Each year Cambridge and Oxford rowing teams go head-to-head in an 4-mile race along the Thames. This year, there was an important team work lesson for us to take in.

In the Cambridge team, one member Dan O’Shaughnessy is said not to be one of the best in their team which consisted of Olympic champions and other race winners, however, the team members wanted him because of his good nature, popularity with the team and his communication.

He was a great team player. He was able to synchronise players together. He was able to make the team gel. Things were not so serious when he was around and the team could get out and perform their best, even though one player was not the best they had.

Teamwork is an important lesson here. And that’s what Mark de Rond, an expert on teamwork, uses as an example in his forthcoming business book, ‘The Subjectivity of Performance’ out in 2008.

Business and rowing is different - there are different goals, different ideals and different targets. But the teamwork concept is always the same.

How can you employ further teamwork in your work? 

Time is probably the most valuable thing we have. Once gone, it cannot come back. Every seconds count is not just a saying. It is the truth for that second will never return.

Experiments in time are a great way to learn the meaning when you forget it and want to re-learn it.

I am only checking email at one time each day. By turning my attention to the inbox just once a day rather than several times during the day, and therefore not having the send and receive function on “as soon as I receive an email” I have saved up nearly a few hours of time to use on productive work. At the same time, I am learning to re-focus that extra time on things that require more important attention.

Sol is also experimenting this week. As he announced on his blog, he’s only going to turn on his laptop for 6 hours this week. More radical than my experiment in more ways than one.I called him this morning at around 12 noon and he had told me that he had already spent one hour in the morning. Imagine that: Monday morning and you’ve only spent one hour of your 6 hour quota on the laptop. He found it quite exciting to batch up tasks and get them out the way. It was a solid, focused and productive hour. He now has five more hours for the rest of the week. Pretty impressive.

 Can you imagine just working on your laptop or PC for no more than 6 hours for at least one week. How would you spend your time? What would you do? 

I don’t listen to most people. It’s not because I’m a rebel - it’s just they’re the wrong kind of people I want to be associated with.

I don’t listen to people who…

- try and destroy my dream
- tell you what to believe
- have nothing else to whine about
- haven’t done anything themselves
- give uneducated and bad reviews
- think it’ll never work
- are just after your money
- are just after your time

Who don’t you listen to?

I was going through my journal from the first page last night, and came across a page on which I wrote down my top five intentions at that particular point. One was about how I wanted a white Macbook as my next new laptop. I wrote this about 3 months ago.

2 weeks ago,  I accidently spilled hot water, honey and lemon onto my existing Dell laptop. It’s 3 years old and too expensive to fix. Fortunately, I had an online backup account with Mozy so I didn’t loose my files. That was the end of that laptop.

It was time for something new - and of course, through the intention that was initially set, my Macbook is now on it’s way. It should be with me in 3 days time.

Being specific and setting intentions is a powerful tool to have and use. It’s not just my Macbook that has come this way. Amongst other things, in the last few years, I have manifested new books, a holiday in Thailand and Bali, amazing date nights, cooking skills, money, business ideas, more money, shoes, shirts, clothes, socks, dance lessons, tabla students, workshop participants. The list could go on.

In any moment, you’re always intending something. Whether it’s something you want or not is something you can control. Be clear and specific. What are you intending?

Imagine a business with no finish line.

It’s always working.
It’s continuing to strive.
There’s no end to their achievement.
There always getting better.

Now transfer that concept to your life. Imagine your life with no finish line.

You’re always learning.
You’re always improving.
You’re always implementing.
You’re always achieving.
You’re always growing.
You’re getting faster, better and more effective.

Leonardo da Vicni is well known for saying, “Art is never finished, only abandoned.”

Listen, if you think you’re heading to the finish line, if you think you’re gonna be first, think again because you’re heading the wrong way. There is no finish line. It is never complete. You’re never finished.

Most of the world doesn’t understand what you do. They don’t understand what the President or Prime Minister does. They don’t understand how common things work, let along complex things.

The majority of businesses are poorly defined. Can you say in one sentence what your business does without umm-ing and ahh-ing? If you can’t, it’s because of unclear definition.

The same with your health - your body is confused as to what’s going in and how incorrect things are mixed. The same with terrorism - we’re confused when something happens in our country - is it a natural fire? Was it a terrorist attack? Was it arson? Who shot who?

(Global) confusion takes up too much brain space and drains energy. How do you get over such (global) confusion?

The answer is usually in the language you use. Don’t use jargon that alienates the public. Don’t give them a reason NOT to investigate you and your work further.

Are you using real, simple language?

In April this year, I signed up to a free service from Living Jain that sends subscribers daily wisdom in the form of a quote (and sometimes commentary) to help on the path to freedom. What came in my inbox this morning was pretty inspiring for me:-

“When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don’t blame the lettuce. You look into the reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends or our family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and arguments. That is my experience. No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change.”

- Thich Nhat Hanh

What do you think?

Working on GetALife2008.com with Arvind over the last two months and seeing it come to fruition is definitely one of the most exciting achievements of 2007 for me.

It all started and continued, every single day, with a mind map. The best way to plan and build any project from writing a blog post to starting a new business, creating your travel plans to organising your finances, creating a product to planning your personal goals, is to use the mind mapping technique.

I mindmap nearly every day and I do it all in my journal using pen and paper. You may want to do it on your PC and if that’s the case, I recommend Mindjet as one I have used before.

Here are my steps to creating a simple and effective mind map:-

• Start in the centre of a blank piece of paper with the main theme you’re mapping out.

• Start creating the major branches with the KEY subject words around that theme. Try to keep these to just one words that represent the main branches.

• Then for each KEY word you have identified, break that down further only focusing on that term as the subject. What other things are related to that particular KEY subject?

The lines linking them together make the association between ideas as clear as possible. Typically lines will be thicker at the centre and thinner further out. The structure that should develop will be a ‘radiant hierarchy’, with ideas radiating out from your central themesand main branches.

I like to keep my mind mapping techniques simple, so that’s all that I do. Others may prefer to use images, different colours for different meanings, etc. Either way works just as well.

How often do you mindmap and how effective is it for you?

There is power in being uncomfortable.

The power to learn more, be more, have more and do more comes from being able to stick through the uncomfortable times, unpleasant moments and come through stronger and powerful in your mind, body and spirit.

People don’t care about what you know or what you’ve done - they want to know HOW you think and what you’re thinking about… The only way to be different in your results is to improve the strength of your thinking and to cross the boundary, take the leap and move ahead, you’ve got to stick through the uncomfortable moments.

Not surprisingly, most people don’t.

They give up too easily.
They run away from the situation.
They can’t handle the pressure.

There is danger in being too comfortable and too complacent.

When you stick out the tough road and uncomfortable moments, you have greater thoughts, better ideas and more profitable.

It’s also the same with leadership. A great leader works on his passion. A great leader sticks through the ups and the downs, staying true to his or her passion. A great leader doesn’t work on being a leader, he/she works on his passion, and through his ability to stick through all good and bad times, easy and tough moments, he becomes a leader.

What uncomfortable moments can you commit to see out right to the end?

Often, we rush our lives as if it’s not fast enough. Most of the time, we miss some fundamental questions. The times when we stop to think and reflect are when we get our much needed clarity. Here are five questions that’ll get you thinking…

1. What are you becoming?

2. What are you building?

3. What kind of person do you want to become?

4. Which people in your life don’t respect your time?

5. When was the last time you listened, all the way through, to an idea that made you uncomfortable?

If there were 6 questions on this list, what would you have as your 6th question?