by Evan Lenz

I recently signed up for an amazing service called Peer Success Circles. It has absolutely transformed the way I go about my work. With a daily accountability partner, I’ve been much more effective and efficient at getting things done and moving forward on my goals. I’m now in my fifth week of this program, and I’m still loving it. It has become a new way of life. I should have started this long ago.

But one thing I’m learning this week is that I still need to take time for reflection. (Thankfully, the questions in this program naturally drive you into doing that too.) In the past, I actually reflected—or daydreamed—too much. I’ve now become much more action-oriented. Each day, I create a plan of attack, complete with a specific schedule of how I’m hoping to spend my time. And I track how I do—how closely I stick to the schedule, taking note of where I deviated. I’m developing new habits. Rather than habitually looking back at where I just was, I move forward. Reviewing how I did at the end of each day does wonders for my self-awareness, for staying on track, and for finding ways of doing better tomorrow.

This process works very well for my work. Time is the raw material, my schedule is the function, and productivity is the result. A simple equation. But when it comes to family time–time spent in moment-to-moment interaction with my wife and kids, it can’t be so easily structured. And perhaps it shouldn’t be either. We have been scheduling PlayTime, and I think that’s a good way to ensure that we keep it up. But for most activities, in order to be realistic, I have to leave family time pretty open-ended. And I’m okay with that. But I find myself in the position of having this great, new, exciting, effective process for making me more effective at work (basically, a daily schedule) and no corresponding great, new, exciting, effective process for family life.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s mainly just the scheduling aspect that doesn’t work for family time. The rest of the Peer Success Circles process is still very helpful. Setting goals, articulating what I’m committed to, what’s the driving force behind my actions, reflecting on how I did each day, etc.—these are all amazingly effective for making a positive impact on my family life too.

So what am I complaining about? I don’t know. Maybe the “problem” is disappearing before my eyes. It’s not as if I’ve always been a compulsive, schedule-oriented type. I’ve always thought of myself as more of a “dreamer,” favoring unstructured time. (Of course, that appears to be changing now.) So I get to still favor unstructured time when it’s with my family. It is nice to come to the end of the work day and let go of my schedule for a little while.

But I still face challenges, and I think it comes down to difficulty with being in the present moment, wherever I am. What is “time” anyway? I’ve made it this thing that I manage. And that’s working pretty well for me. But it’s really just a concept, not real in and of itself. Maybe I need to find a way to let go of time when I’m with my family. I’ve recently heard that “time is an emotion.” That’s an interesting concept, even if I don’t fully understand what it means yet. But I think I’ll reflect on this some more—you know, do some daydreaming about it. Yes, I think I’ll daydream about being engaged in the present moment. (That was a joke—and it would be funny if it weren’t so true.)

My first exercise will be to take a shower tomorrow morning and engage fully in what I’m doing. When I’m washing my face, I’ll think about nothing but washing my face. When I’m rinsing my hair, I’ll think about nothing but rinsing my hair. Once I’ve started to make some progress on this, I’ll step it up and bring the intention over to my family time, at the end of the work day. (PlayTime is already designed for this. Actually, it’s a sort of present-moment/daydream hybrid…which perhaps is a good characterization of play itself…). The correct word seems to be “mindfulness” (but I wonder if that’s a misnomer…).

I’ll be sure to schedule a follow-up post on this. All in good time.

Hello my friends… There is something very important that I have to share with you today. It’s called ‘Accountability’. If used, this simple and very easy to use strategy can literally skyrocket the results you are getting in your life right now.

Did you ever stop and think about how much you used to get done during your younger school years? It’s something I’ve pondered about… and what I’ve come up with was we were being kept accountable… we didn’t want to be, but we were!

If you think about it, you definitely achieved a whole lot. If I think back to all I accomplished in school and sports… it blows my mind! I now believe a lot of that success came down to being held accountable to other people. Just like all of you I had parents, teachers and coaches that I had to so call ‘answer’ to.

Now I’m not saying you need to ‘answer’ to anyone, but what I have found is if you are accountable to someone besides yourself… you are more likely to get things done and be more productive.

It’s a funny concept. As human beings, and I think that most reading this are:), we are willing to do more for other people than we are for ourselves. This is why if you truly understand the ‘Accountability Factor’, it can change your life.

Imagine for a moment you’re starting that new workout routine, it’s the 5:30am the first morning of training and that alarm starts RINGING!! Your first thought is to throw the alarm across the room. Most people will hit that dangerous little button and snoooooze their way right through the workout.

The entire scenario changes if you throw a workout partner into the mix… more than likely you will drag that body of yours out of bed just because you ‘told’ your workout partner that you would meet them at the gym.

That is probably the best example that I can think of surrounding the subject of accountability. When you really understand this principle, and put it to use, you will see a big difference in the results that are showing up in your life.

My advice to you my friend is to connect with someone out there who like you is looking to take their life to a new level. The person you choose to be your accountability partner will make all the difference in the world.

Just a word of caution… don’t have your best friend be your partner just because they are your best friend. Just speaking from my own experience. This persons role is to care more about the results that you said you wanted for yourself then the excuses you are going to give them for why you didn’t do certain things.

They need to be strong with you and hold you to your commitments. You may have to go through a few people until you find the person that you mesh with the best.

Once you find an accountability partner, it’s best to set a certain time to speak on a daily basis. Once you have decided on a time put in on your calendar, in your planner or whatever tool that you use to keep yourself organized.

There is something very powerful about scheduling something… don’t just say that you will speak sometime during each day. You know how that goes:)

So my friends… I really hope you take this information and put it into place in your life.

One last gift I want to share with you before I sign off is an accountability group put together by one of my friends, Joseph Varghese, called Success Circles. This group has literally CHANGED my life!

Now, since I’m giving away good valuable content here, I’d appreciate if you’d Re-Tweet this awesome content to your followers! They will thank you for it later.

And also, leave me your comments below as I’d love to hear your thoughts, learn more about you, and see what kind of information you want me to talk about in the future!

Rock and Roll out there my friends… Remember to play BIG to create the freedom you want in your life.

Speak soon…

Yours In Success,
Eric Goldstein

Four years ago, I just wasn’t getting the results in my business and personal life that I wanted. In fact many days seemed to be the same story. I kept telling myself, “There’s too much to do and I’m overwhelmed!”, “I’m not getting enough clients,” “I don’t have time for the gym.”

I had been struggling for a few years playing with being an entrepreneur and often missing the structure of working in corporate. I just wasn’t making ends meet.

It also seemed as if the same vicious cycle was happening week after week,

But once I realized that I wasn’t getting the results I wanted, I called my buddy Dan up.

Dan was experiencing almost the exact same problem. He had a great coach, yet not enough momentum in his business and personal life.

Dan and I set up daily check in phone calls where we called one another every morning sharing our wins and our plans for the day. The call was quick and easy. What happened in our lives was just extraordinary. We were becoming more and more successful in our lives. We were especially committed to see each other grow.

Dan met the gal of his dreams, gave up a project that was taking away energy, switched careers and eventually moved to Austin, Texas where he started a successful nutrition business.

I also left a project that wasn’t serving my purpose and moved to being a speaker.

Honestly, it just felt so good just to “be heard” by someone who understood me.

After this experience with Dan, I called my friend Paul up. Paul and I also had daily buddy calls, except this time we raised the stakes. We called each other on it each time when the other got too comfortable. When one us had a victory, the other celebrated that victory with a loud “You Rock!” or a “Whoo Hoo“. It was like Pavlov’s dog, we were creating new memories of success and anchoring the victory. We were forming new and healthy habits. We were changing for the better. What was surprising was that we could hear it in each other’s voice. We didn’t meet in person.

What happened between myself and Dan and then between myself and Paul, has now become the foundation to Peer Success Circles. I formed Peer SuccessCircles over three years ago and invited several friends mainly busy entrepreneurs. Buddies were connected together, based on their drive, personality and commitment. Calls are very organized and too the point answering several key questions.

Peer Success Circles has become what we call “Essential Masterminding”. It’s “essential” because with it you will create the context to each day. Without it, the days are often uneventful, dull, and less effective.

What I haven’t shared is that four years ago I was paying over $800 a month with three different coaches. Each supported me in different areas of my life. The results were decent, yet not substantial.

I want to say that having a coach can be important. What’s more important is getting real results. Tracking your growth with a buddy and anchoring in new habits is the missing link that is not taught in any productivity or time management class.