Project Exponential

Process

A dinner party could change everything.

  • My intern is _____ .

    Your assistant might be a tremendous help, relieving you from mundane tasks that eat up your time and cut into your creative flesh.

    Your intern could also be your greatest asset, filtering information through a unique set of experiences and offering insight into areas you may not be aware of.

    Assistant or ally.

    Not mutually exclusive, but your point of view largely determines the outcome.

    Experiment and see what’s most beneficial to you, your work, and your potentially greatest ambassador.

  • What are you listening to?

    What record is playing in your head?

    Have you written your own soundtrack? Or has someone compiled it for you?

    The songs/tones/words you surround yourself with sets the tone for your life. If you’re not happy with what you’ve been hearing, make a new recording. Leave the prerecorded songs for someone else (unless they’re really THAT good).

  • Do you want to win?

    Every day I speak with individuals who tell me they want to succeed in a big way. While “success” can mean something different to each person, most people are looking to surpass the point they’ve arrived to date — a refreshed, higher, faster, better, cleaner, sharper, more focused state of being. Which seems pretty intuitive. People with ambition and drive want to move forward. Occupying the same space without any change one year from now can sound frightening, if not repulsive, to those with momentum and growth on the mind.

    Yet, too often, these same individuals are taking specific actions in their lives to demonstrate otherwise, indirectly sabotaging their path towards greatness.

    Find a mentor, a group, an outsider who will level with you and call your bluff. Put yourself in the position to listen openly and honestly, so that this time next year, you’ll have moved in the direction and at the speed you intended.

  • A manual for daily adventure

    It’s easy to get stuck in a rut. Go to work, come home, throw together dinner, veg out on the couch.

    You’ll never live the life you secretly wish for if you become routine’s slave. You have to shake things up.

    When you enjoy your life, you’ll inspire people around you to test limits they’ve drawn for themselves. Passion and excitement are contagious. Improved relationships, enhanced creativity, boosted productivity, discovery of yourself and the world around you are just a few byproducts of a life with fire behind it.

    Sounds great, but how does this happen? Certainly not overnight.

    Here are 80 ways to get you started.

    We all have different thresholds for daring and adventure, so pick a few that feel brave to you and dive in. Let me know how it goes.

    1. Pack a lunch. For a friend.
    2. Go see a movie by yourself.
    3. Bring a slinky to the office.
    4. Rotate a stack of favorite photos in your wallet.
    5. Buy sidewalk chalk.
    6. Invite people you don’t know very well over for dinner.
    7. Dance.
    8. Call a friend unexpectedly, for no particular reason.
    9. Put Play-Doh on your desk.
    10. Write a love letter. To yourself.
    11. Stroll through a bookstore and notice which section pulls you in.
    12. Buy the Sunday paper and savor it with a treat.
    13. Do something to fail. Something you know you’re miserable at. And enjoy.
    14. Ride a bike. Rent if you don’t own one.
    15. Host a themed party.
    16. Take public transportation, even if you think it’s slower.
    17. Start a scrapbook with images you tear out of magazines, newspapers, funny office memos.
    18. Schedule a coffee date with someone you admire.
    19. Write a pageful of questions. Don’t worry about answers.
    20. Try a new restaurant.
    21. Mail a thank you note.
    22. Walk home from work a different way.
    23. Book a trip.
    24. Stare out the window.
    25. Set aside fifteen minutes to write. About anything.
    26. Make a themed playlist.
    27. Ask a friend for a book recommendation.
    28. List 100 things you’d like to do before you die.
    29. Sign up for a class.
    30. Teach a class.
    31. Move! Jump. Climb. Skip.
    32. Bake lasagna for the local firehouse.
    33. Compliment a stranger.
    34. Brush your teeth with opposite hand.
    35. Run an extra 5 (minutes, miles, blocks, laps).
    36. Concentrate on nothing except pouring yourself a cup of tea.
    37. Host a trivia night at your place.
    38. List 10 “self care” items. Aim to do 2-3 each day.
    39. Order in. Unplug and turn off everything. Eat by candlelight.
    40. Support a local business owner.
    41. Take your workout outside.
    42. Don’t send an email. Walk over to your colleague’s desk.
    43. Smile at a kid who isn’t yours.
    44. Find a recipe and cook.
    45. Look up. See the sky.
    46. List 4 things you are thankful for in this moment.
    47. Pick up your favorite book and head to the park.
    48. Watch a black and white movie.
    49. Make yourself feel uncomfortable.
    50. Consider the book you’d write.
    51. Bake something — a pie, cookies, bread. Wrap it in pretty paper and give it away.
    52. Set a new fitness goal.
    53. Initiate conversation at the coffee shop.
    54. Volunteer.
    55. Do 1 thing today that really excites you. Tell no one.
    56. Sing loudly in the shower/your car/your backyard.
    57. Doodle.
    58. Plant something.
    59. Allow yourself 5 minutes of nothing.
    60. Set out to scare yourself.
    61. Paint. Draw. Make something. It doesn’t have to be good.
    62. Visit a farmers market.
    63. Count your breaths, 6 seconds for each: Inhale. Pause. Exhale.
    64. Buy yourself flowers.
    65. Book a massage.
    66. Style your hair differently.
    67. Hide a note for your partner to find.
    68. Put your other shoe on first.
    69. Be a slob. Don’t make the bed. Leave it on the floor.
    70. Daydream.
    71. For one day, don’t make any plans.
    72. Write on a napkin.
    73. Eat with chopsticks.
    74. Act like a tourist.
    75. Clean. Throw out junk. Organize.
    76. Build a tent in your living room.
    77. Pretend you’re famous.
    78. Ask yourself: “If you could do anything, anywhere, what would it be?”
    79. Donate money to a cause you’re interested in.
    80. Write down what your life looks like this time next year. Five years from now. Next week.

  • Invest in yourself.

    Success and anything worth doing comes with sacrifice.

    Money, time, pride, effort, energy, friends, family, hobbies, confidence, reputation — these are just some of the things that end up on the table when you go all in.

    How are you spending them? Where are you channeling your time and attention and means?

    Fear often pulls up a chair and convinces us we have limited resources. When fear starts talking, the stakes are raised and we can be faced with tough decisions.

    Are you in it for the long haul or are you looking for the short-term gain?

  • When was the last time you did one thing?

    Read that again.

    When was the last time you did one thing?

    Not two, not six, not four.

    Checking email, eating breakfast. Halfheartedly listening to your partner while making a list of grocery items. Calling your mom while watching CNN and scanning your iPad for Facebook updates.

    We’re bombarded. We’re hungry for information and validation and surprise, and we are impatient.

    One of the most valuable things you can do for yourself and for your clients and for your family and for your relationships is to make the decision to commit to one action. Give each moment your all, and watch what happens.

    Fight and focus and concentrate to be 100% there, fully tuned into the messages you’re receiving and what you’re sending to those around you. You don’t want to miss that big shot you’ve been waiting for just because you were too preoccupied to notice it.

    The person you wanted to meet (and who wanted to meet you) might have been at the party, but you weren’t there to meet them.

    Commit to the present today.