created by leaders for leaders

theBlueprint was founded by Ryan Javanbakht and friends, and formulated in 2015 by a group of young, hungry professionals seeking greatness, success and mastery through the collaboration of thoughts, ideas, struggles, trials and wins!  We didn't create this because we had all the answers...but rather because we wanted to find all the answers.  We wanted to be better, faster, wealthier, smarter...and that's what we have become.  

As a team, disciplined with purpose and integrity, we traveled through our thoughts, our challenges and our wins to become better leaders, friends, and professionals.  Now, in 2017 we take this to the public!  All are welcome - all genders, all ages...we are here to share - to help people, help people.  

Ryan

the blueprint meeting Recaps, etc. 

Follow below, in chronilogical ascending order to learn more about theBlueprint experience, topics, guests, etc.

TBD

High performance habits:Habit #4 - Increase productivity 

5/16/18

High Performance habits:Habit #3 - raise necessity 

4/12/18

Higher performance habits: Habit #2 - Generate Energy

3/8/18

High Performance Habits:Habit #1 - Seek Clarity

(Key points from High Performance Habits, by Brendon Burchard, shared in "theBlueprint" with Activator, Inc.)

Envision the Future

Determine the feeling you’re after 

Define what’s meaningful

Kate's Story

• No matter what Kate Is talking about, you can tell she’s genuinely interested in you. 
• She has indescribable grace about her. 
• Whenever I see her walking to your room, I think of saying: 

“There are two types of people…

One walks into the room and announces, here I am! 

The other walks in and says, oh, there you are!” 

• However, she says…I’m a mess. Going through the motions. I’m not drowning. I’m just sort of frustrated and restless at the same time. Does that make sense?  I am starting to feel disconnected.  I just don’t know what I want anymore.  
• Do you know anyone like this?!  YES!  Me...at times.  

Clarity Basics 

• The essential habit of seeking clarity helps high performers keep engaged, growing, and fulfilled over the long haul.
• Clarity is not a personality trait that someone are blessed to have and others are not. Just as a power plant doesn’t have energy, it transforms energy, you don’t have any specific reality. You generate your reality it is the same line of thinking we don’t have clarity, you generate it! 
• Don’t hope for a flash of inspiration to reveal what you want next. 

Generate clarity! 

• Clarity is the child of careful thought and mindful examination. 
• It comes from asking yourself questions continuing and further refining your perspective on life.
• Clarity on who you are is associated with overall self-esteem. 
• Decades of research show that having specific and difficult goals increase his performance, whether those goals are created by you or assigned to you. 
• You should give yourself deadlines for your goals or you will not follow through. Knowing when and where you will be doing something can more than double the likelihood of you treating a challenging goal. 
• High clarity scores are significantly associated with greater confidence, overall happiness and assertiveness. Subjects with greater clarity tend report that they are performing with more excellence than their peers.
• They feel they are making a difference. 

Are you clear about these things?

if not, start there!

Next-Level Clarity is about the Future

“I looked over and I’ve seen the promise land.” 

Martin Luther King Jr. 

Great questions to ask yourself:

• Which things are you absolutely clear about that I hope you perform better than your period?
• What do you focus on to stay clear about what matters most? 
• What are you clear about, and how does that affect your performance? 
• What do you do when you are feeling uncertain or on directed? 
• If you had to explain to someone you were mentoring what makes you successful, what would you say? 
• what else do you know about yourself –beyond your values and strengths and  plans – that makes you successful?

This future focus went well beyond what high performers wanted to become or how they would achieve what they and others wanted. 

They could also describe with clarity how they wanted to feel in upcoming endeavors, and knew specifically what conditions could destroy their enthusiasm, sense of satisfaction, and grow.

Practice One 

Envision the Future Four

“Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so you shall become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last and unveil.“ 

James Allen

Self 

• High performers know themselves, but they don’t get stuck there. 
• They are more focused on sculpting themselves into stronger and more capable people. 
• That’s a big difference: introspection VS  intention.
• High performers spend a lot of time thinking about their best self and the ideal they’re trying to grow into.
• Actively do things that exhibit a future characteristic you desire.
• Be more intentional about who you want to become. 
• Have vision beyond your current circumstances. 
• Imagine your best future self, and start acting like that person today!

Live. Love. Matter. 

Did I live fully today? 

Did I love? 

Did I matter?

Exercise

• Describe how you’ve perceived yourself in the following situations over the past several months – with your significant other, at work, with the kids or teens, in social situations with strangers.
• Now ask, “is this who I really see myself being in the future? How would my future self work, feel, and behave differently in those situations?
• If you could describe yourself in just three aspirational words – words that would sum up who you are at your best in the future – what would those words be? Why are those words meaningful to you? Once you find your words, put them in your phone as an alarm label it goes off several times per day.

Social

• High performers have clear intentions about how they want to treat other people. 
• They have high situational awareness and social intelligence, which helped them succeed and lead. 

Great questions that high performers ask right before interacting with people: 

• How can I be a good person or leader in this upcoming situation? 
• What will the other person or people need? 
• What kind of mood and tone do I want to set?

High performers most often responded with words such as thoughtful, appreciative, respectful, open, honest, empathetic, loving, caring, kind, present, and fair. 

Respect

• High performers want to be respected and they want to demonstrate respect with others. 
• What is apparent across all high performers is that they anticipate positive social interactions and strive consciously in consistently to create them!
• They have thought about how they want to be remembered – they think about their character and legacy.

Juggling

• When you are constantly juggling and feeling depleted, you don’t think about the future.
• This is a common struggle with achievers. They want to be better lovers and parents but feel stretched too thin. 

Exercise 

• Write down each person’s name intermediate family and team.
• Imagine that in 20 years each person is describing why they love and respect you. If each person can say three words to sunrise their interactions they had with you in life, what would you want those three words to be?
• Next time you’re with each of those people, approach your time with them as an opportunity to demonstrate those three qualities. 
• Challenge yourself to be that person now!

Skills

• High performers are very clear about the skills that they need to develop now to win in the future.
• Executives that score higher on the HPI tend to have more blocks of time already scheduled for learning then do their peers with lower scores. 
• They aren’t just doing this for pleasure, but actively to develop mastery. 
• High performers are also working on skills that focus on what I call their primary field of interest, PFI.
• Look to the future. 
• Identify key skills. 
• Obsessively develop those skills.

“If you leave your growth to randomness, you always live in the land of mediocrity.”

Exercise

• Think about your primary field interest and write down three skills that make people successful in that field.
• Under each skill, write down what you will do to develop it.
• Think about your primary field of interest and write down three skills that you need in order to succeed in that field 5 to 10 years from now. 
• What new skills will you need then? 
• Keep those skills on your radar and start developing them sooner than later.

Service

• High performers look to tomorrow and consider their service to the world.
• How can I serve people with excellence and make an extraordinary contribution to the world?
• When someone becomes disconnected from the future and her contribution to it, the underperform.
• What will provide the most value to those you serve?
• Relevance has to do with illuminating things that don’t matter anymore. 
• High performers don’t live in the past, and they don’t keep pet projects at the forefront. 
• They ask, what matters now and how can I deliver it?
• Differentiation allows her to look at their industry, their career, and even the relationships for what makes them unique. Excellence comes from an internal standard that asks, 
• how can I deliver beyond what is expected?
• How can I serve with excellence?

Performance Prompts 

1. When I think about the future four – self, social, skill, and service – the area I have not had as much intention  in as I should is...
2. The areas in which I have not been considering those I serve and lead are...
3. To leave a lasting legacy, the contributions I can start making now...

Practice Two:Determine the Feeling You’re After 

"Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

Howard Thurman

Define the feeling!

• Emotions are generally instinctive. 
• A triggering event – which can be an external situation or simply our brain anticipating something – generates an emotional response like fear, amusement, sadness, anger, relief, or love. 
• Often, the emotional response happens without much of our conscious will; we just suddenly feel the emotion because our brain interpreted something happening and attach a meaning and emotion to it, guided mostly from how we sensed the situation from the past.
• Think of any motion as mostly a reaction, and feeling as interpretation.
• You can experience the sudden emotion of fear, but the very next moment choose to feel centered.
• Instead of allowing the emotion to evoke the feeling of dread, I can just let it be, take a few deep breath’s, and choose to feel alert yet calm. 
• My automatic emotions don’t have to be in charge my feelings are my own.
• Emotions come and go. 
• They’re mostly immediate, instinctive, and physical. 
• Feelings last, and they’re often a result of rumination, would you have control over. Anger can be an emotion that comes up, but bitterness – the lasting feeling – doesn’t have to be your lifelong sentence.
• It’s when we stop being conscious of our  feelings that we get in trouble. Then the negativity in the world can start stirring negative emotions, which, if we don’t control the meaning of, can evoke long-term negative feelings, which in turn set the stage for horrible life.

Ask:

“what do I want to feel today?

How could I define the meaning of the day so that I feel what I want to?“

Performance Prompts 

1. The emotions I’ve been experiencing a lot of lately are... 
2. The areas of life where I am not having the feelings I want to are...
3. The feelings I want to experience more of in life include...
4. The next time I feel negative emotion come up, the thing I’m going to say to myself is...

Practice Three - Define What is Meaningful 

“Unhappiness is not knowing what we want and killing ourselves to get it.”

Donald Herbold

What differentiates high performers from others is there critical eye in figuring out what is going to be meaningful to their life experience. 

They spend more of their time doing things that they find meaningful, and this makes them happy.

Meaning

• What is meaning? 
• Most people often associate clear sense of purpose with an overall sense of meaning in life.

Questions

• How do you know you are doing something meaningful? 
• What does it feel like? If you had to choose between two good projects, how would you go about choosing the one that would be most meaningful to you? 
• How do you know when you’re doing something that isn’t bringing meaning to your life? 
• At the end of your life, how would you know whether you had lived a meaningful life?
• High performers link enthusiasm with meaning! 

• High performers link connection to meaning.
• Connection is less about comfort than about challenge.
• High performers value being around inspiring people who push them to grow more than people who are just fun to be around for generally kind. 
• High performers relate satisfaction with meaning. 
• They feel that their life is more meaningful. 
• When your efforts correspond with one of your primary passions, with personal or professional growth, and make a clear and positive contribution to others, you tend to call those efforts satisfying.

Passion + Growth + Contribution = Personal Satisfaction 

High performers say their efforts have meaning for them when they feel like their life makes sense. 

Psychologists call this coherence. 

It means that the story of our life is comprehensible in someway.

They want to know their efforts align with something important, their work is significant, and that their lives are creating a legacy in for a larger purpose.

Enthusiasm + Connection + Satisfaction + Coherence = Meaning 

You need to bring more conscious and consistent thought to what you will find meaningful in life.

Performance prompts

1. The activities that I currently do that bring me the most meaning are...
2. The activities or projects that I should stop doing, because they are not bringing me any sense of meaning are...
3. If I was going to add new activities that bring me more meaning, the first ones I would add would be...

The goal is to focus on these things more consistently than you ever have before. With greater focus will come greater clarity, and with greater clarity will come more consistent action and, ultimately, high-performance! 

Clarity Chart..do it!...often! 

2/7/18

high performance habits:Intro + beyond natural 

(Key points from High Performance Habits, by Brendon Burchard, shared in "theBlueprint" with Activator, Inc.)

“Excellence is an art one by training and I’ve been tuition. We do not act rightly because we have the virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have act rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.“

Aristotle

High Performance Habits pulls 20 years of research! 

• This book is about going to the next level. 
• Far too many don’t even try. 
• Many people plateau or burnout. 
• Achievers feel like they are thrashing about and don’t have the system to maintain long term Success. 
• There is fear and hardship. 
• It reveals what it takes to be not just an achiever, but high performance. 
• Value and grit is not enough to reach high performance. 
• You must consider more than your individuals passions. 
• The world cares less about your strengths and personality, and more about your service to others. 

Kate's Story

• No matter what Kate Is talking about, you can tell she’s genuinely interested in you. 
• She has indescribable grace about her. 
• Whenever I see her walking to your room, I think of saying: 

“There are two types of people…

One walks into the room and announces, here I am! 

The other walks in and says, oh, there you are!” 

However, she says…I’m a mess. Going through the motions. I’m not drowning. I’m just sort of frustrated and restless at the same time. Does that make sense?  I am starting to feel disconnected.  I just don’t know what I want anymore.  

Do you know anyone like this?!  YES!  Me...at times.  

If you don’t get  clear about what you want, you will begin to worry and start negative self talk!!! 

Ultimately, the dissatisfaction spreads into relationships at all or at work, and others notice.

Brendon teaches and warns us: 

• You will never figure anything out, just keep adapting, because tomorrow everything changes again.
• What you need is a reliable set of practices or unleashing your greatest abilities. 
• Study high performers and you will see that they have system built into their days that drive their success.

What he says is NOT working: 

• Work hard
• Be passionate
• Focus on your strengths
• Practice a lot
• Stick to it
• Be grateful

Brendon learned... 

High Performance Lessons 

• Why do some individuals and teams succeed more quickly than others and sustain at success over the long term?
• Of those who pull it off, why are some miserable and others happy on their journey?
• What makes people to reach for their highest levels of success in the first place, and what kinds of habits, training, and support help them improve faster?

• With the right habits, anyone can dramatically increase results and become a high performer in almost any field of endeavor.
• Not all habits are created equal. 
• Achievement is not your problem – alignment is.
• Certainty is the enemy and I performance.
• Technology won’t save us.

What Is High Performance?...according to Brendon. 

• High performance refers to succeeding beyond standard norms, consistently over the long term.
• High performers break the norms. 
• They are consistently exceeding the standard expectations and results.
• They are steady. 
• They regularly beat expectations. 
• There’s a consistency to their efforts that eludes their peers. 
• They are not surprise Winners.
• Succeeding beyond standard norms consistently over the long term requires habits that protect your well-being, maintain positive relationships, and ensure that you serve others as you climb. You simply can’t beat the norms if you’ve proven yourself into ground it’s about creating high-performance life, in which you experience an ongoing feeling of engagement, joy, and confidence that comes from being your best self.

What Brendon has learned and knows about High Performers:  

• High performers are more successful than their peers, yet they are less stressed.
• High performers challenges and are more confident that they will achieve their goals despite adversity.
• High performers are healthier than her peers. 
• High performers are happy. 
• High performers are admired. 
• High performers get better grades and teach higher positions of success. 
• High performers work passionately regardless of traditional rewards. 
• High performers are assertive for the right reasons. 
• High performers see and serve beyond their strengths. 
• High performers are uniquely productive – they’ve mastered prolific quantity output. 
• High performers are adaptive servant leaders.

Habits of High Performers: HP6

• Each of the habits is learnable, improvable, and deployable across all contexts of life.
• Traditionally, habits are created when we do something so many times that it becomes almost automatic. 
• That’s because habits that really matter in improving performance are not unconscious. 
• These are deliberate habits. 
• Deliberate habits usually don’t come easily.

Take the hp6 assessment at www.highperformanceindicator.com

“Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.“

William Faulkner

Beyond Natural

• You will see that success in general in almost any endeavor, is made possible by valuable factors – things you can change and improve with effort. 
• For example: the mindset you adopt. 
• The focus you give to your passions, and the persistence you pursue them with. 
• The amount of practice you dedicate yourself to. 
• The way you understand and treat others.
• The discipline and constancy with which you strive for your goals. 
• The way you bounce back from losses. The amount of physical exercise you do to keep your brain and body fit in your over all well-being cared for.
• Success is achieved by a specific type of person, but rather by people from all walks of life who enact a specific set of practices.

“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.“

Jim Rohn

HPI: High Performance Indicator 

• Found that not only do the six habits combine to correlate with high performance, but each habit correlates with high performance on its own. Together they correlate with other important life outcomes, such as general happiness, better health, and positive relationships.
• HP6 are under your control and improve your performance more than anything else we’ve measured.
• Seek clarity on what you want to be, how you want to interact with others, what you want, and what will bring you the greatest meaning. 
• Generate energy so you can maintain focus, effort, and well-being.
• Raise the necessity for exceptional performance.
• Increase productivity in your primary field of interest.
• Develop influence with those around you.
• Demonstrate courage by expressing your ideas, taking bold action, and standing up for yourself and others, even in the face of fear, uncertainty, thread, or changing conditions. 
• Courage is not an occasional act, but a trait of choice and will.
• Strengths Alone Are Never Enough 

• Effectiveness in life does not come from focusing on what is automatic, easy, or natural for us. 
• It is the result of how we consciously strive to meet life’s harder challenges, grow beyond our comfort, and deliberately work to overcome our biases and preferences, so that we may understand, love, serve, and lead others.
• Reaching the top does not come naturally to anyone. 
• To rise higher you must go beyond what came naturally to you at birth. 
• To reach exceptional performance and win over the long term, you will be required to develop well beyond what is easy or natural for you, because the real world is full of uncertainty and ever increasing demands for growth.

“It’s about me rising to serve a mission, not the mission bowing down to match my limited strength.“

Tom

• What you are innately good at is less important than how you choose to see the world, develop yourself, lead others, and remain persistent throughout difficulty.
• Go here for published articles: www.highperformanceinstitute.com/research 

A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats-One Habit Lifts All Others 

• HP6 = Meta-Habits because they make all other good habits in life fall into place.
• The HP6 project overall happiness, meaning the higher your score in any habits, the greater the audio reports being happy in life.

Is There a High Performance “State of Mind”? 

• By definition, emotional and mental states don’t endure. They are fleeting. Moods stick around longer, and habits call the longest. 
• High performers report feeling for engagement, joy, and confidence in that order. 
• This means they tend to be fully immersed in what they are doing, they enjoy what they are doing, and they have confidence in their ability to figure things out.
• Rounding out the top five were purpose fullness and flow, as in I feel like I’m in flour. 
• Determination, focus, intention, deliberateness, and conscientiousness rounded out the top concepts people used to describe what being in high-performance felt like.

11/16/17

The New Entrepreneurz Chapters 6-9

Green Titles vs. Red Titles

When I’m old and dying, I plan to look back on my life and say…“Wow, that was an adventure,” not “Wow, I sure felt safe.” 

Thomas Preston- Werner, GitHub Cofounder. 

Green Titles

• Green titles are optional choices.
• You are the activator of that green title journey!
• It is an electric experience to
  • Activate new people and connections, new educational streams and new business simply because you view them as available green titles

• Green titles mean I can!
• You always get to experience the power of it being your choice.

Red titles

• Red titles are mandatory actions - You must fulfill what is required. 
• Red titles are actions you must choose to do. 
• We have been raised in a world of too many self-imposed read titles that came along with that are in here did believe systems. 
• Here are some of the red titles we often hear about:
  • You must go to school/college.
  • You must get a job. 
  • You must make a lot of money to really matter.*
  • You must get married and have a family. 
  • You must have lots of stuff.*
  • You must work until retirement age.
• Ronen and home ownership 
  • We have nothing against homeownership, but it should not be linked to choice, self-expression and the best timing for each person. 

Smart Business

"Chase the vision, not the money; the money will end up following you.”  

Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO

• The world is dynamic and is in a constant state of flux, making it important to learn how to generate change.
• We specifically say generate, because it comes from within rather than from without.
• Generating change means that instead of waiting for something to happen, you choose to create proactively. 
• Life doesn't take turns, so you need to play with you’ve got when you've got it!

Competition

Question:

How do I win without being competitive? 

How do I get out of the Competitive Mindset and still win? 

• The notion of competition is based on the misunderstanding of how the game of economy works.
  • We’ve been miseducated on purpose by economy.
• This comes from the source of thinking things are limited. 
  • We don’t have to compete if we believe that we live in a place of abundance. 
  • There are WAY more people on earth than there were before.

Answer: 

• Competition if for amateurs! 
  • Apple and Steve Jobs example.

• ASK YOURSELF: 
  • How do I get so damn good at what I do, that there is no other choice so that they (customers, opposite sex, etc.) always choose me!
• Forget competition, we will attract those that are like me, etc!

Characteristics of a Smart Business

1. It serves a higher mission with your unique voice. 
2. It demonstrates a Win-to-the-Winth Power. 
3. It supports your lifestyle.

All In

"You jump off a cliff and you assemble on the way down."  Reed Hoffman, LinkedIn Co-Founder 

How do you go all in? 

• Unlock a certain belief!
• In every single aspect of our lives, we are going all in!
  • School for +17 years
  • Driving in traffic…you trust everyone else to be safe. 
  • Savings in the bank…we trust them to keep our $ safe. 
• In our head, we block off the knowledge that we are all in.  
• Put the O2 max on yourself before you help others. 
• Life is not Poker…
  • You can go all in, over and and over 
• Let’s consciously and mindfully go all in for ourselves!*
  • If we’re all in, why not go all in for ourselves? 
  • We are not BLIND to this…be aware and go all in! 

• We can go all in in nearly every aspect of our lives…Can be a healthy mindset. 
• The New World Mindset
  • Choose proactivity. 
  • Be present, conscious and mindful in all aspects of life. 
  • Don't play it small, play it safe, or wait for later.
  • Go all in with passion, dedication, and drive.  
  • Understand that going all in is not permanent. 

• Example: a poker player that goes all in and loses doesn't abstain from playing the game ever again.
  • Somethings may work out and somethings may not, but life is not over! 
  • Another hand can always be dealt.
  • Open a new business, make a new friend, moved to a new city, etc.
  • Don't hold in because of small pockets of fear and scarcity.
• Don't say getting it right or later, do your best now and get the greatness! 
  • Example: Fall on your bike, you get up, fall again, get back up now you're riding smoothly, fall again, next thing you know you're driving…

You've Already Won!

• Life is a time limited game. 
  • No matter your achievements or results, you can't change that one parameter. 
  • Play your part as best as you can, before your time is up. 

• Life doesn't come with an instruction booklet. 
• You have choice…You get to choose! 
  • The power of choice is at its best when setting the goal of the game. 
  • Being a winner is being true to your destiny, to playing to role you came to play here on this planet. 
  • Finding that role can sometimes be a life journey of its own, but we believe that the more you look outside and the more you listen to your intuition, the closer you'll get to understanding it! 
  • Stick to your goals and your values and you'll make it! 

Solving the Wold's Greatest Problems

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” Walt Disney

• We believe that the New Entrepreneurz have the opportunity AND the responsibility to solve the world’s greatest problem. 

It is our OBLIGATION to help with: 

• Poverty
• Hunger 
• Planet’s resources 
• War 
• Hate 
• Greed 
• Fear 

• Zoom out to take a wider look…
  • *It’s easy to see that all these seemingly different aspects are merely symptoms of the same problem. 

• All the wrong in the world can be traced back to one place…
  • The Mindset we hold, or precisely the Wrong Mindset! 
• The New Entrepreneurz Role 
  • As purpose-driven, game-changing, strong believers in self-expression with a Win-to-the-Winth-Power approach, it’s up to us to make the difference! 
• Be the difference / change / “X" you want to see in the world! 
• Everything we do affects our mindset and the mindset of others. 
• We can CHOOSE to have the right effect on the planet! 
• Choose to solve the world’s greatest problem one game at a time. 

10/12/17

The new entrepreneurz Chapters 2-5

“All humans should be entrepreneurs not because they should start companies, but because the will to create is encoded in human DNA.” Reed Hoffman, LinkedIn Co-Founder

We struggle with problems that never even happened...

...instead of taking action and going all in.

• Entrepreneurial thinkers are:
  • Always on the lookout for solutions!
  • Take into account potential outcomes!
  • Reduce risks by applying multidimensional thinking!
  • Know there’ll be obstacles to over come, and then go! 
• Becoming an entrepreneurial thinker is just a question of what challenges you are willing to face!
• Entrepreneurz mindset is a new way of thinking. 
  • Thinking a way that allows you to tackle obstacles and find solutions. 
• Most people just don't take action.  Why? 
  • Fear of price of change!!! 
  • How else does this impact your life!? 

“I'm an old man and know of great troubles, but most of them have never happened.” Mark Twain

What Game are you Playing?

• Do you find yourself playing the wrong game?
• Do you like the role you are playing in business and relationships?
• Do people feel good when they engage in a relationship with you?
• How can you change the rules in the game that you were playing to be more in line with the new?
• It is up to you, or us to make a shift and make a difference in our own lives and the lives of people that play in our game.

• Human nature: 

The fear of losing the familiar is always greater than the wish to move into the unknown.

• What does it cost you to NOT follow your dreams?! 
  • Not realizing your true potential 
  • Having to live with lower self-esteem. Realizing the negative message your sending to your kids.
  • Having to comply with your boss. 
  • Earning less than you think you could.
• You must understand that not taking action carries its own set of risks and failures!
• Saying:  “We always have a price to pay.”
  • The question is if you're paying to fulfill your dreams or maintain our fears.
  • What do you choose to pay for???

Questions to ask yourself!

• Is the mission I’m looking to launch a game worth playing? 
• Is the mission I'm on or ready to launch worth my time? 
• Why me? 
• Why ask? 
• You deserve to be in a position where your soul will sing and your voice will be heard.

“There are a lots bad reasons to start a company. But there’s only one good, legitimate reason, and I think you know what it is: It’s to change the world.”  Phil Libin 

More questions to ask yourself!

• Do you find yourself playing the wrong game?
• Do you like the role you are playing in business and relationships?
• Do people feel good when they engage in a relationship with you?
• How can you change the rules in the game that you were playing to be more in line with the new?
• It is up to you, or us to make a shift and make a difference in our own lives and the lives of people that play in our game.

"Win-to-the-Winth" Power

• The key is let go of: 
  • Lose lose 
  • Win lose 
  • Sometimes win win 
• To achieve Win-to-the-Winth
  • Everyone is winning in numerous and exponential times. 
• The New Mind-Set 
  • Who can I help win his or her game while I go about doing what I am doing?
  • And who else?! 
  • How can you win five+ games while playing one. 
• Ask yourselves: 
  • What are some examples of this in your lives?  
  • How can you implement more?
  • What will that do for you?…others? 

"Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask, act. Action will the when he ate and define you." Thomas Jefferson

Action Cards

Reasons why people don't share Action cards

1. They don’t know what action cards are. 
2. They don’t know what action cards they specific we have. 
3. They under value their own action cards. 
4. They have been trained not to share or even show their hand. 
5. Talking about actually cards seems like bragging or showing off. 
6. They were raised with the competitive mindset, which is the false notion of sharing with other another will let the other when first or instead of them. 
7. They have an ego and what the credit because it’s their action card. 
8. They fear that the person gaining from the action cards may use it against them or may not need them anymore.

9/20/17

Recap of the Conference Call with The New Entrepreneurz Authors

Key points from the Q & A that stood out to the Activators...

QUESTION: What game do you think most are playing?

ANSWER: 

• People don’t realize that we are all playing a game
  • Must first understand what we mean by game…not all fun and easy.
  • It’s not that everything is a game…it is that there are components of games in all that we do.
    • School
    • Work
    • The people that have designed these games tell us what we ‘get’. 
• When you understand that you are playing a game…
  • You can decide if you want to play the game.
  • You can decide 

QUESTION: What are "Action Cards"? How are they different from asking for favors?

ANSWER: 

• Action cards start with YOUR OWN Value
  • Your gifts, talents, computer, skill, connection…ALL of it. 
    • All that I have to better access myself and help others.  
    • Not only what you own, but also what you have access to. 
      • The access is what people forget they have/own. 
      • Everything you have access to to promote yourself. 
  • This is your ability to SHARE
    • Thanks to my friend Lou, I heard a piece from Wayne Dyer...
      • We can’t give what we don’t have!  Love, tangerines, etc. 
• Asking a favor is asking for help, tied to ownership. 
  • We think we must own stuff to have value. 
• We get stuck on Action Cards, because we are stuck on “ownership”. 
  • Ownership is a waste of energy…thinking about things you have or don’t have. 
    • At FreshBiz, we don’t have/own offices…we run our business via laptops and smart phones, etc.  It is a smarter way to play business. 
    • The new shared-economy is much more powerful! 

QUESTION: What is "Win-to-the-Winth"? 

ANSWER: 

• 2 Major Elements
  • Create more opportunities, situations, communication, etc. 
  • Multidimensional Winning
    • What we know from Win-Win...
      • When we negotiate, we want You and I to win…but that’s not enough!  We want many others to win too! 
    • We can only, all win if we both win and the customer wins too!
      • The ability to allow for more to win. 
        • You, Me, Customers, Planet, etc. win. 
    • Ask yourself: How can I win in my life? …or win more? 

QUESTION: What does it mean to go "All In"?

ANSWER: 

• Unlock a certain belief!
• In every single aspect of our lives, we are going all in already!
  • Examples:
    • School for +17 years.
    • Driving in traffic…you trust everyone else to be safe.
    • Savings in the bank…we trust them to keep our $ safe. 
• In our head, we block off the knowledge that we are all in.  
  • Think about this - Put the O2 max on yourself before you help others. 
• Life is not Poker…
  • You can go all in, over and and over again. 
• Let’s consciously and mindfully go all in for ourselves!*
  • If we’re all in already...everywhere else, why not go all in for ourselves? 
  • We are not BLIND to this…be aware and go all in! 

QUESTION: Regarding your concept of competition, how do I win without being competitive?...it's in my nature want to win. 

ANSWER: 

• The notion of competition is based on the misunderstanding of how the game of economy works.
  • We’ve been miseducated on purpose by economy.

• This comes from the source of thinking things are limited. 
  • We don’t have to compete if we believe that we live in a place of abundance. 
  • There are WAY more people on earth than there were before.

• Competition if for amateurs! 
  • Apple and Steve Jobs example.

• ASK YOURSELF: 
  • How do I get so damn good at what I do, that there is no other choice so that they (customers, opposite sex, etc.) always choose me!
    • Forget competition, we will attract those that are like me, etc!

9/7/17

Meet The New Entrepreneurz Authors: Ronen Gafni and Simcha Gluck

What a treat?!  The Activators in theBlueprint had an amazing opportunity to meet the authors of The New Entrepreneurz in a One Hour Q & A Session.  Yep, that's right!  These guys made time on the other side of the country, dialing in from Israel to share their story and their mission with us.  Here are some questions that stood out most...  Want the answers, join theBlueprint! 

• What game are you (authors) playing?  Why? 
• What games are most others playing?  Why? 
• What are Action Cards? 
• What is Win-to-the-Winth Power? 
• How would you describe going "All In"? 
• Competition...how do I win without a competitive mindset?

8/2/17

The New Entrepreneurz Intro + Chapter 1

This was a great opportunity to dive into the book and really see what these authors Ronen and Simcha are all about...totally selfless guys, with a complete new mindset around business and lifestyle, whoa! 

Who are the new entrepreneurs?

Entrepreneurship is no longer just about business; it is the new mindset!  They are everyone!  

Don't read this book, live it.  This book is about transformation. Become multidimensional!

This is the beauty of being multidimensional - New Entrepreneurz celebrating all the different aspects of who they are.  Each dimension allows us to step proudly forward and find self-expression and joy when we play the games that we play.  Smartly.  If you love what you do and do what you love, that’s the best!  Who cares if others do more, bigger, louder, or differently?

You don't have to monetize everything in life for it to have value.  Play your own game your way. 

Playing the wrong game is in life is a waste of effort. This effort is time! 

6/21/17

exploration of a Kick-Ass Coach

Why do I need a business coach?  How do I find one that works? 

Guest Speaker: Mitch Simon

http://leadershipcoaching.consulting/

Key Benefits of Coaching

• Produce attainable goals!
• Set clear short and long-term goals
• Clarify, Focus
• Keeps you on Track!
• Accountability
• Sometimes more committed than you are!
• Offers an avenue for sound advice!
• Strategy
• Resources

Key products of coaching

• Long Term Excellence
• Self-generation
• Continuous Renewal and Refuel
• Self-correction
• Gap between what I want and what I got!

Primary Block

• The problem with human beings is that they think they have to believe everything they think.
• Your primary thought is that you have limitations, and you don’t know that this is really a thought.
• It is a coach’s primary task to figure out exactly what it is that YOU BELIEVE, and offer you an alternative that is actually real and freakin’ empowering.

Secondary Block

• Disconnected from what they CARE about
• It is the coach’s job to connect, and reconnect, and reconnect, and reconnect you to your strengths, your passion, and the difference and IMPACT you are here to make in the world.
• Make a breakthrough in seeing that your assessments are your assessments, and you will have a new relationship with your limiting beliefs. 

6/14/17

meet Dr. Robert Cialdini on Pre-suasion

6/7/17

Pre-Suasion with Dr. Robert Cialdini.  theBlueprint Conference Call. 

It's always incredible to share a conversation with key opinion and key thought leaders who genuinely care and enjoy sharing their message with folks like us Activators that are seeking greatness.  

"What is focal is causal."

Meeting and speaking with Dr. Cialdini was an absolute honor.  As a nerd who loves psychology, with my degree in this space - I love conversations around Dr. Cialdini's "Influence" topics.  His recent addition to the 6 Universal Truths of Influence: "UNITY", brings them all together in Pre-Suasion!

• Put people in a mindset that makes them sensitized in advance. 
• Bring what you want them to think about to the surface of their consciousness. 
• Unity lends itself to a group…people are much more likely to say yes, once you’ve brought them to consciousness.  
• Unity is like an accelerator of the other 6 influence items. (See below.) 

Check out this Facebook video for more info: https://www.facebook.com/robert.cialdini/videos/1517014644990897/

• Pre-Suasion is the process of moving people in our direction to get them to consent to our idea before they even encounter it. 
• Biggest barrier is getting people to pay attention to their message…even if they have a great message.  Must do something first…a psychological shoot to ensure the message is effective.  

• Feedback about an idea…
  • Usually we ask for an opinion…
    • Instead ask about their advice - this brings them together with us and we get a collaborative state of mind, which leads to more favorability toward our idea. 

5/3/17

Chapters 5-8: The school of greatness

• Life flows when you find a team to gel with. 
• Do the work, improve your attitude, hustle, and sharpen your skills so everyone else wants to make you a starter on their team! 
• People matter.  And you can't anything great on your own. 
• People don't care about how much you know until they know how much you care. 
• Relationships are the key to success, and it's time to start investing in yours. 

Master Your Body

Wow!  Our best collaboration yet!  Of course, we got hung up on "Mastering Your Body".  Great tips on how to achieve greatness from the inside-out.  Thank God we had champions like Justin Riley (CrossFit Gym owner and expert) on this webinar to navigate us through his helpful tips on diet, strength training and mindset.  Great insight from Patrick Strahl who introduced me to the 8fit App...great way to stay in shape with a quick, high intensity workout...even when traveling or chasing 3 year-old twins!  I was also honored to speak a bit on my go-to topic: SLEEP! 

“If the body the feeble, the mind will not be strong."

Thomas Jefferson

• Take ownership of your personal health. 
• What do you need to remove from your life to improve your lifestyle?! 
• Many people don't reach greatness because they don't take care of themselves.  
• We can't turn back time and start over, but we can determine how it ends. 
  • It is never too late to take the first step in the right direction. 
  • The past is irrelevant, all that matters is where you go now.

Practice Positive Habits

"We are what we repeatedly do.  

Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit." 

Aristotle

Habits of Highly Successful People

1. Maintain a todo list 
2. Wake up 3+ hours before work 
3. Listen to audiobooks during commuting
4. Network 5+ hours a week 
5. Read 30+ mins a day 
6. Exercise 4 days a week 
7. Eat minimal junk food 
8. Watch one hour or less of TV each day 
9. Teach good daily habits to their children 
10. Make their children volunteer 10 hours a month
11. Encourage their children to read 2 books a month
12. Write down their goals
13. Focus on accomplishing a specific goal
14. Believe in lifelong educational self-development
15. Believe good habits create opportunities
16. Believe bad habits have a negative impact

Habits of Lewis Howes

1. Wake up and say thank you for being alive another day. 
2. Make my bed
3. Meditate for 10 minutes
4. Drink a green juice at breakfast
5. Stretch and move my body
6. Have a high-intensity training workout
7. Eat organic, home-cooked meals
8. Watch very little TV
9. Focus on my goal and take action steps toward them
10. Network with a purpose to give to others
11. Acknowledge others and smile in every conversation
12. Express gratitude throughout the day and the last thing before bed
13. Work with a coach and mentors
14. Constantly learn new information and skills

Champions are not just born, they are made.

More Great Habits to Add to your Arsenal

• Be your word
• Focus on gratitude
• Have a morning ritual
• Let go of reaction
• Express your wants and needs
• Acknowledge others and yourself
• Be vulnerable

Build a winning team

Reminders from the great Coach Wooden: 

• You will never outperform your inner circle.
• If you want to achieve our success, improve your inner circle.
• You are the average of your 5 closest relationships. 

Exercise: Take Inventory of your Relationships

Ask yourself these four questions about your closest relationships: 

• Do I feel energized or stressed when I'm around or think about them? 
• Does this person inspire me or have a negative mindset around me? 
• Does this person pursue greatness in their life or get caught up as a victim in life? 
• Do they get excited about my success and want to see me succeed or do they complain about their own life when I share my successes? 

• Acknowledge and accept what you see. 
• Make friendly requests of those friends/colleagues/family members that are bringing negativity into your life. 
• Try to work things through together, but if not - drastic measures may need to be taken.

• Nothing is more important then your emotional well-being.
• If you must, have a “Clearing Conversation” with these negative people in your life. 

live a life of service

When you fully understand why giving is the key to life, then you make it part of your daily mission to serve others in whatever you do. 

• Don't look at this as an extra task you need to take on. If you do that, you missed the point. 
• Look at this as a part of who you are, who you become, and your way of being in every moment.
• Put on your own mask first! (Airline Analogy) 
  • Take care of yourself first. 
  • When you make sure your needs are met and you are full, then you'll have more energy to give to others. 
  • Go out and live a life of service!

• Greatness is a voluntary degree.  Its study is self administered and it’s never too late to start! 
• You get out of life what you put into it!  (Hmmm, that sounds familiar?!)

3/29/17

Chapters 1-4: The school of greatness

Vision

So, I've been writing out my goals and reviewing them often for some time, but wow have I been missing out.  I have officially created and seen my vision.  Have you?  Find your vision, create a mission and keep that close to your heart as your guide with purpose.  The rest will happen if you stay the course.  

”Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities, they vary in their desires to reach their potential." 

John C Maxwell

Great lessons to remember when declaring your vision: 

• Lesson #1: Be Specific
• Lesson #2: Let Your Vision be Your Identity
• Lesson #3: Turn Your Vision Telescope Around 

Exercises

• Certificate of Achievement
• Perfect Day Itinerary
• Personal Principles Declaration 
• Personal Statement Plan 

Who am I?

What do I stand for?

What is my vision for myself, my family & the world? 

Turning Adversity into Advantage

"Greatness is what remains when talent is hit with adversity, and persists in the face of it."  Lewis Howes.   I totally agree.  It sucks, but often I realize that I only become better, stronger, smarter in the face of adversity.  Perhaps that because I'm stubborn, but it is what it is.  Now that I can acknowledge that, accept it and move through life - I can appreciate and embrace adversity because it will make me a better human. 

When adversity arises you have two choices:

1. Do nothing. Let things overwhelm you and fall victim to your circumstances.
2. Embrace the challenge and adversity, and make it part of your success story.

• Prepare for these moments because it's going to happen throughout your entire life. 
• Understand and appreciate adversity.
• When you do, you can overcome it with success.

"The impediment to action advances action..What stands in the way, becomes the way." Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius

There is one thing that all great men and women have in common:  Obstacles become fuel for that which was their ambition. 

Your perspective is your choice.  There is no good or bad, only our perceptions.

Look at adversity as the opportunity to move you toward your goal.  It is not the obstacle that keeps you from your goal.

What stands in the way becomes the way! 

One of the most important things you learn from the School of Greatness: 

• You can go as slow as you need to go, but you cannot stop.
• You can never drop out of giving your best in life.

Adversity happens in everyone's life.  Bend but don't break with your inner will. 

Cultivate a Champion's Mindset

“The most powerful work we can do it to develop strategies to uncover, re-design and reinvent our belief system. The only way you can be successful in life, business and relationships is to elevate who you are being.  If we keep repeating the same thing over and over we will keep getting the same results, insanity.”  Chris Lee

Visualization

• The purpose of visualization is to see the results you want to create before they happen. 
• Position your body with what you put you mind through ahead of time. 

• Visualization Process: 
  • Create a clear space with no distractions. 
  • In nature or in your bed, or in shower. 
  • Relax and be calm. 
  • Breathe relaxing breaths.  
  • Visualize what you want to be whole and complete. 
  • Dive into that it feels like, smells like, what you hear etc. 
  • How do you feel in that moment? 
  • Do this for five mins every day! 
  • Do this before every big moment in front of you!

Meditation

Ugh, something I need to take time to do!  I've recently tried the ap: Calm.  Check it out! 

• It is about clearing your mind of distractions, doubts, etc. 
• Do this in AM and PM 
• Live the day as a champion when you begin and end with meditation. 
• Breathe in joy and breathe out stress. 

• Jim Afermo - Sports Psychologist/Author 
  • Under perceived stress we tend to hold her breath, which causes muscle tension and high blood pressure.
  • Muscle tension is detrimental in professional athletes.
• 15 second centered reading process
• Breathe in through the nose for a count of five seconds
• Hold your breath for a count of 2 seconds
• Breathe out through the mouth for a count of eight seconds
• Pay attention to this, the breathing out could perhaps be the most important part, the relaxation part.

Mindfulness

• Start a gratitude journal. 
• Be aware of what is coming in and going out of your life. 
• Write down action items that you are committed to doing, to move those things that you are proud of forward.
• Next, write down all the things that you reacted to or that weren’t effective and failed to get you the results you wanted.  
• Look at what was missing from you in those moments: patients, love, connection. 
• What are you committed to doing and who are you committed to being in these moments of adversity?

Emotional Intelligence

• Be present and know thyself - be completely present so you can give your full self and emotion to the present.
• Be confident in who you are and believe in yourself.
• Emotional intelligence is the ability to maintain and regulate your emotional state and the emotions of others, and use that to make decisions and judgments on how you operate through life.
• Use feedback to understand how you are showing up to the world and to others.

Exercise

• Step 1 
  • List your five strengths and weaknesses

• Step 2 
  • Contact three people who will be brutally honest with you regarding your top five strengths and weaknesses. 
  • Put those lists side-by-side and see what they have in common. Or not.
  • Then, reinforce your strengths and work on your weaknesses.
  • How calibrated is your opinion of yourself?

Develop Hustle 

Sounds like a no-brainer, right?  How are you hustling?  Is that really fast enough?  How deep are you digging? 

“No one is going to hand me success.  

I must go out and get it myself.  

That’s why I’m here.  

To dominate.  

To conquer.  

Both the world and myself.” 

Davidian

The curse of David:  Working harder and smarter.

The best hustlers are all underdogs.

You will always be more productive when you are David, not Goliath.

You can never underestimate the power of hustle.

Fall in love with the art and pain of hustle.

Japanese Proverb

Vision without action is a dream. 

Action without vision is a nightmare.

You need both vision and action to achieve great things.

Vision guides you while action propels you. 

Most people settle for the dream, because it's easy.

Training and suffering, that is the hustle.

More thoughts on "the Hustle":

• What holds people/you back from hustling?
  • Are you afraid of other people seeing you stressed or suffer?
  • Do you fear success? 
  • Do you fear failure?
    • How do you step away from these fears and into action in your head?

• Ancient writer: True greatness is being great at little things, especially baby steps.
• Turn small things it's a big opportunities by flexing your hustle muscle.
• It's never too late to hustle toward your vision. 

Entrepreneurship is doing what, or living several years how most people won't, so you can live a life that in the future most people can't.

3/1/17

theBlueprint Discovers the Preface and Introduction to The School of Greatness...A Way of Life and Being. 

This was a great first webinar with the Activators in theBlueprint program.  We kicked off by reviewing the "WHY" behind what Activator, Inc. is and how it pertains to theBlueprint.  Next we dove into the Preface and Introduction of The School of Greatness.  We tore apart some of the great quotes and analyzed what they meant to us...some relatable and others not.  There is no RIGHT or WRONG in this search for greatness, people! 

Here's one the resonated.  What does this mean to you? 

“You were born with potential. 

You were born with goodness and trust.  

You were born with ideals and dreams.  

We are all made the same in this notion: 

You were born with wings. 

You are not meant for crawling, so don’t. 

You have wings. 

Learn to use them and fly.”

-Runi

Webinar Key Note emailed to the group and recorded audio/visual will be shared upon request. 

Action Items due before next webinar:

• Read Chapters 1-4. 
• Complete each exercise in every chapter.
• Find an Accountability Partner if you need help. 
• Be prepared to share your thoughts & ask questions.
• Share your thoughts on what stood out most from Lewis himself last week. 
• Post your pending questions on www.facebook.com/activatorinc. 
• theBlueprint webinar will be followed with an Accountability Plan...yes, you will have to work to become great! 

2/22/17

Meet lewis howes conference call

Wow!  This was a great opportunity to meet Lewis Howes himself before we launch into his book, The School of Greatness.  We were completely blown away with the answers to his questions.  A few that resinated most were the following...

Question:

When you are on your deathbed and everything you've created has disappeared, and you're sitting in front of your great grandchildren - what are the 3 great truths you would share? 

Answer: 

1. Dreams matter.  Without a dream, what’s the point?  Discover and follow your dreams! 

2. Always come from a place from win-win and abundance, and anything is possible.  But make anything possible for others too! 

3. For whatever reason we were put on this earth - we would not be here without the people that brought us here…across the world, and the universe is inside of.  How much can I give back to my world, my family?  We are here to serve the world, not to take and be ungrateful.  Without these things we would not be here.  Come from a place of gratitude!  

Question: 

In your book, you quote Chris Lee: “The most powerful work we can do it to develop strategies to uncover, re-design and reinvent our belief system. The only way you can be successful in life, business and relationships is to elevate who you are being. You bring that into what you were doing and that if that's what you have.  If we keep repeating the same thing over and over we will keep getting the same results, insanity.” 

How do you reinvent your belief system? 

Answer:

Proud to say Lewis said this was "one of the best/hardest questions I’ve ever been asked'!  Then he followed by saying I’m just not into or around negative thought.  I am always in a positive state. Travel to different cultures or communities.  Now I’m totally confident in who I am as a human being. Constantly push the envelope - he went to India to study meditation.  Find things that will elevate self, mind, etc. - question everything!  He loves interviewing thought leaders to learn more - they all have different beliefs and “ways”.  Don’t judge people for who they are.  Take on a new approach to life. Try something new every year to lean into the discomfort - who can I learn from. 

Wow!  Mind-blowing!  Can't wait to tour this book with my friends in theBlueprint. 

Ryan 

Action Items due before the next webinar:

• Get the book. 
• Read Preface.
• Read Introduction. 
• Be prepared to share your thoughts & ask questions.
• Share your thoughts on what stood out most from Lewis himself last week. 
• Post your pending questions on www.facebook.com/activatorinc. 
• theBlueprint webinar will be followed with an Accountability Plan...yes, you will have to work to become great! 

3/29/17

theBlueprint explores chapters 1-4 + Exercises in the School of Greatness

4/26/17

theBlueprint goes deeper into chapters 5-8 + Exercises and Conclusion 

We take our first, exciting step into 2017 as we dive into The School of Greatness with Lewis Howes!  And guess what?  We are bringing this thought-leader, author, professional athlete and more to you on our first webinar.  All it takes to meet Lewis is buy the book and login!  For those of you who have the guts and seek greatness - join me, Ryan Javanbakht on a tour through his book of stories and exercises that will challenge your being and push you into the discomfort you may not have experienced before.  I dare you.  

Launch with Lewis on February 22nd, 3:45pm PST.  Send me a copy of your receipt for purchase of his book and you are in! 

More to come.  The more you put it, the more you will get out.  Welcome to life.  Bring it.

Ryan