It’s already a couple weeks into the 2nd half of the year. Can you believe it? The first half of the year blew by so fast. Some days felt like they would never end while other entire weeks flew by before coffee could even be poured. It seems that just a few days ago we were all sitting around making our New Year’s resolutions and setting our goals for the upcoming year.

Earlier today I spent a little while going through the goals I set at the beginning of the year. Overall, I’m pretty happy with where I am with my goals for this year. There were a couple setbacks due to being busy at both New Marketing Labs and Caminito Argentinean Steakhouse. However, I was able to check off some and I made action plans on how to attack a few more to get a couple small victories over the next several weeks. I also scheduled myself a reminder to check in and recalibrate again at the end of 3rd quarter.

Now that we’re fast approaching Fall, have you checked in on those goals that you set? How are you doing with them? Are there any that you can check off? Any that you need to recalibrate?

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Photo Credit: angietorres

One of the things I get asked the most is whether or not I actually sleep.  Due to the amount I try to interact on various platforms, this blog and Prime Cuts as well as my responsibilities to New Marketing Labs, my steakhouse, and a host of other projects I’m involved in, the short answer is: no I don’t sleep.

Instead of looking at it in terms of getting enough sleep, I look at it in the same way that Diddy does: Sleep is forbidden.  Diddy is known for hustling and in turn, not getting enough sleep.  He is known for telling his team that “sleep is forbidden” and it has been a quote that resonated with me since first hearing it.  If you go to Diddy and tell him that you’re tired, you know what he tells you? “What rhymes with ‘tired’…’fired’?  Don’t believe me?  Check out this quick video:

You see, I’m not someone that actually requires that much sleep.  On an average day I’ll get 3-4 hours of sleep, usually heading to bed around 3a and getting up at 6a or so every day.

Some have wondered if this actually lowers my productivity.  I’ve studied my levels of productivity based on different sleeping patterns and length of sleep.  I am most productive at around 4 hours of sleep.  I start to tweak out a little under 3 hours (which occurs often) and feel groggy at anything greater than 5 hours.  This, of course, hasn’t been this way for my entire life.  When I was younger I loved to sleep as much as possible.  But, for the past 8-9 years I have maintained a sleep schedule of an average of 3-5 hours of sleep per night.

Why do I not sleep a lot? It’s because I have certain goals that I’m trying to accomplish.  In order to reach these goals I must stay focused and capitalize on all of the little wins that come along.

My mind races with finding ways to interact more with all of the great people I have the opportunity to meet.  I spend countless hours thinking of new projects, what’s next, and trying to chase my goals.  I don’t think of my life in terms of work and play, personal and professional, home and the office.  Everything blends together for me and that’s how I prefer it.  Therefore, I don’t get upset that I work 90-100 hours per week.  I’m having fun; I’m running hard towards my goals; and along the way, I’m trying to be as helpful and engaging as possible.

This might sound eerily familar especially if you follow Chris Brogan.  That’s because it is.  That’s not by mistake either.  Over at New Marketing Labs we have some big goals in front of us and we’re putting everything we have into our company.  That means that Chris and I regularly are discussing clients, new ideas, how to make the Inbound Marketing Summit or Inbound Marketing Bootcamps better, or a number of other things in the middle of the night.  Even this morning, on a holiday weekend, while Chris is taking his first vacation in years, we were discussing some new ideas over DM on Twitter.  It even brought about this tweet from me that garnered a few chuckles:

Some of my friends and colleagues worry that I’m going to burn out.  Don’t worry, I won’t.  I can’t.  Not until my goals are reached.  When I hit those goals, I’ll set new ones and continue this cycle.  Because of that, sleep is forbidden.

I hope that you continue to join me on this adventure…

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I have always been someone who enjoyed being fit whether it be working out, playing sports or just being active getting out and about.  But, unfortunately, over the past couple years I have been on again off again with working out.  I’ll do really well for a few months and then I let something like travel, vacation, busy work week or another excuse throw me off.  I’ve never stopped being fit such as choosing stairs instead of elevators or trying to eat decently healthy but I haven’t committed to it in the way that I have in the past.

You see, I tend to have an obsessive and competitive personality.  What this equals is that I always have to be the best at what I do and I obsess over ways to become the best.  Well, with not working out on a regular basis, it has driven me crazy because I know the things that I can do to immediately improve.  It drives me crazy that others are in better shape than I am.  I’ve spent a lot of time throughout my life studying nutrition, nutritional supplements, and working out.  For a few years I was a manager at GNC in college where I would devour 10-15 magazines per month and read every book that was sent to us.

As I make the commitment to get back into shape, I wanted to share with you some of my top tips to getting back in shape.

Top 10 Tips for Getting in Shape

1. Buy some new gear – Go to your local athletic store and buy a new outfit including proper cross-training or running sneakers.  Not only will it make you feel better and put you into the mood to workout, it’ll help you be more comfortable and proper footwear will help to protect against injuries.
2. Create a new playlist – Put together a fast-paced playlist that you’ll use when you go to the gym with your iPod or other MP3 player.  I tend to load hard-hitting rock or alternative songs for when I’m lifting weights.  If I’m doing cardio, I have a playlist of uptempo songs usually pop, hip-hop or club music.  You’ll find you’re workouts will be a lot better if you’re not already doing this.  Who really wants to listen to themselves gasp for breath while working out anyways?
3. Always be a student – Go out and buy the rack of magazines, pick up a couple new books and find some websites that you enjoy reading.  Become a student of being healthy.  Not only will you learn tons about how to eat properly and put together workout plans based on your goals, it will also help to keep you motivated.  When I’m really into working out I will typically read 4-5 magazines and 1-2 books per month.  My two favorite magazines are: Men’s Health and GQ but there are tons more.
4. Set small obtainable goals – One of the things I think discourages people the fastest when they’re trying to get back in shape is setting a goal that seems impossible such as losing 50lbs or dropping 8 pants sizes.  Set small obtainable goals and write them down.  Maybe if would be a big win if you made it to the gym 5 days this week, lost 3lbs, or didn’t eat fried food for 2 weeks.  These are very obtainable and measurable goals.  A bunch small wins will turn into obtaining that larger goal.
5. Track your progress – You should record everything including your goals, your meals, and every workout along with a picture of yourself once per month.  This will help you to track your progress and see those small wins as well as helping you to set new goals.  What I also find this does, for me at least, is that I will not cheat on a meal or I’ll make sure I get that workout in that I don’t feel like doing because I don’t want to have to write the fried food or missed workout into my journal (unless it’s a cheat day of course!).  It keeps you accountable.  You could even make this journal public to keep you even more accountable.
6. Reward yourself regularly – I find that people fall off track because they go too far too quick to the other spectrum.  You’ve spent a long time not eating healthy and/or not working out regularly.  Going to the other extreme and droppin everything you were doing previously, may actually cause you to fall off.  Start by cutting back and also don’t be afraid to reward yourself regularly.  I allow myself to have small rewards.  For example, if you eat a lot of chocolate, try cutting it back and just have a small square each night after dinner.  You’ll still be cutting back a lot of calories, fat and sugar and at the same time you’ll be satisfying your craving.
7. Workout with a friend – While I don’t always have this luxury, I do find that I stick to my schedule a lot more when I’m able to workout with a friend.  When Laura and I first moved to Boston she was transitioning between jobs so that meant she was home every night.  Every night we would go to the gym as soon as I got home and then have dinner together.  It kept us accountable to each other and made it fun!
8. Just get started – One of the most important things with getting back into shape is to just get started.  Is it a sunny day out right now as you read this?  Lace up your sneakers and take a walk around your neighborhood.  Hop in the pool and try to swim a couple laps.  Just do something active!
9. Have fun - Most importantly, have fun with it!  Don’t see getting in shape as another task.  Choose activities that you enjoy doing and can do often.  If you don’t like gyms or are intimidated by them, go for walks, or bike rides, go swimming, run hills, do a hike and enjoy the view.  Whatever it is, find something that you enjoy and keep doing it.  You’ll find that you’ll soon begin wanting to explore other activities.

What are some of your tips for getting back into shape?

In my next post I’ll cover some of my tips for eating healthy which can sometimes be the more difficult thing for people to accomplish on their path to getting in shape.

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Photo by: stacya

Being that I don’t have cable at home I tend not to know what news specials are on, what new movies or coming out or pretty much anything else that I can’t watch on Fancast (client) or catch up on with Google News or CNN.  So, earlier this weekend I came across a news special that NBC put together entitled “Inside the Obama White House”  The site has a total of 15 videos which take you behind the scenes of the White House.

Being someone who loves any behind-the-scenes look, as well as someone who is fascinated with the inner workings of Washington, I eagerly watched all of the videos.  Brian Williams does an excellent job at balancing the personal and professional side of the White House including President Obama, his family and the many hard working individuals who work at the White House on a daily basis.

One of the major takeaways from watching the videos was how hard working everyone is from the President down to his staffers.  It is by watching videos like these that I find some of my inner motivation and drive.  While I’m debating whether to type another blog post or get an extra hour of sleep, there are individuals, many of them right around my age, that are working late, staying up working on policy issues such as the economy, going over security plans for the movement of our President, formulating responses and plans of action for ongoing international crises or a host of other issues that comes with running our country.  If these individuals can stay up  a little while longer to work on those responsibilities, I can definitely spend more time working on my projects.

If you want to see a little bit about what I’m talking about, check out these 2 videos to see what a day in the life of the White House is really like:

If you’d like to catch the rest of the videos, you can find them all here: NBC Presents Inside the Obama White House.

You can also follow the NBC crew on Twitter and Facebook….

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