Hey Everyone, We have moved our blog to a new location! (It’s now at www.roryvaden.com/blog)

Thanks for the compliment of coming to check out my Take the Stairs World Tour blog. If this is your first time here, we are so glad you stopped by. The articles, videos, and commentary on this blog are provided to help you create breakthrough results in every area of your life by developing and mastering more self-discipline. We believe that Freedom, Peace, Financial Security, Fulfillment, Career Advancement, Stronger relationships, and just about anything else you could want for your life are available to you by first learning to do the things you don’t want to do. Self-discipline requires people to make sacrifices in the short term for payoffs in the long term and this entire blog is dedicated to helping encourage you to do that by offering insights that shift your perspective and understanding about what it takes to improve your self-discipline. In short, it is meant to make self-discipline easier.

We have moved to a new home, however. So please visit or change your RSS feed to our new blog which can be found at:

 www.roryvaden.com/blog 

Thanks so much.

See you in the stairwell,

Rory

Precisely Acceptable

The way your life is right now is Precisely Acceptable to you. How do I know? Because if it wasn’t acceptable to you, then you’d do something to change it. Therefore it is, by definition, acceptable.

Acceptable doesn’t necessarily mean good and it certainly doesn’t mean it’s how you want it; it just simply means that it is a luxury and not a necessity for it to undergo change. Acceptable is dangerous because acceptable is synonymous with mediocre or convenient. Acceptable means just good enough to not make changes.

Therein lies the challenge and the call to become more self-disciplined. Self-discipline requires an ambition to move beyond what is convenient towards something that is spectacular. Self-discipline means you reject what is merely acceptable in lieu of striving towards a life that is marvelous.

Self-discipline is a calling to ignore the escalator and instead take the stairs.

See you in the stairwell,

Rory Vaden
Take the Stairs – Success means doing things you don’t want to do

God Will Meet You Half Way

What happens when you are completely self-disciplined and you do everything in your power and things still don’t work out the way you wanted them to? How do you deal with that? What does that mean? This question and others like it are common for people to ask me in attempting to explain their own shortcomings in life, their own unfortunate tragedies and disappointments in life, or out of curiosity for finding out how I deal with mine.

For example I’ve had many people in the last few years ask me how I felt about coming in 2^nd place in the Toastmasters International World Championship of Public Speaking. They often ask if I would enter the contest again, or if I’m upset, or how I’ve developed peace about falling short of one of – what was at the time- the most important goals in my life.

In order to understand my response you have to first understand the payoffs of self-discipline. The payoffs of self-discipline are many but the two primary ones are peace and freedom. Peace is the one that is relevant here.

In the forthcoming Take the Stairs book there is an entire chapter on The Perspective Principle of Faith but the basic premise of the chapter is that Faith is choosing to trust that what is happening now is for a greater good later on. The beauty of investing self-discipline into any endeavor or goal is that at the end of the day, when the results are tallied, or the outcome is delivered then you are able to know with absolute supreme confidence that you did every single thing that you had control over to make it work.

And because of the confidence you can have that you did everything in your power then you can absolutely know for sure that if things didn’t turn out the way you wanted, then God must have some reason for why things didn’t turn out the way you hoped. See the payoff? If you did everything you could and didn’t get the results you wanted, then you know God wanted it to go the way it did because if he wanted it to go another way – it would’ve. So there is PEACE in knowing that it went exactly the way it was supposed to because you know that it wasn’t your fault even though you “fell short” or that you experienced some pain or tragedy.

The bummer about doing things half-assed or with a lack of commitment is that when they don’t work out the way you want them to then there is no way to know for sure if it’s your fault or if it’s his plan. So there is frustration and despair. Frustration and despair is what waits for those who wait to work.

Peace is the payoff from someone with self-discipline because they live a life focused on controlling what they can control and focused on having Faith in God for the rest. It’s kind of like my close friend and Southwestern student manager Tracey once told me, “God will meet you half way. Do your best and let him deal with the rest.”

If you’re doing your best and things aren’t going the way you hoped then take heart and relax knowing that someone else is in control and you are operating perfectly within that plan. If you’re not doing you best, then get your butt to work.

See you in the stairwell,

Rory Vaden
Take the Stairs – Success means doing things you don’t want to do

New Year’s Resolutions Don’t Work – Start Today!

Black Friday isn’t just the kick-off of the Holiday shopping season it is also the kick-off of a period where most of us completely destroy our health. Extra stress, tighter budgets, more social commitments and less sleep are among some of the common challenges we are all about to deal with. Add to that a consistent string of opportunities to indulge in high-calorie Christmas specialty drinks, seasonal candies galore, and lots of grossly overdone portion sizes and you have a recipe for physical disaster.

And I’m already hearing the infamous “come January 1^st I’m going back on my diet” which is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. If you wait till January 1^st you’re going to need to double diet just to make up for the havoc you’ll wreak on your body in the next 4 weeks. Don’t do that! Instead, start your New Year’s Resolutions today!

New Year’s Resolutions don’t work because of the law of diminishing intent. We all start off well-intentioned but it slowly starts to fade. And it’s not because we’re bad people it’s just because the secret to keeping a new resolution is to keep it NEW every day. In other word’s New Year’s Resolutions can’t work; only NEW DAY’s resolutions work.

It is the new-nesss associated with a resolution that makes it work for a while. So it makes no difference when it is made; it only makes a difference how recently the resolution was made- which is why you have to make a new resolution each day about any change you want to make in your life.

If you’ve heard my Take the Stairs speech then you’ll remember The Rent Axiom that says:

“Success is never owned, it is only rented; and the rent is due every day.”

It applies here in the form of what Albert Gray said years ago which is that “any resolution that you make today must again be made tomorrow.”

You can still enjoy the pleasures of the Holidays as long as you keep mindful intention.

An unresolved mind will eat and drink all indulgences that come into its path but a resolved mind will temper what it allows into its body.

A resolved mind might pass on the donuts at the office and reward itself with a slice of cheesecake at the party or an extra big portion on Christmas Eve dinner. As with all self-discipline, the message isn’t to constantly deny yourself but rather to be mindful of what you do and don’t allow yourself to have.

So don’t wait to start your resolution on New Year’s because there isn’t anything special about that day. If you wait then the only thing that will happen is you’ll set yourself 4 weeks back (and really probably more since the next 4 weeks can be brutal on you). Start today and reinforce your resolutions every day by reviewing your goals, creating added accountability, and reminding yourself about why it matters to you to follow through on the change.

Trust me on this. Start your New Year’s Resolution today and on January 1^st you’ll thank me.

See you in the stairwell,

Rory Vaden
Take the Stairs – Success means doing things you don’t want to do

God, Money, and Letting Go of Limiting Beliefs*

Especially for Christians who hear sermons on what troubles money can cause if not handled right, giving ourselves permission to make money is often a huge step in actually acquiring it. There is nothing wrong with having money. Money is neutral. It is non-emotional. It is void of feeling. It has no meaning. It’s just paper. In fact when we get into trouble with money is when we make it mean things that it really doesn’t – good or bad.

Money is simply a blessing and a tool; like fuel in your car, office supplies on your desk, or any other resource you use to accomplish something. But just like any resource, it has properties.  And being a great manager of it as a resource means being educated on its properties and knowing what it can and can’t do. It means learning about it as a resource so that you can leverage it to its greatest advantage. 

We can manage money without it managing us. We can have money without having it be the place we derive our self-worth. We can make money without making it what defines us.

There are lots of rich people who do it every day. There are plenty of rich people who are good people and there are plenty of rich people who are jerks. Just like there are plenty of poor people who are good people and there are plenty of poor people who are jerks. Having money doesn’t make you good or bad, right or wrong, successful or unsuccessful. Having money just means that you have money. Not having money just means that you don’t have money. And losing our emotional attachment to money frees us up to have power over it to use it and earn it more effectively.

That is one more reason why giving money is so powerful (there are several).  When you give money you demonstrate your power over it and your emotional detachment from it, which fortifies your attitude towards treating it like what it is: a tool. Like any other tool it’s a tool that can be used for good or a tool that can be used for evil. Its use will depend on the person controlling it. But having that appropriate attitude about money as a tool empowers you to actually acquire more of it. Once you have money it is up to you how you use it. So are you a person who uses tools for good and for serving a higher purpose? Or are you a person who uses tools to wreak havoc?

Money doesn’t make a person good or evil; the person makes themselves good or evil. Not having money won’t make you good just like having money won’t make you good. Besides, we all fall short in our own works of being good enough anyways.

The love of money IS the root of all evil. But the love of anything, other than what matters most, is the root of all evil – that’s what we call an idol. The root of all evil is endlessly pursuing something in hopes that it will fill a hole in our hearts that can’t be filled with any amount of wealth, power, friends, fame, success, or any other worldly item. In other words, the root of all evil is having a misappropriated idol.

Money is a particularly dangerous idol because as we get more of it we tend to be more likely to derive our self-worth and our feeling of control from it. It becomes more temptuous to rely only on ourselves when we have more money. So the trick is that as you get more money you have to discipline yourself to not let it take on more meaning to you; to not let it become your idol. Sometimes that is where we miss the mark.

But we can LOVE what matters most, derive our self-worth and meaning from that, and still physically possess this objective tool we call money. I’ve been poor and been happy and I’ve been rich and been happy, but all other things being equal, we might as well be rich! Because the properties of money allow us to do some good things with it when we have it.

You CAN’T serve two masters but that’s okay because you don’t have to serve money in order to have it. You can just have it. You also don’t have to love money to have it. You can just have it.

Some of the richest people I’ve met are classic examples of having money but not deriving their value, meaning, or self-worth from it.  Some of the more famous ones I’ve met that I personally model my life after (in this area) include: Dave Ramsey, John Maxwell, Zig Ziglar, and Mark Hall (lead singer for Casting Crowns).

So, now you have permission to make money. Go do it. How? By picking up the phone and getting busy! Fill in your CSFs and light up the phones. Just discipline yourself to remember that no matter how much or how little you have of it; money doesn’t replace what matters most. Talk to you soon, my dear friend!

See you in the stairwell,

Rory Vaden
Take the Stairs – Success means doing things you don’t want to do

* This is an excerpt from a live coaching call with one of my clients recently.

The Harvest Periods of Life

During harvest season a farmer works about 18 hours per day. From sun up to sun-down they are sweating it out maximizing their day as much as possible in order to take advantage of this rare opportunity to capitalize on all that is given to them. When the harvest comes they can’t be sick. Being tired isn’t an acceptable excuse. And not working hard is not an option for each moment of procrastination or laziness will be penalized in the form of losing thousands of dollars in lost assets.

The same is true with accountants, that when March comes around they might make 75% of their income for the year within 6 weeks. I know of high school and college speakers who will do as much as 90% of their year’s business during the months of August and September because that is when schools are all having their orientation. The students of those same schools all have finals weeks. And if you’re an athlete then you know that once playoff season rolls around there is no excuse that serves for a legitimate justification for missing the game. For all of these professions it is HARVEST TIME.

Many professions have some sort of a harvest period. It’s a natural state of imbalance for a given period of time that is necessary to capitalize on the opportunities and benefits of that time. So we understand the concept professionally but sometimes we don’t apply it to our personal lives. And sometimes in our lives we end up over committing to everything all at once in a feeble attempt in trying to be everything to everyone; all the time. We put ourselves in impossible situations and create tremendous anxiety and stress by not allowing for harvest seasons.

Here’s what’s interesting. I actually think you can get pretty darn close being everything to everyone; we just can’t be it all the time. I coach, work with, and study people who do it all the time. They are effective in lots of different areas and to lots of different people. The way they do it though is in working in patterns that resemble harvest periods. As I’ve said before most of us have a skewed understanding of balance.

Balance isn’t equal time spread across equal priorities. It’s appropriate time spread across critical priorities.

 There are “harvest periods” in every area of your life. When your new baby is born your life is probably going to imbalance in that direction. If you are starting a new company you might be unbalanced for a while (especially if it’s your own company). If you are in a new relationship, hobby, or endeavor you might have to spend more time at first to make it work and guess what that means –  you’ll be imbalanced! No problem.

Instead of looking at our lives as a bunch of canisters that need to be filled equally all the time (which is exhausting) think more of transferring time and energy back and forth between each of the areas during relevant harvest seasons.

 We could probably organize our lives to have mini-harvest seasons during each day, too. Focused prospecting time at work, if you’re in sales, might not take 8 hours; we might be able to do it effectively in 3 if we’re uninterrupted and then dedicate the rest of the time to follow up. Connecting with your spouse might not mean 3 hours every night; you might be able to build a stronger relationship in 1 meaningful night a week. 

I know for me much of the time I’ve spent with people in my life isn’t always true “quality time.”  My hypothesis is that aimless meandering around the house, or mindless engagement in a tv program together might not be worth as much as focused time getting to know each other over dinner with no other distractions.

Maybe a mindset of “harvest time” and focused “quality time” for defined periods of length would enable us to get more done effectively and release a lot of stress from impossible expectations that we’ve placed on ourselves. What do you think?

See you in the stairwell,

Rory Vaden
Take the Stairs – Success means doing things you don’t want to do

Welcome, OneRoast Vegetable listeners

Thanks for the compliment of coming out here. Hope you enjoyed the interview and you should find plenty of articles available here. To join the Take the Stairs tour and be notified occasionally of things I’m up to and the latest on overcoming procrastination, please click here.

See you in the stairwell,

Rory Vaden
Take the Stairs – Success means doing things you don’t want to do

5 Secrets to Overcoming Call Reluctance

You’ve been in this situation before. You’re sitting there at your desk in your office staring at the phone, knowing that you need to make those extra few sales calls but finding that you are an unfortunate victim of your own reluctance. “What if they yell at me?” “What if they say no?” “What if they think I’m weird?”

 You are not alone. Every successful person in every form of direct sales has experienced this exact same predicament thousands of times. There is nothing wrong with you; you are not weak, and it doesn’t mean that you’re not cut out for sales. All it means is that you’re normal and that you still have some emotional toughness that you need to build to get to the next level in this business.

 Because being successful means being abnormal. Being rich is abnormal. Living your dreams is abnormal; by definition it is unusual – it’s not something most people do. And being successful requires you to do things that most people aren’t willing to do. Yet, in sales all of the blessings of being successful, rich, and fulfilled are waiting for you behind the next phone call – if you can just learn to overcome your call reluctance.

In the last five years we have worked one-on-one personally coaching hundreds of top salespeople from all over the country and from all different direct selling industries. Here are the 5 most significant strategies that you can use to overcome that natural hesitancy to picking up the phone.

1. The Next Day Knock. Knowledge breeds confidence and you’ll find that your fear is automatically reduced when you have a detailed list of who you are going to call on. More specifically, before you stop working on any given day make sure to choose the first person you will call on the next day. Going door-to-door 80 hours a week for five summers I always had significantly fewer butterflies on days where I knew exactly what my first house would be. You can do the same thing.  
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2. Talk Yourself Up. Hopefully by now you’ve learned about the power of positive affirmations. But if you’re an analytical skeptic like me, you might be having a hard time beating on your chest, looking in the mirror, and saying phrases out loud to get yourself pumped up. If that’s the case, then just create a written list of affirmations such as “I act in spite of fear, discomfort, and inconvenience.” Make sure to keep the list handy and if you can’t get yourself to say them out loud, then at least just read them before you make the call or at any time when you happen to feel weak. You will instantly feel more confident.
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3. The Safety Net. Even the most experienced trapeze artists don’t go out on the rope without a net underneath them, so why would you as a salesperson? By that I mean to have your sales talk script written out word-for-word and place it by your phone when it’s time to make phone calls. Like all forms of insurance, security comes not from using it now but from knowing that it is there when you do need it. If you have a script of exactly what you are going to say, then your confidence will increase because it’s one less fear on your mind.
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4. The Time-to-Dial Ratio. Your time-to-dial (TTD) is an important ratio to pay attention to every day in your business. Your TTD is simply how much time passes between when you go “into the office” and when you make your first sales call. The top salespeople in real estate, network marketing, insurance, party planning, direct sales, or any other kind of sales ALWAYS make their first prospecting call early in the day. All of us are battling something I refer to as the principle of diminishing intent which states “our intention to complete an activity is highest the moments immediately following that declaration. But with every second that passes our intention slowly starts to fade.” So take action immediately, make a call right away and even if you only have time to do one call before you get into your other activities for the day you will definitely feel better.
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5. The No F.E.A.R. Technique. Fear is actually an acronym that stands for False Evidence Appearing Real. Very often the things we fear are exactly that; false. In other words we don’t fear things that are likely to happen; we instead create these emotionally laden stories about the worst possible scenario that could happen. These stories run in our head over and over and over and eventually dominate our lives. But the statistical probability of them actually ever occurring is so low that it truly is ridiculous to even spend time worrying about them. Another way I phrase this when coaching people on self-discipline is that the emotional pain of inaction is significantly greater than the physical pain of taking action. In other words you are losing more energy, spending more time, and creating more worry for yourself in the decision about whether or not to make the call than to just pick up the phone and dial someone! Acknowledge that the dramatic movie running in your head is just your powerful imagination working negatively against you.

Call reluctance is just another form of procrastination and as with anyone who is struggling with procrastination the best solution is to simply change your perspective. What if I could show you a way that you would never procrastinate ever again? That you would never get distracted ever again? Is that something you would be interested in? Well I would be, too and I wish there was a simple solution but sadly there isn’t.

However, there is a principle that I noticed a few years ago that was embedded in the mindset of top producers that can shift your perspective enough that it will enable you to take action; it’s called The Rent Principle. The Rent Principle is simply understanding that success is never owned, it is only rented; and the rent is due every day.

To be successful in anything means that a daily price must be paid in order to achieve that success. Financial security is never owned, it is only rented; and the rent is due every day. Being in great physical health is never owned, it is only rented; and the rent is due every day. A happy marriage is never owned, it is only rented; and the rent is due every day. So being successful in any kind of sales is never owned, it is only rented; and the rent is due every day.

Prospecting phone calls are the currency we use to pay that rent. And by having the long term perspective of knowing that you are going to always have to make calls should give you proper expectations which lead to a more empowered mindset that will allow you to do so. As my friend and Top Producer Chad Goldwasser says, “It allows you to fall in love with the daily grind and get excited about the privilege you have of paying the price today!” Pick up the phone now and make some calls!

See you in the stairwell,

Rory Vaden
Take the Stairs – Success means doing things you don’t want to do

Advanced E-mail Strategies: Getting your Inbox to 0 — Part 2

Are you overwhelmed by emails? I sure have been. In the past four years it seems that just answering email has become a full time job for me. Yet, because of that and because of personally coaching top managers and leaders with the same problem I have learned a lot about how to truly manage email efficiently. If you’re struggling with getting your inbox to 0, I’d suggest that you read about The Scan and Flip Technique and read Part 1 of my Advanced Email Strategies. Also, here are 10 more ideas for winning the sometimes dreaded battle of email jail.

1.  Air Mail. This is a no brainer. One time we get off-track with email is when we travel. Yet, your time on the airplane can be some of the most productive email crush time you ever get! And it’s great because you automatically will be working offline which is what you should be doing when playing catch up anyways. The one item you need to make this work is a laptop power cord that plugs into a lighter adapter. That is one big reason why I only fly American Airlines, because most of their planes have lighter power adapters in every seat. You can get a universal laptop power cord from iGO or a company like that for $150. It will save you a hundred hours in email time your first year by having your laptop powered on the flight from SFO to Laguardia. Well worth the investment. Buy it.
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2. Email Rush Hour. No, I don’t mean check your email while you’re sitting in rush hour! Trust me it only takes one car accident with a cow to help you realize you always need to keep your hands on the wheel and eyes on the road.  What I mean, though, is pay attention to when you get the most email. I.E., What days? What times of the day? Etc. For me I know that Mondays are incredibly high traffic email days, Thursdays also are big occasionally. So intentionally set fewer in-person meetings on heavy email traffic days. Prepare in advance by leaving flexibility in your schedule for those days. A related part of this strategy is to schedule “Email Time” longer and immediately following traditionally high volume email times. This is a great strategy that works wonders for your stress levels and for staying peaceful. (FYI — you can use free services like xobni.com to tell you when you get the most emails and from who.)
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3. Email Time. You schedule time to go to the gym, to sit in unproductive meetings, to meet people for appointments, and to do fun family stuff, so why not schedule time to catch up on email? If you have a personal assistant (which you definitely should if you’ve read this far on how to keep up with email), then have them block time in your calendar for this. Maybe 90 minutes a day, or every other day or something. One of the biggest complaints I hear from people is they work all day and are in meetings all day and then have an entire day full of office work they didn’t get to. Schedule that office work as a meeting. If someone requests to meet with you during that time tell them you have a meeting. You do! You have an email/office work/project time meeting (and since you’ll be using the Scan and Flip technique you’ll be working offline anyways so they won’t know if you passed up on a meeting with them to be managing email because they won’t get those emails from you because you won’t be online). Email is work.  Of course it shouldn’t happen during prime time hours but that doesn’t mean it should be at dinner time every night, either. Schedule it. I find it takes me about one focused hour per 65 emails. So having 5:00–6:30 p.m. blocked off in a day can get a lot done.
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4. Work Night. Now that I’ve coached some of the top performing salespeople and managers in the country over the last couple years I can confidently say that almost all of them have at least one night a week where they work. Having one night a week can mean so much to your happiness and your effectiveness. By one night,  I mean completely focused, un-interrupted from 6:00–11:00 p.m. where you knock out a bunch of work. Many of these people, myself included, started with two or three work nights a week plus a Saturday morning, and a Sunday night and then have put systems in place like virtual assistants, etc. to cut it back down to one night. Of course, this depends on your family but you’ll be a much more pleasant family member if you have at least some time to get your office stuff done and caught up. I’m not a fan of workaholism but if you are passionate about succeeding at any pursuit you have to make sacrifices with your time to make it happen. You don’t have to do it forever but you do have to do it to get to a certain point.
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5. Bed Time.  An unfortunately true statement that I recently heard from an ultra performer was, “The one time nobody really misses me is when they are sleeping.” Traditionally I have been a late night person but now that I’m married I make a point to go to bed whenever my wife goes to bed. However, I have started waking up on some days much earlier and just slip out of bed and work for a couple hours before she wakes up. There is an old Chinese proverb that says something like, “A man who rises before the sun never fails to make his family rich.”
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6. Inbox Assistant. Without a doubt, the most life-changing thing for me in the last two years both personally and professionally is my partnership with my Chief Executive Assistant, Melody. She has learned to think like me and process emails the way I would process them when I am not around to do it myself. The way it happened was from me training her exactly what the standard operating procedure (SOP) was for each type of email. Now she can control my inbox significantly just by eliminating several emails that fall into a certain type or classification. For more on this see Working with Virtual Assistants.
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7. Call Schedule. Pay attention to the people who send you the most emails. You can do this either by eye balling it or by using xobni but there are some people who use email more like instant messenger. And they are always Johnny-on-the-spot checking email constantly and getting right back to you. If there is someone like this, don’t get into playing email tennis with them because I’ve found I always lose. They always respond more frequently than I do. Instead, schedule regular calls with high traffic email people and you’ll find they stop emailing you as much and start saving the topics until your next call.
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8. Inbox Agenda. Similar to the Call Schedule technique, look for people who are emailing you frequently and I know this will sound weird but schedule a real life, person-to-person, human interaction, live, PHONE CALL! Email is great for communicating small bits of information while allowing you to prioritize the response order but it’s not good for large bits of information. A 5-minute phone call can often accomplish more than an email that takes you 20 minutes to type. And rather than responding to their emails, paste their emails into the meeting request on Outlook (or write them down on a sheet of paper) and make that the agenda for your call with them. It gives such amazing structure and purpose to the calls when you can just go “okay the first email you sent was…, the second was….” Similarly, look through your inbox for Related Topics and Themes of different types of emails and schedule one conference call with the required parties to knock it all out. For example, once we hired a bunch of assistants I found that they were processing many of the emails that I would normally be getting but then I started getting a bunch of emails from all the assistants. Now we have a call once per week with all the assistants and we cover all of those types of questions all at once. Then they all get informed and start training each other. Look for mini-teams or sub-groups of people who are all sending emails about a required topic and turn that into a 20-minute conference call.
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9. SOP. Create standard operating procedures at least in your mind, and preferably on paper, about how you process certain types of emails (friend requests, calendar requests, ezines you are subscribe to, regular weekly emails from corporate, any other regular recurring emails, spam, etc.). That way you get in the habit of knocking those out quickly and also when you get an assistant you can give them detailed instructions about how to process them and they can start doing it for you.
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10. Search and Destroy. This is another catch-up strategy that ties in with The Scan and Flip Technique. The way this works is that after you have done your initial Scan and knocked out the quick and easy emails then take the remaining pile and search for emails that are all similar in nature or in topic. For example, I get three HARO emails every day. Often two or three days go by without me looking at them and so when catch-up time rolls around I’ll do a search for all of those and pull all of them up at once and just tackle those items. Or if I have separate email strings going on with different people but about the same topic I will search for the key term and then respond to multiple parties all CC’d on the same email all at once.

If you are a high performing person, or a person who works with a lot of people, then I don’t think there is a full solution for never getting email again. But these, and other strategies like these can help to make email a functioning, manageable part of your life; rather than just making email your whole life! Like so many, I’ve been heavily influenced in this area by an acquaintance of mine, Timothy Ferriss. His best-selling book, The 4-Hour Workweek has been the subject of much controversy in the business community. Working 4 hours a week may not be realistic for most driven professionals but the concepts about efficiency that he promotes are brilliant and relevant to us all. Much of what is written here has come from being programmed with some of his strategies and philosophies about managing minutiae. Hope they help you and please leave ideas that you have in addition to what is posted here.

See you in the stairwell,

Rory Vaden
Take the Stairs – Success means doing things you don’t want to do

11 Ways to Lose Weight: Without Spending Time, Money, Energy, or even DOING Anything

At my Nashville church this past weekend I ran into a buddy of mine named Wayne that I hadn’t seen in a while. I noticed from across the room that he looked amazing. It looked as though he had lost at least 15 pounds in the last 6 weeks. I went up to him and told him how wonderful he looked and that I was so excited for him. And being a nosey self-discipline strategist I, of course, had to ask, “How’d you do it?”

 Wayne’s answers were simple. They didn’t involve anything dramatic like taking magic pills, working out 4 hours per day or becoming Vegan (although I have been one for almost a year now and found out this week on the show that Bob from The Biggest Loser is, too!). In fact the things that Wayne said reminded me very much of what I went through from December of 2004 to June of 2005 where I went from 215 pounds down to 175 – which is where I have stayed at since.

Most of the people who know me now don’t believe me when I tell them the story about my personal weight so I grabbed a couple old pictures to show you what I’m talking about. I do carry weight well but make no mistake, I was at a point beyond what I was proud of.

What was powerful about talking with Wayne (other than just being totally energized from seeing his success) was that I remembered that so much of making changes in our life that improve our self-discipline can be less about what we need to start doing and more about what we need to STOP doing.

So here is a list of self-discipline rules related to losing weight that I followed rigorously that had a tremendous impact on making changes in my life. Most of these have become habit and I still follow them about 98% except for the occasional splurge. As I wrote on Twitter the other day “As you mature in your self-discipline your appetite changes; what was once a sacrifice later won’t even be a temptation.”

1. Don’t eat fast food from any fast food chain.
2. Don’t eat within 3 hours of going to bed. IE if you go to sleep at 11pm, then don’t eat after 8pm.
3. Don’t drink anything other than water or green tea during the day on weekdays.
4. Don’t drink carbonated beverages.
5. Don’t eat white bread.
6. Don’t have dessert.
7. Don’t have anything other than fruit for breakfast.
8. Don’t eat so much in one meal that you feel “stuffed.”
9. Don’t eat your plate clean at every meal.
10. Don’t have candy bars, chips, cookies, or any baked pastries.
11. Don’t eat fewer than 4 times per day.

Congratulations, Wayne!! Keep it up. You inspire me, brother. And now, hopefully you will inspire others.

See you in the stairwell,

Rory Vaden
Take the Stairs – Success means doing things you don’t want to do