Daily Planner and Habit Tracker

Why Habits are the Secret to Success

Here are a few quotes on Habits:

Small modifications can alter their trajectory of a bullet-up to a point. Your life has a natural point of aim. It flies in the direction of your habits. To change the direction of your life, you have to change your habits.

Eric Greitens

Your current habits are perfectly designed to deliver your current results.”

James Clear

You are what you repeatedly do.

Aristotle

Habits are the backbone of exellence.

James Clear

The costs of your good habits are in the present. The costs of your bad habits are in the future.

James Clear

If you don’t develop great habits you won’t be successful. Habits are the backbone of excellence because you are what you do repeatedly. The choices you make over and over again determine the type of person you will become. Habits alter the trajectory of your life because your direction is determined by your aim. Your aim is determined by your beliefs and what you believe directly affects how you behave.

If we break our actions down into smaller chunks, we must learn to prioritize the minutes, hours, days, and weeks of our life. If we fail to correctly divert our energy into managing our days with skill, we will fail to move towards our potential.

The skill of managing your time (your most important resource) is critical to leading with excellence.

There are 7 things you can do today to help yourself become more productive this year:

  1. Plan Your Day the Night Before
  2. Practice Gratitude Every Morning and Every Night
  3. Prioritize Your Tasks
  4. Track Your Wins (i.e. successes for the day)
  5. Write Down Lessons Learned
  6. Track Your Habits Daily
  7. Focus on 1 or 2 Habits a Month

I’ve built a daily planner and habit tracker for you to use with your team or in your own life. There are simple areas for you to accomplish each of the 7 items listed above. Here’s a picture of what it looks like:

Click on the link below to download the Daily Planner and Habit Tracker.

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19 Mental Models of Leadership

The Law of the Lid 

Credit: John Maxwell

  • There is a lid on my organization and on my future and that lid is me.
  • I am the problem with my company and you are the problem with your company
  • Your education, character, capacity, ability, and vision are limiting your team

Your Work as a Leader Should:

Credit: MLK

  1. Have length – something you get better at over a lifetime
  2. Have breadth – it should touch many other people 
  3. Have height – put you in service to some ideal and satisfy the souls yearning for righteousness 

When Leaders Help Institute Change there is…

Credit: Chip and Dan Heath

  1. Clear direction
  2. Ample Motivation
  3. Supportive Environment

Lead with Clarity and Conviction

Find out How

6 Techniques to Speak like a Leader

Credit: Simon Lancaster

  1. Three Breathless Sentences
  • “A world at war, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a generation”
  1. Three Repetitive Sentences
  • I love pasta, I love verona, I love tiramsu 
  1. Three balancing statements
  • Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country
  • If it sounds balanced, it makes it more believable
  • CONTRAST 
  1. Metaphor
  • Use metaphor every 16 words
  • Use to draw people towards things, and to repel them
  • Ex. “the Arab Spring” “The financial storm”
  1. Exaggeration
  • Emotional appeal. “I am going to give you my heart and soul” 
  1. Rhyme
  • People are more likely to believe something if it Rhymes: processing fluency (easier to digest)
  • Learn things from Rhymes as toddlers

6 Gifts Human Gardeners (Leaders) Offer Their People

Credit: Dr. Tim Elmore

They Paint Pictures

Most people think in pictures. Mentors capitalize on our visual minds and paint pictures of the way leadership works by telling stories, using metaphors, or employing images.

The Provide Handles

Every door or drawer has a handle. A handle is something we can grab onto. Good mentors summarize great principles into simple terms that their mentees can get a hold of and understand. They define the principles and give practical ways they can be applied to life.

They Supply Roadmaps

(1) Give us big picture

(2) Show us where we are

(3) Show us roads to take us to our destination

(4) Reveal what roads to avoid

They Furnish Laboratories

A laboratory is simply a safe place in which to experiment and actually practice the principles being learned. 

They Give Roots

Plants can only grow as tall as their root systems grow deep. Roots represent the foundation for solid growth. They provide strength and stability; something to stand on. These roots might take the form of a “moral compass,” enabling a mentee to make wise decisions based on healthy values.

They Offer Wings

Wings enable mentees to think big, to attempt huge goals, to not fear taking risks.

Leadership as a Parent

(1) I do it; you watch

(2) I do it; you help me

(3) You do it; I help you

(4) You do it; I watch

Building Culture as a Leader

credit: Dan Coyle – The Culture Code

  1. Fill the group’s windshield with clear, accessible models of excellence. 
  2. Provide high-repetition, high-feedback training.
  3. Build vivid, memorable rules of thumb (if X, then Y). 
  4. Spotlight and honor the fundamentals of the skill.

Three Questions Leaders Should Ask Their Teams

  1. What is one thing that I currently do that you’d like me to continue to do? 
  2. What is one thing that I don’t currently do frequently enough that you think I should do more often? 
  3. What can I do to make you more effective?

Leaders Build Systems with 3 things

credit: Donella Meadows – Thinking in Systems

  1. Elements 
  2. Interconnections 
  3. Function or an purpose 
  • A system is an interconnected set of elements that is coherently organized in a way to achieve something 

The Four Tools of Leadership Discipline

credit: Scott Peck – The Road Less Traveled

  1. Delaying of gratification
  2. Acceptance of responsibility,
  3. Dedication to the truth
  4. Balancing

The Four Disciplines of Execution 

credit: FranklinCovey

1. Focus on the Wildly Important: Focus on the one or two goals that would make all the difference. 

  • Focus your finest effort on the one or two goals that would make all the
    difference, instead of giving mediocre effort to dozens of goals. Leaders must learn how to create energy around the most important projects,
    not just what’s on fire. 

2. Act on the Lead Measures: Lead measures tell you if you’re likely to achieve the goal. 

  • Lead measures tell you if you’re likely to achieve the goal. They can be influenced by the team and are predictive of the outcome. Lag measures tell you if you’ve achieved the goal. 

3. Keep a Compelling Scoreboard: This helps your team know the score at all times. 

  • This helps everyone know the score at all times, so they can tell whether or not they’re winning. 

4. Create a Cadence of Accountability: Meet weekly to report on commitments and review the scoreboard

  • This is where the execution happens. Your team should meet weekly for 20–30
    minutes to report on commitments and review the scoreboard. Disciplines 1, 2, and 3 set up the game, but until you set up Discipline 4, your
    team isn’t in the game.

Tools to Improve Your Leadership

credit: Craig Groeschel

  1. A discipline to start
  2. The courage to stop
  3. A person to empower
  4. A system to create
  5. A relationship to initiate
  6. A risk to take

The Habits of Excellence

Become a lifelong learner

How to Change Your Perspective as a Leader

credit: Mark Batterson

Change of pace + Change of place = Change of perspective

The Laws of Combat Leadership

credit: Jocko Willink

  1. Cover and Move
  2. Keep Things Simple
  3. Prioritize and Execute
  4. Decentralize Command

Leadership Psychology of Growth

  1. Help the person get their story straight (where are you now? Where are you going?)
  2. What is it that you’re afraid of that’s stopping you from moving forward?

The 80% rule of Decision Making

Based on 80% of the information available are you 80% sure this is the right decision? 

Storytelling as a Leader

credit: Donald Miller

  • Stories are the best invention to deliver mental models that drive behavior, how we make meaning of life
  • Simple structure to stories: a character has a problem, then meets a guide who gives them a plan and calls them to action. That action either results in a comedy or tragedy
  1. A character: a person who will take the journey
  2. The Problem: three levels, external, internal, and philosophical
  3. Meets a Guide who Understands their Fear 
  4. And gives them a plan: you used to think this way, I want you think another way
  5. That calls them to action
  6. That results in a comedy 
  7. Or results in a Tragedy

Mastery Starts with YOU

For the Self-Directed Leader

The Rule of Three

  • When telling stories: Find a Beginning, a Middle, and a End
  • In a crisis: Assess, adjust, act
  • Look, listen, speak
  • In conversation: Ask the person to go deeper 3x and you’ll get closer to the truth

Building a System of Belief – Constructing a Culture

  • Why – Purpose – Belief (ethos)
  • What – Pillars – Values (pathos)
  • How – Processes – Systems (logos)

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Change Your Habits. Change Your Life.

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Favorite Actions of 2019-20 (PDF)

A few of the my favorite actions of 2019-2020 included:

  • Boston Hook Series
  • Triangle Offense (Basic Cuts)
  • Horns (Spain, Invert, Flip, Wide Pin)
  • Quick Hitters (5-out variations, Zipper rip)
  • Box Sets (Rip, Sneak, Counter)
  • Misc Sets (Laser, Gate, Iverson, STS)

Here are 3 of my favorite sets:

Boston Hook Series (2-man game)

Horns Flip Action

5-Out Pick and Pop

Here’s a look at the table of contents:

Here’s a video of the entire file:

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Raise Your Game as a Coach

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Pace, Space, and Ball Screens

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How Leaders Can Produce Compound Interest

The biggest benefits in life come from compounding interest. Relationships, habits, money, success, and growth are the result of making small investments in the right things and watching those investments grow (on top of each other) over time.

As a leader, you must think like an investment manager—you must ensure the growth of your team by directing them to invest in the right things.

Here are three “investing” principles that will allow you to harness the power of compound interest which will lead to exponential growth.

Invest Consistently

The first principle of investing is simply to invest consistently. Those who consistently make small deposits will reap the exponential benefits over the course of time. Investing consistently allows your investments to grow on top of your investments—this applies to your resources, people, and leadership.

Think about this concept through the lens of a basketball team. When a coach invests in helping his player become smarter, more skilled, and a better teammate, that initial investment by the coach not only benefits that specific player, but the entire team. That player is now more equipped to multiply the coach’s influence throughout the group.

The principle of multiplication is a powerful force. The more time, energy, and care that you invest in the lives of people around you, the stronger your team will become.

Invest Your “First-Fruits”

In the world of finance, psychologists have come up with a nifty trick to help people save more money. They call it the “pay yourself first” principle. Research shows that people who pay themselves first (i.e. saving money by having it automatically taken out of their paycheck at the beginning of the month) will save more than people who are required to make the decision voluntarily. When people make the decision to save money ahead of time, they will not fall into the temptation of overspending in the future.

So it is with leadership. Leaders who invest their “first-fruits” have made the commitment to invest the best they have to offer into their teams. Effective leaders don’t wait to give their key assets their focus, time, and energy until they are distracted, hurried, and tired. Leaders that give away their first-fruits consistently give away the best they have to offer to those who need it most.

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Invest in the Long Game

Successful investors play the long game. They are not held captive by the ups and downs of the market, but rather focus on generating consistent returns over the course of time.

Compound interest is accrued—in money, life, and leadership—when you make a regular deposits over the long-term. Leaders (and investors) can easily get caught up in the latest trends or the excitement of short-term results. Real value, growth, and impact is found in a leader who makes decisions today that will pay dividends tomorrow.

Reflection

Ask yourself these three questions:

Am I investing in my team with consistency or sporadically?

Am I investing the best I have to offer or my leftovers?

Am I investing with short-term or a long-term mindset?


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20 Questions to Find Your Purpose

Questions are a great way to clarify your thinking. As you think about pursuing your purpose in life, take some time to reflect on these questions. Purpose is fundamentally about giving your life away. Finding ways to construct your life in a way that serves and empowers others.

What am I motivated to do?

What activity do I love so much that I’m going to keep getting better at it for the next many decades?

What do I desire so much that it captures me at the depth of my being?

What would I do if I wasn’t afraid?

What do I enjoy talking about?

When have I felt most needed?

What pains am I willing to tolerate?

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What problems are around me? 

What has my life given me as preparation? 

What will touch my deepest desire? 

What activity gives me the greatest joy?

What am I good at?

What is the world asking of me?

What is a job or role that only I can do?

Where does my desire meet the world’s need?

What solutions can I provide to problems around me?

What life experiences can I use for the benefit of someone else? 

Who do I want to serve with my life?

How can I give my life away?

What is my WHY?

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