Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat. --Teddy Roosevelt

#1: Last week's Weblog was incorrectly dated. So if you are filing them, there will be two with a December 13th date. Senior moment.

#2: More and more people are saying they can't believe the end of the year is almost here. More and more people are planning a new habit in the new year.

I am getting a jump on 2024 because I rediscovered an old habit that I am in the process of making a new habit. It also has me wondering what other great ideas I've recommended to others that I forgot to continue myself. Something tells me that 2024 will be a year of discovery as I relearn old tricks.

The photo below is of my sister Susan's two dogs, Buster on the left and Maddie on the right. Buster passed away earlier this year after a long life, and Maddie is still with us. I couldn't do a Weblog with 'dog' in the title without including them.

In this Weblog, I self-identify as an ‘old dog.’ For much of my life I have been mentoring and advising and supervising and directing. These roles have been both formal, as a supervisor or leader, and informal as a brother or volunteer. Lots of discussions, lots of advice, lots of feedback, lots of success. 

A lot of that advice has been related to productivity and time management and meeting objectives or goals. I have given so much advice in this area to so many people, I am regularly mocked by those who know me well. There are several people reading this right now, and you know who you are, who are smiling because they know I am referring to them.

However, no matter how strong the advice might be, the years are so long and take their toll. Because of that, from time to time, I forget to follow my own advice. If that hasn’t happened to you yet, just wait, its coming. Recently I rediscovered a simple method that provided the basis for much of my career and personal success over the years, but for whatever reason, I forgot or ignored my own advice.

Remember: I am a consultant, on three boards, advise a fraternity at Umass, and attend dozens and dozens of live country music events each year, while maintaining a weekly date night, weekly date breakfast, writing Weblogs and coaching good people. 

Oh yeah, and I have been running distance races for a decade that require somewhere between 300 and 500 training miles per year. I am not what you’d call a slacker, and I didn’t forget all my advice, just one tiny bit that makes a difference.

Let me unveil this revelation with one of the best compliments I have ever received, and I’ve received it from multiple people in multiple decades in multiple organizations. 

The compliment is in the form of a question: ‘Do you ever sleep?’

The reason that I consider that a compliment is that it screams the fact that I am productive, that I get things done, and maybe even that I get things done in a manner or a volume or a quality that exceeds expectations.  

No, this Weblog is not about ‘under promise and over deliver’ although that is one of however many commandments I live by. This is something different.

If you have heard of Clifton or Gallup Strengthsfinders, you are aware that this particular profile instrument, taken by more than 30 million people, identifies your top ten strengths, out of a list of 34, and encourages you to use your strengths more, and make strengths stronger, as opposed to spending time using skills that aren’t as quite as developed. The concept is do what you naturally do best and do more of it.

In the Strengthsfinders world, my #1 Strength is called 'Achiever'.

“People exceptionally talented in the Achiever theme work hard and possess a great deal of stamina. They take immense satisfaction in being busy and productive.” 

I do work hard, and I do possess a great deal of stamina, check out one of my running stories for proof.

So what could an Achiever possibly forget that helped him achieve over the years? I am a little embarrassed to share that it can be said in three words, and I’ve said them to others dozens of times. 

Those three words? “Get up earlier.” Yep, get up earlier, it is that simple.

In fact, some of today’s readers have heard me saying something like “if you are struggling to get things done, get up an hour earlier for two weeks and you’ll be caught up.” I can sense some heads nodding as I write this.

We are all creatures of habit, and those habits are either intentional or accidental. We either decide that we are going to exercise or eat healthy or spend more time with a loved one, or we accidentally eat more potato chips or spend more time on the couch or ignore a loved one for no good reason.

The time we wake up, is one of those habits, and if we wake up “too late” (air quotes), then we start our day off a little out of control.  What is “too late?” It differs for everyone, and it changes over time or circumstances. “Too late” is a time that prevents you from being your best and accomplishing your goals. 

Think about it. If you had a 7 am flight to Miami for a vacation, you’d get up early to make that flight i.e. accomplish your objective. We do things like that all the time. Imagine if we did it every day?

Some of you are groaning at the thought, and that’s ok. But if you could exceed all your objectives by getting up an hour earlier each day, wouldn’t it be worth it? Sure, you’d miss Jimmy Kimmel or Jimmy Fallon, but the DVR and streaming has been invented and you can watch that show at any time.

In my case, really since the pandemic, I have been a 6:30 am kind of guy. I don’t punch a clock, my office is a short walk from my bed, most contacts and clients keep reasonable hours, and I don’t meet with them ‘live’ very often. 6:30 is fine. Until it isn’t.

As a consultant, I still have deadlines like everyone else. Some are set by promise and some are set by clients. But a deadline is a deadline.

One night, rather than stay up late to get ‘everything’ done, I did what I could and then set the alarm for 5:00 AM. I wasn’t excited about this, but resigned to the fact that it was necessary.

The next day by 6:30, I was standing around with nothing to do. Not exactly. But what happened was that I got so much done in the extra 90 minutes I gave myself, and felt so good about what I had done, that I decided to try it again the next day. 

• Guess what? It worked again.
• Guess what? I’m still doing it. 
• Guess what happened this week? Someone asked me if I ever slept.

I don’t kick myself very often, but when I was wondering how I met all the deadlines, and produced everything on time or early, I remembered that advice I used to give others, and gave it to myself: get up earlier.

Simple advice: If you are behind, or find that you don’t have enough time, or are struggling with meeting deadlines, or are not happy with your performance, then get up earlier. 

• You can teach a young dog a new trick.
• You can teach an old dog a new trick.
• And apparently, you can also teach an old dog, an old trick? 

I know. I just did. I wrote this at 5:30 in the morning.

It's never too late -

never too late to start over,

never too late to be happy.

-Jane Fonda