasts and reading books.  Because you pursue these activities in spurts you also grow in spurts.  You grow for a little, and then stabilize.

What is interesting is that your progress towards your goals will end up following the same track.  When you are growing and pursuing personal growth activities you will be moving towards your goals. There is a direct relationship between personal growth activities and progress towards your goals.

So what’s the solution?  A small but consistent daily commitment to personal growth.

Just FIFTEEN minutes a day!

That’s all it takes.  Fifteen minutes a day can help you stay focused on your goals, moving forward, growing, and a step ahead of your competition.

Here’s how you can make the most of your fifteen minutes a day:

1. Those fifteen minutes a day must be FOCUSED.

They must be FOCUSED on the field or discipline that you need in order to achieve your primary goal.  If your primary goal is in sales, you should be pursing personal growth activities that help you be a better salesperson and stay motivated.  If your primary goal is your blog, you need to be learning about how to be a better blogger.  If your primary goal is to run a marathon, you need to be pursing activities that keep you excited, encouraged and learning how to be a better runner.

This means that other personal growth activities that you pursue don’t count towards your fifteen minutes.  Only activities directly connected to your primary goal count as your fifteen minutes a day.

2. Know the skills and abilities that you want to improve.

Based on your goals, you need to know what areas you need to get better at.  If you are a salesperson, perhaps you need to focus on closing skills or on understanding your customers.  If you are a blogger, you may want to learn about developing WordPress themes or improving your marketing skills.  What are the skills that you need to excel in to achieve your goals and be excellent in what you do.

3. The fifteen minutes a day must be consistent.

You need to do this every day without skipping.  Initially this might be hard.  You may forget, there may be other things going on, and it may feel like you don’t have time.  Even if it is the last thing you do before you go to bed at night make sure you take that fifteen minutes pursing focused growth.

Personal growth in this manner is a habit.  That means after a period of time it will become a lot easier perhaps even automatic.  It takes time to form a habit, but it is worth it.

4. Have someone hold you accountable

Anytime you are looking to pursue a goal or create a habit, you will have more success if you have someone holding you accountable.  As you work to create a fifteen minute a day of personal growth habit, you will be more likely to do it if you have people holding you accountable.  Ideally these should be people who are pursing a similar primary goal and as such are working on similar personal growth activities.

I have a group of four other people that I work with to hold each other accountable to our fifteen minute a day of personal growth.  We email each other every couple of days and share how we have spent our fifteen minutes of personal growth time.  Not only does that help keep us motivated but it serves as a way to share ideas on personal growth activities.

5. Engage in personal growth activities

Just do it!  The slogan that Nike uses is useful here.  You need to get started and just do your fifteen minutes of personal growth time.  What should you do?  There are many options:

• read a book (my top 10 books are listed here)
• listen to a training CD
• get an audio book from the library
• listen to podcasts (my top 10 podcasts are listed here)
• read inspiring blogs
• watch a TED presentation (my top 5 TED presentations are listed here)

There are lots of options, choose one and get started!

Fifteen minutes a day is not a lot of time.  You can learn a new skill, move towards your goals, and above everything else grow!

Written by:
Danny Gamache – The Success Professor
Follow me on Twitter: @successprof

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As we move into summer it is a great time to work hard and move towards your goals.  Why?  Everyone else starts to rest, so if you work hard you’re moving past a lot of people.

Here are some great articles that I came across in the last week:

1. Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers (see my review here), has an excellent essay on how underdogs win.

2. Tim Ferris, author of The Four Hour Work Week, shares a great sneak peak at a new traffic creator service by StumbleUpon.

3. Bill Reichert writes about “Management Lessons from the US Navy”

4. Tom Ziglar, son of Zig Ziglar, shares several “Motivational Misconceptions“.

5. Chris Brogan writes about the difference between creating an audience and creating community.

And finally, here’s a popular post from the archives to help you as you pursue your personal growth:

Top 5 Great Ted Talks

Have a great week:
The Success Professor – Danny Gamache

On Twitter (@Successprof)

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Outliers by Malcom Gladwell is a book I was excited to read from the moment it was released.  The previous books by Gladwell, Blink and Tipping Point set a high standard for excellence.  Often, however, when I’m this excited to read a book, my expectations are not met and I finish disappointed.  Thankfully Outliers lived up to its advance billing. It is an excellent book that everyone should read.

Outliers is a fascinating read that uses research from Psychologists, Sociologists, Anthropologists and others to try to understand what makes people successful.  Gladwell builds on this by doing his own research into fascinating people and events that help to build an understanding of what success is.

Early on in the book we see that Gladwell truly is focused on the exceptional.  These are the outliers, those “markedly different” from the rest of people.  The book takes these outliers and looks to determine what makes them successful.

Gladwell’s findings in many ways go against the grain of what we might expect: “What’s the question we always ask about the successful?  We want to know what they’re like – what kind of personalities they have, or how intelligent they are, or what kind of lifestyles they have, or what special talents they might have been born with…….  I want to convince you that these kinds of personal explanations of success don’t work.  People don’t rise from nothing…… They are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot.”

Now this might sound a little fatalistic.  People become successful because of factors that they can’t control.  In reality, as you read the book, you see a trend.  Yes, successful outliers tend to have some advantages over others.  But the purpose of those advantages was to create the type of person who will work hard, practice hard, and get the right sort of training to become successful.

The first section starts of by looking at athletes in team sports.  The particular case study looks at hockey players in Canada and soccer players in Europe.  The same phenomenon occurs in both, because there is a January 1 cut off for when kids play with a certain age group. The best players tend to be born early in the year. This is not because there is some magical quality that makes kids born in January, February, or March better athletes, but rather it is because these kids are bigger when they are young and get chosen to be on teams that have better coaching and get more practice.  So the success factor is better coaching and more practice.

The second chapter is called “The 10,000 – Hour Rule” and it shares how researches have found that to become an expert at something it takes 10,000 hours.  That’s 10,000 hours of hard work and extra practice that it takes to become successful. Gladwell looks at what kinds of childhood advantages allow someone to have that much time to put into an endeavor.  He looks at Bill Gates and The Beatles as examples.  Of course they didn’t just have the opportunity to put in the hours, but they had the passion, the drive, and the willingness to work hard for that much time.

Later, Gladwell compares geniuses and looks at how geniuses from different backgrounds perform later in life.  The thing that separated geniuses who succeeded from those who didn’t was often the family background and economic status of the home they grew up in.  Those that grew up in middle class homes had the opportunity to be in more activities.  This gave them more confidence, taught them skills like teamwork, and gave them the ability to interact with others.  In other words it helped with social preparedness.

As you read through the book you’ll continue to be exposed to fascinating research and examples that show why people born at a certain time, or from a certain ethnic background living in a certain city tend to be more successful.  Usually it’s because something about these events drove them to work hard, study well, or get better education.  All of which then allowed them to become successful.

One final study I’ll share is Gladwell’s look at why Asian students tend to do better in math.  He traces it back to two factors.  One is the nature of numbers in most Asian languages.  They follow a logical system that makes math easier than the English language.  A second, and perhaps more fascinating reason, is because of the cultural heritage.  The cultural heritage is traced back to the way rice farmers work.  He argues, “the people who grow rice have always worked harder than almost any other kind of farmer.” The effect of this kind of hard work on a culture, caries on for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years.  Today this is seen in the success of Asian students, particularly in the area of math.  It also helps them have an attitude that doesn’t give up.  In math, Gladwell concludes, “Success is a function of persistence and doggedness and the willingness to work hard for twenty-two minutes to make sense of something that most people would give up on after thirty seconds.”

So, while reading Outliers won’t give you a magic list of things to do to become successful, it will open your mind to the forces at play around you.  The events that take place “behind the scenes” so to speak that help people become successful.  But you’ll also be inspired by one trend that Gladwell brings up as he brings the book to a conclusion: “Virtually every success story we’ve seen in this book so far involves someone or some group working harder than their peers.”  So….. get to work!

Written by:

The Success Professor — Danny Gamache
On Twitter: @successprof
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Last week, in my article “How Fatherhood Has Changed My Life” I mentioned that I’ve learned the importance of working in bursts.  A burst is when you take a short period of time and work full-out for that period of time.

Working in bursts is valuable for many reasons:

• you can make use of short periods of time that might otherwise not feel productive

• you can complete a short burst when your motivation is to low to start something bigger

• you can get  a lot done with focused energy

So how do you best work in bursts?  Here are some tips:

1. Have projects arranged

The only way you will be able to make use of a short burst is if you have your projects arranged in an easy to use system.  One way to do this is to use folders for each and every project you have that you are working on.  This is one of the most valuable things that I took out of Getting Things Done (see my review here).  By having each project in a folder you only need to have to one folder on your desk at a time that you can focus on.

2. Know the order of importance

Having your projects arranged is only half the battle; you need to know what order that they need to be accomplished.  Which project is the most important?  Doing a burst session on a low priority project might be valuable, but doing that same burst on your top priority project will allow you to excel.

There are many ways of establishing your order.  It can be as simple as a to-do list that you rank or it can be an elaborate process that is part of a full productivity system.  I use my weekly planning system to prioritize my products based on the goals I am pursing.

3. Have a clear workspace

The next step is to make sure you have a clear workspace.  Get rid of everything except the project that you are working on and any tools necessary to complete that project. If you have your projects arranged and set in individual folders you should have no need for a cluttered desk.

Having a clear workspace helps you to focus. You won’t be distracted by other things on your desk that vie for your attention.  You won’t be tempted to pause what you are doing to work on something else.  It also gives you the ability to spread out and organize yourself as you move forward on your project.

4. Turn off all distractions

The point of your burst period is to single task. You don’t want to be moving back and forward between tasks.  In order for you to do this you need to turn off all distractions.  The biggest distractions are often forms of communication.  Things such as email, telephones and Twitter can easily pull you away from the task at hand.  Closing your email box, web browser and putting your phone on silent will allow you to work without interruptions and get a lot more done.

If you work in a public place that is prone to interruptions put a “do not disturb” sign on your door or wear headphones to indicate that you are not to be interrupted.  This may take some time to train those around you but once they learn your policies it will be well worth it for you.

5. Have a pad of paper and pen off to the side

As you work away on your project, your mind will naturally tend to wander at times.  You’ll think of new ideas, projects that you could start, or things you need to do.  Having a pad and paper at your side will allow you to record your thoughts and return to your main project. Your mind will then forget about the thought and focus on the project. If you don’t write it down you’ll be tempted to take action towards what has come to mind, and your brain won’t be able to refocus on the project.

6. Go full out for a predetermined period of time

Once you have taken these steps you now need to work; work hard and steady for the time that you have set aside.  This is the essence of working in bursts.  Go full out, using all of your energy. If possible set yourself a time limit as to how long you will work.  Having a deadline for when you will stop working keeps you moving.  It also gives you something to look forward to.  So you’ll be both pushed to work harder during the time you have, but you will also be assured that a reward is coming when you are done that time.

Working in bursts is powerful.  It will allow you to get more done in a short period of time.  Perhaps you only have a short period of time.  It’s easy to put off meaningful activity because you “don’t have enough time.”   Instead you can do a burst of activity towards an important project.  Perhaps you don’t feel motivated to settle in and work.  Instead commit to working just a short time in a burst.  Often getting started like this with a burst will give you momentum to carry forward and keep working.

How can you apply bursts?  Take a minute right now and don’t leave this article without taking some action. Write down three priority activities that you can do in a burst period, and write down at least three different times of your day, or situations that you face, where a burst effort might be appropriate.  Now go and do it!

Written by:
The Success Professor – Danny Gamache (Follow me on Twitter: @successprof)

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Hi everyone,

Here’s some of the best posts I’ve come across in the last couple of weeks.

1. Social Media expert Chris Brogan shares “How to Get More Retweet Action”.

2. Leadership teacher John Maxwell writes about “Leading Through Diversity”.

3. Jonathan Mead writes a great guest post on Zen Habits helping you move to being your own boss.

4. Read about why the focus on simplicity helps the environment at GreenBiz.com.

5. Finally, Seth Godin has a great reminder on why you need to Ignore Sunk Costs.

The Success Professor – Danny Gamache

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