It’s been an extraordinary summer. And now it’s almost over. The relaxed pace of August is about to accelerate into September. I’m ready. I’m excited. I’m certain this Fall will be huge. I can feel the opportunities flying in formation towards me. I feel the nervousness that always precedes the Big Game. And for me, September 2 to December 23 2008 is the biggest game of all. It’s the one that determines the success of the entire year.

As I’m writing these words on a flawless Toronto afternoon, Gustav is drenching Louisianna. Thousands of people are watching anxiously to see when they can go home again. All around the world, similar dramas are being played with people’s lives. Some of them are acts of God, and some of them are acts of Man, but all of them are forcing people to live in fear of their lives and their future. Not me. I’m safe, and dry, and loved, and healthy, and deep into my self-actualization zone. I’m cognizant of my gifts. I’m grateful for them. And I want to be worthy of them.

That’s why I’m anxious at the same time that I’m bathed in wellbeing. I have all the skills, insights, energy, resources and people I need to make this fall a winning season. At the same time, I’m asking myself the questions that always precede the Big Game: How can I wow, amaze, and inspire others to want a whole lot more of what I have to offer? What do I need to do this season to reinvent myself for the new realities? How can I be a model of what’s possible? How do I spread kudos and magic around me wherever I go?

These are big questions. I don’t have the answers. I’ll find them as I go along. They’ll also find me. I’ll do what I know I must do when I must do them. Like this blog for example. I didn’t know what I was going to write until I started. I hadn’t even formulated the questions until I wrote them down. Now I have four Big Questions that will guide my quest for Preeminence this Fall. What are yours?

Here’s the final thing I’ll say today: If you have the freedom to focus on your gifts, use it. Or lose it.

It’s been just over 48 hours since I stepped off an Olympic Airways flight from the Greek island of Santorini, via Athens, to Toronto. Together with my wife, Hilary, and daughter, Dani-Emma, I spent 5 days on that glorious island. Prior to Santorini, we spent 4 days on the Islands of Paros and Antiparos close to Santorini.

If you’re looking for the most beautiful places on the planet, with food, people and prices to match, go to the Greek Islands. Every square foot is gorgeous. Even the beer seems to taste better there. And there’s nothing like an Ouzo to help the sun go down.

So I’m still flying on the after-pleasure of a spectacular holiday. I feel relaxed, loose, sun-kissed and ready for another season. I’ve even got rid of my back ache which plagued me prior to the trip. Maybe it’s the spirit of the islands that’s still flowing through my blood stream or maybe it’s the daily swim in the Aegean sea that loosened up my vertebra, but it feels fabulous. Now i just have to maintain it.

That’s the beauty of the human mind: I can go back to Paros and Santorini any time I want. In fact, I’m there right now. Just like the picture, I’m leaning against the sign with my name on it. I’m basking in the late afternoon sun. I’m sucking in the sea air. I’m happy. Polikalo - fantastic.

I hope your summer has been exquisite. I hope you’ve recharged and regenerated yourself for another action packed fall. If not, there’s still a few days of summer left. Use them well…

5.30am. Toronto. Aug 6 2008

It’s been a wild week. Last Wednesday I spoke to 600 government purchasing agents in Charlotte, North Carolina. The following day I spoke to 150 motorcycle accessory salespeople from Tucker Rocky in Dallas, Texas. Two days later, I spoke to 900 new recruits to Deloitte in Phoenix and yesterday, I spoke to 650 sales consultants from Infosys in Toronto, Canada.

Each seminar necessitated its own preparation. Each seminar took me into a different world, populated by its own professionals, challenged by its own problems and opportunities. Most importantly, each seminar introduced me to new points of view, opinions and perspective.

Here are the ten things I learnt since last Wednesday:

1. Do more with less. Adapting to the reality of scarcity leads to abundance. Don’t blame, build.
2. Be prepared to take on more without burning out. There is a major skills shortage looming.
3. There are great people in government, but they’re aging and replacements are hard to find.
4. Tough times demand huge entrepreneurial energy. Opportunity creation will drive the next upturn.
5. Boom times are a function of mindset not circumstance. The best bend circumstance to their will.
6. Whatever your experience, think like a new recruit: be idealistic, excited, anxious, curious, vocal.
7. Surround yourself with the best people. We become the company we keep. The person with the best colleagues wins.
8. Crises are your best friends. That’s when demand for quality is highest - and demand will always outstrip supply.
9. The world speaks a common language. Global similarities dwarf local differences. Geography is less important than ideology. Boundarylessness is the new buzzword.
10. Seek out and savour conversations with people who come from the place furthest away from yourself. Feast on their flavours. Talk. Listen. Learn. Laugh. Love. Grow.

What’s the one most important thing you learnt in the last week? Let me know. I want to learn it as well. Remember: paying forward is the best payback.

Embassy Suites, Dallas, 10.55pm, July 30 2008

Damn. I hate losing. I hate hearing that the prospect has “decided to go in a different direction” or that “they liked me very much but they decided that this event needed a different kind of speaker” or that “they’re not ready for my message”. It hurts as much now as it ever did to hear someone say that I’m not the guy.

And you know what’s worse? I’m hearing more NO’s now than ever before. Each NO cuts deep. Each NO hurts bad. Each NO frustrates me. Each NO makes me question myself.

But only for a moment. My first response is always emotional. It’s always childlike: I want to get my way and I want it now, and I’m pissed when I don’t.

Then I think about why I didn’t win. I think about what I could have done to win. I call the prospect to find out why I didn’t win. Sometimes they speak to me and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes I get over the NO quickly and sometimes it takes a little longer.

Then I look for the YES inside the NO. I look for why I had to get the NO. I look for how I can use the NO to get the YES. I challenge myself to make the next call with confidence and conviction. I use the NO as a deposit on my next YES. I remind myself of the platinum rule: Success is a numbers game. The more calls I make, the better I become at making those calls. And the better I become at more calls, the more YESSES I will win. But because I’m making more calls, I will also get more NO’s.

Here’s the good news: I’m getting more YESSES. In fact, yesterday’s NO’s are becoming today’s YESSES. I’m discovering that NO is not forever. NO is just a test. NO is the fuel that YESSES run on. NO is there to make it real. NO is there to keep me humble. NO is there to make me pause, reevaluate, recalibrate and reinvent my methods. NO means I’m still in the game. NO is what builds my stamina and resilience.

But that doesn’t make it any easier. Disappointment sucks. It always tastes bitter. And that’s why it’s so good for me. It’s hard to swallow and it burns all the way down. That’s why I’ll keep taking it. I’ll keep learning from it. I’ll keep thriving on it. Every disappointment leads to an equal or greater distinction.

So I’ll keep turning NO’s into YESSES.  I’ll be brilliant, not bitter. How about you?

Sunday, 1.40pm.

It’s time to do nothing when there is nothing to do. But what happens when it’s time to do nothing and there is everything to do?

Ever been there? You know you’ve earned the right to rest but there is so much to be done that rest is not an option. But you really don’t feel like working. So you don’t work but you can’t relax either. You feel mildly guilty while you semi-enjoy not working. You’re sort of where you want to to be but the undone work is undoing your true enjoyment. That’s where I was a few moments ago.

I want to do nothing right now. I want to go outside and enjoy a couple cold ones with my friends and family. I want to disappear into season two of Lost. I want to kick back and enjoy the summer which is already half way gone. I want to do all these things and I will when this blog is written and my workout is complete. That’s my deal with myself. I’ll do the two most important things on my agenda and suspend the rest until tomorrow. Both require the time and quiet that the present moment offers me. Both are hard to do. But both energize and expand me. And both make it possible for me to do a whole lot of other things.

Blogging is a way of clarifying my own thoughts to myself. If I cannot write it, I don’t know it. If I can’t share it with you, there is no point in doing anything else. I live to communicate, and I communicate to live. By writing these words, I’m exercising my writing and sharing muscles.

And if I don’t exercise my physical muscles, I will atrophy and die. It’s that simple and it’s that brutal. Over 50, health is not a divine right, it’s a privilege to be earned daily. What’s more, I’m addicted to endorphins that exercise produces. They kick in after about 20 minutes. By 50 minutes, I’m in my own internal nirvana. And the feeling lasts for 4-5 hours afterwards.

This blog is almost done. I’ve won this bout with procrastination. I’ve made a deposit on my discipline. Now, I’m going for a swim. I feel good and I’m about to feel even better. In two hours time, I will relish the rest of the day to nothing. What do you have to do? How much will you enjoy your right to do nothing?

Here’s my learning: it’s easy to procrastinate but it’s impossible to escape the stress caused by your procrastination. You can’t do everything when you want to but you can do something. Find the something that is most important and do it when you have to do it. Then relax. The rest will follow.