Photo credit Lisa Andres

Read Jon’s thoughts on the above at Jon Gordon’s Blog

Teams and organizations that focus on and celebrate success create more success. Success becomes ingrained in the culture and people naturally look for it, focus on it and expect it. That’s why certain football coaches and business leaders are always successful. They implement systems and principles that create a culture that celebrates and expects success and this drives behavior and habits that create successful outcomes.

Celebrate Success | Jon Gordon’s Blog | Developing Positive Leaders, Organizations and Teams

1. Take at least one week off before Labor Day (if you have it available). Don’t sit around the house, go somewhere where nature will convince you forget about the world.

2. Don’t take your laptop with you on the trip. Carry your cell phone, but give strict instructs that you are only to be bothered with an emergency. Only check your email once every two days.

3. Take a full weekend day off for the rest of the year. Don’t check email or even think about work.

4. Devote one hour a day to exercise and self-education.

Read a compelling story on why you should do this at: Sanders Says: Take a break driver 8

   Lifehacker is reporting that the “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” is avaible
   for free download at Audible.com. This is worth checking out.

What You Permit, You Promote « Sharing thoughts, ideas and suggestions on hardwiring success

“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” – Ayn Rand

As people we are designed to choose. Like many other things in life, leadership too is a choice we make. . We do not become great leaders because of our title or position. Leadership is about making the decision and taking the responsibility to bring our future into the present. This first step to becoming an effective leader… it is the choice to be proactive.

The question is “have we make the choice to lead?” Although you may think of yourself as a leader, until you choose leadership you will find yourself drifting around aimlessly. Lacking passion, commitment, courage and direction.

Read the full article at The Practice of Leadership

You need a plan to build a house. To build a life, it is even more important to have a plan or goal.
-Zig Ziglar

The following post at Lifehacker discusses this, centering around the following points:

• Goals mean you’re trying to be better
• Writing things down makes them happen
• Written goals make time for big thinking upfront
• Written goals give you hyper-focus and clarity
• Written goals make it easy to cut the crap
• Written goals prepare you for the best and the worst

Read the details on the above points at Lifehacker.com

The real limiting factor for productivity is your energy levels and ability to pay attention.

Energy levels limit your productivity because when you’re tired, you can have ample time and still not get everything done. Your attention span is even more limited, because even if there are a million things that need to be done, you can only focus on one or two at a time.

You might not be able to insert another 4-5 hours into your schedule without making some sacrifices. But even extremely busy people can add an hour or two into their schedule without eliminating something. The reason it’s hard to “find time” isn’t a lack of time. It’s because you don’t have the attention span left to focus on something else that needs to fit into your day.

Read more on this topic at PickTheBrain: New Habits

Beginning tomorrow, and running through August 4th, Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Macmillan Audio will be offering the audio edition of Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat for free. Listeners will receive the audiobook in three easy-to-download sections, and soon after that, as an added bonus, will also receive an exclusive prepublication audio excerpt of Friedman’s Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How It Can Renew America. The book itself will be released by Farrar, Straus and Giroux on September 8th.