You’ll find several articles about personal productivity and organisation on this blog. The books and tools reviewed here have all helped me to improve with regards planning, prioritising and not over-committing. But, procrastination remains a problem.

Some years ago I bought Focus – The Power of Targeted Thinking by Jurgen Wolff and can only think it was delivered with a bundle of other books because it wasn’t read – at least not right away. (Did I mention I had a problem with procrastination?)

Last year I stumbled across Jurgen Wolff, the author of Focus, when I was looking for something entirely different.

Regular newsletters from Jurgen and participation in one of his Massive Action Days at the beginning of January, reminded me that Focus remained on my shelf – largely unread. That situation has now been addressed.

So, what can I tell you about Focus?

In his book, Jurgen weaves together all manner of tools and techniques to provide something for everyone, no matter what your learning or work style. He recognises that many of us are very ‘active’ but fail to achieve a great deal and the book is written to encourage productive activity.

Step by step the reader is guided through a process of identifying goals (and Jurgen’s technique for identifying and setting goals was new to me), looking at time patterns and distractions, dealing with obstacles, identifying and focusing on strengths and, of course, overcoming procrastination.

The book is supported by a number of web based resources that highlight or elaborate upon the points made in each chapter.

Whilst there is some discussion of the problem, the book is very solution focused. I’m sure most of us know about our problems and whilst there’s comfort to be drawn from learning you are not alone in your struggle, there’s also a real need to got to the point.

Jurgen does just that.

My own problem with procrastination (or resistance if you are a Pressfield fan; lizard brain if Godin is your hero) has gone on for years and it is getting worse rather than better. Despite the fact that I am far more aware of this self sabotage mechanism the devil gets me, just about every day. I go to bed and realise another skirmish has been lost.

It’s a terrible thing to disappoint your Self.

Employing some of the techniques advocated by Jurgen has given me a sword and shield to use in the daily battles with the enemy. Each time I try one of the author’s tips or tricks it’s as if a new piece of armour appears to strengthen my resolve. I know it sounds melodramatic, but this really is a daily battle.

As an entrenched, fear driven, procrastinator it occurs to me that if this book has helped me so much, so quickly, it can help my fellow procrastinators too.

Maybe you are a rampant multi-tasker who runs on a treadmill but never gets anywhere? May be you are a scanner who struggles to focus on just one thing? It doesn’t matter what your personal enemy is, there will be something in this book (probably many things) to help you.

It’s a great pity I didn’t read Focus sooner. It’s no reflection on the book – rather more on me.

If you have read Focus I’d love to know which of the strategies suggested by Jurgen have worked best for you. Perhaps you’ll join the discussion in the comments?

As usual with book reviews I will send a copy of Focus to the first person leaving a comment and I hope they too will come back and let us know their views.

I am a fan of Seth, in awe of his seemingly endless stream of wise words and erudite observations, I read whatever he chooses to publish and have yet to be disappointed.

Poke the Box starts with a story about Annie Downs, an ‘initiator’. In fact, it’s not so much the story of Annie as the introduction to the story. We are never told the full tale and are told that if we are curious about the whats and the hows then we are asking the wrong questions!

Seth gives examples of our accepted business models that are no longer working and cites cases of individuals and industries that have failed to adapt to changing markets and withered and died as a result.

Whereas it was once enough to simply show up and do the work, whatever that might be, Seth asserts that the new essential ingredient for success is initiative. This book is Seth’s manifesto about starting, about taking the inititative.

As I read the six identified ‘imperatives’ I could relate to all of them – what business person couldn’t? These imperatives are all about identifying and understanding the market, building trust and brand, having a product or service that meets a need and working efficiently to manage the business well. You don’t need to have emerged from Business School clutching your Diploma to recognise these business basics.

The problem is that there is a 7th imperative. One that doesn’t get the same coverage as so few people actually do it. Most businesses and business people convince themselves they are working hard and smart by circling in an endless loop around the first 6 imperatives and never ever make it to the 7th. These are the businesses that are always seeking funding, that bemoan the current lack of credit and make up the bulk of the horrendous bankruptcy statistics.

The 7th imperative is ‘shipping’. It’s no secret. Seth has been banging his shipping drum for quite a while now and he does it very articulately.

Seth Godin: Quieting the Lizard Brain from 99% on Vimeo.

Shipping is the differentiator and it’s the stage that many businesses never reach.

I have worked as a business consultant and I have freely offered my time as a business mentor and observed time after time that the reluctance to ship is seemingly one of the hardest problems for a business owner to overcome.

Working with angel investors I have observed countless businesses and entrepreneurs seek more and more funding so they can delay the terrifying moment when they have to start shipping. How much less frightening is it to be at work every day, being busy with market research, product creation, logo design and even participating on Twitter and the like (the latter is of course just to build trust and rapport)?

How many businesses have simply run out of money and lines of credit while they continue to resist shipping? And, these are not just small businesses. Large organisations have also disappeared when they have failed to react to the pace of change in the world

Seth’s book isn’t just for entrepreneurs and budding business folk. It’s for everyone. He challenges the employed as well as the self employed to start looking for possibilities, to challenge the status quo, to recognise that their current pond may have been overfished and polluted, leaving it stagnant and dead.

All of us need to be open to paddling our own canoes into fresh water. Water where there is a current, life, energy and forward motion.

‘Having ideas is not enough’, says Seth. Reading this provided an ouch moment for me. I have the portfolio of domain names that attests to my own abundance of ideas. Ideas lack life force. It’s the starting, the innovating and shipping that adds the life force to an idea.

Of course, there are dangers in being an initiator. There will be failures. Fingers of blame will be pointed. Not many of us are prepared to be wrong, we want to avoid the perceived stigma attached to failure. Seth gives you permission to fail. In fact, he points out that failure is inevitable – it’s a good thing. To accept his premise needs a real change of mind set in most of us.

Starting a new business now is different from how it used to be. The old ways have been overdone and exhausted. There are all manner of people who can offer advice and guidance but the playing field has changed. Seth points out the secret of startup business success now is curiosity. A willingness to try, to see what happens and to refine and try again.

It’s taken me a while to publish this review of Poke the Box. The book has been out for a while but, having read it, I felt ashamed. I felt as if I had no spark of innovation, no creative cells in my body – I felt excluded. Having listened to and observed others this seems to be a common fear. It now occurs to me that there is no shame in first struggling to find the spark that I believe resides within us all. There is no shame in having to fan that spark into life. God knows society is geared up to smother it from a very early age. I think everyone can be forgiven for struggling to coax their own spark into a tentative flame let alone a roaring blaze. For years parents, schools, colleges and workplaces have fought against initiative and innovation. ‘Do as you’re told’ has been the mantra and every time we did as we were told we heaped another pile of damp earth onto that fragile spark of creativity within ourselves and dampened down our potential for genius.

So, this is a belated review. The book is available in all manner of formats and it’s not very long so there’s no excuse. It doesn’t so much provide a kick in the pants as it does shine a light of possibility. A brilliant read.

At the bottom of all our suffering is the Trance of Scarcity

So states Victoria Castle at the beginning of her book.

The premise of this book is that we have a genetic pre-disposition to believe that the Universe isn’t a friendly place and this leaves many feeling alone, fearful and unworthy.

Our life force is gradually reduced to a whisper

Changing our view of the world to embrace the possibility that the Universe may be a friendly place after all allows life to be filled with meaning, fulfillment and freedom.

life is not a series of obstacles to overcome, it’s a steady flow of possibility

I know which I prefer!

When we act out of a long held belief in ‘not enough’ our reptilian brain runs the show. If there’s not enough then basic survival is in jeopardy and we remain in reactive mode. Until we can access the more rational and responsive parts of our brains, we remain stuck.

feeding on a continual diet of despair and rejection courtesy of the Trance of Scarcity we desperately seek ways to go numb

Which beliefs do you hold? Do any of these sound familiar? ‘I’m not good enough’, ‘ This won’t work’, ‘it’s impossible’, ‘it’s too late’, ‘it’s too hard’, ‘I don’t belong’.

While we insist on being separate, playing the victim or the martyr, we cheat ourselves out of the joy of belonging.

‘Trance’ means something we live but of which we are not obviously aware. This belief in scarcity, which so many seem to hold as a truth,  is programmed into us through a combination of nature and nurture. Until we become aware of it and wake up, it runs the show.

Perhaps my synopsis makes the book sound heavy and depressing and nothing could be further from the truth. Victoria writes with a light touch challenging the reader’s beliefs about scarcity and abundance using stories from her own life to demonstrates the points she makes.

In reading The Trance of Scarcity you’ll be encouraged to examine your stories, you know the ones, the things that add colour to the black and white of bare facts.

Having examined your stories you are shown how to determine whether or not they remain valid or whether they need replacing. Victoria is not encouraging the reader to rewrite history. The facts remain the facts. Doesn’t everyone have a pile of brown mucky stuff lurking somewhere in their past? No-one is asked to deny or bury what has happened but to simply re-examine the embellishments and beliefs that have been woven around events.

The facts are recognisable by the absence of those emotive words – always, never, have to, must, should, can’t, every, all, some, nothing…….

I can only liken it to stripping down to your underwear when trying on a new suit of clothes. Your body is your body (the facts). The clothes become the story. You try things on until you find something that makes you feel good whilst wearing it, it suits you, it boosts your self esteeem and confidence rather than diminishing them.

It’s the same with stories and beliefs.

Our stories aren’t just mental constructs, they become physical attributes. We embody our stories and reveal much about ourselves through our physiology. The mind and body are not as separate as we might think.

This means trying to change mental states without also moving our bodies to release the ‘story’, doesn’t work long term. It’s akin to stretching a piece of elastic to change it’s length. As soon as you let go, it snaps back to where it was.

Our stories cause contraction. Our shoulders roll forward, chest collapses, breathing becomes shallow and our heads hang down. It’s our stories that shut us down to possibility and stop our eyes from scanning the horizon for those life chances.

If you are having trouble changing the stories that run through your head, distracting you in the way your neighbour’s television distracts, try changing them through your body. Think about the body posture of the new story you want to adopt.

Victoria’s assertion is

Our experience of abundance, of living in the world with effectiveness and ease, is determined by our inner state more than by our outer circumstances

This isn’t a book about Law of Attraction or positive affirmations. It’s about waking up and really seeing things without looking through the filters of old stories that no longer serve us well.

For those who enjoy personal development books or who enjoy self-coaching this book is definitely worthwhile. Tackling core beliefs is a recurring theme in many coaching programmes – this is a good way to start on yours.

I am a late arrival to Gary Vaynerchuk’s party.

Crush It was published, amidst much praise and publicity, back in 2009. I’m not sure why I didn’t get a copy then. I’m British, female and of ‘mature years’ and I confess to struggling a little with Gary’s puppy like enthusiasm and at some level decided the book was not for me.

Well, not only did I do Gary a disservice by prejudging him, I also missed a really useful book.

I recently bagged my own copy having bought Gary’s latest book The Thank You Economy, and giving in to the upsell invariably offered by that popular online book store.

(Book review of The Thank You Economy to follow shortly).

For me, Gary Vaynerchuk personifies passion and his book is almost allegorical in the way he sandwiches insights into his own background and story with the ‘how-you-can-do-this-too’ instruction.

Gary appears to have been born with the opportunity gene firmly within his DNA. He is on the ball with trends and predictions. The doubters may nay-say this comment and perhaps think that Gary’s predictions create his future – there is no doubt that a Vaynerchuk blessing of a social media site now sees throngs of ardent followers embracing the medium with enthusiasm – but I believe this is one talented young man.

While many took a back seat to watch the Internet unfold (I confess that I was one of those who thought EBay would never take off when I first heard about it back in the late 90s!), Gary began to think thoughts about how he could use this new opportunity. He freely and openly confesses his lack of ‘tecchie’ experience but that hasn’t stopped him making full use of all the tools this new economy has offered.

Gary lives in the real world. He interacts with his customers (still). He hasn’t banked his royalties and retreated to an ivory tower. For this reason he is real. He walks the talk – and he knows what he is talking about.

The book is about working with your passion. Finding a way to earn a living from what you love. I’m not sure many of us Brits do the ‘passion’ thing – but am open to the accusation that I am old, jaded and cynical! We do show enthusiasm and we get warm fuzzy feelings and we clap politely whilst muttering ‘Good Show Old Chap’. There’s some sort of cultural expectation, which is diminishing but nevertheless still within many of us, and it suspects anything that tells us work needn’t be hard, monotonous and unsatisfying. We want to believe that doing what we love will put food on the table, but we need proof.

Well, that proof can only be provided by our own efforts and unless we are willing to try, we’ll never know.

So, as we navigate through some difficult times, do we have anything to lose by reading Gary’s book and allowing his heartfelt enthusiasm inspire us to give it a go. No-one is saying it will be easy BUT the hard will not be so painfully hard when you are doing what you love.

Accidental Genius

The cynic in me makes an author earn permission to ‘talk’ to me. I read lots and lots of books but only a few actually speak to me. Only a few authors get past the gatekeeper of my internal censor.

When an author offers me a solution to a problem that has challenged me intermittently for 40 or so of my 50 years, I confess that I approach their book in a body of scepticism. The words are filtered by the eyes of a woman who was once passionate, but has seen disappointment too many times, hence the cynicism.

Oh boy, do I know my problems; do I know the monsters that share my life. I wrestle with them daily. How could anyone know them as well as me? How could anyone have a reliable manoeuvre that might release me from the half-nelson in which my problems hold me, waiting for me to cede victory to them?

Well, Mr Levy proved he does understand and he provided a solution that works. But, I am getting ahead of myself.

Let’s begin by telling you a little about how this book came to earn my respect.

Accidental Genius first came to my notice via Ed Dale. Now Ed has made book recommendations in the past and they have always been worthwhile so Mr Levy instantly had some credibility. There was another encouragement too. I happened to tweet mention of my book delivery from Amazon and Mark Levy tweeted back. He became a real person to me (well, as real as anyone can be on Twitter!); someone who listens to his audience. I followed him on Twitter (he’s proved himself to be worth following). He followed me back.

I began to like Mr Levy.

When I read a book I almost always start at the back, not to spoil the punchline or sneak a peek at the ‘whodunnit’, but to look at the bibliography and reference section. No bibliography as such in Accidental Genius but a detailed reference section in which I spotted mention of David Whyte. The work of David Whyte touched me in a meaningful way some 10 years ago and yet I hear his name mentioned infrequently. Coming across his name was like coming across a very dear, old friend in an unexpected place. (If you haven’t read David’s book ‘The Heart Aroused’ I recommend it).

As a result of this combination of serendipitous events, I declared myself ready and willing to listen to Mr Levy and to learn.

Accidental Genius is an entertaining and easy read. Without dumbing anything down or patronising his readers, Mr Levy carries on a conversation throughout his book. With witty quips and digressions that not only amuse and entertain but also offer metaphors to reinforce his point, Mark’s writing is a joy to read. I found myself relaxing in his company. If my reading of one paragraph generated questions in my mind, I found those same questions answered within the next few pages. Reading the book became a conversation with the author.

Reading the introduction to the book I could feel my ‘voice’, the cynic who does such a valiant job in protecting me from more disappointment, relaxing its grip. Mr Levy clearly understood my problem.

Imagine having an illness for which you have consulted specialist after specialist, each one offering a solution that didn’t quite work. For my ‘illness’ I have attended workshop after workshop, listened to expert after expert and read book after book, never quite finding any solution to be as effective as promised.
Mr Levy very quickly demonstrated that he’d been inside my jumbled, scattered mind (quite spooky really). He’d used his magic tricks (did I mention he does magic? No, really) to divine my particular problem then, miraculously, he normalised it and me. He described the symptoms so minutely, gave examples and showed that I am not the freak I feared I might be. That a head full of inaccessible thoughts, dreams and ideas is in fact normal. I am not losing my mind after all.

Mark made a promise:
‘Accidental Genius teaches… you how to get at what’s inside your head, so you can convert the raw material….into something usable, even extraordinary.’

No hype. No teasing build up to a disappointing conclusion. All of this occurred within the first few pages of the introduction. No waiting until the penultimate page to discover the ‘miracle cure’. The solution was revealed immediately with the rest of the book holding my hand as I practiced working with it.

I’ve had Accidental Genius for 5 days as I write the first draft of this review. I’ve read it twice and am reading it a third time now to work through the exercises.

If you have ever felt that you lacked ideas, or have wrestled with a problem that resisted all attempts to solve it or doubted your creative ability- this is the book for you to read. And don’t be put off if you don’t consider yourself to be a writer. You don’t have to be a writer to implement Mr Levy’s solution. The solution to all ills – freewriting – is not something that works only for writers.

Of course, if you want to write, reading Accidental Genius is one of the best places to start – you can move on to the nitty gritty of Elements of Style a little later. I can think of no better book to encourage everyone to begin putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard.

For myself, I don’t know who to be most grateful to – Ed for making the recommendation or Mark for writing the book. Both remain firmly on my list of good guys.

This book teaches a skill that can be utilised in all domains of life. Don’t be fooled by the apparent simplicity of the method taught. Having used it, I am convinced it is indeed one of Mr Levy’s magic tricks.

As an encouragement, the first person to leave a comment here will receive a gift from me – their own copy of Accidental Genius – and I hope whoever that is will come back when they’ve read the book to let the rest of us know what they thought.

There has been a lot of interest in the blogosphere about this book – Linchpin – and I want to add my tuppence worth.

I confess to being in awe of Seth Godin. I follow his blog, read his books and wish I had his amazing mind and eloquent writing skills. In some ways I have allowed his genius to demoralise me. When Seth is your benchmark very little seems to make the grade.

Picking up the book my interest was immediately piqued by the unusual table of contents. It’s more like a Google listing. A title and a commentary. Some entries made me think. Some made me smile. Already predisposed to like the book – I knew I would be reading it in one sitting.

The first paragraphs of the introduction opened a door of possibility in my mind.

‘No one is a genius all the time,’ says Seth.

‘They’re not?’  Thought I.

‘…all of us are geniuses sometimes.’

The discussion in the book continues around the tragedy of our upbringing and conditioning; the training that contains, suppresses and discourages our individual genius. If we have been through mainstream school this is very hard to avoid.

Throughout the book Seth refers to some of the seminal works on socio-economic theory. The bibliography is made real and amusing by his commentary. I was pleased to read Seth’s take on the e-myth books. How many business consultants hold these up as THE manual for small and startup businesses? I suddenly felt validated in my own thinking about the books – albeit a trifle sad that I needed such validation.

Throughout Linchpin the reader is encouraged to wake up and appreciate that we do all have a choice – although Seth also reveals why we are likely to resist and even possibly denounce his ideas. In fact, if you find your monkey mind nay-saying his words, Seth and I both urge you to turn to page 101 and simply read the chapter on The Resistance.

We don’t have to do what we have been trained and conditioned to do. The world is changing, has changed, and if we sit where we have always sat waiting for it to change back we’ll have a long wait.

Rather than being threatened by changes in our socio-economic world Seth asks us to see the changes as opportunities. We now have the chance to act and live as the individuals we are; to create, invent and even to rebel. We simply have to grasp the opportunity. No-one is going to tell us what or how – not any more. We get re-invent ourselves and finally fulfil the promise we were born with.

As an aside, it’s easy to now understand, having read Linchpin, why people continue to repeatedly buy in to ‘how to do it’ schemes (the more cynical might call them ‘get rich quick scams’). These are the people still looking for the old way. Those who have been brainwashed into thinking we have to be told what to do, that we have to follow instructions.

We weren’t born to be average. We weren’t born to be ‘replaceable cogs’ in an economic machine – a machine that is now creaking and failing. We were all born with unique gifts and talents. We have an innate curiosity and a drive to learn and grow. It was society that turned us into Joe and Jane Average. Conditioning by our environment, school and peers that taught us to do just enough to fit in, to conform, to lower our expectations, to be ordinary. After all, that’s safe. Right?

As Seth points out, the old model has broken and people everywhere are facing changes. It’s our individual choice whether we cling to the past, fearful of an unknown future or whether we unpack our individuality and dust it down ready to grasp every new opportunity.

The Internet has changed the way we work and live. It has given everyone access to the insider knowledge that many traditional businesses traded in. Seth uses the example of travel agents. We can now all choose to go direct to the airlines and hotels to search for best prices and make our bookings – we don’t need the middle men.

The connectivity of the Internet has made it possible for previously disparate groups to come together and network, sharing intelligence. Excellence and individuality and authenticity is recognised, applauded and rewarded. Mediocrity and ordinariness gets trampled under foot.

There are risks to being different. Being remarkable. Breaking free of the conditioned masses. Linchpin discusses these risks and celebrates the rewards of overcoming a physiological resistance to become someone who does stand out, who is indispensable, who is a genius (even if it isn’t every day).

If you haven’t grabbed your copy of Linchpin yet I urge you to. If you click on any of the links in this article you will be whisked away to Amazon to make your purchase and my Kiva account may even earn 20cents or so as a result. Thank you. If that offends you, go to your local book store, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones or make your own way to Amazon. Buy the book. Read. Re-read. Think. Take notes. Come back and comment/discuss and most of all prepare to have your mind opened to the possibility of a different future. It’s there for you to choose.

I’d like to talk to you about a book that isn’t yet a book in that you can’t pop across to Amazon and get yourself a copy. Not yet.

Lost and Found, written by Ron Rink, is a memoir wrapped up in a novel. The story of Ron’s life is grippingly and heartbreakingly true although he has fictionalised the characters in the book.

Ron is publishing his book chapter by chapter on his blog at www.wecould2.com and delivering new chapter notifications by email.

The story of Ron’s life makes for compelling reading. I have found myself on a swingboat of emotion as I have read. What is so remarkable to me is that the Ron I know (and adore) lived all of this. The Ron of today gives no hint of being the Ron of the street fighting days (and I shall say no more for fear of ruining the plot). It highlights for me that whilst we may sometimes walk a very uneven and uphill path every step is creating another stitch in the rich tapestry of our individual lives.

Ron’s tapestry is multi coloured, warm, wise and glorious.

At one point Ron stopped writing. I was fearful that the book wouldn’t be finished. Now I am sure it will be. There are too many who want to know how he got from where he was to where he is today.

Lost and Found by Ron Rink can be found at www.wecould2.com with an index to the chapters published to date found on the left hand side of the site. Enjoy!

I read The Celestine Prophecy back in the mid 1990s and to be brutally honest I was a bit ‘ho-hum’ about it all. I found it an entertaining read, but the content did not touch me.

Browsing through bookshelves in a period of insomnia driven wandering last night, I came across the book and settled down to read it again.

From cover to cover I think it took a little under 3 hours but it was probably the most worthwhile 3 hours I have spent for a while!

If you have enjoyed Eckhart’s book A New Earth, I really recommend that you also read (or re-read) The Celestine Prophecy. I’ll be interested to know what you take away from it?

If I have mentioned this book to you before, I make no apology for mentioning it again.

My copy is already looking slightly battered where it has been read, re-read and carried around as a constant companion.

It appears that having faith in natural laws and trusting that the universe will send what we need, when we need it, is justified. There have been an extraordinary number of happenings recently which I can only put down to synchronicity.

One such event is my introduction to A New Earth.

In addition, there has to be the largest book reading group ever meeting weekly to discuss the book with Eckhart and Oprah where you can watch weeks one and two before joining week three on Monday 17th March.

I don’t want to spoil A New Earth for you by attempting to discuss it here. I simply want you to know what a profound effect it has had on me and how much it has helped me to reframe recent (and historic) events in my life, which in turn is allowing me to move on.

I have a well thumbed and well read copy of this book to which I have recently returned.

It is a favourite that digs me out of the holes I dig myself into.

The book takes me back to basics each time and brings sense and creativity back into what has usually become a fragmented existence. It’s a shame that, like the worst kind of wayward child, I then determine that I know better and saunter off doing my own not so sweet thing again!

Julia believes that we all have a deep well of creativity within us that has been pinched, pummelled and punished to the extent that it is frightened to show itself. You can use the book in whichever way suits you best although it is laid out as a 12 week program, there is no requirement to work through it in any particular order.

There are just 2 requirements. One is to commit to a routine known as Morning Pages which you will buck against and find irksome in the extreme, but, trust me, it is one of the most profoundly beneficial practices you can introduce into your life. The second is the Artist’s Date, which is nothing more than a weekly hour or two spent with yourself doing something inexpensive but meaningful.

It may be that you have no desire to explore the creative side of your potential but I would still assert that there is benefit to be gained from working through the book. Some of the exercises are like guided missiles directed at the areas of your being that need the most attention. It’s almost spooky how it works!