#besides myself the biggest obstacle to writing is my dog

[dfastback68]

absolutely gagged that exercise releases serotonin. mowed the lawn then came inside and edited half of the hair braiding fic. it's past my old lady bedtime and the dog wants to go to bed so the rest will come tomorrow... here's another bit for the mishanks girlies:

__

“How’d you two meet, anyway?” Perona asks. She’d spent the entire night talking about herself, so it’s no surprise she wouldn’t know this.

“We crossed swords a few times,” Mihawk replies.

Perona lets out a dramatic gasp, hand flying to her mouth. “I’m telling Shanks!”

Alber awkwardly clears his throat, and Mihawk scowls. “That was not a euphemism.”

Perona keeps a straight face, but her ghosts giggle and twirl over Mihawk’s head. “Did I say it was?”

[siilvan]

mmm... full-length review time 😼

it's a guarantee – you write something about/involving an oc of mine, i'm gonna scream lol

"And you are not the person I expect to see here either." Makarov looked at his nails as he replied nonchalantly

makarov: hmm yeah 💅 fancy seeing you here

without someone with him, especially not with Myléne by his side

*cough* hence the jokes about myléne having him on a leash...

That is when she wishes she can control her power freely. 

mini's luck kicks in and suddenly a piano falls out of the sky, crushing makarov. the world is safe. congrats mini :)

"Not at the moment? Meaning you still plan to do it at some stage??"

mini: 🤨🤨🤨

But like I said previously. I am here for Myléne."

me, who already read this line when you were writing the fic in our DMs: *hysterical sobbing*

"How do I convince you my intentions towards her are real and genuine? I volunteered to surrender myself, to let myself be captured by my biggest rival.."

poor mak, desperately trying to prove that he loves myléne... he knows that mini is his final obstacle (besides night..)

" That is true. Clever, Little MacTavish. Very clever. Just like your brother." "Don't mock me.”

vladimir makarov, found dead in the training grounds that morning. local reports say he was bludgeoned with an MP4 after mocking the team's angel, freya "mini" mactavish. more at 5!

Why is she even telling him about this?

*whispering to mini* because he's charismatic and charming... it's part of his persona girl, be careful...

Gotta keep my Scottish arse covered."

every COD man is nodding his head in agreement 😤

"And care to explain how both Johnny and I survived after you nearly turned two of us into Swiss cheese." "Myléne's excellent skills." "Partly. There is no denying she is an excellent medic, but, remember, you shot Johnny right in the head."

mak's just got a lot of faith in petra, can't blame him 😌 it was a team effort – petra's skills, mini's luck, soap's stubbornness...

Makarov was at a loss for words.  She does have a point there.

the thought of him sitting there like "🤔🤔... fair." is a hilarious image LMAO

"And you nearly took out my lung and liver.  The two important  ingredients for haggis. Both of us should have gone into OHCA right on the spot . And that would have been the end of the famous MacTavish line on that day." She added, laughing at her own morbid joke. "But, we lived on. Continue to be a nuisance to the world."

this whole section... the 'm' in mini stands for "morbid"

Just like a certain someone he knows...

mak, joining forces as a ghostmini shipper 🤭

This little MacTavish never ceases to surprise him since the day they met. Just like John MacTavish, the siblings hide their real selves very well underneath the carefree chaotic façade.

the family has a new admirer pfffft 👀

"........ what are you doing here Makarov?" A low voice growled behind him, laced with threat.

*patting mak's shoulder* it was nice knowing ya, enjoy the afterlife! make sure to pay charon~!

standing between her and Makarov, shielding her from him.

guard dog ghost 🐕

You never know who you will run into." Ghost sighed, subtly eyed Makarov, who couldn’t care less if the veiled insult was aimed towards him.

he's lying, we all know vlad's gonna sob into his diary later

Because of Freya and Petra. You should be thankful.

ghost: because of my girlfriend and your girlfriend... 😒

Relax, I am not going to harm your little Scottish girlfriend there." "She's not...."  "Hush Simon. Ignore him, come on let's go." Freya gave him a tug, cutting him off.

lies, all lies ghost, we all know the truth, even the new guy... 🤭

"Prove him wrong by not going on mission with him and let him die." Simon grumbled, eyeing the man with intention to kill.

simon's gonna jump him in a back alley 😭

Also, his relationship with her dearest friend….

petra's sorry, the dick was just too good to kill... 😔

"...I wouldn't let any harm come to her. That is something you can trust me on." Makarov whispered, a slight trace of sincerity slipping through. Freya lip pressed together, letting out a sigh. "I hope so." Eyeing him wearily. "I really hope so."

*sobbing into pillows, knowing full-well what i'll be putting them through* i'm... in shambles. love doesn't fix people, not even forced house arrest can, but sometimes love makes people want to change for the better... fundamental changes are nigh impossible, especially when you've reached such an extreme, but those little things.. those little moments are what matters 😭😭

*dotting lips with napkin* amazing meal, as always. my compliments to the chef. i've read it once, i've read it twice, and i'll be reading it again in the future. 10/10. 5 stars. i can't wait to actually start this series, it'll be so fun (and that next mission will def have some impact... thanks for the idea teehee 🤭)

Audentes Fortuna Luvat

Summary: A midnight conversation between the two most unlikely people.

Character: Freya 'Mini' MacTavish and Vladimir Makarov. hint of ghost x freya on the side.

NOTE: This is pretty much a self indulgent, crossover fic between my OC Freya "Mini"MacTavish and @siilvan's OC Petra/Mylène Scholten de Ridder. set in AU of her bloodsport ( and me throwing bit of my own Lady Fortuna worldview into it) where NATO, Mi6 and CIA has decided to put a "leash" on Makarov, using him as a pawn as informant of the underworld. basically under house arrest within Taskforce 141 compound.

Warning: Minors/Under 18s Do not interact. M rated. Talks of violence. I know nothing about weapons and guns. so apologise in advance.

"You need to move your shoulders a bit lower." A voice suddenly appeared behind Freya, making her body twitch, missing the target completely.

Taking a deep breath, closing her eyes to try to calm herself before lowering her rifle,turning around slowly.

"Not someone I expect to see at this hour."

"And you are not the person I expect to see here either." Makarov looked at his nails as he replied nonchalantly, strutting closer towards the shooting table. 

Freya tensed. Why is he here by himself? She didn't expect him to have freedom to move around the base, without someone with him, especially not with Myléne by his side. Her hand crawls back towards the rifle, as security. But she knows if anything happens, there's  a high chance he will overpower her easily and take her down within minutes. 

That is when she wishes she can control her power freely. 

" What do you want?" Freya narrows her eyes, eyes darting towards the exit, and back toward him." Already planning to escape from here and pick up where you left off??" 

Makarov waved her off. " That isn't on my priority list at the moment."

"Not at the moment? Meaning you still plan to do it at some stage??” Freya pointed out the unspoken intention behind his words. 

"Maybe. Maybe not. But like I said previously. I am here for Myléne.”

“Oh, I believe you. When hell freezes over..” Freya laughed in a sarcastic tone.  

Makarov sighed dramatically, brows furrowed. "How do I convince you my intentions towards her are real and genuine? I volunteered to surrender myself, to let myself be captured by my biggest rival.."

"It might be part of your bigger plan.” Freya snorted. “Using her to infiltrate into our base,using your charming self to gain our trust before eliminating us one by one.” 

" That is true. Clever, Little MacTavish. Very clever. Just like your brother."

"Don't mock me.”

Makarov only grunted, not replying to her retort. 

Brief silence descended between the two.

"Why are you at the gun range in the middle of night? You are a medic, you don't really need to work so hard on the combat side of things." He changed the subject, pointing at the rifle on the table behind her back. She tilted her head, regarding him for the moment, trying to sense if he was trying to mock her, before turning back around towards the table, still having one eye on him as she checked the rifle chamber for bullets.

"True. But I want to. "  She hummed before starting to talk again,hands moving to dissemble the gun, satisfied with the safety checks. " .. I only got in because of my medical skill, and because of Mi6.” She sighed. Why is she even telling him about this?

“I am no soldier, Makarov. Not like my brother, team mates.” nodding towards him,” or like you. I had to work hard, trying to keep my skills up. I don’t want to be a burden to everyone else. It’s hard work keeping myself alive, in order to keep everyone else alive. I might be lady luck, but the power of my luck hardly extends to me half of the time.  Gotta keep my Scottish arse covered." 

Makarov laughed at the mention of her mysterious power. " There's no such thing as luck. Only meticulous foreplanning will give you success.” 

"We will see next time we all head out on a mission together. " Freya replied,not even offended. She’s used to people laughing at the supernatural aspect of her ability. "And care to explain how both Johnny and I survived after you nearly turned two of us into Swiss cheese.”

"Myléne 's excellent skills. "

"Partly. There is no denying she is an excellent medic, but ,remember,you shot Johnny right in the head.” 

Makarov was at a loss for words.  She does have a point there.

"And you nearly took out my lung and liver.  The two important  ingredients for haggis.Both of us should have gone into OHCA right on the spot . And that would have been the end of the famous MacTavish line on that day." She added, laughing at her own morbid joke. “But, we lived on. Continue to be a nuisance to the world.” 

This girl has a weird sense of humour. He thought. Just like a certain someone he knows... 

Clicking the latch , she closes the gun case and turns towards him, dusting her hands. “All I am trying to say is, keep your mind open. You never know. At least that is what I learnt when I discovered my own ability. Not everything in the world could be explained. At least not yet. “ 

Makarov nodded his head slightly, one brow cocked up. This little MacTavish never ceases to surprise him since the day they met. Just like John MacTavish, the siblings hide their real selves very well underneath the carefree chaotic façade.  

"........ what are you doing here Makarov?" A low voice growled behind him, laced with threat. Makarov clicks his tongue, frowning. Too deep in conversation with the younger MacTavish, he didn’t even notice the balaclava clad Lieutenant entered the room. Even though he knows no one will dare to attack him while he is on base, he still can’t let his guard down. 

"He's fine Simon. We just talked. I'm about to leave anyway. " Freya reassured him, drumming her fingers on the case. 

Ghost came out from the shadow, he walked toward Freya, taking the case from her and standing between her and Makarov, shielding her from him.

"Practising again? Told you not to come here without me. You know you can ask me for help anytime. It’s not safe to be here by yourself, especially at night time. You never know who you will run into.”Ghost sighed,subtly eyed Makarov, who couldn’t care less if the veiled insult was aimed towards him. 

Ghost gave Freya a slight nudge as he picked up the gun case, "Come on. Time for rest. You worked long hours the last few days. I don’t want to hear another story about how you start snoring in the middle of doing your reports." he childed at Freya as she pouted but let him lead her away from the shooting table. Ghost turned towards Makarov, dropping him a warning.

"And I suggest you return to your room before I throw you into the confinement room for walking around the base without a chaperone. Consider this as the one and only friendly gesture I will show you."  Because of Freya and Petra. You should be thankful. 

"Just taking a midnight stroll. Nothing else." Makarov explained." Relax, I am not going to harm your little Scottish girlfriend there."

"She's not...." 

"Hush simon. Ignore him, come on let's go.”Freya gave him a tug, cutting him off. “Nice chatting with you, VLADIMIR. Just remember, if you want to prove if luck is really on my side, you are welcome to join the next mission. “ Freya offered.

“Prove him wrong by not going on mission with him and let him die.” Simon grumbled, eyeing the man with intention to kill. 

"Simon! That's not nice!!" Freya scolded. 

“I don’t need to be nice to a man that has already killed countless people.” 

Freya sighed. But said nothing. She knows Ghost is right. But they can’t touch him right now. Not when there are strict orders that this man still has some use to them. 

Also, his relationship with her dearest friend….

The two of them turn and walk towards the door, Ghost’s arm wrapped around her protectively, Freya subconsciously leaning into him. 

"Freya." Makarov called out as the door was about to close. 

"Humm??" Simon and Freya stopped in their step. She turned her head around slightly. 

" ...I wouldn't let any harm come to her. That is something you can trust me on. "Makarov whispered, a slight trace of sincerity slipping through.

Freya lip pressed together, letting out a sigh. " I hope so.” Eyeing him wearily. “I really hope so.” 

[chriscolfernews]

Chris Colfer is renowned for his Golden Globe-winning performance as Kurt Hummel on Fox'sGlee, where he helped bring the story and struggles of a gay teen to an international audience.

However, the 29-year-old actor-turned-writer is also taking the literary world by storm. Colfer has written an impressive 15 novels, most notably his The Land of Stories children's fantasy series. He does not shy away from LGBTQ activism on the page. His latest book, A Tale of Magic..., which centers on people persecuted for practicing magic, "is an allegory for being gay," Hummel told The Advocate in a recent interview.

Evoking a children's version of The Handmaid's Tale, A Tale of Magic presents a world where women have no rights and are barred from reading. Additionally, practitioners of magic are condemned to death or life imprisonment. A young girl, Brystal Evergreen, rebels against this tyranny by engaging in both. In turn, she is sent to a correctional facility to "cure" her of her magic. A mysterious savior, Madame Weatherberry, rescues Brystal from detainment and recruits her on a mission to change the hearts and minds of the kingdom.

In the following interview, Colfer discusses how antigay politics of the real world inspired his magical allegory, which he calls a "manifesto for compassion. I’ve never written anything like it before." A Tale of Magic, now available on Amazon and wherever good books are sold, also recently debuted at #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list, demonstrating how Colfer's message of political resistance has resonated with young audiences.

The Advocate: Congratulations on your new book! What inspired A Tale of Magic?

Chris Colfer: Trauma, mostly. I was 11 years old when 9/11 happened. I remember I was old enough to understand what was happening, but I wasn’t old enough to understand why it was happening. And I don’t think anything is scarier for a child than confusion. I can’t imagine how scared kids must feel nowadays. So I wanted to write a book that parents and teachers could use as a point of reference when they explain the troubling things their kids and students see on the news. I hope it puts things into perspective while giving them a magical adventure at the same time.

You’ve written 15 books. What’s the secret to your productivity? Caffeine. Lots and lots of caffeine. Also, isolation. Sometimes I’ll go weeks without seeing anyone besides my boyfriend and our dogs.

Who are your literary influences? Well, I apologize for sounding like a millennial cliché, but J.K. Rowling had the biggest impact on me. I wasn’t a good reader when I was young, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was the first book I actually enjoyed reading. And some of my happiest childhood memories were going to those midnight release parties. I then went on to devour everything by C.S. Lewis, Eva Ibbotson, and Bruce Coville. On some level, I think I’m still mourning the end of Harry Potter. It left a void I’ve been trying to fill by writing my own books.

What appeals to you about the fantasy genre in particular? I suppose it’s the escapism and encouragement it provides. In fantasy, a mouse can slay a dragon if it’s courageous enough. That’s very therapeutic for those of us still battling our own dragons.

A Tale of Magic, much like The Handmaid’s Tale, shows a bleak world where women have no rights. Also, practitioners of magic are subjected to imprisonment or even the death sentence. While writing the book, how much did the real world and the current political climate influence your storytelling? The current climate was the entire inspiration. A Tale of Magic was supposed to be an easy task for me. It was supposed to be the start of a simple prequel series. The working title was The Land Before Stories. But when I sat down to actually write it, I felt so angry and helpless by the state of the world, I had to do something more so I could sleep at night. Even if I was the wrong messenger, even if it didn’t do well, I wanted to do anything I possibly could to guide the next generation onto a better path. It ceased to be a prequel and became a completely original story. Now I consider A Tale of Magic my manifesto for compassion. I’ve never written anything like it before.

What is the overarching message you wanted to send by centering your story on a character who is not only discriminated against for her gender, but also her extraordinary abilities? I want young people to know that just because they’re born into an environment that doesn’t accept or appreciate them, that doesn’t mean there isn’t an environment that will. There’s a lot of love waiting for you out there if you’re willing to look for it. I’m living proof. Also, the more the world discourages you, the more it needs you.

The protagonist is sent to a “Correctional Facility for Troubled Young Women” in the hopes that she will be “cured” of her magical gifts. This storyline echoes the experiences of survivors of conversion therapy. How do you think fiction — your novel in particular — can fight against antigay forces like "ex-gay" therapy in the real world? Thank you for making that connection. In my opinion, the purpose of fiction, besides providing an escape, is to subconsciously plant seeds of reason and compassion in people’s minds. That was the sole mission of the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault. After reading about the horrible and abusive experiences at the Correctional Facility in A Tale of Magic, I hope my readers will grow up with a resentment of conversion therapy already ingrained within them. If I can get them to sympathize with the struggles of a fictitious magical community, then maybe, just maybe, they’ll be more likely to sympathize with the struggles of other communities fighting for acceptance in the real world.

In addition to A Tale of Magic being a novel, do you see it as a work of LGBTQ activism? I’d like to think so. Although, I have no control over how other people will interpret it. For me, the magic in A Tale of Magic is an allegory for being gay. The characters are raised to believe magic is demonic and unnatural. They’re sent to camps where they “pray the magic away.” And they’re all on a mission to prove "magic isn’t a choice." But what magic represents for me may be different for a little girl in Egypt or a teenage boy in Japan. We all have obstacles that hold us back. We’re all assigned different stigmas based on our circumstances. So, whatever your “magic” may be, A Tale of Magic is about overcoming the forces that suppress it.

We’re living in a world when books are still being banned — and the written word itself is under attack. As a novelist, do you see it as your duty to fight against censorship? Absolutely. You have to be incredibly strategic to get your book into the hands of the people who need it the most. Especially when your books have LGBTQ themes. So many authors get criticized when they reveal a character’s orientation or gender identity after publication instead of on the page. But I don’t always agree with those critics. In some places books are instantly banned if they have any LGBTQ characters or LGBTQ references whatsoever. But there are ways of getting representation into those territories that goes under the radar. That’s the purpose of the character Xanthous Hayfield in A Tale of Magic. His orientation is never directly addressed in the first book, but there are enough clues so a closeted little boy living in an oppressive country can relate to him and know he’s not alone. But I don’t think censorship can survive the modern age. In fact, I think governments shoot themselves in the foot when they apply censorship. It instantly triggers a wave of curiosity and publicity you can’t buy. So please, by all means, ban me.

Did you have a Madame Weatherberry, the "fairy godmother" character in A Tale of Magic, in your life? My grandmother was my biggest cheerleader growing up. She made me believe in myself, and I think that’s the greatest gift you can give a kid, even if you don’t necessarily believe their dreams are practical. I used to sit with her for hours and hours on her back patio and talk. We’d make game plans of how I was going to accomplish my goals while she smoked and polished her guns.

You dedicate your novel to those whose shoulders you stand on — presumably LGBTQ pioneers. Did you have any particular figures in mind when making this dedication? There are a hundred names I could list that everyone knows, but it’s really about the people who are unknown. I get pretty emotional when I think about it. There are millions of people who never got to reap the benefits of their courage and honesty, but because they stood up when they did, I get to do what I love and be with who I love. I can’t imagine the bravery it took. Even right now, there are people in other parts of the world reading this website in secret, looking for encouragement as they fight for their right to exist. Wherever they are, I hope they can feel the future’s gratitude.

If you could have any magical ability, what would it be? Honestly, I’d be happy with just a faster metabolism. That sounds pretty magical.

What appeals to you about your literary work, versus the world of television and film? I suppose it’s the control. When I write a novel, it can be anything and everything I want it to be. I get to tell the story and describe the images exactly as they exist in my mind. In film and television there’s always so many cooks in the kitchen it’s difficult to produce a pure vision. There’s a lot of compromising and negotiating and it requires a lot of patience. Also, I can write books in my pajamas. It doesn’t get better than that.

Would you adapt A Tale of Magic into a movie or TV series? I would love to see A Tale of Magic come to life. I guess it all depends on my experience with the Land of Stories film adaptation. For my own physical safety, I hope the Disney/Fox merger settles so we can finish it. There are millions of kids around the world who are going to want to hurt me if they don’t get a movie soon.

[ava-montgomery]

OOC Questions

1.     What do you want to get out of playing this character(s)? 

With Ava, I get to explore a little more aside from the “good girl” characters. She’s good, but she’s more complicated than that. She has a lot of layers to her.

2.     Describe your character(s) with three words. 

Loyal, Conflicted, Honest

3.     What made you decide to write this muse?

 I wanted to get out of my comfort zone with female characters

4.     If you could change one event in your muse’s life (in their main or canon verse), what would you change?

 I would have given her a little more conflict before coming to TI

5.     If you could tell your muse one thing, what would you tell them? 

That no one’s perfect

6.     If you could give your muse one gift, what would you give them? 

Her family back

7.     If you had to take one positive thing away from your muse, what would you take away? 

The way she sees good in everyone

8.     If you could “borrow” one aspect of your muse and apply it to yourself or your own life, what would you borrow? 

Her confidence

9.     Do you genuinely want your muse to be happy? What do you think would make them most happy in life? 

Yes. I would love for her to find someone or someones she can trust and make a life with.

10. Do you enjoy putting your muse through angst? 

What do you think would break their heart the most? Yes. Conflict with a dear friend would hurt her the most.

11. What do you love about your muse? 

Her fiery spirit.

12. What do you hate about your muse? 

How closed off she can be.

13. What about your muse amuses you? 

Her flirtiness. 

14. What about your muse makes you sad? 

Her past. 

15. How would you describe your muse to someone about to meet them, in person, for the first time? 

That she’s a tough lady, but totally worth getting to know. That she’s easy to be around, and can make friends with just about anyone. 

16. Would you like your muse as a person if you met them in real life?

I think so.

17. In what ways are you better than your muse? In what ways are they better than you?

I don’t follow my darker desires in the way she does lol. She’s definitely more confident, and goes for what she wants.

18. Why do you think you connect to your muse?

She’s someone that I would love to have a little bit of in me.

19. What aspect of your muse’s personality is most important to you? What aspect of your muse’s personality do you think is most important to them? Is it the same? Why or why not?

Her loyalty and honesty, I think is important to both of us. 

20. Has your character(s) changed over the time that you have been playing them? How have they changed?

Yes. She’s a bit more badass than I had planned lol. 

About You! 1.     What is your name?

Jenna

2.     What is your profession?

Vet Tech

3.     What do you do to relax?

Ride my horse, walk my dogs, hike

4.     What is your favorite treat (desert)?

Oreos

5.     Favorite movie

It depends on my mood, but my all time has been The Outsiders. For years.

6.     Favorite book

The Sight or All Things Great and Small

7.     Favorite vacation spot

The Mountains 

8.     Favorite Disney movie

101 Dalmatians 

9.     How did you first get into role playing?

One of my friends in highschool. We did 1x1 for years lol

10. What was your first platform? If it was something other than Tumblr, what made you get into Tumblr?

I’m going to age myself, but AIM and then gmail, then Tumblr

11. What’s a grammar rule you find yourself breaking or ignoring a lot?

I love commas and use them a lot lol

12. Are there any languages besides English in which you think you could comfortably roleplay?

Spanish to an extent

13. Do you listen to music while your write?

Definitely

14. Are you a morning, day, evening, or night writer?

Day or evening, sometimes night if I don’t have to get up early the next morning

15. How does tiredness affect your writing?

My writing gets shorter and more to the point

16. What is your biggest obstacle to writing every day, if time doesn’t count?

If time wasn’t an obstacle, I think I would be able to do it every day

17. How many drafts is a paralyzing amount?

I haven’t found that number yet thank goodness lol

18. Is there anything character-wise or writing style-wise that you can’t stand?

Not really. I love seeing different styles. 

19. What kind of anonymous questions are your favorite?

Headcanon stuff. Stuff that makes me think.

20. What is your weakest point in writing? Angst, fluff, dialogue, etc.?

Fluff probably lol. 

[mastcomm]

Fran Drescher, Millennial Whisperer – The New York Times

Fran Drescher’s voice, if you ever have the chance to hear it deployed in very close vicinity over shrimp tempura and spicy tuna sushi, is actually quite soothing.

When Drescher played Fran Fine on “The Nanny,” the 1990s sitcom she created with her then-husband Peter Marc Jacobson, she was pitching her voice higher, squeezing it up her nose, acting. Back then, The New York Times compared Drescher to “the sound of a Buick with an empty gas tank cold-cranking on a winter morning.” But here in her living room above Central Park, sitting among crystals, fresh lemons, fine sculpture and photographs of herself meeting establishment Democrats, she sounds more like a Mercedes purring out of the Long Island Expressway. For those who grew up with “The Nanny” as our nanny, her voice is so embedded in the subconscious that hearing the softened version is almost therapeutic. Imagine if Nanny Fine had an ASMR setting.

“I’ve heard it’s like a foghorn, a cackle,” Drescher said carefully, balancing her plate in the lap of her little black dress. “I always just describe myself as having a unique voice.” When she left Queens for Hollywood in the late 1970s, her manager told her, “If you want to play other parts, besides hookers, you’re going to have to learn to speak differently,” she recalled. Instead Drescher leaned into her natural gifts. In 1992, she pitched herself as a sitcom star to the president of CBS: “Because of the voice, they think I’m the seasoning in the show,” she told him. “That’s wrong. I’m a main course.”

America has not heard from Drescher much lately — she has not appeared regularly on television since her TV Land sitcom “Happily Divorced” ended in 2013, and “The Nanny” is sadly hard to stream — but this week, at 62, she returns to TV with NBC’s “Indebted.” As in the pilot of “The Nanny,” Drescher appears unexpectedly on a doorstep, except this time, it belongs to her adult son (Adam Pally). She and Steven Weber play Debbie and Stew Klein, a couple of boomer dilettantes who crash their kid’s married life with the news that they’re in debt. The role of Debbie, a boundaryless hugger who swans around her son’s suburban home as if it’s her own personal retirement community, inverts the “Nanny” dynamic: Now the kids have to take care of her.

When Drescher weighed whether to take on the show, a family sitcom that draws on generational conflict, she thought of her own family. “My parents, who are still alive, thank God, were so excited about me being on network television again,” she said. “You know, not everybody could find TV Land,” she added, “but everybody could find NBC.”

The role was not written for Drescher, exactly. The pilot script had called for a “Fran Drescher type,” and when the real Fran Drescher signed on, she required a few adjustments. “People are used to seeing an annoying mother-in-law in a sitcom, but that’s not what I signed up for,” Drescher said. “When you have somebody whose persona is bigger than the part, you got to make it right for me. Or why have me?”

That meant giving Debbie Klein some passions of her own. “I had to bring myself into it,” she said. “I really infused the sex appeal, the sensuality, the vivaciousness of the character.”

“Indebted” creator Dan Levy, a comedian and producer for “The Goldbergs,” said that he originally modeled Debbie and Stew after his own parents, but that the steaminess was all Drescher. “My mom was like, ‘That’s not based on us,’” Levy said. “She elevated that to a whole level that I was not expecting.”

In the decades since Drescher first opened her mouth onscreen, the Fran Drescher type has achieved a quiet dominance over popular culture. “The Nanny” has been syndicated around the world and remade in a dozen countries, including Turkey (where it was called “Dadi”), Poland (“Niania”) and Argentina (“La Niñera”). In “The Nanny,” for anyone who doesn’t have the chatty theme song implanted in her brain, Drescher plays a Jewish woman from Queens hired to tend to the three precocious children of a wealthy English widower, Maxwell Sheffield, who is also Broadway’s second-most-successful producer (after his nemesis, Andrew Lloyd Webber). In foreign versions, the ethnicities are recalibrated — in the Russian one, the nanny is Ukrainian — but the Fran Drescher type is otherwise preserved. Wherever she goes, the ethnic striver is transplanted into a posh setting as the help, and her appealing culture and individual charm pull off the ultimate makeover — reinventing the strait-laced insiders in her own brash image.

Across the internet, Fran Fine is helping to perform similar tricks. With her pile of hair, power-clashing wardrobe and cartoon proportions, she has been fashioned into an avatar of stylish self-respect. In GIFs spirited around social media, she can be seen in a cheetah-print skirt suit, sipping from a cheetah-print teacup; inhaling a plate of spaghetti with no hands; and descending the Sheffields’ ivory staircase as if entering New York’s hottest club.

“I send this when I’m excited,” Drescher said, summoning her phone from her assistant Jordan and thumbing to a GIF of Fine twirling across the mansion in a fuchsia dress and a self-satisfied look. “How many people can send their own GIF?”

The Fran Drescher type is a kind of advisory role. First she was the world’s nanny, showing kids how to mix prints and be themselves, and now she has matured into a cool-aunt persona, modeling a fabulous adulthood. (“Broad City” made this transformation literal, squeezing Drescher into a low cut rainbow and cheetah-print dress and casting her as Ilana’s Aunt Bev, and by extension the spirit guide for a new generation of Jewish comediennes.) “I’ve never had kids, so I’m not really parental,” Drescher said. “I’m a mom to my dogs.”

“I’m kind of an influencer,” she added. Drescher has led an unconventional life, and “I share it,” she said. “It gives my life purpose.” In two memoirs, she has discussed being raped at gunpoint in her 20s, surviving uterine cancer in her 40s, and divorcing Jacobson only to acquire a new gay best friend when he subsequently came out. Recently she thrilled the internet when she revealed that she has secured a “friend with benefits” whom she meets twice a month for television viewing and sex. “I don’t think it’s that shocking a thing,” Drescher said. “I’m not in love with him.”

The kids who grew up watching “The Nanny” are now Nanny Fine’s age, old enough to properly covet her closet and cultivate a newfound respect for her persona. On Instagram, the @whatfranwore account catalogs classic “Nanny” outfits, and @thenannyart pairs them with contemporary art pieces. Cardi B once captioned a photo of herself in head-to-toe cat prints: “Fran Drescher in @dolceandgabbana.” The actor Isabelle Owens will mount a one-woman song-and-dance show dedicated to Drescher in New York this month, called “Fran Drescher, Please Adopt Me!” “As everything from the ’90s comes back, people are rediscovering her,” Owens said, noting Drescher’s fashion, her confidence, and her voice; Owens is still working to perfect her impersonation. “There are so many layers to it,” she said. “It’s so delicate and lyrical.”

The Fran Drescher type, no matter how big it gets, still risks reducing the woman behind it. “All of her is in me, but not all of me is in her,” Drescher said. “I don’t think any of my characters could have ever created and executive-produced ‘The Nanny.’” Fran Fine might have been able to wrap the boss around her red-lacquered little finger, but Drescher is the boss. When she secured her own New York apartment, in 2004, it was here, just across the park from the house that stood in for the Sheffield mansion on “The Nanny.” Soon her transformation into Mr. Sheffield will be complete: She is developing a Broadway show of her own, a musical adaptation of “The Nanny” that she will co-write with Jacobson.

“The Nanny” is a timely bid for Broadway. Drescher takes the stage’s most classic feminine archetype and gives her a modern upgrade: She is Eliza Doolittle if she refused to take her voice lessons.

That’s perhaps the biggest misconception about the Fran Drescher type — that the voice is an unfortunate obstacle, rather than a cultivated asset. Once, a fan asked Drescher about the classic “Nanny” scene where Fran Fine goes for sushi, naïvely swallows a wad of wasabi, and says, in an eerily neutral broadcaster’s voice, “Gee, you know, that mustard really clears out the nasal passages.” The fan wanted to know how Drescher had managed to pull that voice off. Sitting in her parkside apartment, perched in her producer’s chair, confidently apportioning her wasabi, Drescher revealed her secret: “I’m very talented.”

from WordPress https://mastcomm.com/fran-drescher-millennial-whisperer-the-new-york-times-2/

[memoirsofratasum]

Protector Tarnn: The Desolation

Sanna and I took a couple days for a crash course on skimmer riding and care, but we were on a time limit to get to Sand Jackal Run. So before we knew it we had packed up the Priory books and scrolls onto the backs of the skimmers, bid Khalida farewell, and followed Sahil over the water.

With all the greenery and water at the ranch you’d never know we were actually in the middle of a desert. The only thing marking our location is the Bone Wall that looms over everything. And of course that was right where we were heading. The gate is endlessly patrolled by elite awakened warriors, but the western stretches of the wall are neglected and that’s where Sahil showed us the secret entrance into the Desolation. Or one of them at least, apparently the Order of Shadows is constantly creating and maintaining hidden gaps in the wall.

Once through we were over a lake in the Spillway. We were informed that there was a village called Prosperity to the east but it was best to avoid it unless absolutely necessary. We might be able to pass with some clever lies as Joko supposedly rules the whole world, but our precious collections of Priory writings would put a target on our heads. Instead Salid was taking us south to the Darklands and to the Chantry of Shadows before traveling the rest of the way to the djinn’s city.

This has to be the absolute worst leg of any journey I have ever been on. Skimmers do produce an aura of clean air in order to keep afloat, but that doesn’t change the fact that the Acrid Springs and Sulfur Quarry are aptly named. I never knew that landscape could be quite so yellow. It wasn’t until Salid took us through a back passage in the Darklands that we saw something more normal, namely snow. Apparently these hidden peaks are unknown to Joko as they hold the graves of Sunspears. There is no way the undead king would allow these graves to exist unsullied in his kingdom. I wonder if the Order of Shadows is responsible for keeping the secret. It is very close to their chantry after all.

The Chantry of Shadows welcomed Sahil openly but were a bit more guarded with Sanna and myself. Not rude, just reserved. They did allow us to rest and eat while they gave us news about the area. It turns out we were closer to the Mouth of Torment than I realized. Of course everyone knows about the Mouth of Torment and that it’s in the Desolation but I never expected it to be just past the craggy rock formations we saw coming in. That’s hardly a bone’s throw away! Not that the Order of Shadows would have allowed us to get close to it even on the best of days. And these aren’t the best of days. Balthazar's forged army has taken root at the Mouth and are actively fighting the awakened with the humans of the Order merely being in the way. And on top of that, Joko has been missing for quite some time. The last the spies saw of him was in the company of Balthazar and the thought was they were creating an alliance, but there hasn’t been sign of the king since and the two factions have been fighting harder than ever. Can a god kill an undead for good? No one knows, all they do know is that now without Joko’s leadership the awakened are moving towards Vabbi for some reason and so aren’t making their usual patrols of the region. Ironically this might be the safest time to travel in the Desolation in centuries.

We skirted past the outer edge of the Mouth, heading south through the Vitriolic Rim and Broken Shelf. This area of the Desolation is a little bit more bearable, there was less sulfur and more wild animals. I don’t think I saw a single awakened or forged the entire time. We were just reaching the Alkali Pan, and more sulfur, when Sanna pointed to the sky. Suspended high in the air was our destination, Sand Jackal Run. Our skimmers made short work of the sulfur of the Pan and then the odd sandfall that came down the twisting staircase. I wonder if that’s how the djinn have keep the awakened out for so many years.

At the top of the stairs was a welcomed sight. Huge building of brick and lapis blue paint stood before us and a steady breeze of cool clean air flowed through the archways. We were greeted by Drojkor, an air djinn by the looks of it. I’ve never seen a djinn up close before. Is this what Zommoros actually looks like? I wonder if he’s as well known here as he is in Tyria. Drojkor was very friendly and was eager to see what the Priory was willing to trade (teaching of Raven, apparently djinn really *really* like riddles), in the meantime he half-urged/half-forced us to meet with some of the sand jackals they train here. The djinn here are very proud of their jackals and have been doing a steady business since the Tyrians arrived.

I’m not the biggest fan of sand, but these jackals did remind me of my wolf Valor, only much bigger and sandier. I had to leave him behind at the temple and I certainly missed having a canine companion at my side. Sanna was beside herself with delight, I think it’s an elementalist thing, but I kinda liked them too. You’d never know they were technically minions of Abaddon with how well they behave, from what I gathered the djinn have an extensive training program for them. Even Sahil, who prefers raptors and skimmers, was caught petting one or two, though he denied it.

It wasn’t all petting sand dogs though. We camped the night at the Run and swapped stories with other Tyrians that were staying overnight as well. There were rumors running wild about the commander. Apparently they were the ones we saw fighting Balthazar and, if you can believe it, died and came back to life and are now trying to wrestle control of Joko’s armies for themselves. Yeah right. I’m not going to deny that the commander has done some crazy things, but that’s a bit too much to swallow. Still, it is true that the awakened are marching on Vabbi despite Joko not being at the helm. I’m not sure if I can equate that to the commander’s doing though.

The next morning Drojkor informed us that the Priory offers were sufficient, but while taking inventory the djinn were missing the final findings on some properties of sulfur in one of their scrolls and they could not honor the trade without having it be complete. We were asked to go to the Lair of the Forgotten and give a letter to someone named Aisha Jedgok and retrieve the sample from her so the writings can be completed. Of course the Lair of the Forgotten was nowhere nearby, being clear on the other side of the Desolation, but we still had Sahil with us who said he had an idea on how to get there.

The sulfur rivers cut right through the Desolation and are rarely patrolled even during the worst of times, Sahil figures that they are probably all but abandoned now. I still can’t believe that rivers of molten sulfur are considered areas of safety. But Sahil was right, our skimmers were able to take us to the Lair of the Forgotten without any obstacles in our way.

I’m not sure what I expected in this place, but I can say that ghosts were not it. They were everywhere. But unlike most ghosts I’ve had experience with, they weren’t violent and seemed to be aware of their surroundings, at least for the most part. Sanna started to ask around for this Aisha persona but what caught my eye though were the wardlights that dotted the area. The ghost Godaj explained that they were to deter Joko’s Ghost Eaters, special awakened that consume ghosts simply because the king has no power over that type of undead. The ghosts can be lost forever, but even if they manage to escape they are weakened and are at greater risk the next time the Ghost Eater’s raid the area.

Of course, while this was being explained the Ghost Eaters themselves decided to show up. They looked just like any other awakened and you’d never think they were anything special up until you noticed how they always went straight for the ghosts. And the ghosts were defenseless. Their cries for help are something that I will probably hear for many nights. Of course I and the other Tyrians that happened to be in the area leapt to drive back the awakened, but it was really only a temporary measure. It made me think about what Khalida had said a few weeks ago, about being a protector of the dead. Suddenly it didn’t seem like such a ridiculous idea.

During the fight Sanna had found Aisha Jedgok and had exchanged the letter for the sulfur sample so we were free to head back to Sand Jackal Run. We had a job to finish but the whole way back I kept thinking about those ghosts, I barely noticed where we were until we reached that giant sand staircase. Drojkor was happy that we got the sample and said that the djinn would get to work finishing up their writings immediately. In the meantime we saw to our skimmers and packed up what was available to take. I don’t know how the djinn do it, maybe it’s their four arms, but by the next morning Drojkor had the finished scrolls on the sulfur to take. He also gave us something else: a stone charm with a familiar rune carved into it. We had apparently made a good impression and the djinn were giving Sanna and myself our own jackals. Not to borrow like with all the other mounts we’ve ridden, but to own for ourselves. The jackals were fresh off of training but they took to our command easily, leaping and blinking with ease. Sahil helped thread the charms onto some leather strings to wear as bracelets so now we can summon our sand jackals whenever we want. Too bad they don’t run on sulfur or water, we are still reliant on the skimmers until we leave the Desolation. But once we return them to the ranch, we will be free to really try out our new mounts.

[729renegades]

Being Healthy on the Inside and Out – Part 2

Following on from my article last month, I introduced you to the exciting new product that we are developing behind the scenes that’ll help us attract more business owners into the Renegades circle.

Everyone wants different things, but we all want to be successful and this month I continue to discuss what an important part your health and wellbeing plays in being healthy on the inside and out. I firmly believe that if you look after yourself in a small way, you’re better equipped to deal with the demands of running a business and juggling a family and private life.

Let’s be fair, if you feel like shit then you normally can’t muster up enough effort to have a great day. You may get away with the odd day for a cough or cold but if its sustained then everything suffers. This is why when I appraised myself and my situation, I knew things had to change for the better.

How many times have you used that old excuse of working long, tired, no time? Bollocks! It’s a matter of priorities.

Your biggest asset is you and your health and well-being. It doesn’t matter if you have the best ideas, or you are the greatest ever entrepreneur – when you’re dead, you’re dead! If you can’t muster up the energy to do everyday tasks then you’re going to struggle with the demands of running a business, being an entrepreneur, a wife, mother, husband, and a father.

I discovered that if I wanted to work on me, then I had to make time for me.

The good Lord isn’t making any more time.

Your biggest asset is you and your health and well-being. It doesn’t matter if you have the best ideas, or you are the greatest ever entrepreneur – when you’re dead, you’re dead

It doesn’t matter who you are or how much money you have, there’s still only 24 hours in a day. At some stage in that day you have to factor in sleeping and eating, the rest is up for grabs.

I heard a great saying the other day, “Busy is a choice”, I love that saying. How many times do you ask, “How are you?” or “How’s things?” and the reply is, “I’m so busy”. My inner voice screams “Really, really, everyone’s bloody busy”!! I obviously don’t say that, if someone has a genuine problem, I love to help but, on most occasions, they’re just moans and groans about life in general and life choices that people make.

My father used to say whenever he was asked that, “How are you?” question, he would always say “Good, Excellent or Great”.

I found out, as I grew up, he’s a wise man, he used to say, “It doesn’t matter if life is bad and things are getting you down, nobody wants to hear about how bad it is, so they simply don’t listen”.

He’s right, if you ask someone how they are, and they start back with, “Terrible because Auntie Ethel’s got a cold and Mum’s cat got run over….” Straight away you think shut up and switch off. We all have our own issues and problems.

What I’ve found is by saying, “Excellent” or “Super Well” people genuinely say, “really, how so” and are now interested and perked up themselves. I’d much rather people say, “Steve is such a positive person, always happy…” Than “Did you see Steve today, he’s a miserable old bastard…” your behaviour and demeanour can positively or negatively affect you and those around you.

I said I would share what works for me so here goes:

The alarm is set of 0545, I either go to the gym or I get to the office, whether that’s the home office or work office. I try and do between 3 and 5 workouts a week. Doing it by yourself at that time of the morning can be tough, so get a kindred spirit or do as I did and get a personal trainer. When I started that, could I afford it? No, my mindset was, could I afford not to? The answer again was. . . No. You don’t need to be loaded to get a trainer, again it’s about priorities. A decent trainer will cost you about £25 a session, that’s 3 bottles of wine a week or one take away – you pick!

I normally do 2 sessions with the trainer a week, Monday and Friday mornings are my preferred choice. Monday ensures the odd glass of wine on a Sunday lunch doesn’t spread to two bottles over the day! Friday finishes the week off when the energy levels can be sagging slightly and sets the weekend up perfectly. On the other occasions I’ll do a session the trainer has given me, hit the weights or even take a class in the gym.

One way I have found that spurs me on besides the thought of getting killed by my trainer is to set myself crazy challenges. I have done Duathlons, Obstacle Courses, Triathlons, 10K runs, I’ve already mentioned that Cardiff Half Marathon.

Most recently I set myself a target of raising £10,000 for a Cancer Hospital that saved my Mother’s life when she had breast cancer. She was 70, it was 15 years since she had the treatment. I agreed to cycle 400 miles in 5 days across the North Island of New Zealand with a bunch of other crazy folk I had never met before. That kept me going for a year!

On other days when I get in the office, I try not to get into work stuff until after 0830. That’s the same as if I’ve been training. On these days I do some self-development stuff. I write, I read, I listen or learn.

Recently I’ve started using an App called Headspace to meditate and that has really helped my sense of wellbeing.

The App allows you to meditate even if you’ve never had a go before or if you are a seasoned expert. It helps you and sets you on course.

For me I found it when I was struggling with a feeling of anxiety, but I use it now most days just to give my mind that time, perhaps 20 minutes, to switch off and declutter.

It certainly helps me as I find myself thinking fast from the moment my eyes open until they close at bed time.

Meditation gives me that peace and time to put things back in the places they should be. It’s like my brain files things where they should be while I am concentrating on my breathing!!!

These mornings are my saviour and it’s my working on “me time”.

A word here for all those people who say, “Oh I hate mornings” or “Sorry, I don’t do mornings. I was one of you, but I changed because I wanted to, and I saw the value in changing. I made a choice, you can too.

If you had asked my wife if she could see me getting up before 6am and doing what I do now, she literally would have died laughing. When we first met, I’d be in bed until after 8 most days. I was lazy and depressed. That allowed the negativity to keep eating away and I gave it the fuel it needed to survive by my routines and choices.

I find that once I’ve started the day off well, I make a sensible breakfast choice, I have energy, I feel good and that feeds through the rest of the day. When I feel like that and a challenge comes in then I’m ready to face it and find it easy to roll with the ups and downs of the day with a positive frame of mind. When I was in a bad place and bad routines then if a challenge came in, I’d blame every man and his dog and wished I’d never got up, the negativity would feed my day and it would go pair shaped from there.

There’s a saying, “Win the morning – Win the day”, and there have been loads of books and people to follow on this. Miracle Morning is a book that I read. It advocates getting up very early. I liked it but I made my own way. One guy that I follow on Social Media is Jocko Willick. He’s an American ex-Navy Seal Commander and he’s passionate about his morning rituals. He has started a 0430 club on twitter and takes a photo of his watch every morning showing something like 0431 Rise and Shine with his favourite #getafterit. Maybe he appeals to my ex forces mentality, but it does make me smile.

The morning is key for me. But what time is best for you? When will you be able to start a positive routine and stick to it?

I get the exercise done and, in the bag, early doors. It’s at a time that doesn’t give me an excuse that it could hamper with family – they are all still in bed and work can’t get in the way because that hasn’t started yet either. It gives me time to think and plan and I can sometimes kill two birds with one stone by listening to an audiobook or podcast while training. Self-development and exercise done by 7.30am!! If you honestly think you have no more time in the day – set your alarm earlier. I appreciate that those with young children may disagree but find your space at other times. If you have a young family, that normally means they are in bed for 8pm so instead of watching Netflix with a glass of wine, start your positive routine then. Get your running shoes on or just do something with your spouse or partner, read a book, work on yourself until 10pm. I know you’re tired, funny enough I am in the morning when I wake up for the gym! It’s a matter of choices. As I said at the beginning, be happy with your choices but don’t complain if they are not serving you.

One thing that does help me on those early mornings is a positive mantra I say to myself every morning when I wake up and swing my legs out of the bed onto the floor. As I sit there for a moment gathering myself together, I just say, “Great people do great things” and I’m away. Its sounds better than, “Move fatty!” I am sure you’ll agree. Find your mantra, something that works for you. There are no shortage of great quotes and motivational snippets to help inspire you. Just Google “Motivational Quotes”. Another of my clients was hit by the idea in one of our sessions to use the phrase, “You choose your attitude” and he uses that every day now. That has worked well for him.

Napoleon Hill talks about positive affirmations and mantras in his famous book Think and Grow Rich in the chapter Auto Suggestion. If you haven’t read that then that can be one of the first things you do in your new routine!!

Look at every aspect of your day and how you can install good positive routines that eventually become habits. Email can suck the life out of every day. We’re fixated in holding our smart phones and replying instantly to emails as they arrive. Try and segment the day and only answer emails at certain times of the day.

Again, I don’t have all the answers, many will have all the excuses, others will give it all a try and adapt to make it fit for them and gain little wins and that’s all you can hope for.

Fact of the matter is this. . . If you want things to change in your life you have to make changes yourself. If you keep doing what you’ve done, you keep getting what you’ve got. Think into your life and what you want from it, I doubt that lethargy, reactive and negative will be words at the top of anyone’s list. If that is the case make sure what you do every day ensures those words can’t get on your list as its filled with other more positive ones like confidence, proactive, energy, positivity etc.

Your behaviour and demeanour can positively or negatively affect you and those around you

There will be some tough choices and you need to give yourself a talking to in order to stop the lure of Netflix and the red wine bottle but, remember, these are YOUR choices – nobody makes them for you.

A great routine doesn’t have to start at 5am, what about 8am or 11am, what about using your lunch break or 3pm. Why not 9pm?

Do something every day that evolves around your values and energises you.

Walking, reading, meditating, breakfast with your family, a song sung at the top of your lungs with the kids on the school run. Whatever it is makes little difference, as long as it’s positive.

Give yourself permission to spend time working on you. One of my clients has triplet girls and the mornings are filled already with breakfasts, teeth cleaning, school uniforms, hair, pony tails and that’s before 7am!! How can you possibly throw some me time in there? We talked about giving himself permission to take an hour in the day, after all he works late, after the girls have gone to bed so why can’t he allow himself that hour in the day. By giving yourself permission, you avoid that feeling of guilt, “I should be at my desk…” that feeling is serving nobody. I’m sure that when you spend that Saturday morning at your desk you’re thinking, “I should be with my family” or when you work to 10pm every evening you say, “I should be with my wife”. That feeling is common amongst us business owners and is not helpful. If you’re like me, you’ll never get it spot on but with permission you will be better at it.

There are so many other things that people do and believe in, like journaling and time blocking but I don’t do those things.

Other people make to do lists, but I find that they make you feel pressured and worse, especially as we tend to make long ones and leave them unfinished.

This leads to frustration, feeling of inadequacy and helplessness.

Something that I do and advocate for everyone’s health and wellbeing is to write that list and make it as long as you want but when it’s done sit there and get a highlighter pen and mark the one, most important thing that you can do today that makes today a success.

Once you’ve done that, just do that one and you can leave the office with a win.

It doesn’t matter how big or small that task is but by highlighting it as the one thing and doing it – you’ve won the day and you can go home with a sense of accomplishment.

How many times do you write that list and don’t even do anything but spend all day running around like a crazy person? You fill the entire day and sometimes don’t even have time for lunch. When you get home your lovely spouse says, “How was your day?” and you feel like you’ve achieved nothing.

You can stop that ever happening again by picking that one thing and doing it.

Go home every day a winner.

That’s a great tip for being healthy on the inside and the outside.

All the things I’ve outlined over the last two months help me achieve good health on the inside and the outside.

Routines

Exercise

Self-Development

Meditation

Mindful of outside negativity

Never compare yourself to others

Doing what is right and works for you

Daily mantras

Positivity

Challenge yourself

Owning and taking responsibility for your choices

So, over to you –

How can you feel healthy on the inside and the out – every day?

What will you do tomorrow morning that could change your entire day?

How can that first hour really set you up to win the day.

What will you say to yourself when you put your feet on the floor as you sit on the edge of the bed? What will your mantra be?

What will you give yourself permission to do today?

Be intentional about looking after yourself on the inside and the outside and it’ll make a huge difference in your life.

Good luck!

from Blog | 729renegades https://ift.tt/2XIy7Ta

[albertcaldwellne]

Productivity Hack: 7 Tricks to Steal From the World’s Top Performers

Imagine this: you’re training a champion athlete or an actor to be the next Marvel superhero. Each day they arrive at your gym and have a killer workout, followed by the perfect post-training meal. Their productivity is envy-inducing. 

Then they go on vacation.

They fumble around the resort gym trying to figure out exercise replacements. Eventually, they give up and return to the pool bar for a round of margarita’s to ease the pain and embarrassment of failure.

The former is an environment built for proactive high-performance. The latter describes a reactive scene of struggle and loss.

Similar scenarios play out everyday in your quest for high-performance at work, in your writing, and for your coaching business.

If you are proactive, plan ahead, and follow the playbook of a high-performer, you can crush the competition and dominate every day.

But if you get soft and lazy, wing it, and wake up unproductive and reactive, you’ll struggle, kill your momentum, and end up joining the New York Jets down on Loser Street.

I’m here to save you and your clients from that fate (although sorry, we can’t save the Jets… I’m not a miracle worker).

Follow these 7 rules of high-performers so you don’t miss out on a single day of making massive progress towards your big goals and dreams.

1. Harness Your Champion Mindset

We’ve all been champions at one point in our lives. You might have been a state champion, a top bodybuilder, head of your fraternity or sorority, star of your school play, or the valedictorian of your class. Maybe you’ve had an amazing ‘before-and-after’ transformation or simply married out of your league.

Somewhere along the line, your plan came together and you rose to the top. That means you already have a champion mindset installed inside of you. Now, to get to the next level in life, you simply need to harness the power of your championship principles.

The winning principles in life are simple. I’ve seen them work time-after-time in many different industries for my thousands of coaching clients. I call them the 5 Pillars of Success:

i) Better Planning & Preparation Than Ever Before ii) Professional Accountability (your ‘coach’) iii) Positive Social Support (your ‘cheerleaders’) iv) A Meaningful Incentive v) The BIG Deadline

When you have these Championship Principles in place you can win the CrossFit Games, write your first book, or build a 7-figure coaching program.

Go back to a point in time where you had incredible success in life, look at what you did right, and apply those lessons to your life today.

2. Make Time Magic

If you’ve read my book, The Perfect Day Formula, you’ve heard the phrase “Magic Time.” This is the two-hour block of the day where you are three times more productive than usual. For many, like myself, magic time is in the morning.

Case in point: I wrote this 2000 word article in one shot between 4:05 and 6:15 a.m.

But at the Fitness Business Summit 2017 (FBS), John Romaniello challenged me on this principle. He said, “Screw Magic Time. Ignore Craig Ballantyne. Forget Bally the Dog.” Okay, he didn’t mention my dog (he’s not that cruel), but Roman did say that Magic Time wasn’t as effective as the power of a deadline.

At first I seethed with anger. Seethed, I tell you, seethed. (If you’ve never seen a Canadian seething with rage, just picture Mel Gibson in a 1970’s era hockey fight.) But after reflecting on what John said, his argument helped me modify, and improve, my Magic Time formula to make you an even more effective high performer.

There are multiple times of day when you can “trick” your body or your mind into performing at a higher level than you thought possible. It might be in your “Magic Time”, or it might be when you give yourself a hard deadline with consequences.

I still believe in the power of Magic Time. You need to find it in your day, and ruthlessly foster it and protect it from all the time thieves in your life.

And yes, as effective as Magic Time is, there’s nothing more powerful than a deadline.

I agree.

A deadline helps a high performer to get stuff done in record time for three reasons:

First, it spurs us to overcome the initial inertia.

Second, it keeps us going through the middle of a tough project knowing that we’re on the homestretch.

And third, it gets us to work faster and push harder the closer we get to the finish line.

3. Corollary: Make Time Your Bitch

“It’s not about the hour you get up, it’s about what you do with the hours that you are up.” – Craig Ballantyne

I don’t care what time you get up.

In fact, I don’t want you to get up at 4 a.m. One of the reasons I get up early is to avoid other people. So go back to bed and leave me alone!

High performers don’t worry about the clock. They focus on the concept of time and bend it to their will, owning their day and controlling their life. Let’s look at two extreme examples.

I get up at 3:45 a.m. seven days a week. It’s essential that I start writing at 4 a.m.

On the other hand, my good friend, Joel Marion has spent the last nine years dominating the online fitness and supplement industry working between the hours of 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. He clocks out when I clock in.

The actual hours don’t matter. Forget where the hands are on the clock. What matters is that high-performers take complete control over time and operate on their own time.

We snub the convention of the world and work when it works for us. We make the world operate on their clock, not the other way around. If you want to work from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m., then so be it. 

4. Today’s To-Do is for Tomorrow

One of the biggest mistakes potential high-performers make is waiting until the morning to create a to-do list.

But if you are making your to-do list in the morning, you are already too late. The list needs to be done the night before so you can wake up and get right to work.

Here’s a two-step plan for finishing your day correctly and starting tomorrow with a big win.

First, at the end of your workday, grab a scrap piece of paper and do what I call “a brain dump.” Write down all the crazy thoughts running through your head, such as all the things you want to do the next day, all the people you need to contact, and all the obstacles in your way.

Next, organize these thoughts into your to-do list. Prioritize your action items. Script your day. Cut what doesn’t matter. Insert your most important work tasks into clearly defined and defended blocks of time.

There you go. Tomorrow has been conquered today.

Planning ahead is a high-performers secret to success.

“Nothing wins more often than superior preparation. Genius is usually preparation.” – Kekich Credo #73

5. Feed Your Brain Rocket Fuel

This section isn’t a lecture on protein intake, organic foods, or staying hydrated. Gwenyth Paltrow can tell you how to do that. (Seriously, her Goop.com is one of my favorite reads.)

Besides, you most likely know physical nutrition inside-and-out. Instead, we’re going deeper and darker, and pushing the envelope with an edgy approach to fueling your mind.

You see, high-performers need a little extra. It could be caffeine, or it might be bourbon at 11 p.m. as you settle into a writing frenzy. 

Now I’m not suggesting you go full Hunter S. Thompson mode where you start your day with a line of cocaine at 4 p.m., but you need to give your mind whatever it needs to crank out content.

I initially resisted this idea. My father was an alcoholic, and it made me never wanted to become dependent on any substance in life.

For example, I would never go more than two days in a row consuming caffeine. I know you coffee drinkers can’t believe this. But I’m serious.

However, a little self-reflection made me realize that my best writing days were enhanced with a little rocket fuel for the brain (i.e. caffeine), so I loosened up and my performance went through the roof.

Keep in mind this is a calculated dose of rocket fuel, and you’re not being given permission to dose yourself willy-nilly.

Identify your rocket fuel. Dose accordingly. 6. Create an Insanely Clear & Concise Vision

High performers do this for every aspect of their lives; they create an insanely clear and concise vision of what they want. 

In my workshops and at my retreat, I take my coaching clients through an extensive two-hour vision creation process. It eliminates the clutter in your mind, and it gives you complete clarity on what matters in your life and how to achieve exactly what you want.

Once you’ve created your vision, only then can you start putting in place your daily high-performance habits that will bring you faster results in every area of your life.

Just like you can’t design a killer training program without knowing your client’s goals, and just like you can’t build a house without blueprints, you can’t get what you want without a vision.

7 . Model Other High Performers

This is not a definitive list of the rules that high performers follow, but it’s a good place for you to start so you can own your days and take back control of your life.

When you put these high performer habits in place, you’ll triple your productivity and start attracting more success and opportunity into your life. It’s a proven equation for domination.

But frankly, there’s so much more you need to install into your life in order to be the ultimate high-performer that you know you can be.

After working with over 5,000 coaching clients, I still see the need for greater self-confidence and techniques to overcome self-doubt, as well as better systems for eliminating temptations, obstacles, and external negativity that are likely holding you back in the first place.

That’s why I’d like to invite you to my Perfect Life Retreat on November 9-10th in San Diego.

You’ll join me, John Romaniello, Lewis Howes, Jason Ferruggia, Tucker Max, Bedros Keuilian, and over 200 other high performers across dozens of industries (from Hollywood actors to female entrepreneurs to The New York Times bestselling authors).

Over the two days we’ll do a deep dive into installing the Habits of High Performers into your life so you can finally achieve the success you deserve.

But this isn’t another seminar where you sit through lecture after lecture and leave with 40 pages of notes that you never end up implementing.

Instead, after we create the roadmap (vision) for your life, we’ll spend the rest of the time working through concrete action plans so that you leave with most of the work done-for-you and the snowball of success rolling down the hill and your momentum picking up speed.

At the end of our time together, you’ll walk away with a crystal clear action plan to achieve exactly what you want in life.

Plus, our team is doing something for you that you’ve never experienced at any other event.

As a recovering introvert, I know how difficult networking can be, even when you’re in a room of positive high-performers. That’s why our team is spending dozens of hours making your connections in advance.

We’ll give you a done-for-you list of who you need to meet (and why), so that you can make big-money connections easily and automatically. If even a fraction of the 100+ events I had attended in the past would have done this, I’d be exponentially more successful than I am today.

If you want to be a high-performer, if you want to install your champion mindset into every area of your life, if you want to meet the writers, coaches, and speakers that you’ve looked up to for years, and if you want to get a proven blueprint that gives you faster results, then you can’t miss out on the 1st ever Perfect Life Retreat.

Last thing… Roman’s twisted my arm and made me keep open my BOGO (buy one, get one) offer for his readers. That means when you register today that you get to bring a high-performer friend for free.

Click here to take advantage of this deal today.

The post Productivity Hack: 7 Tricks to Steal From the World’s Top Performers appeared first on Roman Fitness Systems.

http://ift.tt/2hmH8dc

[ruthellisneda]

Productivity Hack: 7 Tricks to Steal From the World’s Top Performers

Imagine this: you’re training a champion athlete or an actor to be the next Marvel superhero. Each day they arrive at your gym and have a killer workout, followed by the perfect post-training meal. Their productivity is envy-inducing. 

Then they go on vacation.

They fumble around the resort gym trying to figure out exercise replacements. Eventually, they give up and return to the pool bar for a round of margarita’s to ease the pain and embarrassment of failure.

The former is an environment built for proactive high-performance. The latter describes a reactive scene of struggle and loss.

Similar scenarios play out everyday in your quest for high-performance at work, in your writing, and for your coaching business.

If you are proactive, plan ahead, and follow the playbook of a high-performer, you can crush the competition and dominate every day.

But if you get soft and lazy, wing it, and wake up unproductive and reactive, you’ll struggle, kill your momentum, and end up joining the New York Jets down on Loser Street.

I’m here to save you and your clients from that fate (although sorry, we can’t save the Jets… I’m not a miracle worker).

Follow these 7 rules of high-performers so you don’t miss out on a single day of making massive progress towards your big goals and dreams.

1. Harness Your Champion Mindset

We’ve all been champions at one point in our lives. You might have been a state champion, a top bodybuilder, head of your fraternity or sorority, star of your school play, or the valedictorian of your class. Maybe you’ve had an amazing ‘before-and-after’ transformation or simply married out of your league.

Somewhere along the line, your plan came together and you rose to the top. That means you already have a champion mindset installed inside of you. Now, to get to the next level in life, you simply need to harness the power of your championship principles.

The winning principles in life are simple. I’ve seen them work time-after-time in many different industries for my thousands of coaching clients. I call them the 5 Pillars of Success:

i) Better Planning & Preparation Than Ever Before ii) Professional Accountability (your ‘coach’) iii) Positive Social Support (your ‘cheerleaders’) iv) A Meaningful Incentive v) The BIG Deadline

When you have these Championship Principles in place you can win the CrossFit Games, write your first book, or build a 7-figure coaching program.

Go back to a point in time where you had incredible success in life, look at what you did right, and apply those lessons to your life today.

2. Make Time Magic

If you’ve read my book, The Perfect Day Formula, you’ve heard the phrase “Magic Time.” This is the two-hour block of the day where you are three times more productive than usual. For many, like myself, magic time is in the morning.

Case in point: I wrote this 2000 word article in one shot between 4:05 and 6:15 a.m.

But at the Fitness Business Summit 2017 (FBS), John Romaniello challenged me on this principle. He said, “Screw Magic Time. Ignore Craig Ballantyne. Forget Bally the Dog.” Okay, he didn’t mention my dog (he’s not that cruel), but Roman did say that Magic Time wasn’t as effective as the power of a deadline.

At first I seethed with anger. Seethed, I tell you, seethed. (If you’ve never seen a Canadian seething with rage, just picture Mel Gibson in a 1970’s era hockey fight.) But after reflecting on what John said, his argument helped me modify, and improve, my Magic Time formula to make you an even more effective high performer.

There are multiple times of day when you can “trick” your body or your mind into performing at a higher level than you thought possible. It might be in your “Magic Time”, or it might be when you give yourself a hard deadline with consequences.

I still believe in the power of Magic Time. You need to find it in your day, and ruthlessly foster it and protect it from all the time thieves in your life.

And yes, as effective as Magic Time is, there’s nothing more powerful than a deadline.

I agree.

A deadline helps a high performer to get stuff done in record time for three reasons:

First, it spurs us to overcome the initial inertia.

Second, it keeps us going through the middle of a tough project knowing that we’re on the homestretch.

And third, it gets us to work faster and push harder the closer we get to the finish line.

3. Corollary: Make Time Your Bitch

“It’s not about the hour you get up, it’s about what you do with the hours that you are up.” – Craig Ballantyne

I don’t care what time you get up.

In fact, I don’t want you to get up at 4 a.m. One of the reasons I get up early is to avoid other people. So go back to bed and leave me alone!

High performers don’t worry about the clock. They focus on the concept of time and bend it to their will, owning their day and controlling their life. Let’s look at two extreme examples.

I get up at 3:45 a.m. seven days a week. It’s essential that I start writing at 4 a.m.

On the other hand, my good friend, Joel Marion has spent the last nine years dominating the online fitness and supplement industry working between the hours of 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. He clocks out when I clock in.

The actual hours don’t matter. Forget where the hands are on the clock. What matters is that high-performers take complete control over time and operate on their own time.

We snub the convention of the world and work when it works for us. We make the world operate on their clock, not the other way around. If you want to work from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m., then so be it. 

4. Today’s To-Do is for Tomorrow

One of the biggest mistakes potential high-performers make is waiting until the morning to create a to-do list.

But if you are making your to-do list in the morning, you are already too late. The list needs to be done the night before so you can wake up and get right to work.

Here’s a two-step plan for finishing your day correctly and starting tomorrow with a big win.

First, at the end of your workday, grab a scrap piece of paper and do what I call “a brain dump.” Write down all the crazy thoughts running through your head, such as all the things you want to do the next day, all the people you need to contact, and all the obstacles in your way.

Next, organize these thoughts into your to-do list. Prioritize your action items. Script your day. Cut what doesn’t matter. Insert your most important work tasks into clearly defined and defended blocks of time.

There you go. Tomorrow has been conquered today.

Planning ahead is a high-performers secret to success.

“Nothing wins more often than superior preparation. Genius is usually preparation.” – Kekich Credo #73

5. Feed Your Brain Rocket Fuel

This section isn’t a lecture on protein intake, organic foods, or staying hydrated. Gwenyth Paltrow can tell you how to do that. (Seriously, her Goop.com is one of my favorite reads.)

Besides, you most likely know physical nutrition inside-and-out. Instead, we’re going deeper and darker, and pushing the envelope with an edgy approach to fueling your mind.

You see, high-performers need a little extra. It could be caffeine, or it might be bourbon at 11 p.m. as you settle into a writing frenzy. 

Now I’m not suggesting you go full Hunter S. Thompson mode where you start your day with a line of cocaine at 4 p.m., but you need to give your mind whatever it needs to crank out content.

I initially resisted this idea. My father was an alcoholic, and it made me never wanted to become dependent on any substance in life.

For example, I would never go more than two days in a row consuming caffeine. I know you coffee drinkers can’t believe this. But I’m serious.

However, a little self-reflection made me realize that my best writing days were enhanced with a little rocket fuel for the brain (i.e. caffeine), so I loosened up and my performance went through the roof.

Keep in mind this is a calculated dose of rocket fuel, and you’re not being given permission to dose yourself willy-nilly.

Identify your rocket fuel. Dose accordingly. 6. Create an Insanely Clear & Concise Vision

High performers do this for every aspect of their lives; they create an insanely clear and concise vision of what they want. 

In my workshops and at my retreat, I take my coaching clients through an extensive two-hour vision creation process. It eliminates the clutter in your mind, and it gives you complete clarity on what matters in your life and how to achieve exactly what you want.

Once you’ve created your vision, only then can you start putting in place your daily high-performance habits that will bring you faster results in every area of your life.

Just like you can’t design a killer training program without knowing your client’s goals, and just like you can’t build a house without blueprints, you can’t get what you want without a vision.

7 . Model Other High Performers

This is not a definitive list of the rules that high performers follow, but it’s a good place for you to start so you can own your days and take back control of your life.

When you put these high performer habits in place, you’ll triple your productivity and start attracting more success and opportunity into your life. It’s a proven equation for domination.

But frankly, there’s so much more you need to install into your life in order to be the ultimate high-performer that you know you can be.

After working with over 5,000 coaching clients, I still see the need for greater self-confidence and techniques to overcome self-doubt, as well as better systems for eliminating temptations, obstacles, and external negativity that are likely holding you back in the first place.

That’s why I’d like to invite you to my Perfect Life Retreat on November 9-10th in San Diego.

You’ll join me, John Romaniello, Lewis Howes, Jason Ferruggia, Tucker Max, Bedros Keuilian, and over 200 other high performers across dozens of industries (from Hollywood actors to female entrepreneurs to The New York Times bestselling authors).

Over the two days we’ll do a deep dive into installing the Habits of High Performers into your life so you can finally achieve the success you deserve.

But this isn’t another seminar where you sit through lecture after lecture and leave with 40 pages of notes that you never end up implementing.

Instead, after we create the roadmap (vision) for your life, we’ll spend the rest of the time working through concrete action plans so that you leave with most of the work done-for-you and the snowball of success rolling down the hill and your momentum picking up speed.

At the end of our time together, you’ll walk away with a crystal clear action plan to achieve exactly what you want in life.

Plus, our team is doing something for you that you’ve never experienced at any other event.

As a recovering introvert, I know how difficult networking can be, even when you’re in a room of positive high-performers. That’s why our team is spending dozens of hours making your connections in advance.

We’ll give you a done-for-you list of who you need to meet (and why), so that you can make big-money connections easily and automatically. If even a fraction of the 100+ events I had attended in the past would have done this, I’d be exponentially more successful than I am today.

If you want to be a high-performer, if you want to install your champion mindset into every area of your life, if you want to meet the writers, coaches, and speakers that you’ve looked up to for years, and if you want to get a proven blueprint that gives you faster results, then you can’t miss out on the 1st ever Perfect Life Retreat.

Last thing… Roman’s twisted my arm and made me keep open my BOGO (buy one, get one) offer for his readers. That means when you register today that you get to bring a high-performer friend for free.

Click here to take advantage of this deal today.

The post Productivity Hack: 7 Tricks to Steal From the World’s Top Performers appeared first on Roman Fitness Systems.

http://ift.tt/2hmH8dc

[almajonesnjna]

Productivity Hack: 7 Tricks to Steal From the World’s Top Performers

Imagine this: you’re training a champion athlete or an actor to be the next Marvel superhero. Each day they arrive at your gym and have a killer workout, followed by the perfect post-training meal. Their productivity is envy-inducing. 

Then they go on vacation.

They fumble around the resort gym trying to figure out exercise replacements. Eventually, they give up and return to the pool bar for a round of margarita’s to ease the pain and embarrassment of failure.

The former is an environment built for proactive high-performance. The latter describes a reactive scene of struggle and loss.

Similar scenarios play out everyday in your quest for high-performance at work, in your writing, and for your coaching business.

If you are proactive, plan ahead, and follow the playbook of a high-performer, you can crush the competition and dominate every day.

But if you get soft and lazy, wing it, and wake up unproductive and reactive, you’ll struggle, kill your momentum, and end up joining the New York Jets down on Loser Street.

I’m here to save you and your clients from that fate (although sorry, we can’t save the Jets… I’m not a miracle worker).

Follow these 7 rules of high-performers so you don’t miss out on a single day of making massive progress towards your big goals and dreams.

1. Harness Your Champion Mindset

We’ve all been champions at one point in our lives. You might have been a state champion, a top bodybuilder, head of your fraternity or sorority, star of your school play, or the valedictorian of your class. Maybe you’ve had an amazing ‘before-and-after’ transformation or simply married out of your league.

Somewhere along the line, your plan came together and you rose to the top. That means you already have a champion mindset installed inside of you. Now, to get to the next level in life, you simply need to harness the power of your championship principles.

The winning principles in life are simple. I’ve seen them work time-after-time in many different industries for my thousands of coaching clients. I call them the 5 Pillars of Success:

i) Better Planning & Preparation Than Ever Before ii) Professional Accountability (your ‘coach’) iii) Positive Social Support (your ‘cheerleaders’) iv) A Meaningful Incentive v) The BIG Deadline

When you have these Championship Principles in place you can win the CrossFit Games, write your first book, or build a 7-figure coaching program.

Go back to a point in time where you had incredible success in life, look at what you did right, and apply those lessons to your life today.

2. Make Time Magic

If you’ve read my book, The Perfect Day Formula, you’ve heard the phrase “Magic Time.” This is the two-hour block of the day where you are three times more productive than usual. For many, like myself, magic time is in the morning.

Case in point: I wrote this 2000 word article in one shot between 4:05 and 6:15 a.m.

But at the Fitness Business Summit 2017 (FBS), John Romaniello challenged me on this principle. He said, “Screw Magic Time. Ignore Craig Ballantyne. Forget Bally the Dog.” Okay, he didn’t mention my dog (he’s not that cruel), but Roman did say that Magic Time wasn’t as effective as the power of a deadline.

At first I seethed with anger. Seethed, I tell you, seethed. (If you’ve never seen a Canadian seething with rage, just picture Mel Gibson in a 1970’s era hockey fight.) But after reflecting on what John said, his argument helped me modify, and improve, my Magic Time formula to make you an even more effective high performer.

There are multiple times of day when you can “trick” your body or your mind into performing at a higher level than you thought possible. It might be in your “Magic Time”, or it might be when you give yourself a hard deadline with consequences.

I still believe in the power of Magic Time. You need to find it in your day, and ruthlessly foster it and protect it from all the time thieves in your life.

And yes, as effective as Magic Time is, there’s nothing more powerful than a deadline.

I agree.

A deadline helps a high performer to get stuff done in record time for three reasons:

First, it spurs us to overcome the initial inertia.

Second, it keeps us going through the middle of a tough project knowing that we’re on the homestretch.

And third, it gets us to work faster and push harder the closer we get to the finish line.

3. Corollary: Make Time Your Bitch

“It’s not about the hour you get up, it’s about what you do with the hours that you are up.” – Craig Ballantyne

I don’t care what time you get up.

In fact, I don’t want you to get up at 4 a.m. One of the reasons I get up early is to avoid other people. So go back to bed and leave me alone!

High performers don’t worry about the clock. They focus on the concept of time and bend it to their will, owning their day and controlling their life. Let’s look at two extreme examples.

I get up at 3:45 a.m. seven days a week. It’s essential that I start writing at 4 a.m.

On the other hand, my good friend, Joel Marion has spent the last nine years dominating the online fitness and supplement industry working between the hours of 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. He clocks out when I clock in.

The actual hours don’t matter. Forget where the hands are on the clock. What matters is that high-performers take complete control over time and operate on their own time.

We snub the convention of the world and work when it works for us. We make the world operate on their clock, not the other way around. If you want to work from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m., then so be it. 

4. Today’s To-Do is for Tomorrow

One of the biggest mistakes potential high-performers make is waiting until the morning to create a to-do list.

But if you are making your to-do list in the morning, you are already too late. The list needs to be done the night before so you can wake up and get right to work.

Here’s a two-step plan for finishing your day correctly and starting tomorrow with a big win.

First, at the end of your workday, grab a scrap piece of paper and do what I call “a brain dump.” Write down all the crazy thoughts running through your head, such as all the things you want to do the next day, all the people you need to contact, and all the obstacles in your way.

Next, organize these thoughts into your to-do list. Prioritize your action items. Script your day. Cut what doesn’t matter. Insert your most important work tasks into clearly defined and defended blocks of time.

There you go. Tomorrow has been conquered today.

Planning ahead is a high-performers secret to success.

“Nothing wins more often than superior preparation. Genius is usually preparation.” – Kekich Credo #73

5. Feed Your Brain Rocket Fuel

This section isn’t a lecture on protein intake, organic foods, or staying hydrated. Gwenyth Paltrow can tell you how to do that. (Seriously, her Goop.com is one of my favorite reads.)

Besides, you most likely know physical nutrition inside-and-out. Instead, we’re going deeper and darker, and pushing the envelope with an edgy approach to fueling your mind.

You see, high-performers need a little extra. It could be caffeine, or it might be bourbon at 11 p.m. as you settle into a writing frenzy. 

Now I’m not suggesting you go full Hunter S. Thompson mode where you start your day with a line of cocaine at 4 p.m., but you need to give your mind whatever it needs to crank out content.

I initially resisted this idea. My father was an alcoholic, and it made me never wanted to become dependent on any substance in life.

For example, I would never go more than two days in a row consuming caffeine. I know you coffee drinkers can’t believe this. But I’m serious.

However, a little self-reflection made me realize that my best writing days were enhanced with a little rocket fuel for the brain (i.e. caffeine), so I loosened up and my performance went through the roof.

Keep in mind this is a calculated dose of rocket fuel, and you’re not being given permission to dose yourself willy-nilly.

Identify your rocket fuel. Dose accordingly. 6. Create an Insanely Clear & Concise Vision

High performers do this for every aspect of their lives; they create an insanely clear and concise vision of what they want. 

In my workshops and at my retreat, I take my coaching clients through an extensive two-hour vision creation process. It eliminates the clutter in your mind, and it gives you complete clarity on what matters in your life and how to achieve exactly what you want.

Once you’ve created your vision, only then can you start putting in place your daily high-performance habits that will bring you faster results in every area of your life.

Just like you can’t design a killer training program without knowing your client’s goals, and just like you can’t build a house without blueprints, you can’t get what you want without a vision.

7 . Model Other High Performers

This is not a definitive list of the rules that high performers follow, but it’s a good place for you to start so you can own your days and take back control of your life.

When you put these high performer habits in place, you’ll triple your productivity and start attracting more success and opportunity into your life. It’s a proven equation for domination.

But frankly, there’s so much more you need to install into your life in order to be the ultimate high-performer that you know you can be.

After working with over 5,000 coaching clients, I still see the need for greater self-confidence and techniques to overcome self-doubt, as well as better systems for eliminating temptations, obstacles, and external negativity that are likely holding you back in the first place.

That’s why I’d like to invite you to my Perfect Life Retreat on November 9-10th in San Diego.

You’ll join me, John Romaniello, Lewis Howes, Jason Ferruggia, Tucker Max, Bedros Keuilian, and over 200 other high performers across dozens of industries (from Hollywood actors to female entrepreneurs to The New York Times bestselling authors).

Over the two days we’ll do a deep dive into installing the Habits of High Performers into your life so you can finally achieve the success you deserve.

But this isn’t another seminar where you sit through lecture after lecture and leave with 40 pages of notes that you never end up implementing.

Instead, after we create the roadmap (vision) for your life, we’ll spend the rest of the time working through concrete action plans so that you leave with most of the work done-for-you and the snowball of success rolling down the hill and your momentum picking up speed.

At the end of our time together, you’ll walk away with a crystal clear action plan to achieve exactly what you want in life.

Plus, our team is doing something for you that you’ve never experienced at any other event.

As a recovering introvert, I know how difficult networking can be, even when you’re in a room of positive high-performers. That’s why our team is spending dozens of hours making your connections in advance.

We’ll give you a done-for-you list of who you need to meet (and why), so that you can make big-money connections easily and automatically. If even a fraction of the 100+ events I had attended in the past would have done this, I’d be exponentially more successful than I am today.

If you want to be a high-performer, if you want to install your champion mindset into every area of your life, if you want to meet the writers, coaches, and speakers that you’ve looked up to for years, and if you want to get a proven blueprint that gives you faster results, then you can’t miss out on the 1st ever Perfect Life Retreat.

Last thing… Roman’s twisted my arm and made me keep open my BOGO (buy one, get one) offer for his readers. That means when you register today that you get to bring a high-performer friend for free.

Click here to take advantage of this deal today.

The post Productivity Hack: 7 Tricks to Steal From the World’s Top Performers appeared first on Roman Fitness Systems.

http://ift.tt/2hmH8dc

[neilmillerne]

Productivity Hack: 7 Tricks to Steal From the World’s Top Performers

Imagine this: you’re training a champion athlete or an actor to be the next Marvel superhero. Each day they arrive at your gym and have a killer workout, followed by the perfect post-training meal. Their productivity is envy-inducing. 

Then they go on vacation.

They fumble around the resort gym trying to figure out exercise replacements. Eventually, they give up and return to the pool bar for a round of margarita’s to ease the pain and embarrassment of failure.

The former is an environment built for proactive high-performance. The latter describes a reactive scene of struggle and loss.

Similar scenarios play out everyday in your quest for high-performance at work, in your writing, and for your coaching business.

If you are proactive, plan ahead, and follow the playbook of a high-performer, you can crush the competition and dominate every day.

But if you get soft and lazy, wing it, and wake up unproductive and reactive, you’ll struggle, kill your momentum, and end up joining the New York Jets down on Loser Street.

I’m here to save you and your clients from that fate (although sorry, we can’t save the Jets… I’m not a miracle worker).

Follow these 7 rules of high-performers so you don’t miss out on a single day of making massive progress towards your big goals and dreams.

1. Harness Your Champion Mindset

We’ve all been champions at one point in our lives. You might have been a state champion, a top bodybuilder, head of your fraternity or sorority, star of your school play, or the valedictorian of your class. Maybe you’ve had an amazing ‘before-and-after’ transformation or simply married out of your league.

Somewhere along the line, your plan came together and you rose to the top. That means you already have a champion mindset installed inside of you. Now, to get to the next level in life, you simply need to harness the power of your championship principles.

The winning principles in life are simple. I’ve seen them work time-after-time in many different industries for my thousands of coaching clients. I call them the 5 Pillars of Success:

i) Better Planning & Preparation Than Ever Before ii) Professional Accountability (your ‘coach’) iii) Positive Social Support (your ‘cheerleaders’) iv) A Meaningful Incentive v) The BIG Deadline

When you have these Championship Principles in place you can win the CrossFit Games, write your first book, or build a 7-figure coaching program.

Go back to a point in time where you had incredible success in life, look at what you did right, and apply those lessons to your life today.

2. Make Time Magic

If you’ve read my book, The Perfect Day Formula, you’ve heard the phrase “Magic Time.” This is the two-hour block of the day where you are three times more productive than usual. For many, like myself, magic time is in the morning.

Case in point: I wrote this 2000 word article in one shot between 4:05 and 6:15 a.m.

But at the Fitness Business Summit 2017 (FBS), John Romaniello challenged me on this principle. He said, “Screw Magic Time. Ignore Craig Ballantyne. Forget Bally the Dog.” Okay, he didn’t mention my dog (he’s not that cruel), but Roman did say that Magic Time wasn’t as effective as the power of a deadline.

At first I seethed with anger. Seethed, I tell you, seethed. (If you’ve never seen a Canadian seething with rage, just picture Mel Gibson in a 1970’s era hockey fight.) But after reflecting on what John said, his argument helped me modify, and improve, my Magic Time formula to make you an even more effective high performer.

There are multiple times of day when you can “trick” your body or your mind into performing at a higher level than you thought possible. It might be in your “Magic Time”, or it might be when you give yourself a hard deadline with consequences.

I still believe in the power of Magic Time. You need to find it in your day, and ruthlessly foster it and protect it from all the time thieves in your life.

And yes, as effective as Magic Time is, there’s nothing more powerful than a deadline.

I agree.

A deadline helps a high performer to get stuff done in record time for three reasons:

First, it spurs us to overcome the initial inertia.

Second, it keeps us going through the middle of a tough project knowing that we’re on the homestretch.

And third, it gets us to work faster and push harder the closer we get to the finish line.

3. Corollary: Make Time Your Bitch

“It’s not about the hour you get up, it’s about what you do with the hours that you are up.” – Craig Ballantyne

I don’t care what time you get up.

In fact, I don’t want you to get up at 4 a.m. One of the reasons I get up early is to avoid other people. So go back to bed and leave me alone!

High performers don’t worry about the clock. They focus on the concept of time and bend it to their will, owning their day and controlling their life. Let’s look at two extreme examples.

I get up at 3:45 a.m. seven days a week. It’s essential that I start writing at 4 a.m.

On the other hand, my good friend, Joel Marion has spent the last nine years dominating the online fitness and supplement industry working between the hours of 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. He clocks out when I clock in.

The actual hours don’t matter. Forget where the hands are on the clock. What matters is that high-performers take complete control over time and operate on their own time.

We snub the convention of the world and work when it works for us. We make the world operate on their clock, not the other way around. If you want to work from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m., then so be it. 

4. Today’s To-Do is for Tomorrow

One of the biggest mistakes potential high-performers make is waiting until the morning to create a to-do list.

But if you are making your to-do list in the morning, you are already too late. The list needs to be done the night before so you can wake up and get right to work.

Here’s a two-step plan for finishing your day correctly and starting tomorrow with a big win.

First, at the end of your workday, grab a scrap piece of paper and do what I call “a brain dump.” Write down all the crazy thoughts running through your head, such as all the things you want to do the next day, all the people you need to contact, and all the obstacles in your way.

Next, organize these thoughts into your to-do list. Prioritize your action items. Script your day. Cut what doesn’t matter. Insert your most important work tasks into clearly defined and defended blocks of time.

There you go. Tomorrow has been conquered today.

Planning ahead is a high-performers secret to success.

“Nothing wins more often than superior preparation. Genius is usually preparation.” – Kekich Credo #73

5. Feed Your Brain Rocket Fuel

This section isn’t a lecture on protein intake, organic foods, or staying hydrated. Gwenyth Paltrow can tell you how to do that. (Seriously, her Goop.com is one of my favorite reads.)

Besides, you most likely know physical nutrition inside-and-out. Instead, we’re going deeper and darker, and pushing the envelope with an edgy approach to fueling your mind.

You see, high-performers need a little extra. It could be caffeine, or it might be bourbon at 11 p.m. as you settle into a writing frenzy. 

Now I’m not suggesting you go full Hunter S. Thompson mode where you start your day with a line of cocaine at 4 p.m., but you need to give your mind whatever it needs to crank out content.

I initially resisted this idea. My father was an alcoholic, and it made me never wanted to become dependent on any substance in life.

For example, I would never go more than two days in a row consuming caffeine. I know you coffee drinkers can’t believe this. But I’m serious.

However, a little self-reflection made me realize that my best writing days were enhanced with a little rocket fuel for the brain (i.e. caffeine), so I loosened up and my performance went through the roof.

Keep in mind this is a calculated dose of rocket fuel, and you’re not being given permission to dose yourself willy-nilly.

Identify your rocket fuel. Dose accordingly. 6. Create an Insanely Clear & Concise Vision

High performers do this for every aspect of their lives; they create an insanely clear and concise vision of what they want. 

In my workshops and at my retreat, I take my coaching clients through an extensive two-hour vision creation process. It eliminates the clutter in your mind, and it gives you complete clarity on what matters in your life and how to achieve exactly what you want.

Once you’ve created your vision, only then can you start putting in place your daily high-performance habits that will bring you faster results in every area of your life.

Just like you can’t design a killer training program without knowing your client’s goals, and just like you can’t build a house without blueprints, you can’t get what you want without a vision.

7 . Model Other High Performers

This is not a definitive list of the rules that high performers follow, but it’s a good place for you to start so you can own your days and take back control of your life.

When you put these high performer habits in place, you’ll triple your productivity and start attracting more success and opportunity into your life. It’s a proven equation for domination.

But frankly, there’s so much more you need to install into your life in order to be the ultimate high-performer that you know you can be.

After working with over 5,000 coaching clients, I still see the need for greater self-confidence and techniques to overcome self-doubt, as well as better systems for eliminating temptations, obstacles, and external negativity that are likely holding you back in the first place.

That’s why I’d like to invite you to my Perfect Life Retreat on November 9-10th in San Diego.

You’ll join me, John Romaniello, Lewis Howes, Jason Ferruggia, Tucker Max, Bedros Keuilian, and over 200 other high performers across dozens of industries (from Hollywood actors to female entrepreneurs to The New York Times bestselling authors).

Over the two days we’ll do a deep dive into installing the Habits of High Performers into your life so you can finally achieve the success you deserve.

But this isn’t another seminar where you sit through lecture after lecture and leave with 40 pages of notes that you never end up implementing.

Instead, after we create the roadmap (vision) for your life, we’ll spend the rest of the time working through concrete action plans so that you leave with most of the work done-for-you and the snowball of success rolling down the hill and your momentum picking up speed.

At the end of our time together, you’ll walk away with a crystal clear action plan to achieve exactly what you want in life.

Plus, our team is doing something for you that you’ve never experienced at any other event.

As a recovering introvert, I know how difficult networking can be, even when you’re in a room of positive high-performers. That’s why our team is spending dozens of hours making your connections in advance.

We’ll give you a done-for-you list of who you need to meet (and why), so that you can make big-money connections easily and automatically. If even a fraction of the 100+ events I had attended in the past would have done this, I’d be exponentially more successful than I am today.

If you want to be a high-performer, if you want to install your champion mindset into every area of your life, if you want to meet the writers, coaches, and speakers that you’ve looked up to for years, and if you want to get a proven blueprint that gives you faster results, then you can’t miss out on the 1st ever Perfect Life Retreat.

Last thing… Roman’s twisted my arm and made me keep open my BOGO (buy one, get one) offer for his readers. That means when you register today that you get to bring a high-performer friend for free.

Click here to take advantage of this deal today.

The post Productivity Hack: 7 Tricks to Steal From the World’s Top Performers appeared first on Roman Fitness Systems.

http://ift.tt/2hmH8dc

[johnclapperne]

Productivity Hack: 7 Tricks to Steal From the World’s Top Performers

Imagine this: you’re training a champion athlete or an actor to be the next Marvel superhero. Each day they arrive at your gym and have a killer workout, followed by the perfect post-training meal. Their productivity is envy-inducing. 

Then they go on vacation.

They fumble around the resort gym trying to figure out exercise replacements. Eventually, they give up and return to the pool bar for a round of margarita’s to ease the pain and embarrassment of failure.

The former is an environment built for proactive high-performance. The latter describes a reactive scene of struggle and loss.

Similar scenarios play out everyday in your quest for high-performance at work, in your writing, and for your coaching business.

If you are proactive, plan ahead, and follow the playbook of a high-performer, you can crush the competition and dominate every day.

But if you get soft and lazy, wing it, and wake up unproductive and reactive, you’ll struggle, kill your momentum, and end up joining the New York Jets down on Loser Street.

I’m here to save you and your clients from that fate (although sorry, we can’t save the Jets… I’m not a miracle worker).

Follow these 7 rules of high-performers so you don’t miss out on a single day of making massive progress towards your big goals and dreams.

1. Harness Your Champion Mindset

We’ve all been champions at one point in our lives. You might have been a state champion, a top bodybuilder, head of your fraternity or sorority, star of your school play, or the valedictorian of your class. Maybe you’ve had an amazing ‘before-and-after’ transformation or simply married out of your league.

Somewhere along the line, your plan came together and you rose to the top. That means you already have a champion mindset installed inside of you. Now, to get to the next level in life, you simply need to harness the power of your championship principles.

The winning principles in life are simple. I’ve seen them work time-after-time in many different industries for my thousands of coaching clients. I call them the 5 Pillars of Success:

i) Better Planning & Preparation Than Ever Before ii) Professional Accountability (your ‘coach’) iii) Positive Social Support (your ‘cheerleaders’) iv) A Meaningful Incentive v) The BIG Deadline

When you have these Championship Principles in place you can win the CrossFit Games, write your first book, or build a 7-figure coaching program.

Go back to a point in time where you had incredible success in life, look at what you did right, and apply those lessons to your life today.

2. Make Time Magic

If you’ve read my book, The Perfect Day Formula, you’ve heard the phrase “Magic Time.” This is the two-hour block of the day where you are three times more productive than usual. For many, like myself, magic time is in the morning.

Case in point: I wrote this 2000 word article in one shot between 4:05 and 6:15 a.m.

But at the Fitness Business Summit 2017 (FBS), John Romaniello challenged me on this principle. He said, “Screw Magic Time. Ignore Craig Ballantyne. Forget Bally the Dog.” Okay, he didn’t mention my dog (he’s not that cruel), but Roman did say that Magic Time wasn’t as effective as the power of a deadline.

At first I seethed with anger. Seethed, I tell you, seethed. (If you’ve never seen a Canadian seething with rage, just picture Mel Gibson in a 1970’s era hockey fight.) But after reflecting on what John said, his argument helped me modify, and improve, my Magic Time formula to make you an even more effective high performer.

There are multiple times of day when you can “trick” your body or your mind into performing at a higher level than you thought possible. It might be in your “Magic Time”, or it might be when you give yourself a hard deadline with consequences.

I still believe in the power of Magic Time. You need to find it in your day, and ruthlessly foster it and protect it from all the time thieves in your life.

And yes, as effective as Magic Time is, there’s nothing more powerful than a deadline.

I agree.

A deadline helps a high performer to get stuff done in record time for three reasons:

First, it spurs us to overcome the initial inertia.

Second, it keeps us going through the middle of a tough project knowing that we’re on the homestretch.

And third, it gets us to work faster and push harder the closer we get to the finish line.

3. Corollary: Make Time Your Bitch

“It’s not about the hour you get up, it’s about what you do with the hours that you are up.” – Craig Ballantyne

I don’t care what time you get up.

In fact, I don’t want you to get up at 4 a.m. One of the reasons I get up early is to avoid other people. So go back to bed and leave me alone!

High performers don’t worry about the clock. They focus on the concept of time and bend it to their will, owning their day and controlling their life. Let’s look at two extreme examples.

I get up at 3:45 a.m. seven days a week. It’s essential that I start writing at 4 a.m.

On the other hand, my good friend, Joel Marion has spent the last nine years dominating the online fitness and supplement industry working between the hours of 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. He clocks out when I clock in.

The actual hours don’t matter. Forget where the hands are on the clock. What matters is that high-performers take complete control over time and operate on their own time.

We snub the convention of the world and work when it works for us. We make the world operate on their clock, not the other way around. If you want to work from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m., then so be it. 

4. Today’s To-Do is for Tomorrow

One of the biggest mistakes potential high-performers make is waiting until the morning to create a to-do list.

But if you are making your to-do list in the morning, you are already too late. The list needs to be done the night before so you can wake up and get right to work.

Here’s a two-step plan for finishing your day correctly and starting tomorrow with a big win.

First, at the end of your workday, grab a scrap piece of paper and do what I call “a brain dump.” Write down all the crazy thoughts running through your head, such as all the things you want to do the next day, all the people you need to contact, and all the obstacles in your way.

Next, organize these thoughts into your to-do list. Prioritize your action items. Script your day. Cut what doesn’t matter. Insert your most important work tasks into clearly defined and defended blocks of time.

There you go. Tomorrow has been conquered today.

Planning ahead is a high-performers secret to success.

“Nothing wins more often than superior preparation. Genius is usually preparation.” – Kekich Credo #73

5. Feed Your Brain Rocket Fuel

This section isn’t a lecture on protein intake, organic foods, or staying hydrated. Gwenyth Paltrow can tell you how to do that. (Seriously, her Goop.com is one of my favorite reads.)

Besides, you most likely know physical nutrition inside-and-out. Instead, we’re going deeper and darker, and pushing the envelope with an edgy approach to fueling your mind.

You see, high-performers need a little extra. It could be caffeine, or it might be bourbon at 11 p.m. as you settle into a writing frenzy. 

Now I’m not suggesting you go full Hunter S. Thompson mode where you start your day with a line of cocaine at 4 p.m., but you need to give your mind whatever it needs to crank out content.

I initially resisted this idea. My father was an alcoholic, and it made me never wanted to become dependent on any substance in life.

For example, I would never go more than two days in a row consuming caffeine. I know you coffee drinkers can’t believe this. But I’m serious.

However, a little self-reflection made me realize that my best writing days were enhanced with a little rocket fuel for the brain (i.e. caffeine), so I loosened up and my performance went through the roof.

Keep in mind this is a calculated dose of rocket fuel, and you’re not being given permission to dose yourself willy-nilly.

Identify your rocket fuel. Dose accordingly. 6. Create an Insanely Clear & Concise Vision

High performers do this for every aspect of their lives; they create an insanely clear and concise vision of what they want. 

In my workshops and at my retreat, I take my coaching clients through an extensive two-hour vision creation process. It eliminates the clutter in your mind, and it gives you complete clarity on what matters in your life and how to achieve exactly what you want.

Once you’ve created your vision, only then can you start putting in place your daily high-performance habits that will bring you faster results in every area of your life.

Just like you can’t design a killer training program without knowing your client’s goals, and just like you can’t build a house without blueprints, you can’t get what you want without a vision.

7 . Model Other High Performers

This is not a definitive list of the rules that high performers follow, but it’s a good place for you to start so you can own your days and take back control of your life.

When you put these high performer habits in place, you’ll triple your productivity and start attracting more success and opportunity into your life. It’s a proven equation for domination.

But frankly, there’s so much more you need to install into your life in order to be the ultimate high-performer that you know you can be.

After working with over 5,000 coaching clients, I still see the need for greater self-confidence and techniques to overcome self-doubt, as well as better systems for eliminating temptations, obstacles, and external negativity that are likely holding you back in the first place.

That’s why I’d like to invite you to my Perfect Life Retreat on November 9-10th in San Diego.

You’ll join me, John Romaniello, Lewis Howes, Jason Ferruggia, Tucker Max, Bedros Keuilian, and over 200 other high performers across dozens of industries (from Hollywood actors to female entrepreneurs to The New York Times bestselling authors).

Over the two days we’ll do a deep dive into installing the Habits of High Performers into your life so you can finally achieve the success you deserve.

But this isn’t another seminar where you sit through lecture after lecture and leave with 40 pages of notes that you never end up implementing.

Instead, after we create the roadmap (vision) for your life, we’ll spend the rest of the time working through concrete action plans so that you leave with most of the work done-for-you and the snowball of success rolling down the hill and your momentum picking up speed.

At the end of our time together, you’ll walk away with a crystal clear action plan to achieve exactly what you want in life.

Plus, our team is doing something for you that you’ve never experienced at any other event.

As a recovering introvert, I know how difficult networking can be, even when you’re in a room of positive high-performers. That’s why our team is spending dozens of hours making your connections in advance.

We’ll give you a done-for-you list of who you need to meet (and why), so that you can make big-money connections easily and automatically. If even a fraction of the 100+ events I had attended in the past would have done this, I’d be exponentially more successful than I am today.

If you want to be a high-performer, if you want to install your champion mindset into every area of your life, if you want to meet the writers, coaches, and speakers that you’ve looked up to for years, and if you want to get a proven blueprint that gives you faster results, then you can’t miss out on the 1st ever Perfect Life Retreat.

Last thing… Roman’s twisted my arm and made me keep open my BOGO (buy one, get one) offer for his readers. That means when you register today that you get to bring a high-performer friend for free.

Click here to take advantage of this deal today.

The post Productivity Hack: 7 Tricks to Steal From the World’s Top Performers appeared first on Roman Fitness Systems.

http://ift.tt/2hmH8dc

[joshuabradleyn]

Productivity Hack: 7 Tricks to Steal From the World’s Top Performers

Imagine this: you’re training a champion athlete or an actor to be the next Marvel superhero. Each day they arrive at your gym and have a killer workout, followed by the perfect post-training meal. Their productivity is envy-inducing. 

Then they go on vacation.

They fumble around the resort gym trying to figure out exercise replacements. Eventually, they give up and return to the pool bar for a round of margarita’s to ease the pain and embarrassment of failure.

The former is an environment built for proactive high-performance. The latter describes a reactive scene of struggle and loss.

Similar scenarios play out everyday in your quest for high-performance at work, in your writing, and for your coaching business.

If you are proactive, plan ahead, and follow the playbook of a high-performer, you can crush the competition and dominate every day.

But if you get soft and lazy, wing it, and wake up unproductive and reactive, you’ll struggle, kill your momentum, and end up joining the New York Jets down on Loser Street.

I’m here to save you and your clients from that fate (although sorry, we can’t save the Jets… I’m not a miracle worker).

Follow these 7 rules of high-performers so you don’t miss out on a single day of making massive progress towards your big goals and dreams.

1. Harness Your Champion Mindset

We’ve all been champions at one point in our lives. You might have been a state champion, a top bodybuilder, head of your fraternity or sorority, star of your school play, or the valedictorian of your class. Maybe you’ve had an amazing ‘before-and-after’ transformation or simply married out of your league.

Somewhere along the line, your plan came together and you rose to the top. That means you already have a champion mindset installed inside of you. Now, to get to the next level in life, you simply need to harness the power of your championship principles.

The winning principles in life are simple. I’ve seen them work time-after-time in many different industries for my thousands of coaching clients. I call them the 5 Pillars of Success:

i) Better Planning & Preparation Than Ever Before ii) Professional Accountability (your ‘coach’) iii) Positive Social Support (your ‘cheerleaders’) iv) A Meaningful Incentive v) The BIG Deadline

When you have these Championship Principles in place you can win the CrossFit Games, write your first book, or build a 7-figure coaching program.

Go back to a point in time where you had incredible success in life, look at what you did right, and apply those lessons to your life today.

2. Make Time Magic

If you’ve read my book, The Perfect Day Formula, you’ve heard the phrase “Magic Time.” This is the two-hour block of the day where you are three times more productive than usual. For many, like myself, magic time is in the morning.

Case in point: I wrote this 2000 word article in one shot between 4:05 and 6:15 a.m.

But at the Fitness Business Summit 2017 (FBS), John Romaniello challenged me on this principle. He said, “Screw Magic Time. Ignore Craig Ballantyne. Forget Bally the Dog.” Okay, he didn’t mention my dog (he’s not that cruel), but Roman did say that Magic Time wasn’t as effective as the power of a deadline.

At first I seethed with anger. Seethed, I tell you, seethed. (If you’ve never seen a Canadian seething with rage, just picture Mel Gibson in a 1970’s era hockey fight.) But after reflecting on what John said, his argument helped me modify, and improve, my Magic Time formula to make you an even more effective high performer.

There are multiple times of day when you can “trick” your body or your mind into performing at a higher level than you thought possible. It might be in your “Magic Time”, or it might be when you give yourself a hard deadline with consequences.

I still believe in the power of Magic Time. You need to find it in your day, and ruthlessly foster it and protect it from all the time thieves in your life.

And yes, as effective as Magic Time is, there’s nothing more powerful than a deadline.

I agree.

A deadline helps a high performer to get stuff done in record time for three reasons:

First, it spurs us to overcome the initial inertia.

Second, it keeps us going through the middle of a tough project knowing that we’re on the homestretch.

And third, it gets us to work faster and push harder the closer we get to the finish line.

3. Corollary: Make Time Your Bitch

“It’s not about the hour you get up, it’s about what you do with the hours that you are up.” – Craig Ballantyne

I don’t care what time you get up.

In fact, I don’t want you to get up at 4 a.m. One of the reasons I get up early is to avoid other people. So go back to bed and leave me alone!

High performers don’t worry about the clock. They focus on the concept of time and bend it to their will, owning their day and controlling their life. Let’s look at two extreme examples.

I get up at 3:45 a.m. seven days a week. It’s essential that I start writing at 4 a.m.

On the other hand, my good friend, Joel Marion has spent the last nine years dominating the online fitness and supplement industry working between the hours of 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. He clocks out when I clock in.

The actual hours don’t matter. Forget where the hands are on the clock. What matters is that high-performers take complete control over time and operate on their own time.

We snub the convention of the world and work when it works for us. We make the world operate on their clock, not the other way around. If you want to work from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m., then so be it. 

4. Today’s To-Do is for Tomorrow

One of the biggest mistakes potential high-performers make is waiting until the morning to create a to-do list.

But if you are making your to-do list in the morning, you are already too late. The list needs to be done the night before so you can wake up and get right to work.

Here’s a two-step plan for finishing your day correctly and starting tomorrow with a big win.

First, at the end of your workday, grab a scrap piece of paper and do what I call “a brain dump.” Write down all the crazy thoughts running through your head, such as all the things you want to do the next day, all the people you need to contact, and all the obstacles in your way.

Next, organize these thoughts into your to-do list. Prioritize your action items. Script your day. Cut what doesn’t matter. Insert your most important work tasks into clearly defined and defended blocks of time.

There you go. Tomorrow has been conquered today.

Planning ahead is a high-performers secret to success.

“Nothing wins more often than superior preparation. Genius is usually preparation.” – Kekich Credo #73

5. Feed Your Brain Rocket Fuel

This section isn’t a lecture on protein intake, organic foods, or staying hydrated. Gwenyth Paltrow can tell you how to do that. (Seriously, her Goop.com is one of my favorite reads.)

Besides, you most likely know physical nutrition inside-and-out. Instead, we’re going deeper and darker, and pushing the envelope with an edgy approach to fueling your mind.

You see, high-performers need a little extra. It could be caffeine, or it might be bourbon at 11 p.m. as you settle into a writing frenzy. 

Now I’m not suggesting you go full Hunter S. Thompson mode where you start your day with a line of cocaine at 4 p.m., but you need to give your mind whatever it needs to crank out content.

I initially resisted this idea. My father was an alcoholic, and it made me never wanted to become dependent on any substance in life.

For example, I would never go more than two days in a row consuming caffeine. I know you coffee drinkers can’t believe this. But I’m serious.

However, a little self-reflection made me realize that my best writing days were enhanced with a little rocket fuel for the brain (i.e. caffeine), so I loosened up and my performance went through the roof.

Keep in mind this is a calculated dose of rocket fuel, and you’re not being given permission to dose yourself willy-nilly.

Identify your rocket fuel. Dose accordingly. 6. Create an Insanely Clear & Concise Vision

High performers do this for every aspect of their lives; they create an insanely clear and concise vision of what they want. 

In my workshops and at my retreat, I take my coaching clients through an extensive two-hour vision creation process. It eliminates the clutter in your mind, and it gives you complete clarity on what matters in your life and how to achieve exactly what you want.

Once you’ve created your vision, only then can you start putting in place your daily high-performance habits that will bring you faster results in every area of your life.

Just like you can’t design a killer training program without knowing your client’s goals, and just like you can’t build a house without blueprints, you can’t get what you want without a vision.

7 . Model Other High Performers

This is not a definitive list of the rules that high performers follow, but it’s a good place for you to start so you can own your days and take back control of your life.

When you put these high performer habits in place, you’ll triple your productivity and start attracting more success and opportunity into your life. It’s a proven equation for domination.

But frankly, there’s so much more you need to install into your life in order to be the ultimate high-performer that you know you can be.

After working with over 5,000 coaching clients, I still see the need for greater self-confidence and techniques to overcome self-doubt, as well as better systems for eliminating temptations, obstacles, and external negativity that are likely holding you back in the first place.

That’s why I’d like to invite you to my Perfect Life Retreat on November 9-10th in San Diego.

You’ll join me, John Romaniello, Lewis Howes, Jason Ferruggia, Tucker Max, Bedros Keuilian, and over 200 other high performers across dozens of industries (from Hollywood actors to female entrepreneurs to The New York Times bestselling authors).

Over the two days we’ll do a deep dive into installing the Habits of High Performers into your life so you can finally achieve the success you deserve.

But this isn’t another seminar where you sit through lecture after lecture and leave with 40 pages of notes that you never end up implementing.

Instead, after we create the roadmap (vision) for your life, we’ll spend the rest of the time working through concrete action plans so that you leave with most of the work done-for-you and the snowball of success rolling down the hill and your momentum picking up speed.

At the end of our time together, you’ll walk away with a crystal clear action plan to achieve exactly what you want in life.

Plus, our team is doing something for you that you’ve never experienced at any other event.

As a recovering introvert, I know how difficult networking can be, even when you’re in a room of positive high-performers. That’s why our team is spending dozens of hours making your connections in advance.

We’ll give you a done-for-you list of who you need to meet (and why), so that you can make big-money connections easily and automatically. If even a fraction of the 100+ events I had attended in the past would have done this, I’d be exponentially more successful than I am today.

If you want to be a high-performer, if you want to install your champion mindset into every area of your life, if you want to meet the writers, coaches, and speakers that you’ve looked up to for years, and if you want to get a proven blueprint that gives you faster results, then you can’t miss out on the 1st ever Perfect Life Retreat.

Last thing… Roman’s twisted my arm and made me keep open my BOGO (buy one, get one) offer for his readers. That means when you register today that you get to bring a high-performer friend for free.

Click here to take advantage of this deal today.

The post Productivity Hack: 7 Tricks to Steal From the World’s Top Performers appeared first on Roman Fitness Systems.

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Fran Drescher, Millennial Whisperer – The New York Times

Fran Drescher’s voice, if you ever have the chance to hear it deployed in very close vicinity over shrimp tempura and spicy tuna sushi, is actually quite soothing.

When Drescher played Fran Fine on “The Nanny,” the 1990s sitcom she created with her then-husband Peter Marc Jacobson, she was pitching her voice higher, squeezing it up her nose, acting. Back then, The New York Times compared Drescher to “the sound of a Buick with an empty gas tank cold-cranking on a winter morning.” But here in her living room above Central Park, sitting among crystals, fresh lemons, fine sculpture and photographs of herself meeting establishment Democrats, she sounds more like a Mercedes purring out of the Long Island Expressway. For those who grew up with “The Nanny” as our nanny, her voice is so embedded in the subconscious that hearing the softened version is almost therapeutic. Imagine if Nanny Fine had an ASMR setting.

“I’ve heard it’s like a foghorn, a cackle,” Drescher said carefully, balancing her plate in the lap of her little black dress. “I always just describe myself as having a unique voice.” When she left Queens for Hollywood in the late 1970s, her manager told her, “If you want to play other parts, besides hookers, you’re going to have to learn to speak differently,” she recalled. Instead Drescher leaned into her natural gifts. In 1992, she pitched herself as a sitcom star to the president of CBS: “Because of the voice, they think I’m the seasoning in the show,” she told him. “That’s wrong. I’m a main course.”

America has not heard from Drescher much lately — she has not appeared regularly on television since her TV Land sitcom “Happily Divorced” ended in 2013, and “The Nanny” is sadly hard to stream — but this week, at 62, she returns to TV with NBC’s “Indebted.” As in the pilot of “The Nanny,” Drescher appears unexpectedly on a doorstep, except this time, it belongs to her adult son (Adam Pally). She and Steven Weber play Debbie and Stew Klein, a couple of boomer dilettantes who crash their kid’s married life with the news that they’re in debt. The role of Debbie, a boundaryless hugger who swans around her son’s suburban home as if it’s her own personal retirement community, inverts the “Nanny” dynamic: Now the kids have to take care of her.

When Drescher weighed whether to take on the show, a family sitcom that draws on generational conflict, she thought of her own family. “My parents, who are still alive, thank God, were so excited about me being on network television again,” she said. “You know, not everybody could find TV Land,” she added, “but everybody could find NBC.”

The role was not written for Drescher, exactly. The pilot script had called for a “Fran Drescher type,” and when the real Fran Drescher signed on, she required a few adjustments. “People are used to seeing an annoying mother-in-law in a sitcom, but that’s not what I signed up for,” Drescher said. “When you have somebody whose persona is bigger than the part, you got to make it right for me. Or why have me?”

That meant giving Debbie Klein some passions of her own. “I had to bring myself into it,” she said. “I really infused the sex appeal, the sensuality, the vivaciousness of the character.”

“Indebted” creator Dan Levy, a comedian and producer for “The Goldbergs,” said that he originally modeled Debbie and Stew after his own parents, but that the steaminess was all Drescher. “My mom was like, ‘That’s not based on us,’” Levy said. “She elevated that to a whole level that I was not expecting.”

In the decades since Drescher first opened her mouth onscreen, the Fran Drescher type has achieved a quiet dominance over popular culture. “The Nanny” has been syndicated around the world and remade in a dozen countries, including Turkey (where it was called “Dadi”), Poland (“Niania”) and Argentina (“La Niñera”). In “The Nanny,” for anyone who doesn’t have the chatty theme song implanted in her brain, Drescher plays a Jewish woman from Queens hired to tend to the three precocious children of a wealthy English widower, Maxwell Sheffield, who is also Broadway’s second-most-successful producer (after his nemesis, Andrew Lloyd Webber). In foreign versions, the ethnicities are recalibrated — in the Russian one, the nanny is Ukrainian — but the Fran Drescher type is otherwise preserved. Wherever she goes, the ethnic striver is transplanted into a posh setting as the help, and her appealing culture and individual charm pull off the ultimate makeover — reinventing the strait-laced insiders in her own brash image.

Across the internet, Fran Fine is helping to perform similar tricks. With her pile of hair, power-clashing wardrobe and cartoon proportions, she has been fashioned into an avatar of stylish self-respect. In GIFs spirited around social media, she can be seen in a cheetah-print skirt suit, sipping from a cheetah-print teacup; inhaling a plate of spaghetti with no hands; and descending the Sheffields’ ivory staircase as if entering New York’s hottest club.

“I send this when I’m excited,” Drescher said, summoning her phone from her assistant Jordan and thumbing to a GIF of Fine twirling across the mansion in a fuchsia dress and a self-satisfied look. “How many people can send their own GIF?”

The Fran Drescher type is a kind of advisory role. First she was the world’s nanny, showing kids how to mix prints and be themselves, and now she has matured into a cool-aunt persona, modeling a fabulous adulthood. (“Broad City” made this transformation literal, squeezing Drescher into a low cut rainbow and cheetah-print dress and casting her as Ilana’s Aunt Bev, and by extension the spirit guide for a new generation of Jewish comediennes.) “I’ve never had kids, so I’m not really parental,” Drescher said. “I’m a mom to my dogs.”

“I’m kind of an influencer,” she added. Drescher has led an unconventional life, and “I share it,” she said. “It gives my life purpose.” In two memoirs, she has discussed being raped at gunpoint in her 20s, surviving uterine cancer in her 40s, and divorcing Jacobson only to acquire a new gay best friend when he subsequently came out. Recently she thrilled the internet when she revealed that she has secured a “friend with benefits” whom she meets twice a month for television viewing and sex. “I don’t think it’s that shocking a thing,” Drescher said. “I’m not in love with him.”

The kids who grew up watching “The Nanny” are now Nanny Fine’s age, old enough to properly covet her closet and cultivate a newfound respect for her persona. On Instagram, the @whatfranwore account catalogs classic “Nanny” outfits, and @thenannyart pairs them with contemporary art pieces. Cardi B once captioned a photo of herself in head-to-toe cat prints: “Fran Drescher in @dolceandgabbana.” The actor Isabelle Owens will mount a one-woman song-and-dance show dedicated to Drescher in New York this month, called “Fran Drescher, Please Adopt Me!” “As everything from the ’90s comes back, people are rediscovering her,” Owens said, noting Drescher’s fashion, her confidence, and her voice; Owens is still working to perfect her impersonation. “There are so many layers to it,” she said. “It’s so delicate and lyrical.”

The Fran Drescher type, no matter how big it gets, still risks reducing the woman behind it. “All of her is in me, but not all of me is in her,” Drescher said. “I don’t think any of my characters could have ever created and executive-produced ‘The Nanny.’” Fran Fine might have been able to wrap the boss around her red-lacquered little finger, but Drescher is the boss. When she secured her own New York apartment, in 2004, it was here, just across the park from the house that stood in for the Sheffield mansion on “The Nanny.” Soon her transformation into Mr. Sheffield will be complete: She is developing a Broadway show of her own, a musical adaptation of “The Nanny” that she will co-write with Jacobson.

“The Nanny” is a timely bid for Broadway. Drescher takes the stage’s most classic feminine archetype and gives her a modern upgrade: She is Eliza Doolittle if she refused to take her voice lessons.

That’s perhaps the biggest misconception about the Fran Drescher type — that the voice is an unfortunate obstacle, rather than a cultivated asset. Once, a fan asked Drescher about the classic “Nanny” scene where Fran Fine goes for sushi, naïvely swallows a wad of wasabi, and says, in an eerily neutral broadcaster’s voice, “Gee, you know, that mustard really clears out the nasal passages.” The fan wanted to know how Drescher had managed to pull that voice off. Sitting in her parkside apartment, perched in her producer’s chair, confidently apportioning her wasabi, Drescher revealed her secret: “I’m very talented.”

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