Finished the ‘Get The Edge’ program by Anthony Robbins.

It’s a good solid (summary) program for personal change.

Most of GTE doesn’t introduce anything new … it highlights the core stuff from Personal Power II.

PP2 is the foundational program (more meat) … and GTE summarizes and brings it to the next level.

GTE covers …

• Your Hour of Power
• Getting Results
• Power of Relationships
• Pure Energy (Health & Fitness)
• Power of Emotions (some new stuff here)
• Financial Freedom
• Purpose of Life

It also comes with the first 7 days from PP2 as a sampler.

GTE is more of TR motivating / pushing you to step up and follow through … which is always a good thing.

In all … I found the program to be very effective reminder to raise the bar and follow through … TR is a great motivator.

The next TR programs that I will be doing are Mastering Influence and then Time of Your Life.

I’ll keep you posted on how effective they are.

I started a new CD program today.

It’s the Anthony Robbins “Get the Edge” CD program.

I’m always impressed by the quality of Tony’s programs.

I’ve committed to complete the program in the next two weeks.

I did the “My Power Hour” program this morning … it’s basically a walking meditation program to get you focused for the day.

Even though I used the power hour … my day went south (sour) for some reason today … maybe too focused?

I believe I forgot to bring in the foolish (playfulness) part in.

I’ll make some adjustments and let you know how it goes.

The final part of my plan is to focus on myself.

That’s right … focus on myself.

Some might think this selfish but I believe it’s important.

In fact … I don’t think it’s selfish at all.

Without the right balance between family, work and self … the world will be out of balance.

Focusing on yourself means … you taking care of you … making sure that your metal, physical and spiritual self is well cared for.

It means having fun by learning new things and doing the things you’ve always wanted to do.

I plan to focus on myself by …

• Meditation – This will be done daily to reduce stress and maintain balance
• Working out and eating right – I’ve joined a health club and hired a trainer to bulk me up … look our Arnold Schwarzenegger
• Photography – I have to figure out how to use this new camera
• Golf – I’ve always pretended to play … now it’s time to really figure this game out
• Have fun! – Relax and enjoy each moment … you will get back from the world based upon what you focus on

Have fun staying focused!

The second part of my plan is to perform work that matters.

To me … work that matters begins with serving my passion.

My passion … my cause … is to help people move from the ordinary to the extraordinary.

This has led me to develop the following mission:

“To serve the personal and professional growth community”

I plan to fulfill this mission by …

a) Expanding the Focused Fool Community – Expand the services offered at www.focusedfool.com to include a marketplace (offer self-help products) and to add many additional success coaches over the next few months.

b) Write my book – Complete my own self-help book by the end of the summer. This will lay the foundation for additional projects.

c) The Geek Coach – I have begun to offer my services at a Professional Coach. Leveraging my corporate career success and technology background I will be helping Information Technology Professionals to not only survive, but thrive, within a Technology Career. This includes mentoring, training workshops and one-on-one coaching.

e) Rapid Success Coach – I have also begun to offer my services as a Hypnotherapist. Leveraging my Master NLP and Master Ericksonian Hypnosis Certification I will be helping individuals interested in achieving rapid change. I’ve already had success in this area by helping someone quite smoking in just one session as well as helping another remove allergies.

Each of these activities will allow me to earn a living AND allow me to follow my passion.

Now that is work that matters!

The first part of my plan is to focus on my family.

Without a solid home foundation … it is very difficult to succeed.

You need a base of operations that will support you through the tough times and to celebrate the successes along the way.

My plan for family is to be the best father and husband that I can be.

If there was a contest for being family man of the century … my goal is to receive this award when I die.

A few of the goals within this part of the plan are …

• Purchase a tent trailer to spend time camping this summer
• Teach my oldest daughter how to ride her bike
• Build monthly daddy and daughter days in my schedule
• Once my youngest transfers to the bottle … build date nights in our schedule

My wife likes it when I focus on house stuff … so in addition I plan to …

• Fix-up the garden / yard (our grass needs some care and feeding this year)
• Fix-up a few things around the house (why do houses leak so much?)
  
• Finish the basement (not much of a handy man so I plan to contract this out)

This area of focus also includes extended family and friends … so I plan to put monthly family and friend nights … as well as a monthly guy’s night … into the schedule.

As Pinky and The Brain would say … “Gee, Brain, what do you want to do tonight?” “The same thing we do every night, Pinky: Try to take over the world!” … stay tuned as I will be sharing my plans for world domination over the next couple of posts.

Seth Godin captures the essence of moving from the ordinary to the extraordinary in a recent blog entry.

Make sure you check out Seth Godin’s Blog.

These things never happen at an ideal time.

You see … we (my wonderful wife and I) have just give birth (mostly my wife) to our beautiful second daughter (we just celebrated her 3 month on this planet last week).

My wife left here day job over 6 years ago to stay home with our first daughter (also very beautiful) who will be turning 8 in April.

So here we are … my wife and I and our two kids … with me wanting to leave a safe and secure corporate job (an 18 year career) … to chase my dream and follow my passion.

If I was on my own … if I was the only one impacted … I would have made the leap years ago … but when you have responsibilities … when other people are relying on you … it’s not that easy.

I told myself that it was more safe and secure to stay within my existing job.

However … is it really more safe and secure?

What I’ve come to realize is that … when you work for a corporation … it is no more safe and secure then working on your own.

You see … the concept of a safe and secure job … is an illusion.

I’ve seen too many lay off’s … too many job eliminations … to continue believing in the fantasy.

Now … don’t get me wrong … you can make a nice living working for a corporation … I did it for 18 years.

To survive in a corporation you need to understand one key thing … don’t count on having your current job forever.

You see … at any moment … the political landscape may change.

Even if you have a great relationship with your current boss … or your boss’s boss … it doesn’t matter.

Someone three, four or five levels up (in really large corporations) may decide that your division will be sold off … or … merged with another division … or … spun off as a separate company … or … outsourced … or … I hope you get the point.

I’ve also come to realize that these things never happen at an ideal time … and if you wait for the ideal time to follow your dream … you will be waiting a really long time.

That’s because … there is no such thing as the ideal time.

Or … (I like this one better) … the ideal time is now.

The only reason that I’m able to do this … is that I started down this path over 4 years ago … when I felt safe and secure.

So I encourage you to do that same thing now … when it’s safe … begin developing your plan … start building the relationships … learning the skills you will need … so that you will be prepared when it happens to you.

And trust me … if you are working for a corporation … at some point in your career … it will happen to you.

And it won’t be at the ideal time.

I’m really amazed at the amount of choice available to me right now.

From a career perspective there a so many options …

• apply for any number of new positions within my existing department
• apply for any of the positions within The Bank
• apply for jobs outside of the The Bank
• make the leap to follow my dream 

What really amazes me at this point is that with so much choice … there is really only one option.

Only one path that feels right.

Only one direction that will take me to where I want to go.

The choice is an obvious one (based on the reason for this blog) that I plan on making the leap.

I have chosen to change careers.

To follow my dream.

Going from employed to self-employed.

Transitioning from Intrapreneur to Entrepreneur.

I just find it amusing that when I have made a decision … so many other choices appear.

And when I have not … the choices seem so limiting … a scarcity of choice if you will.

Does this mean that when we follow our dream … there is only one path … and that path is filled with other tempting offers … to distract us from what we are meant to do?

It’s like we are being tested … when you have made a decision … any decision really … you can count on that decision being challenge in some way … testing our conviction … confirming our commitment to follow through.

But what about those times when there is a scarcity of choice?

I’m not talking about … avoiding choice … holding off a decision to choose … avoiding selecting a specific course of action … so that we can keep our options open.

For in fact … when we avoid choice … we are deciding not to choose … and this is still … in fact … a choice.

So what am I talking about?

I talking about those time when you feel stuck … stuck in a rut … if you will.

When the only option before you is to follow the option that you have always followed.

Staying on that safe, secure, predictable, comfortable path.

It’s interesting to note … that staying on the safe comfortable path is still a choice.

I’ve just decided to keep it out of my conscious awareness.

I’ve given away my power to choose … by living on default … by avoiding taking responsibility for my current situation.

So you see … it really is all about choice … even if I choose not to see it.

The choice is up to me.

And I choose to follow my dream.

Even though you expect it to happen … it still stresses you out.

No matter how much you are prepared.

There’s just something stressful about your job being eliminated.

Why do we hold some much onto what we do?

When someone asks you ‘what you do’ … why do we tell them our ‘position’ or ‘title’?

When asked ‘what we do’ we don’t say … I implement technology projects to improve my clients experience so that they can deliver value to the customer … we say … I’m an IT manager.

Somehow what we do … get’s wrapped up into this concept of ‘position’ … somehow we identify with this as ‘who we are’.

And when this ‘who we are’ is taken away from us … bam … it’s like a punch to the stomach.

Well it happened to me.

I’ve been punched in the stomach.

Today at 10:32am … my job … what I do … my position … who I am … was eliminated.

Even though I knew it was coming … could see it from miles away … it still knocked the wind right out of me.

Even though this is moving in the direction of what I want (more on that to come) it still felt really crummy.

That somehow … I am no longer needed … after almost 19 years of service … I no longer matter.

At this point the anxiety is kicking into overdrive.

The source of this anxiety … my need to feel valued … my desire for significance within the eyes of others …my fear of rejection … perhaps all of the above.

I need to regroup.

Review my master plan … and drive through the anxiety toward what I want.

They say that (I even say is myself) that your biggest growth can only be found on the other side of your fears.

You need to face your fear head on and drive right through it.

Well here I go … embracing my fear … moving past it … moving toward what I want.