This article was first published in our Outside the Lines newsletter

The launch of Do More Great Work has had a rhythm all of its own. If it was a dance, it would have been a combination of the quickstep, The League of Extraordinary Dancers, and a bad attack of malaria. In other words, interesting, slightly too sweaty and I’m glad to take a break.

Now, post-launch, I’m thinking about what I want my rhythm of work and life to be. Here’s what I’m considering:

• Who do I love?

I love that the last line in the last Beatles’ song is “And in the end the love you take/Is equal to the love you make.”

Pretty much every deathbed moment has people thinking about the people that matter in their life, and not so much whether their Inbox is down to zero. (Maynard Keynes the economist may be an exception. He wishes he’d drunk more champagne. Which is also good advice by the way.)

What’s the rhythm that allows you to hang out with those you love and those that love you back? I know for me I’m constantly seduced by the busywork and spend too much time holed up in my office. That’s going to change.

Who makes you smile? – see #5 in The 5.75 Questions You’ve Been Avoiding

• What do I love?

This is one of those big Great Work questions. What’s still giving me juice, exciting me, making me dance?

I don’t want to just be doing stuff because I was doing it 12 months ago just because of momentum.

For instance, I know that I love the creating process – taking ideas and turning them into something funky and inspiring and useful for people.

And as I look ahead in my calendar, there’s almost no space held for that. I’m travelling and delivering workshops and having fun … but that’s not going to be enough.

What do you need to hold time and space for?

• Public/Private

My wife and I have a code phrase, “public/private”. It’s uttered on those occasions where one of us – almost always me – is about to reveal something that really should stay private between Marcella and me. It gives us (me) the chance to rescue myself from a moment of Too Much Information.

With social media lapping at our feet everywhere we look, this question of public/private is starting to mean something different for me now. It’s how much time do I spend in the public eye and connecting with all of you, and how much time am I private, on retreat.

Where do you stop the performance?

• What’s really urgent?

Chris Brogan, who is as prolific as he is wise (ie. very) has just published a post called “The Assault on Anywhen“. In it he rails against this ever intensifying circle of urgency that drives all we do. Everything, it seems, requires an immediate response and was due yesterday.

I’ve been getting caught up in all of this recently too. Time to take a breath and find out what’s important rather than urgent (with a hat tip to Steven Covey).

What really matters?

Don’t take my word for it

Smart people thinking out loud about balance.

“I believe that being successful means having a balance of success stories across the many areas of your life. You can’t truly be considered successful in your business life if your home life is in shambles.”
-Zig Ziglar

“Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.”
-Thomas Merton

“If you’re interested in ‘balancing’ work and pleasure, stop trying to balance them. Instead make your work more pleasurable.”
-Donald Trump

“Just as your car runs more smoothly and requires less energy to go faster and farther when the wheels are in perfect alignment, you perform better when your thoughts, feelings, emotions, goals, and values are in balance.”
-Brian Tracey

“Love and work… work and love, that’s all there is.”
-Sigmund Freud

“Problems arise in that one has to find a balance between what people need from you and what you need for yourself.”
-Jessye Norman

“In art and dream may you proceed with abandon. In life may you proceed with balance and stealth.”
-Patti Smith

“In today’s society we sometimes forget to balance our hearts and our heads; this is the reason we stop laughing.”
-Yakov Smirnoff

“It must be a balance in everything we do, not too much of everything, keep it simple, not complicated.“
-Abdullah Amad Badawi

This article was first published in our Outside the Lines newsletter

There’s a debate ranging in Canada about how well we’re doing in the Olympics.

It is after all “our games” – and there’s been some relentless hype leading up to the event about how Canada will “own the podium.”

Our athletes are doing pretty well – but not quite as well as had been hoped. And we’ve been treated to the sad sight of men and women apologizing for “only coming in 4th”, or not winning Gold.

It’s been yet another lesson, reminding me to take every chance I can to celebrate. And it should be noted that it’s not something that comes naturally to me. I’m always onto the next thing. Luckily, Marcella – my wife and VP of Everything Else at Box of Crayons – has part of her remit to “Tell Michael to STOP and ENJOY the moment.”

So we’ve drunk some champagne over the success of the new book this week. It’s no small feat to hit the Amazon rankings we did. Hurrah!

And so I offer up some tips on what you might like to celebrate.

1. Celebrate getting this far.

You could have stopped, given up, got distracted, abandoned ship, lost you mojo, been bamboozled.

And yet, here you are.

Whatever shape you’re in, whatever number you are in line – congratulations are in order for making it this far on the journey.

It’s no small thing.

2. Celebrate those who support you

We’ve had amazing and generous support from so many people for the launch of the book.
People blogging and tweeting and news-lettering. people buying the books. People writing lovely congratulatory notes.

Wherever you are, you’re not alone. Make a point of reaching out to say “thanks and hurrah!” to those who’ve been in your corner.

(I’ll be posting a blog specifically thanking some of our champions soon.)

3. Celebrate what’s possible now

Where you are now, who you are now, has set things up for what’s next.

As you lift your eyes to the path that unfolds in front of you, possibilities are popping up like buds of wattle after an Australian bushfire.

Celebrate what lies before you, because it will be juicy.

Don’t take my word for it

Smart people thinking out loud about celebration.

“Everything is created from moment to moment, always new. Like fireworks, this universe is a celebration and you are the spectator contemplating the eternal Fourth of July of your absolute splendor.”
-Francis Lucille

“Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey.”
-Barbara Hoffman

“I love any and all situations where you celebrate creativity.”
-Brad Paisley

“Celebrate the happiness that friends are always giving, make every day a holiday and celebrate just living!”
-Amanda Bradley

“Celebrate what you want to see more of.”
-Tom Peters

“The Olympic Games are the quadrennial celebration of the springtime of humanity.”
-Pierre de Coubertin

“I celebrate myself, and sing myself.”
-Walt Whitman

“The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.”
-Oprah Winfrey

“It’s always good to remember where you come from and celebrate it. To remember where you come from is part of where you’re going.”
-Anthony Burgess

“Mom always tells me to celebrate everyone’s uniqueness. I like the way that sounds.”
-Hilary Duff

Three steps to reach the summit

It’s the Winter Olympics.

And as you know it’s just a few days until the official publication of Do More Great Work. So for some reason, reaching the top after a long journey seems to be top of mind…

But you don’t have to be an athlete who’s been training hard for four years or an author keen for a brief but glorious moment in the Amazon sun.

All of us have projects were working that have a finish point. All of us are striving to reach the top of our own mountains.

Here are three tips on how to make it to the top.

1. Don’t stop now

I’m sure there’s a joke out there that says, “There are two types of people in the world. Those that finish things and those who…”

Yeah. I’m one of the strong starters, not-so-strong finishers. I can’t tell you how many times in the last couple of months I’ve wanted to step away and do something else. A friend of mine once called it “SOS” – Shiny Object Syndrome. At this stage of the project – any project – almost anything else looks tempting (the fresh juiciness of starting something new) compared to slogging it out to the end point.

So now’s the time to keep your nerve. Here’s when you dig deep, ignore the lactic acid coursing through your muscles, and push on.

Do you cross the finish line accelerating or slowing down?

2. Get the whole team across the line

I love the story of the gangly bee-keeper who conquered Everest. There are many reasons why I’m a fan of Edmund Hillary – not just because he’s a fellow antipodean, but because of the important work he did in Nepal in the fifty years after he reached the top of the mountain. He crested the summit with his Sherpa and friend, Tenzing Norgay – and for many many years never told which one of them actually reached the peak of the mountain first. It was for Hillary a shared triumph.

I’m getting a lot of help in getting this book out to the world. There are (at least) 21 people at Workman Publishing who’ve had a hand in getting it out into the world, various friends and partners and supporters who are mentioning it on their blogs and in their newsletter and to their tribes, people who are writing lovely reviews on Amazon, the Box of Crayons team, and all of you who are good enough to buy a copy or two.

When you cross the line, you’re never the only one. Who else is part of your team?

3. Know that the top is never the top

When I went hiking in Nepal myself, I walked part of the Annapurna Circuit. It felt like an Escher drawing, constantly going uphill and never down. There would be these moments of false hope – we’d approach a summit, crest it… and see that the path only flattened out slightly before heading ever upwards once more.

Come February 22nd we’ll celebrate Do More Great Work’s official birth. Hurrah! And it will be a peak moment, which we’ll celebrate. And then the path will straighten up once more, we’ll adjust our packs, and we’ll head on up to the next summit.

That’s the glory of the journey.

Don’t take my word for it

Smart people thinking out loud about striving for the top

“Inquisitiveness and strength make me want to rise above my valley-bound brothers. I must reach the summit to see the truth.”
-Delores Seats

“If I’d had some set idea of a finish line, don’t you think I would have crossed it years ago?”
-Bill Gates

“When you have completed 95% of your journey you are halfway there.”
-Japanese proverb

“You never conquer a mountain. You stand on the summit a few moments; then the wind blows your footprints away.”
-Arlene Blum

“I’d rather be a could-be if I cannot be an are; because a could-be is a maybe who is reaching for a star. I’d rather be a has-been than a might-have-been, by far; for a might have-been has never been, but a has was once an are.”
-Milton Berle

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Seven Essential Great Work Blogs

If you’re in an organization and you want to do more Great Work, plug into inspiration.

There are many good blogs out there, but these are the ones I return to time and time again to help me think fresh thoughts, to kick my butt, to get inspired.

1. Don’t accept business as usual: Tom Peters
I thought long and hard about this one. After all, Tom Peters has been banging on about this stuff for years and years now. Surely he’s run out of stuff to say?

And the answer is Yes – and No. For sure he’s got his themes that he keep returning to (as do I). But damn it if they’re not spot on – Make everything a project, pick your battles and be bold, break the rules, get smart about design, and that many of the powers that be ‘just don’t get it.’

2. Stay human: Seth Godin & Chris Brogan
If you say their names together fast enough, they almost rhyme. And quite frankly it felt like cheating to put them as separate blogs. They’re really, really good separately. But I think as a double act, they’re fabulous.

Both Seth and Chris are smart and wise, and manage to combine insightful thoughts about the eco-system of business – you, your customer, your organization, your network – with how to be human.

And Seth has written an original piece on Great Work for Do More Great Work. I’m pretty excited about that.

I’ll be featuring Seth on the Great Work Interview series on Feb 9th.

3. Break your rules: Chris Guillebeau’s The Art of Non-Conformity
Another one of the contributors to Do More Great Work, Chris is living a life where he sets his own rules and shares his journey.

He posts two or three thoughtful posts every week. Sometimes they’re riffs on one of his Great Work Projects – visiting every country in the world. But often they’re all about what it means to define success on your own terms, be courageous and have fun. He’s got two fabulous and free manifestos which are worth you checking out and downloading, whether or not you subscribe to his blog.

I’ll be featuring Chris as part of the Great Work Interview series on Feb 12th.

4. Keep your motivation: Dan Pink
Dan Pink helps to articulate the zeitgeist in the world of work. Like Seth Godin and Malcolm Gladwell, his books have an ability to pull together lots of threads, tie them up neatly and give them a hook that both explains and summarizes. His new book Drive is terrific, but I have to confess a soft spot for his least commercially successful – The Adventures of Johnny Bunko, a manga style book on how to truly succeed at work for Gen Y (and for the rest of us too).

His blog is more personal and less theoretical -  it feels like a front-line reporter of what’s going on out there.

If you’d like to hear Dan, you can listen to my interview with him on the Great Work Interview series here.

5. Use your brain: David Rock
David Rock is the standard bearer for the new field of neuroleadership. He cut his teeth in the world of coaching, but over the last five years or so has done a pretty brilliant job at making the link between how our brain really works – and how you can make best use of it in the work that you do. You find lots on that in his new book Your Brain at Work – and it’s worth latching on to his blog as well.

I’d suggest the best way to stay in touch with David is via Twitter (@DavidRock101) where he regularly posts links about new findings in neuroscience.

David’s another person I’ve interviews, and you can listen to David’s interview on the Great Work Interview series.

6. Change your behaviour: Leo Babauta’s Zen Habits
Leo’s one of the contributors to the new Do More Great Work, and when you take a look at his blog (or for that matter his book The Power of Less) you’ll see why. It’s full of practical, focused and insightful guidance on how to shape your behaviour

And yes, I’ve interview Leo too. Stay tuned for that interview on Feb 8th on the Great Work Interview series.

7. Tap others’ wisdom: Alltop
Alltop is Guy Kawasaki’s project, and a way of making the hunt for great blogs a whole lot easier. He’s clustered the best of blogs under various topic headings – leadership, productivity, inspiration and much much more – and gives you the chance to see what’s there and what’s worth pursuing. He likens it to a magazine rack, and that’s a very good metaphor for how it works.

I interviewed Guy a while ago, one of my first Great Work Interviews that you can listen to here.

Bonus: My own Great Work Blog

You’re reading it! Thank you.

FYI- It’s now available as an app on iTunes. Just type in ‘Great Work’ and you’ll find it.

Don’t take my word for it

Smart people thinking out loud the wisdom of others.

“The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”
-Albert Einstein, physicist

“Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.”
-Samuel Taylor Coleridge, writer

“A stone is not carved by a drop’s falling twice, but by many times; so too does a human not become wise by reading two, but by many books.”
-Giordano Bruno, philosopher

“To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.”
-Marilyn vos Savant, writer

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”
-Confucius, philosopher

“Education … has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading.”
-George Macaulay Trevelyan, historian

“The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages are perpetuated by quotations.”
-Benjamin Disraeli, statesman

“Some folks are wise and some are otherwise.”
-Tobias Smollett , writer

Great Work Interviews

We’re clearing out the vault in our Great Work Interviews, and that means you get to listen to a bunch of smart and funny and wise people sharing their perspective on Great Work.

For instance, the other week we featured five people who are bringing the importance of design to business.

• Nancy Duarte is the founder of Duarte Design, a company that committed solely to making presentations go Zing! She helped create Al Gore’s influential An Inconvenient Truth presentation, and is the author of the fabulous Slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations.
• Dan Roam wrote the fabulous The Back of the Napkin, and shows you how the ability to draw a line and a circle can change the way you solve problems and how your ideas catch hold. He’s just got a new companion book out, Unfolding the Napkin: The Hands-On Method for Solving Complex Problems with Simple Pictures.
• Garr Reynolds has written the other great Stop PowerPoint Sucking book, Presentation Zen. Wise, practical and beautiful. If you want to fundamentally change your meetings, pick up his and Nancy’s books.
• Roger Martin, a fellow Torontonian, wrote The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage. He’s the Dean of Canada’s leading business school, Rotman, and he’s got some great points on what design thinking is and why it matters to everyone in your organization, including you. Roger and my conversation gets posted today, Thursday.
• Scott Belsky, founder of Behance and The 99% Site. Behance’s mission is to help creative people bring their ideas to life and to light, and our conversation is about the mix of creativity and discipline that requires.

If you’re got an iPod, you can download these directly from iTunes. Just put ‘Great Work’ in the Search Box.

Box of Crayons Shop

There are three things I want to quickly tell you about this week.

1. Jen Louden’s Virtual Retreat.

Jen’s a good fiend of mine and a member of my ‘Brain Trust’. She’s helped me out time and time again with her guidance, gentle wisdom and willingness to mercilessly tease me when that’s exactly what I need.

She’s re-running her Virtual Retreat again this year, as it was such a bit hit last year. She’s gathered 12 other world famous teachers to help you go on retreat – without having to leave the house. This will help you centre yourself, reconnect to creativity and inspiration, and get focused on what matters to you. For women seeking more Great Work, grounding yourself in Jen’s retreat would be a fine idea indeed.

You can learn more here (this is an affiliate link)

2. Jamie Broughton’s new book, The Emerging Leader

Jamie is one of the leaders of Box of Crayons’ Coaching for Great Work programs, and an expert in how to make the most of your emerging leaders. His new book is fabulous – I’ve bought a bunch of copies to give some key clients – and I’d highly recommend it to you.

You can learn more at Jamie’s website

3. Get Unstuck & Get Going …on the stuff that matters

It’s getting a little lost in the big hubbub over Do More Great Work. But in case you hadn’t picked up on this – the newly designed 2nd edition of Get Unstuck & Get Going is now available. It’s a fantastic self-coaching tool, and it’s less than 1/3 the original price due to its new, slimline, and very beautiful redesign. (Thank you to our brilliant designer, Ana Garza-Robillard.)  For those of you who own the original, hardcover edition of Get Unstuck, this new edition is full of new content, including a re-tooled Action Acceleration Sheet-the engine behind getting going on the stuff that matters.

You can see the book and listen to my 4 top tips forgetting the best out of Get Unstuck here.

FYGW is Dead. Long Live Do More Great Work

Find Your Great Work is sold out.

But that’s not the big news.

The big news is that a new, expanded version will be coming to a bookstore near you.

Workman Publishing Co, a big, lovely New York publisher has bought the rights and are bringing the revised and expanded edition out on February 13- just in time for Valentines Day.

Not to put too fine a line on it, but I’m desperately excited. Sure, I’m trying to play it cool and not get all sweaty and anxious, but the truth is, I’m waking up at unreasonable hours of the morning and twitching in anticipation.  Which is annoying for everyone involved (aside from our cats who love the early morning attention), but it speaks to my high hopes for the book.

I’ll be asking for your help, but before I do, let me tell you how I’ve revised and expanded Do More Great Work.

1. I’ve added five brand new ‘maps’, practical exercises to help you find, start and sustain more of the work that’s meaningful to you.
2. I’ve added four coaching tips, smart ways to create the time and space to do more great work.
3. I’ve got seven awesome thinkers who’ve written original contributions. Seth Godin (uber-marketing whiz), Chris Guillebeau (The Art of Non-Conformity), Michael Port (Think Big Revolution), Penelope Trunk (Founder of Brazen Careerist), Dave Ulrich (HR Guru), Leo Babauta (Zen Habits), and Tim Hurson (Think Better). These are super-savvy people, and they’ve all got something useful to say.
4. I’ve expanded most of the chapters, so theyre more detailed,e asier to follow and practical to use,.
5. It’s cheaper. Right now, you can pre-order on Amazon and pick up a copy for just over $8 – that’s 33% off the retail price. (It’s also available at Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk, and online at Borders or Chapters.Indigo or Barnes and Nobles… yes I’m excited).

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Six and a Half Steps to Ask for Help

…without being a wimp or a brute

Do you remember the final Great Work Truth? Great Work is not a solo act.

Sage advice, and I only wish I could follow it better myself.

The last few months have been fascinating (sort of) as I’ve watched myself struggling to ask for help – or if I do ask, struggling to ask for it well.

As I’m preparing to ask you, dear reader, for help in making Do More Great Work a success, I thought I’d lay out my best guesses on how to do this and do it well.

So here we go – the best I can offer you about asking for help.

1. Get clear you’re going to ask for help.

Two things get in the way.

One, the suspicion that you’re actually omnipotent and you should be able to do all of it yourself. Any asking of help would be a sign of weakness, a sign of deficiency, would put you in a place of vulnerability and debt.

Or two, the certain knowledge that asking for help would put an unbearable burden on the other person and as you are not only deeply responsible but also highly protective of all those around you, you won’t ask as it will generate not only resentment in the other but quite possibly life-scarring wounds.

Forget it.

It’s not that you can’t do a whole lot by yourself. Of course you can.

it’s just that you can do so much more with the help of others.

So get over your shyness, your anxiety, your ego, your sense of responsibility.

Accept that you need help.

2. Get clear on who could help you most.

Actually, it would be good if this could be the point before the first point. Because the truth is, it’s much easier to ask for help from someone you have a relationship with or someone you’ve helped out yourself before. (For more on this see Influence:The Psychology of Persuasion.)

So start with people you know, people with whom you’e connected before. They might be friends or family. They might be work colleagues, or people you know on Twitter, or the next door neighbours.

Who could you ask for help?

And after you’ve scanned that cluster of people, expand your horizons.

If you could ask anyone (yes, anyone) in the world for help, for support, to get involved – who would you ask?

One of the most marvellous things about the Great Work Interview series is that I have actually plucked up the courage to ask people who I most want to interview. David Allen. Guy Kawasaki. Mike Dooley. Michael Neill…. It’s a long list (there’s lots of people to be admired out there – see the next section of the newsletter). The wonderful and revealing thing to me is that 90% of the people I’ve asked have said yes, and said yes quickly and graciously. And the few who’ve said no have been equally gracious.

3. Be light, be humble, be gracious.

Finding the right tone to make the request can be everything.

On one side of the abyss is the grovelly, snivelly, “I am unworthy” tone. Playing the helpless victim that needs to be rescued.

On the other side, the brusque, demanding, “this is my right” tone. That gets you nowhere as well.

Close your eyes, and remember yourself at your most assured, most centered, most gracious, most inviting.

And from that place, make the request.

4. Ask for what you want.

You’d think this might be obvious.

But it can be very easy to assume that what you want is bleedingly obvious. Surely, you think, it’s clear what’s being asked here.

Uh-oh.

Don’t make them have to work it out themselves.

Don’t make them have to work.

Make it easy for someone to say Yes or No or Maybe, by being specific about a request.

5. Say please. Say thank you.

Saying please? Pretty obvious.

Saying thank you? Also obvious, but remember to say thank you whether they say Yes or say No. The fact that they’ve considered the request is a gift and you can acknowledge it as such.

6. Don’t take it personally.

It’s one of my favourite mantras: An adult-to-adult relationship is being able to ask for what you want, knowing that the answer may be no.

There are a gazillion reasons why someone might say No to your request, and only a tiny percentage of them are that they think you’re an evil/worthless/despicable/lousy/psychotic person. Most likely there’s something else going on and, for one reason or another, they can’t help you out this time.

No is good.

No means you can move on and ask someone else.

6.5. Added bonus: Think of it like a handshake.

My friend, Mark Bowden is putting out a book called Winning Body Language in April. Watch this short video of him teaching people who to shake hands in a way that makes a difference.

The key lessons?

• Touch palms – let them feel your humanity.
• Turn your hand up – let them feel your vulnerability.
• Be firm – let them feel your strength.

Not bad lessons on how to ask for help… or to live life for that matter.

Don’t take my word for it

Smart people thinking out loud about asking for help.

“Tell everyone what you want to do and someone will want to help you do it.”
-W. Clement Stone, American businessman

“Help thy brother’s boat across, and Lo! Thine own has reached the shore.”
-Hindu proverb

“When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream.”
-Paulo Coelho, Brazilian writer

“The best place to find a helping hand is at the end of your own arm.”
-Swedish proverb

“It is not so much our friends’ help that helps us, as the confidence of their help.”
-Epicurus, Greek philosopher

“We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don’t know.
-W. H. Auden, British writer

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A Month of Great Work Wisdom