1: “There is one specific hour—the ‘sweet spot’ of our day—that has the biggest impact on both our short-term and long-term success,” Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy write in The Gap and The Gain: The High Achiever’s Guide to Happiness, Confidence, and Success.

“What we do during this one hour has effects that far outweigh what we do with the other hours of your day,” they write. “It … continue reading

1: “Early-stage passion doesn’t look like late-stage passion,” Steven Kotler writes in The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer.

Imagine LeBron James as “a little kid standing in front of a big hoop, trying to get his shots to drop,” Steven writes. “On the front end, passion is nothing more than the overlap of multiple curiosities coupled to a few wins.”

Sure, to be passionate, we want to … continue reading

1: DO THE HARD THING reads the sign above author Steven Kotler‘s desk.

Yes, the phrase is “a great reminder to attack life’s challenges,” but that’s not the point, he writes in The Art of the Impossible.

Its “real function is much smaller: It’s to remind me to do one extra item on my to-do list before I take my first break,” he writes.  

“If my day’s first … continue reading

1: As leaders, one of our most important roles is to unlock the full potential of each person on our teams.

One of the best ways to release this potential is to organize “Quality Circles,” Brian Tracy writes in his terrific book Sales Management.

This practice involves gathering our team for a specific one-hour time block each week to focus on a single question to drive “continuous and never-ending … continue reading

1: Getting better at getting better is what RiseWithDrew is all about.

Monday through Thursday, we explore ideas from authors, thought leaders, and exemplary organizations. On Friday, I share something about myself or what we are working on at PCI.

In last Friday’s video, we created our “Life’s Board of Directors.”  We were intentional about identifying those individuals who have influenced our lives.  

Who believed in us.  Who were … continue reading

1: Our leadership team has gathered for our quarterly strategic planning meeting.  

We’ve done a check-in.  We’ve reviewed our annual goals for the year.  We’ve had a frank discussion about what’s working and what needs to change.  We’ve taken what we learned over the past quarter to come up with quarterly goals that will put us in a position to achieve our annual plan.

The next step is critical and perhaps unexpected.… continue reading

1: “Planning is 1 percent of the effort; execution is the other 99 percent,” write Mark Moses and his co-authors in Making Big Happen.

Once we’ve created our annual plan and communicated it across the company, our next task is critical: We must create a culture of accountability across the organization.

Which is what the Make Big Happen framework is all about.  “Before we adopted the Make Big Happen … continue reading

We’ve prepared for and held our annual planning session with our leadership team.  

We’ve articulated our long-term vision and agreed upon our HOT, our Huge, Outrageous Target.  

We’ve outlined our roadmap for the year ahead.

Now what?

Step one “is calling a company-wide meeting and sending an all-company recap video from the CEO,” Mark Moses and his co-authors write in Making Big Happen: Applying The Make Big Happen System … continue reading

Getting better at getting better is what RiseWithDrew is all about.

Monday through Thursday, we explore ideas from authors, thought leaders, and exemplary organizations. On Friday, I share something about myself or what we are working on at PCI.

This week we’ve been exploring my proven goal-setting process to make 2023 the best year of our lives.  

In his terrific book The Art of the Impossible, Steven Kotler identifies three … continue reading

This week, we are exploring a goal-setting methodology from Trent Hamm called “Developing a Real Plan for a Better Life.”

Yesterday, we looked at step one: selecting the areas of our life we want to focus on.

1: Today, we turn to steps two, three, and four. Step two begins with blocking off some quiet time to do the necessary work.  

“While it’s great to give this process some … continue reading