Ideas, stories, and reflections.

I often get questions about books that might help people get ahead in work, relationships, or life.

This week's video is all about three of my favorite books to recommend. 

Have you ever felt like you were out of your element, didn't fit in, or out of place?

I used to feel all three of these back when I started my first job.  I moved to Arkansas from the Chicagoland area, and didn't know many people.  Everyone was great, but it just didn't feel like home.

It impacted how I showed up at work, and in my social life.  I wasn't happy.

Luckily, I had some mentors who helped me move past with some great advice.  For me, there are three things that can help you feel more connected, more engaged, or more part of the community if you ever feel out of sorts.

1. Ground yourself in Gratitude 
2. Figure out what you want
3. Go Help Someone Else

The next time you are struggling to fit in, try one of these and see if they help!

If you are curious about high performance coaching and how to move forward to a more advanced level, check out the video here.

Have you ever put off doing something you knew would move you forward towards your dreams or the life you want?

Starting that new business?  Having that tough conversation with the kids about keeping their room clean?

Same for me.

I spent 5 years on a 2-year plan right out of college, trying to figure out what I wanted to do and building up the courage to actually leave the comfortable corporate gig I had.

Most times people delay because of three things: fear, lack of confidence, and lack of clarity.

 I was afraid of leaving my known corporate job because I had over $70,000 of student debt and didn't know how I would keep up with the payments.  I was afraid that the next gig I could get wouldn't be fulfilling or would be even more stressful than my corporate IT job.

I was not sure I could get another job, or if I could ever figure out a way to get rid of my student debt.

I had no idea what I really wanted for my career.  Up until getting the job at Walmart...

Doubt is part of life.  How we respond to doubt determines how successful we are in life.

There are four different ideas to help handle doubt better, and get you back to higher performance:

1. Mindset
2. Action
3. Support
4.  Lead

You are more capable than you know, so get after it!

If you are curious on how to move forward at a more advanced level, check out the video here.

The big goal for me this year is to get into the best health of my life!

How can I make sure that I don't fizzle out two weeks into January?  Here are my four best ideas to get clearer on your goals.

1. Make actionable steps.  Frame steps to achieve your goals into action statements.  "Lose weight" turns into "Eat a salad every day".  This will help guide you when you need to work on your goals.
2. Be Clearer and more specific.  If you don't know what the next step is, you risk getting pulled into the research loop without actually getting things done.  Do all the research at once, and know what exactly needs to get done to get to your end result.
3. Chose or make inspiring goals.  At the end of the day, if you don't see yourself being better off by completing your goal, or the pain from not completing it, then it will be a chore to get motivated to get at it.
4. Keep is simple. The simpler the steps and process, the more likely you are to move forward....

Vegan - One whom does not partake in food or products that have a face.  Or someone who choses not to use animal products.

Paleo - One who strived to eat like a caveman.  Or someone who choses to eat mostly vegetables and healthy meats.  Strives to not eat processed foods.

First off, I am a natural Einstein.  In this weeks live video, I started the live broadcast and had my cast iron seasoning on my stove.  Not 1 minute into my video, I smell burning... and decide to take a little journey.  Thats why there is some traveling in the early part of the video.

Gotta love live video! 

One of the thing I have been thinking about this week has been how sometimes completely different ideas have more in common than they do differently.

A specific example are the vegan and paleo communities.  They actually have many ideas in common:  

• Clean produce - without treatment with pesticides or other chemicals
• Ethical treatment of animals - Animals...

This week I have been struggling with focus for a few of my projects.  

It has been tough to keep my mind from wandering from my work, and I started thinking about what other successful people do to increase their focus.  I thought to do a FB live video to share what my observations on focus.

Five things I noticed successful people think through to up their focus:

1. Block time - Creating blocks of 50 minutes to work on one thing.  This helps lower distractions, and create space to "do the work"
2. Clarity - Know why you are doing something, what you need to do, and what the outcomes are.  When you are not clear, you are easily distracted.
3. Inspiration - Have people, music, and other things that inspire you laying around.  It can help keep you going when you need to focus, or help rest when you are taking a break.
4. Consistency - When you have regular time set to focus, you can build momentum which builds motivation.  Not having constant focus times can lead to...

Ever wonder about how to better make sure you "get things done"? Here are four steps you need to make sure you complete your personal or professional project!

1. Find more clarity -  Most people get stuck when they don't know what they want or what to do on a project.  So ask yourself, What do you want to feel on this project?  How do you want to show up on the project?  What specific outcomes do you want out of this project?   For example: I need to do marketing for my business is less clear than knowing I need to create a Facebook ad, measure how many people click on it, and revise the ad if the view/click ratio is less than 10%
2. Find your "reason" to complete the project - Many people get caught up in doing - it's easy to forget why we are working on something. So ask yourself, what cool thing happens to/for me if this project gets complete?  Who else wins when this is complete?  My team, my company, my family?  Another example:  If I...

Four things to help when you get frustrated:

1. Take 10 deep breaths in and out
2. Spend 10 min stretching your body
3. Spend time with a loved one
4. Take 3 minutes to revisit your intentions with whatever is frustrating you

To help with the many disasters around the US, please consider donating to the red cross here. 

If you want to get notification for my weekly Facebook live videos, be sure to like my page shawnbuttnercoaching.

Hey everyone!

I had a thought the other day about what makes a "good day" different from a "bad" day.  You know, the days when you feel awesome, energized, and inspired to get things done.  Like you are almost invincible when it comes to being productive!

Then there are the days where no amount of kitten pictures, coffee, chocolate, or aspiration can get your butt moving.  You feel cruddy, sluggish, and unmotivated.

I realized, for me, many times it comes down to the question, "how did I start my day?"  How did you start your day today?  

In graduate school, I studied information systems and there is a saying we had - garbage in is garbage out.  Meaning, bad information into a system leads to bad information leaving the system.  Imagine if you are trying to get directions to your friend house, and you put in a bad starting location.  You currently are downtown in Chicago, and you enter Cleveland, Ohio as your starting city.

How are the...