Perspective on Inconvenience

wednesdays with wayne May 08, 2024

Last week I shared that I went on a cruise through the Panama Canal. When you’re on a cruise, you come into port and have made choices about excursions. While in Punt Arenas, Costa Rica, we were on an excursion that included a boat tour for looking at local wildlife and a bus ride out to the Macaw Sanctuary. 

 

The part of the trip that took us by bus to the Macaw Sanctuary deviated from the plan as our bus came to a stand-still in heavy traffic on a two lane road in the middle of nowhere. I mean, it was Costa Rica; there just wasn’t a lot around us. 

 

Picture this: My wife and I were probably the youngest on the bus. There were 28 other people who had pushed into their late 60s, many in their 70s, and a few in their 80s. We’re on a bus. We’re at a standstill in traffic. We’re not getting closer to seeing the Macaw Sanctuary. 30 minutes pass. 

 

We’re told that there was an accident and that it should be cleared...

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Small, Not Insignificant

wednesdays with wayne May 01, 2024

I cruised through the Panama Canal a couple of months ago. It’s a remarkable feat of engineering, saving almost a week of travel by lifting boats through locks into manmade lakes and onto locks. We traveled from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. We traveled under the Bridge of The Americas, connecting north and south American land masses. A bridge! Connecting north and south American land masses. 

 

That was all cool.

Getting great meals that accommodated dietary needs was amazing.

Most special was being at sea. I’ve always had an affinity for the ocean. I haven’t felt comfortable learning to scuba dive, nor am I a great swimmer. And still, the ocean seems to talk to me. And I hear it, deep inside of me.

 

Sea days on a cruise are those that you’re, well, at sea. There’s no port. Nor is there any land for as far as the eye can see. To me, that’s why we cruise. We could’ve flown from port to port more efficiently. The...

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Where I Start

wednesdays with wayne Apr 24, 2024

It’s odd. Themes come in waves for me and blog posts come from my noticing. Recently, I’ve been asked A LOT about how I work with my clients. “When you work with an individual client, a corporate client, or a group, where do you start? And are they all the same?”

 

It’s a GREAT question because the answer just might serve you as you dream bigger and climb to your next great next.

 

My logo for Exponential Success has a torch with three Vs in it. There are also three mountains in the background which, when inverted, make three Vs. And that’s where I start when I work with anyone, individual or corporate, who wants to leap to Exponential Success.

 

Values: Identify them for yourself. Look at what they were, what they are, and most important, what they need to become for you to grow into the person who owns your Exponential Success.

 

Vision: Take your values and build a vivid picture of what you want. What you really, really,...

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Seriously, Stop Saying No

wednesdays with wayne Apr 17, 2024

This is going to be unpopular.

There’s such a big wave of, “you’ve got to take care of yourself and the only way to do that is to say No.” 

 

While “no” is a complete sentence, the skill needed to take care of yourself isn’t about using that word. It’s about discernment.

 

We’ve seen the pendulum swing too far back to “say No to everything.” 

 

One of my sayings is that you can’t give what you don’t have. So if you’re running on fumes, you have nothing left to give anyone else. That doesn’t mean you say no to everything. It means you focus on what’s going to get you closer to what you want.

 

THIS PART IS REALLY IMPORTANT AND MOST PEOPLE MISS IT – You get more of what you focus on! 

It’s that simple. Feeling overwhelmed by your calendar? Stare at your calendar and see how that makes you feel. 

(Hint: it makes you feel more overwhelmed.)

...
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Having It All

wednesdays with wayne Apr 10, 2024

What would it mean to have everything you wanted? 

Think about that for a second. Most people wish for things but never let themselves truly desire. “Oh, it’d be nice to have a ____.” Fill in the blank. A what? Or a who? Or a where?

What would happen if we leaned into the desires we had? 

And what holds us back from doing so?

Those are two very big questions.

Let’s start with what holds us back. 

What holds us back from pursuing or even entertaining our true desires? It’s simple, early training, guilt, and shame. We’re taught to “be realistic,” and we’re told that we “don’t really need that,” whatever that is. We’re told not to be greedy. And we’re told to save because spending on frivolous things is, well, frivolous. 

And whatever your desire is, it might be frivolous to someone else. And it’s YOUR desire. Like the clothes in your closet are YOUR clothes, someone else...

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Wanting Better Coaches

wednesdays with wayne Apr 03, 2024

I jumped on my Peloton treadmill this morning and found myself disappointed. I wanted the leader to push me more. It’s an odd thing to think about those coaching or pushing me, to know there’s more in me and to dig for it, encouraging me to dig for it.

 

We want our coaches to encourage us to dig deeper and in doing so, to envision (not just imagine or hope for) an amazing future just ahead.

 

Can you imagine Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, or any of the Kansas City Chiefs saying that they just wanted to be coddled by their coach. “Just stop pushing me and be a nice cheerleader” would never come out of their mouths. Instead, a level of trust is built and the dynamic is, “Bring Out My Best!”

Push me past the point of my potential.

That’s what we want from our coaches. You might be at the point in your life (or your week, for that matter) where you just want to take it easy for a moment. That’s cool. Even the best coaches know...

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Counting Quarters

wednesdays with wayne Mar 27, 2024

Sometimes, we get to the end of a month (or year) and say, “Oh my goodness, how did that happen? Time sure flew by!” And I was going to start this Wednesdays With Wayne blog with something like, “Don’t look now, but…!”

 

And that’s not the message I want to give you. The message this week is to remind you that YOU ARE IN CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE and that means that you are also in control of your calendar.

 

Did you have big plans for Quarter One of this year? 

Did you make those plans happen, or did you let them die out as unfulfilled dreams? 

 

I used to over-commit and admittedly, I sometimes still do. And when that happens, I  don’t negotiate with my goals. I take control of my calendar.

 

Here are some tips for you as we head into Q2 of this year:

  • Look at your calendar for the next week, five weeks (yes, into the next month), and twelve weeks (taking you to the end of the quarter). 
    • What did...
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Focus or Fear? Purpose or Panic?

wednesdays with wayne Mar 20, 2024

Here’s something that I shared this in my first book, Choosing Your Power: Many years ago, I found myself in deep overwhelm. I had a really hard time trying to juggle a job, grad school, and relationships. Though this was many years ago, what turned up for me was a simple statement that snapped me out of overwhelm-thinking.

 

My fortune said:

  Decisions Terminate Panic

 

I taped that to my computer monitor. It’s not something I had seen before, nor have I seen it since. It was the perfect three-word sentence to get me focused and I’ve relied on it a lot over the decades from when it first showed up for me. 

 

Here’s something to keep in mind. It’s an interesting concept: Most stress is caused by not making decisions when we need to. 

 

Re-read that line to yourself for a moment. 

 

If you think about any of the stress in your life in the past, you could have approached the situation differently by getting...

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The Intolerable Threat (not political)

wednesdays with wayne Mar 13, 2024

The reason that there’s no such thing as “an overnight success” is because it’s a process. A journey. And there’s something pretty special that happens on that journey.

 

The problem is, most people can’t handle it.

And that is why, my friends, more people aren’t even more successful. 

 

There lurks a threat, popping up multiple times along the path toward new levels of success. Organizations experience growing pains around it. Individuals stop and retreat to the most unhealthy relationships (with people, food, drink, etc.) because of it.

 

What is the most intolerable threat that those on The Journey must encounter?

 

Change.

 

   Change Is An Intolerable Threat

 

How can that be so? Simply this – your subconscious has a current baseline for how you operate. You seek approval in certain areas, and you tolerate chaos in others. You have a safety range for finances: you won’t let things...

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The FOG and The FEAR

wednesdays with wayne Mar 05, 2024

Have you ever been in such dense fog that you couldn’t see the house across the street? Or driven in something like that where the cars in front of you seem to disappear in the mist?

 

It’s freaky. If you’re driving, your survival instincts kick in. You want to live and you become hyper-alert. You turn down the radio and you might even crack the window so you can get a “smell” of what’s to come.  

 

Amazingly enough, all of that is natural. Your awareness through other senses offsets the fear of the unknown conditions that you’re facing.

 

Now, you’ve been with me long enough to know where I’m headed with this. So, go ahead and extrapolate to your own life.

 

What you’ll want to keep in mind is this – when we’re in an unknown situation, we don’t think about it like driving in the fog. When we’re driving, we know that it’s a patch – long or short – that...

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