All posts filed under: Motivation

Feeling each piece of grass on your toes

Published by Colin Nanka

It’s a really busy and anxious world we live in right now and if you don’t get a hold of your angst, it will strangle you.  “Try to walk so slowly that you feel each piece of grass on the bottom of your foot.”  That is what my friend Michael Apollo told me.  He was teaching me a walking meditation. I was 29 and feeling overwhelmed with work and life and had come to know Michael through a local health and wellness clinic. He taught some group mindfulness classes which I enjoyed so I decided to see if I could learn more 1:1.  As someone who was always active, this was a new way to bring some calm into my life. We were hanging out in a park near a busy street in Toronto. There was construction nearby, and I wasn’t sure how this was going to work.  In my mind, I felt anxious. “How can I concentrate with the construction noise? Is this going to work? Why can’t those people walking by be quiet? We should …

How to fall in love with your abilities

Published by Colin Nanka

“We can fall in love with our own abilities and our own potential, then choose to maximize those abilities.” – Bob Rotella, performance psychologist, New York Times Bestseller author Thanksgiving is always a good time to evaluate your progress in a year, surrounded by friends and family. We often focus on the endpoint, the results, instead of focusing on the journey and the abilities and skills that got us there. Taking time to reflect on how you have grown and how your best performances look and feel like, can often tell you more about where to focus next. In the spirit of incremental learning, take some time this week to answer these two questions: 1. What does it look and feel like when I perform at my best? 2.  What are two changes can I make in my daily routine to support performing at my best? Have a great Thanksgiving week. Defeating Average. Colin

Preparation – Be there before you arrive 

Published by Colin Nanka

My running coach in high school 20+ years ago said if you invest time visualizing your race, you will have a much better chance of success than if you don’t.  I didn’t get it. Now I do.  I would show up to each race and experience a few obstacles for the first time, trying to handle them in high-stress moments in races lasting 60 to 120 seconds where 1-2 seconds were the difference between success and failure.  I finished 4th a lot! Would visualizing have made the difference between 4th (you’ll get them next year!) and a medal?  100 Percent How does that apply to presenting in a meeting? 1.  Drilling your content like going to practice every day is table stakes.  2. Testing yourself against different competitors will give you different feedback. Test your talk track and concepts through multiple people.  3. Visualize the process. From when you arrive at the event, to the warm-up to the race (or meeting) to how you want to feel during and after.  4. Define what success looks …

Make Your Content Short and Sweet

Published by Colin Nanka

In this three-part blog, I’m going to answer a recent mentees question on how you prepare for an executive presentation. Part 2 – Preparing Content If you have been like me, I get wrapped up in putting slides and content together and getting stuck! As I have learned over time, start by hitting the ball down the fairway, instead of playing in the trees. Start by answering this question: 1. What challenges are you solving for? – Slide 1 This will guide the rest of your presentation (or golf round) 2. What are your big bets or solution to the challenges? – Slide 2 3-5 ideas Show them visually  Have anecdotes or stories to back them up No more than 25 words on a slide (much less is better) 3. Money Slide – Slide 3 If it’s a business plan – show an annual view of the program (s) If it’s a sales proposal – show the ROI of each solution You are likely to spend time on one slide when executives start asking questions, this is it.  …

I’ve traveled around the world to come home 

Published by Colin Nanka

Sometimes you can go all the way around the world, just to come home to find what you are looking for. I’ve spent 23 years selling and leading teams. I’ve traveled to every continent adventuring, including two of my favorites, the Atacama desert in Chile and Antarctica. Those terms have been my identity. My greatest accomplishment I hope to be raising my daughter with confidence and courage. I’ve certainly learned skills on the path less traveled that will help in this new adventure. Whatever your journey has been and the obstacles you have overcome, if you are a parent, you don’t have to travel the globe to be a big influence in your child’s life. The greatest gift can be raising a child to have confidence, meet them where they are at (in my case on the ground) and invest time. Defeating Average. Colin

I am busy and I am anxious

Published by Colin Nanka

Part 4   “I don’t actually have serious work problems but I am anxious about that.” I can recall through my career, my feelings Sunday when the weekend glow would start to end and the realization I had to go back to work the next week would start to set in.  Like the glow starting to dim after the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve. Two things I am going to address here:  I am busy and I am anxious. Even if we like our job, we are often really busy, treading water trying to keep up. I noticed about a year ago, that when I asked people “how it’s going?” they would say “busy”.   It didn’t give me any information about what they were working on or how they were feeling, except that they may be overwhelmed.   It had me question, when I used that term (which I was often) how people left interactions with me?? I decided to do two things: 1. Be ready for the question I share 2-3 …

I don’t like my job

Published by Colin Nanka

Part 3 In her NY Times article and a part-time gig as work friend, Megan Greenwell writes about “How Your Job Will Never Love You Back.” Here are four buckets Megan puts most work anxiety into: My boss annoys me. My co-workers (usually millennials) annoy me. I am dissatisfied with the type of work I do and/or don’t know what to do next. I don’t actually have serious work problems but I am anxious about that. I remember sitting down with one of my early mentors in sales, Rick after a sales call. He was a big burly guy with force and a kind heart. We talked about what I did well and where I could improve. One of the things he picked up for me, that even when I made some mistakes in the sales process, I was intently focused on listening and getting back on track.  It may have been a winding road, but I achieved the objective. Fast forward eight years and in the first couple sessions with my coach I hired, …

Go On a Listening Tour

Published by Colin Nanka

Part 2 In her NY Times article and a part-time gig as work friend, Megan Greenwell writes about “How Your Job Will Never Love You Back.“ Here are four buckets Megan puts most work anxiety into: My boss annoys me. My co-workers (usually millennials) annoy me. I am dissatisfied with the type of work I do and/or don’t know what to do next. I don’t actually have serious work problems but I am anxious about that. Here are my thoughts on her four buckets in part two of the blog series:   My co-workers annoy me It sounds like maybe you have not found your tribe. In his recent book, Trailblazer, Marc Benioff talks about how Salesforce is a value-centered organization. I have been here 14 years and I can tell you: Trust, Customer Success, Innovation and Growth have ebbed and flowed as our values year over year, with the recent addition of equality. I would ask you, have you done the work to define your own strengths and values and overlayed those against the current role or …

Your Job Will Never Love You Back

Published by Colin Nanka

In her NY Times article and a part-time gig as work friend, Megan Greenwell writes about “How Your Job Will Never Love You Back.” Let me ask you a question: When does work anxiety start creeping in for you? Sunday at 9 pm, 6 pm, 10 am, Saturday, or does it ever leave? For me, it’s on Saturday at 8am. If I don’t get a couple of hours of “work” done Saturday morning, I feel behind. The more I get done Saturday morning, the more I can enjoy the rest of the weekend with my family. Here are four buckets Megan puts most work anxiety into: My boss annoys me. My co-workers (usually millennials) annoy me. I am dissatisfied with the type of work I do and/or don’t know what to do next. I don’t actually have serious work problems but I am anxious about that. Here are my thoughts on her four buckets in a four-part blog series:   My boss annoys me   Here is my advice, don’t work for a bad boss. I …

10 Tactics to Better Manage Your Energy and Time 

Published by Colin Nanka

On Monday I talked about better managing your energy.  Below are my top 10 Tactical Ways I manage Energy and Time.  “Einstein is reported to have said that if he only had one hour to solve a problem he would spend 55 minutes defining the problem and the remaining 5 minutes solving it routinely.” Each Saturday morning for an HOUR (it’s a time I tend to be freshest) I re-organize my calendar for the next weeks ahead and ask myself:  Does this meeting serve my top 5 priorities this month, my team (direct team, boss and partner teams)?  How many mentor meetings do I have in the calendar? Optimal 2 per week.  How many peer collaboration meetings that provide me inspiration? Optimal 2-3 per week  I write a “Focus for the week” email to my team outlining our top 4-5 priorities for the week. They tell me it helps keep them on track and is a check for me against my responsibilities as a team leader.  I put my own oxygen mask on first. Starting …