My wife and I have an evening ritual, a thing we do after dinner.  We’ll wash up the dishes and head outside to sit at our fire pit.  Yes, even when it’s flipping freezing outside, we enjoy our time together that way.  We’ll continue our dinner conversation, spending time talking about the day, about what’s coming, and about our aspirations and dreams.  That’s an important thing – talking about aspirations and dreams, both as individuals and as a couple.  We’re “empty nesters” at this point, so it’s just us, supporting each other into our next phase of what we want for ourselves as individuals, what we want for and from each other, and what we want together as a couple.

This week’s Wednesdays With Wayne centers around the fire pit.

As we had our “fire pit time” recently, the conversation came around to those mentors we have and those others we see out there on Social Media.  I...

Someone just wrote to me and said that his biggest issue was that he’s now only getting about four hours of sleep a night.  He’s so charged with ideas that he doesn’t feel he can sleep.  His mind is racing.

If you’re an entrepreneur, your mind will race.  It just will.
You’ve got details to track.
You’ve got opportunities to explore.

And, the gentleman who wrote to me commented that he supposes all high performers must not sleep.  There’s so much to do.  There’s so much to think about.

Right?

Welcome to your Wednesdays With Wayne.  

My answer was a surprise to him.  I said, “Actually, high performers learn how to block time in order to get the sleep they need” and to hit the productivity levels they want to hit.  And that’s true.  My dissertation (yes, the “doctor” part of my title comes from clinical psychology) was on sleep and daily functioning (specifically...

As this post comes out we, in the U.S., are approaching Thanksgiving.  It’s a day that some simply call Turkey-Day knowing that we are bound to find ourselves overeating with relatives we seldom see.   The concept of gratitude feels lost in the shuffle of fallen soufflés and over-sugared yams, not to mention the shove toward pre-black-Friday sales.

Sit down.  Pretend you like the people you’re with. Say Grace.  Enjoy the cold green beans. And pass the famotidine while you whip out your credit card for the online sales.

What are we doing to ourselves?  

At this time of year we get so wrapped up in what we’re supposed to do for other people, we forget all of the positive things we’ve created in our lives.  It’s possible to get resentful of the tug that we feel: Bring this, buy that, make, go, travel, eat, drink, and give and give and give.  And don’t forget to smile about it.  Gahhhhhhh…....

Think back to who you were 10 years ago.  That person couldn’t do what you’re doing now.  They were younger, might have had more energy, and certainly had different friends.  That person needed to change to get you to be the you that you are now.

That 10-year-younger self probably didn’t project ahead to see who you’d be at this point.  They didn’t have the perspective to do so.

And now, you get to look ahead.  Knowing what you know now, whom would you like to become in the next 10 years?  

How about the next 5 years?
The next 2 years?
Next week?
Tomorrow???

This week’s Wednesdays With Wayne is called Crossing Over because that’s what the Latin & French roots of the word Transition mean: to move across.

What got you here won’t get you there.  You’re in the middle of a change in your life right now.  How will you embrace that.  Whether that’s at home, in your relationships, or at...

When faced with doing the “right” thing, the decision tree is supported by the roots of personal values.  It’s funny, my conversations with clients often lead to my Wednesdays With Wayne posts.  Recently, I was discussion what it meant to do what’s right vs. feeling burdened by the “shoulds” that come from social pressure.  

I found myself falling back on my martial arts roots.  Yes, having started back in 1977 and attaining the rank of fourth degree black belt, there’s a little something in me.  The art of Bushido incorporates multiple disciplines and, translated, it means The Way of the Warrior.  That way is one of peace with a willingness to stand up for what’s right.

Early samurai, the warriors who practiced Bushido, had at their core a code by which they lived.  One of the seven tenets is that of Rectitude – goodness, living in integrity, doing right.  For me, that’s a level...

Usually posts in November remind you about giving thanks.  Let’s take this on from a different angle and look at what you deserve.  Seriously, start thinking about the life you deserve.  Start thinking about how much you have to give if you stopped playing small.  

Deserving is different than being entitled.  You really deserve a life full of love and joy.  You’re not entitled to drive a Maserati or necessarily, to even have a car.  The thing is, you create both and one of those things you can get right now, just by thinking about it.  

I’ll get right to it.  In this week’s Wednesdays With Wayne, you get to ask yourself the following questions.  To make them even more impactful, ask them out loud (yes, really).  

Do I deserve to be happy?
Yes, I do (and I offer it)!

Do I deserve love?
Yes, I do (and I offer it)!

Am I entitled to being waited on?
Uh, no…  In fact, I’ll probably get...

In reflecting on mythology recently – actually, I was reflecting on some of the recent world tragedies – I was reminded of the concept of Pandora’s Box.  When opened, all kinds of chaos was released.  

Do you know what remained after everything else had been let loose?

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In this week’s Wednesdays With Wayne, we’re looking at TWO ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS for a positive life and great leadership.  What two elements do you need for a more positive outlook and a more fulfilling life?

One of them is HOPE.  Yes, it was hope that remained in Pandora’s Box when everything else had been released into the world.  It’s hope that allows you to move forward, especially after setbacks.  

Do not build your future on hope.  Hope does NOT create a solid foundation for growth.  In fact, it’s more like fuel.  You need hope to fuel the car; hope in itself is not the car.  Hope can...

When we bother to look up, we might register somewhere in the depths of our minds that the sky is blue and a wisp of clouds floats by.  Birds sing, though we hardly notice.  

Until something changes all of that.  The sky is grey.  There is no depth.  Your eyes tear-up from the ashes that fill the air and choke the breath from your chest as it hurts to breathe.  And you wonder if you’ll see the sky again.

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In all honesty, I’m having trouble writing this week’s Wednesdays With Wayne.  

It seems like there are natural and human-made disasters hitting this blue marble (or is that blue marvel), one right after the other.  

I live in Northern California about a half-hour from Napa.  So much of what I knew, have fondly visited, and have driven to and through is either threatened by fire, currently on fire, or has been destroyed by fire.

I’m one of the lucky ones.  Today, my...

Have you ever been around someone who makes you think differently?  Perhaps just because of who they are or how they present themselves, you stand up straighter?  I don't know why it happens, my daughter is a Marine and when I'm around her, I find my posture improves.  

There’s something about excellence that you can sense in a person.  

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Welcome to this week’s Wednesdays With Wayne!  Let’s dive a little deeper into the Excellence Expectation thing, shall we?  You see, I just finished doing a training session on leadership and excellence at the Ritz-Carlton in Southern California.  You know what?  The way they execute their service delivery got to me.  Everything they did was a deliberate act of customer service excellence.  Their goal is to anticipate the needs of the guests and have things complete before the request is even made.  They’re like ninjas,...

I celebrated my birthday last week at an indoor skydiving place.  Really, it was awesome… except for the part that wasn’t.

In this week’s Wednesdays With Wayne, you’ll get three key points that apply to business, leadership, and life.  I learned them while being supported by winds above 100mph.

Here’s a short video for you, too!

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There are some really great lessons that can be learned from doing indoor sky-diving.  Apparently, my wife and I are really great students and had no problems with control.  I think the thing is, we take instruction really well.  We want to succeed and we’re willing to learn what works for others so that we can maximize our experience.  And, because we’re different people from the instructors or from each other, we learned to adapt what we’ve learned to ourselves.

Lesson #1:
Learn what works.  Model what works.  Adapt it to your own situation.

In...