MAKE TIME FOR YOUR PASSIONS

In professional basketball, the coach often says, "The key is that our players bring energy to the game tonight." Notice they don't mention technical skills or an understanding of the game plan. They talk about an intangible thing: energy.

In business, people are forever talking about strategies and competencies. But business is like sports. You need energy to perform. Most key business events happen over the course of a few hours or a few days. Some hours and some days are simply more important than others in terms of delivering the key business outcomes. During those key moments, your business results either suffer or improve. During those key moments, you need your very best energy.

Have you ever noticed that the people who put in 70 hours a week are rarely the top performers in the group? (Of course, they justify these hours in a hundred different ways. They are focusing more activities than on results.) They are working so hard that they are exhausted all of the time. That way they are bringing a very low level of energy to everything they do. Rather than pouring in 70 hours of low energy every week, I encourage you to invest 45 hours of great energy into your work each week. That way you have the kind of energy required for the big moments that will drive better business results.

Work less and pour more time into your passions, the things that will regenerate your energy. Last week my wife, Barb, kidnapped me for my 40th birthday and we traveled with our kids to Dyersville, Iowa to spend two glorious hours at the Field of Dreams. (Yep, the real Field of Dreams from the movie.) It was perfect. We drove 700 miles round trip to go see a field. I came back reenergized and had one of the best weeks I've had in a long time. Last night we went to see Disney On Ice and today we went to Grant's Farm, which is a beautiful little area by our house that is filled with animals. My batteries are full again and we're ready to go after next week with new vigor.

MAKE TIME FOR YOUR PASSIONS AND REENERGIZE YOUR BATTERIES!

Take care and have a great month!

Dan Coughlin

Accelerate Update This section is always current to the current month

I suppose every book changes an author's life to a certain degree. My first book, which was self-published in 1995, was called Inside Out: A Catalyst for Conscious Living. It's out of print now for a number of good reasons. The layout, which yours truly did, looks like something a first grader could do today. And the ideas are very theoretical, which doesn't fit my approach anymore. However, I read the book a few months ago, and I was pleased by how clearly I had explained my early thoughts on improving performance.

My second book, Corporate Catalysts: How to Make Your Company More Successful, Whatever Your Title, Income, or Authority was published in 2005 by Career Press. That book was a step forward in clarifying my ideas on improving performance and understanding how to write a whole book. It's one thing to dream about getting a book contract and another thing to write a 70,000 word manuscript.

My third book, ACCELERATE: 20 Practical Lessons to Boost Momentum, which was published in May 2007 by Kaplan Publishing, has changed my business dramatically. Up until that book was published, I mostly did projects for four companies: McDonald's, Marriott, GSD&M, and Toyota. In the past 12 months, I've worked with business owners, executives, and managers within dozens of small, medium, and massive organizations in more than 20 industries ranging from boats to banks to software to financial services to trucking to lighting to home healthcare to hospitals to optometrists. It's been an exciting adventure.

If you want to see my speaking calendar for 2008, which we'll try to update every two weeks, please click here.

Currently, I have 66 speeches scheduled for 2008. If you would like for me to speak at one of your events in 2008 or 2009, feel free to contact me at dan@thecoughlincompany.com and I will be glad to see if we can make it work.

If you want to see my speaking topics and a video of footage from some of my keynote speeches, please click here.

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