Making anything a routine is hard. This becomes harder as the demands on our time increase. And with increased demands on our time come increased stress to accomplish it all and it becomes easy for things to fall off of our plates, even when we have the best intentions.

It can feel like you’re in a never-ending struggle of trying to always make something in your life a routine. You may work hard at making getting back to the gym part of your daily routine and once you do that, you’re now working at trying to get more sleep or spend 20 minutes reading a book every day. In my case, it’s working on making writing part of my routine again.

When I look at my blogs and see that I haven’t written in several months I let out a deep sigh. It’s not that I haven’t had ideas to write about. It’s not that I’ve given up on writing. It’s that writing fell out of my routine, then eventually dropped off of my calendar and to-do list and I stopped making time to sit down and write, even if it’s just jotting down my thoughts for the day.

On the flip side, this year I have focused on living a healthier lifestyle. I’ve always been a health-nut having managed a GNC for several years during college and always interested in vitamins and supplements. But, I let the demands of work and travel get to me and over the past few years didn’t put a priority on sleep, eating as healthy as I could or getting to the gym as regularly as I should. Around the start of this year I made a commitment to myself that these would become part of my daily routine. I began eating healthier only having one cheat meal per week, sleeping a couple extra hours per night and working out 6 days per week. Because of that focus and commitment, over the past 10 months I have lost 50lbs and 20% bodyfat while making significant increases in strength and tone.

What’s important when adding something new to your routine is to try avoiding drastic changes.  When possible, make small changes.  For example, I’m going to focus on writing for 15-30 minutes a few times per week.  I’m not making a lofty goal of writing a new post every day for multiple blogs. That’s unreasonable and will result in failure.  Writing for 15-30 minutes a few times per week is achievable and it’s better than not writing at all so that’s where I will start as it becomes part of my routine again.

We’re always working on developing routines. Sometimes these tasks or projects will fall by the wayside to make room for something that’s a higher priority.  That’s ok.  It’s an ongoing process.  Don’t be hard on yourself.  Just work it back into your schedule with small, achievable victories along the way and before you know it that task or project will be part of your routine.

Photo Credit: Dalo_Pix2

Each of these goals are tangible and within reach but they will be challenging and will push me to stay focused on achieving them. As part of this, with inspiration from Chris Brogan, I set 3 words for the year that will serve as my navigational system. I don’t set my 3 words first then goals second. Instead, I set my goals and next action steps. I then step away and look at the list objectively to see what the consistent themes are throughout all of the goals. After defining my 3 words I then go back through my goals to see where I need to add, remove, trim or make more specific.

Here are my 3 words for 2011:

Consistency, Growth, and Create

Consistency – Throughout 2010, and for that matter, much of 2009, consistency has been hard for me. With the growth of New Marketing Labs and Caminito Argentinean Steakhouse, remaining consistent has been a challenge. While I’m always producing content and consuming information, if you look in between the threads, you’ll notice that it tends to come in waves. For example, I’ll blog daily for 3 weeks and then not publish another post for 4 weeks after that. This is almost always certainly because I’ve gone heads down in a project and that I devote all of my attention to and then when I come back up for air, I realize that it’s been 4 weeks already. This doesn’t just apply to my blog, though it is the primary reason for me choosing this word, it also applies to projects at Caminito, fitness and several other areas. I want to make to build in consistency to areas of my life whether that includes better scheduling of posts, simplifying and streamlining the number of projects I’m working on.

Growth – Growing will be a major part of 2011. I want to grow and expand as a speaker, writer, content producer, business owner and team member. I have growth goals financially, for my blog, for my soon-to-be launched (finally!) personal newsletter (you can subscribe here), my restaurant, the next edition of my book and for other projects that I’ll be sharing with you soon.

Create – In order to to build more consistency into and grow many of my projects, it will include the creation of more content. It will involve creating teams and opportunities and relationships that will lead to new opportunities. To achieve some of my personal goals it will include creating new revenue streams and creating time in my schedule to spend more time wife and friends.

So there we have it. Those are my 3 words for 2011. Throughout the year I’ll check in on these 3 words regularly and assess how I’m doing with them and how they’re assisting me in achieving my goals.

What are your 3 words for 2011?

When you step back though, you realize that being a big deal (however that is defined for you) might not be such a big deal. Is becoming the top expert in your industry worth it if you end up divorced because of it? Is being a Twitter celebrity as cool as it seems if you lose your day job because you spend so much time on Twitter? How about if you end up in the hospital because you haven’t focused on your health while pursuing becoming a big deal?

In this incredibly powerful TEDx speech, Scott Stratten uses personal life experiences to explore this in-depth. This is a “must-watch” speech and one that I have shared with anyone that will listen.

What are your thoughts?  How do you create a balance in your life?

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Have you ever taken the time to break down time and realize how valuable time really is, even down to a millisecond? This Tungle video, produced by my friend Scott Stratten, breaks down time by providing powerful examples that will cause you to look at time in a new light after watching it.

If you can’t view this video, you can watch it over here.

A powerful underlying concept, eh? “Stop wasting time on things you can’t control, and focus on the things you can.”

Now, if I didn’t tell you earlier that the video was created for Tungle or if you didn’t watch the last couple seconds of the video, you would’ve thought it was just a motivational and inspirational video. One of thousands available across the internet.

But, go deeper than that and realize what Tungle and Scott Stratten have done by publishing this video. They have created emotionally compelling content based around the subject of time, the very issue that Tungle helps us to manage.

If you’ve never heard of Tungle, they are:

“…a calendar accelerator that let’s you easily schedule meetings and share with people inside or outside your business, even if you use different calendars. Tungle is not a calendar – it integrates with your current calendar, giving you the flexibility and control to connect, collaborate and get more done.”

Instead of a video about how to use their service, Tungle has created a video that illicit emotion thus causing you to want to share the video with your social graph. Think you’d have the same feeling if it was a video about how great Tungle is and how much time their tool will save you? Probably not.

The 71 videos that Tungle currently has uploaded to their YouTube channel, they have received a total of 83,428 views. Of those 83,000+ views, the above video has 25,132 views or 30% of all views and it has only been live for 2 weeks, as of this writing.

Looking for the underlying lesson here? Find ways to create compelling content that don’t just pimp your product. Tell a story, illicit emotion and give your community a reason to share your content.

Oh, and if you haven’t tried Tungle yet, go try it because not only does the tool rock, they’re team is pretty awesome, too. I f you want some more info about Tungle, I interviewed Tungle’s CEO Marc Gingras earlier this year.

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Death is a normal and natural part of life. While we don’t like to think about it often, death is something that each one of us must deal with many times throughout our life. The thought of someone close to us suddenly disappearing from our lives can be crippling. While it doesn’t make it any easier to deal with, hopefully, for most of us, those that we lose will be those are in a better place because they’re no longer suffering from a medical ailment and it will be something that we’re expecting and have had an opportunity to plan for. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. Sometimes we lose people unexpectedly.

While sharing a very personal story about losing a friend unexpectedly, Dan Perez asked:

“What if someone you cared for wasn’t going to wake up tomorrow morning and neither one of you knew it?”

This question alone, never mind the actual story Dan shared, made me flash back to losing my parents.

Finding Out by Reading An Obituary

When I was in middle school my parents divorced. Since it was my step-father who I had grown up with since my earliest memories, I lived with my mom after the divorce. I continued to have a great relationship with my dad and we hung out often.

Following the divorce, my dad remarried and unfortunately his new wife wasn’t so understanding of our relationship, mostly because he was “just” my step-father so after the divorce, he, technically, had no legal ties to me any longer. My dad and his new wife had a child together and this further drove a wedge between my father and I because of marital pressures to spend time with his “real” son.

A couple years had gone by and my father and I had barely talked due to these pressures. Then, one day in October, during my senior year in high school, my mother opened up the local newspaper and as she was flipping through the obituary section, she saw my father’s photo. My dad had passed away from cancer.

I never had a chance to say goodbye.

Saying “I Love You” One Last Time

We’ve all heard that you should always say “I love you” to our loved ones before saying goodbye, whether on the phone, in-person, or virtually. The thought goes that if you were to lose that person, your last words would be “I love you.”

While growing up my mother always suffered from an aggressive form of Lupus. Once my parents divorced it put all of the weight of dealing with my mom’s disease on me. Since my mom couldn’t work and was on disability, it meant that I had to work at a very young age just to support our household. It didn’t always work out and, unfortunately, I know what it’s like to be evicted with a sheriff standing at your door; living in a shelter; and visiting food pantries just to have some powdered milk.

Coming into my junior and senior years of high school my mother had been progressively more sick and was bed-ridden most of the time. No one knew how bad it was though.

On a sunny day in March of my senior year of high school, I was getting ready to leave my house to go hang out with a few friends. My mom and I hadn’t been getting along that well lately because I wanted the freedom that my friends had and, in some ways, regretted having to give up my life to support my mom. I walked out of my house, slamming the front door and there was some unsavory language exchanged between us.

While waiting outside for my friend to arrive, I paused, remembered that my mom and I had made a pact to always say “I love you” before leaving each other, and felt sad that we hadn’t had that last exchange. I walked back inside, said I was sorry and we each said “I love you” before my friend arrived and I headed out for the day.

Those were the last words I ever said to my mom. While I was out that day, her body shut down one organ at a time putting pressure on her heart and she died from a heart attack. I would later find her dead in her bed. She had passed away just five months after losing my dad.

Always Looking Over My Shoulder

It is hard losing someone close to you at any point in your life but losing both of your parents while your in high school can be devastating. It can lead you down dark and lonely paths. You have to make a decision in your life to either head down a path of destruction or to the experience as a driver and motivator to do better in life.

I decided that a path of destruction didn’t sound like much fun and that, instead, I would stand tall and fight through it.

Prior to my mother passing away, she had tried to prep me for it. Besides the many life lessons she tried teaching me, she told me that she would always look over my shoulder. Once I left for college, during my first semester, I got a tattoo on my right shoulder/back area of a blue rose (my mother’s favorite flower) with angel wings, clouds and my mom’s death date. This was my way of ensuring that my mother would always look over my shoulder and help guide me through life.

How That Experience Has Changed Me

From that point forward I have run as hard and as fast as possible for the rest of my life running through any wall that ever presented itself to me. Some have told me that it’s as if I have something to prove. For me, it’s that I never want to feel as though I have disappointed my parents. It is what drives me every day.

Besides deciding to juggle as many plates in the air as humanly possible at all times, the experience of losing my parents changed me in more ways than I can ever express. I’m sure that it has changed me in many ways that I won’t know until I have children, too.

But, what I do know is that it has caused me to appreciate life, live it to its fullest, and also to never end a conversation with a loved one, especially my wife, without saying “I love you.”

Thanks, Dan, for the motivation to write this post. It’s been a long time coming and an experience that I have hinted about and touched on lightly in previous posts but never dived into fully.

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Photo Credit: hugovk

Recently I came across a compilation of interviews that Will Smith has given over the years that The Mind Guru put together. It is by far one of the most inspirational videos I have ever seen.

If you can’t view this video, you can head over to YouTube to watch it..

I have watched this video over and over again, each time pulling out quotes that meant something to me. My favorite?

Make sure you take the 10 minutes out of your day TODAY to watch this video. It is my hope that you find this video as motivating as I have found it.

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

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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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 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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