Recently, I was approached by the The American City University to participate in a new series of free webinars designed to help the entrepreneur and working professional. This was an exciting learning process and I am very happy to share the results with you!
This engaging half-hour webinar covers the key challenges we face as business professionals with families, outside interests and career development targets. You will learn 5 tools that can be started right now to align your work/life focus for greater balance, speed and ease. Hope you enjoy the show and learn something extremely useful today!
Click the button below to launch the webinar:
WEBINAR VIEWING TIPS:
You will need to download and install Blackboard Collaborate software in order to watch the webinar. This will happen automatically when you click on the button above or by clicking the "Watch Webinar" link from the The American City University webinar page. Either way, simply follow the screen prompts.
Screen capture of Blackboard Collaborate loading
Once Blackboard Collaborate has launched you will have to click the Play button to start the webinar.
Loaded webinar screen.
Play button is in lower left hand corner.
Close-up on the webinar 'Play' button
Once started you can use the same button to pause the webinar at anytime. You can also go back or skip ahead by dragging the place-marker located directly under the webinar window.
Screen capture of "Work/Life Balance:
Mission Impossible?"
Blackboard Collaborate is both Apple and Windows compatible.
Please let us know what you think of the webinar, would this be something you would like to see more of in the future?
We are all asked to do things we don’t like to do, at work and in life. We’re also put in situations to deal with people we prefer not to be around. It is our nature to go to war. We are not trained to be luvvers. It is only in our essence, which must be developed, that we learn to luvv what we don’t like. 
My nephew recently said he wished he could bottle up my outlook on life and have it at his disposal when he needed it. So do I! I wish it was that easy. It made me think about what I do to keep that energy flowing through me.
Never before have I been more aware of the importance of developing trust. Yet, it’s scary how easy it is to get stuck in patterns that don’t work: neurotic fretting, rigidity, skepticism and depression. People recognize that they can’t trust the government, the federal reserve, their employer or even their family to keep things the same, safe and secure. No one is exempt. Everything is changing. The individual within each of us is being called forward. What will we individually do to rise to the levels of change that are all around? 
I am moved by the awareness that greatness is a showcase that embraces us all, if we will receive it. At a time when the winter Olympics show athletes pushing, challenging and disciplining themselves to strive for greatness, I see that one demonstration can lift a whole city, or country or the world. Such is the case with speed skater Apollo Ohno, and also my cousin’s daughter, Mackie, who received the “oscar” for Junior Equestrian of the Year.
Being happy is your essence. Working happy is your purpose. Keeping happy is the adventure of a lifetime. We have so many illusions of happiness and of work, yet there is an undeniable attraction to both. The formula we sell is – work leads to success and success leads to happy. We are incorrect on both counts. What we call work is labor, slave labor. And it has a high personal and general cost. It is a key component of the American dream, which we see crumbling around us. Now is a wonderful time to learn about work and happy—what they are and what they are not.
Happy New Year! We say it every year, briefly, and then let it go. But with a new year, new energy comes roaring through. And we don’t tend to embrace that newness, not really. For new is an energy that commands change. We have to develop the character, the courage and the capacity to hold it, to be it and to embrace it. So we make some silly resolutions but we stay in the same game. New is here to kick our asses. Every fighter knows he must get in shape to face a championship fight. He often has to undertake new training to rise to the current level of engagement because the energy of the now is always new. And as hard as he trains, he must still show up to be present for the fight to get the credit.
My wife, Gail, told me a very interesting story the other day. Twenty-five years ago she was participating in a group workshop. As the workshop got started, the leaders gave the ground rules for the next five days. One of the ground rules over this time period was: “No side talking during the session.” As the workshop went on, she found herself sitting next to another participant, Henry Conyers, and tried to strike up a conversation with him. He in turn gave her a stern look as to say, “Didn’t you hear the ground rules?”
Have you ever made a New Year’s Resolution that really worked? They usually don’t. Resolutions are the attempts to change, devoid of the principle that brings change. They are attached to fear and comfort: fear I won’t accomplish what I say I will, and comfort with the existing patterns that don’t want to budge. In order to change anything, you have to really sign up for the new. The energy of this New Year requires RESOLVE– resolve to learn, resolve to change, and resolve to release sabotaging patterns. 
America was founded by individuals who were drawn to this land. What drew them? They didn’t come of their own volition; they were drawn by an attraction. They were drawn by a vision, a vision that sustained them through the forging of a nation. That vision pulled and sustained them so they could overcome impossible odds. The people who came here were deeply ingrained in slavery.