Last year I started what I think will be a yearly tradition for me — taking a moment to both review the past year’s accomplishments and to also set goals for the year ahead.

My notable achievements for last year:

• Kept my commitment to write a blog post every week, writing 51 new blog entries. (I only missed a couple last January — obviously I have trouble being on time in the first weeks of the year… for example, this post is two days late. Apologies.)
• Pitched my book to a number of big, traditional publishers including Harper Collins, McGraw-Hill, Simon and Schuster, Random House, Farrar-Straus-Giroux, Harvard, Berrett-Koehler, Hyperion & Penguin. (If you’re curious, they all “passed.” I still view this as an achievement, however, as it’s not all that easy to get an agent who can get one’s work in front of all these folks.)
• Performed in 12 more Group productions: 9 in January & 3 in June.
• Celebrated the Chinese New Year in Chinatown, LA. (A truly fun, amazing experience!)
• Attended the 53rd Annual GRAMMY Awards.
• Spoke @ ICF-Los Angeles, Career Synergy, ASTD-Westside, ASTD-Los Angeles, Mount St. Mary’s College Leadership Institute, Circle of Change Leadership Conference, ISPI, and the La Cañada Flintridge Kiwanis Chapter. (At 8 events, this isn’t too far off of my goal of averaging one per month.)
• Renamed my blog “The Work Revolution.” (I’ve searched for a long time to find a title which encapsulates everything I write about here.)
• Contributed to the MIX Hackathon “Communities Of Passion” report (check out the 3 categories I suggested on Page 10 and “Build A Strengths-Based Culture” on page 25).
• Joined the Young Entrepreneur Council.
• Turned 30. (Holy s#*t, how did that happen?)
• Went to Disneyland 6 times. (Not bad since we just got our passes in June!)
• Visited Charleston, South Carolina. (I had never been to that part of the country before.)
• Upgraded my phone from an iPhone 3G to an iPhone 4S. (May sound trite, but this is essentially like trading in one’s horse and buggy for the Starship frickin’ Enterprise.)
• Became the 3rd (or 2nd, depending on how you look at it) Strengthscope USA Business Development Partner.
• Met a whole bunch of crazy-awesome people. (I’d start listing them here, but this post would become far too long.)

My goals for 2012:

1. Publish and release my book.
2. Travel outside of the US at least once.
3. Increase Strengths Doctors revenues and client list.
4. Speak more targeted gigs (corporations, conferences, leadership institutes, etc.) and get paid regularly for them.
5. Do yoga and floss every day (hey, I like my teeth).

It’s a delightful thing to get to watch someone’s dream come true.

I’ve been fortunate enough to encounter this process a few times in my life thus far — watching friends get married, seeing my sister become a mom, and even being along for the ride when my wife got to traverse Europe by train (which was a dream of mine, too). This fulfilling type of experience never gets old, and I suspect never will.

My friend Jenny Blake just accomplished a lifelong dream of hers and published her first book: Life After College: The Complete Guide To Getting What You Want. Filled with templates to kickstart personal development and plenty of wisdom culled from her own insatiable desire to create more fulfillment in everyday life, Jenny’s created a veritable handbook for the “real world.” (Also, if you happen to be a fan of great quotes from wise people, like I am, the collection scattered throughout is alone worth the price of admission.)

I vividly remember leaving college and the distinct feeling that I had no clue what I was doing. Maybe that sounds familiar to you, too. It’s easy to stumble on a path in our lives, only to look back a decade later and realize that… well, we didn’t quite mean to go that direction!

The great thing about life is that it’s never too late to make a turn.

To be sure, some of the information in this book is aimed squarely at young twentysomethings. But much of it is highly useful for anyone who wants to make sure they’re on the path they want to be on. These pages are filled with great tools — and spirited inspiration — to help us get exactly what we want out of life.

Life After College is officially out tomorrow (Tuesday, March 29). If you’d like to buy it online, you can get a great price at Amazon.

Congrats, Jenny!

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Quite possibly my favorite commercial ever. (From TBWA\Chiat\Day’s Think Different campaign in 1997.)

Here’s to the crazy ones.

The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.

They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo.

You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward.

And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.

Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Love.

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P.S. For any other Apple fans out there, there’s a fun Easter egg related to this campaign that can still be found in your Mac OS. Want a hint? Look at your TextEdit icon… I mean REALLY look…

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1) It’s really good to be able to laugh at yourself.
It’s also good to know when to be sincere, but it’s OK if life is fun!

2) Some things are worth fighting (for).
Authenticity has become far too rare, and people who will kindly and non-passive-aggresively confront others for the sake of doing the right thing are nearly extinct. Some things really are worth fighting, and some things are worth fighting for.

3) Contentedness is hard, but worth every ounce of effort.
“The grass is greener” mentality will probably always exist somewhere within us, but it is certainly amongst the things that are worth fighting. No place is perfect, but as we often tend to find what we look for, our perspective has a profound effect on this problem.

4) There are at least two sides to every story.
This one is a cliché for a reason: it’s true. The tough part is remembering it. “If you only understand a thing one way, you don’t understand it all.” – Marvin Minsky

5) Contracts are only as good as the person you sign them with.
Words on a page are worthless compared to the character within the signer.

6) Discovering your strengths is life-changing.
Throughout my education, I have been fortunate enough to take quite a few so-called “personality assessments.” I remember very little about any of them (except my prickly-ness at their pigeonhole-ness) until the Clifton StrengthsFinder™. Both concise and full of depth, Gallup has created an amazing resource for helping people find what they’re good at, and to become better humans because of it.

7) Seasons are glorious.
Not worrying about snow on the roads is not a fair trade for having no seasons of weather variance. At. All. Ever. There’s just something pure and invigorating about the cooling of autumn or the gradual warmth of spring. Or clouds. And thunderstorms. (Love those guys.)

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For all of us
The future is a chapter unwritten
And much can be said
Much has been said
About the emerging workforce
And
What is to be
What is to come
Like most things
It’s all about our perspective
How we choose to see it

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Even though it never snows where I live, I grew up in a place where the cold of winter seeps into your bones and December really does hold the darkest night of the year. Sparkling lights, hot cocoa, and melancholy music all seem to make more sense in that atmosphere, but the nostalgia still feels real and I’m grateful for that.

Here’s a list of some of my favorite holiday songs this season. I tried to make sure they were either slightly left-of-center (maybe even off your radar) or so extraordinarily beautiful that you simply must have them.

Happy holidays, my friends.

01. Ron Sexsmith – “Maybe This Christmas”

02. The Weepies – “All That I Want”

03. Over The Rhine (feat. Terri Templeton) – “Silent Night”

04. Sleeping At Last – “Silver Bells”

05. Hem – “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”

06. Brandi Carlile – “The Heartache Can Wait”

07. Matthew Hall & Meagan Moore (from The Polar Express) – “When Christmas Comes To Town”

08. The Rescues – “All That I Want For Christmas (Is To Give My Love Away)”

09. Fall Out Boy – “Yule Shoot Your Eye Out”

10. SHeDAISY feat. Rascal Flatts – “Twist Of The Magi”

11. Sufjan Stevens – “Get Behind Me, Santa”

12. Gayla Peevey – “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas”

*BONUS TRACK* Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip – “O Holy Night”
TV Series Here | Download Here

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One of my favorite things to do is to create music. In fact, before I started working with leaders and writing books, I was playing shows with talented folks like The Fray / Sister Hazel / Mat Kearney and writing songs.

Now I produce and write music in my spare time, and I’m always keeping an eye on new music business models. I’ve just teamed up with NoiseTrade (Fair Trade Music) to offer my last album, The Let Go, for whatever price you like.

Seriously!

You can even get it for free, you just have to let a few friends know that I’m doing this.

View On The NoiseTrade Website

The files are all DRM-free high quality 192 kbps mp3s.

I originally released this album in 2006. If you’d like to learn more about it, you can go here and click along the links at the top (it’s basically all the liner notes online).

Free is good. Happy holidays!

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Being a former Mazda driver and regular blogger, I was invited by Mazda to attend the Los Angeles Auto Show at the LA Convention Center yesterday morning.

Those of you who know me know that it’s certainly not fair to describe me as a “car guy.” I understand how they work enough to get me from here to there, and occasionally, if the mood strikes me and the planets are aligned, I can remember to check the oil or tire pressure. But, of course, being a resident of LA I am destined to drive automobiles until the very end of time. Maybe longer.

Despite my 4-wheeled ennui and general lack of car knowledge, I do have a few things that qualified me for this assignment. I have had a driver’s license since I was fourteen (thanks, South Dakota), so I know what a good car feels like. Also, between my wife and I, we’ve owned or leased ten cars in the last ten years (for real–and we don’t wreck them). In addition, if you can “get” me, I am an intensely brand-loyal individual (talk to me about Apple sometime) who’s had a pretty great experience with a particular automobile.

I can tell you firsthand that the Mazda3 is a damn fine car.

We owned one from 2005-2008, and I loved that zippy little silver bullet. Almost got another one when the lease ran out, but curiosity about the new Focus with SYNC (and a better price from Ford) lured us away.

So, all to say, I was excited to be part of the group at the LA Auto Show for the unveiling of Mazda’s newest addition, the Mazda2. This new model is going to fit in what the auto industry calls the B-car segment, meaning the class smaller (and hopefully cheaper) than the Mazda3.

I don’t have a lot to say about the car itself just yet. The exterior looks great, as you can see above and below, but I’ll reserve most of my thoughts until after I drive one next summer.

What I will say, though, is that I walked out very impressed with Mazda. Though they are not the first company to attempt to include social media efforts into their marketing plans, I was very encouraged by their ideas and what they are doing. They treated us “bloggers” like regular press media, maybe even better. They brought out a myriad of team leaders who worked on the development of the Mazda2 and let them educate us as to why this is a great car (and I believe it will be). They gave us an up-front viewing of the unveiling. They gave us Flip cameras to encourage us to take videos, and then they bought us a nice lunch and kindly listened to our thoughts and opinions.

Most of all, though, I was impressed with Mazda’s people. Every Mazda person I met (or that presented) was noticeably passionate about the company, about cars, and about their specific job. They each had a good sense about the brand, would throw the catch phrase “Zoom-Zoom” into conversations to the point where it’s just shy of annoying, and really seemed to believe in what they are doing.

Having the right people in the right jobs is always what begins an organization’s upward spiral to greater success. From what I saw yesterday — if they can keep it up — it’s time to buy some Mazda stock.

P.S. Here’s a quick video of the unveiling (from my new Flip)!

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Welcome to Part III of 12 Songs You Need On Your iPod.

This list is something I’m calling the Goosebumps Edition. I don’t mean this in a scary, book/tv series from the nineties kind of way, but more so in a “these songs tell such heart wrenchingly beautiful stories they give me goosebumps even after I hear them a hundred times” kind of way.

You might think some are a bit cheesy, but, well, I happen to like a bit of cheese now and then. I hope you enjoy at least a few as much as I do.

01. Five For Fighting – “Note To The Unknown Soldier”

02. Butch Walker – “Joan”

03. Tim McGraw – “Don’t Take The Girl”

04. Eminem – “Stan”

05. David Wilcox – “Last Chance Waltz”

06. Ben Folds – “Still Fighting It”

07. Billy Joel – “The Downeaster ‘Alexa’”

08. James Taylor – “Millworker (Live)”

09. Taylor Swift – “The Best Day”

10. Jason Robert Brown – “Nothing In Common”

11. Imogen Heap – “Goodnight & Go”

12. Rascal Flatts – “Skin (Sarabeth)”

HONORABLE MENTION: Bob Carlisle – “Butterfly Kisses.” As a man, this song absolutely wrecks me in my more vulnerable moments, but it’s a little too cheesy, even for this list. Taylor Swift’s “The Best Day” is about as far as I can go without degenerating into a weepy mess all over you.

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I saw Michael Moore’s latest film, Capitalism: A Love Story, on opening day. This was my first viewing of one of his documentaries (I know, I know, the rest are on my list, OK?).

Love him, hate him, or otherwise, I think this is an important film for most everyone to see. The stories are heart-wrenching, in a really good way, and his points are good.

I have two thoughts about it.

First, I’m not sure he’s using the word “capitalism” correctly. Leaving this film I got the impression that Michael equates “capitalism” with “greed, tyranny, and abuse of power.” These can clearly be effects of capitalism (God knows we’ve seen enough of that in the last year), but they are no more defining to the concept than “healthy competition,” or “innovation” — effects of capitalism which allow people to, say, make movies. I don’t have a suggestion for a better title — Ingloriously Greedy Wall Street Basterds has kind of already been taken, and just doesn’t have the same marketable ring — but vilifying the concept of capitalism isn’t exactly fair, either.

In addition, it occurred to me, more than once during the film, that the heinous acts Michael is describing could not have occurred without significant government involvement. To be fair, he actually points this out multiple times… but then stops short of seeing the contradiction in his argument. If government is involved in the ways he says they are, we’re actually not talking about capitalism anymore because the free market has been drastically tampered with.

These two thoughts aside, it is a fantastically enjoyable film.

P.S. The “Cleveland” segment made me laugh so hard I was crying. If you’ve seen it, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

P.P.S. Here’s a great article by a great author on the subject.

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