Author Archives: Hans Schiefelbein

About Hans Schiefelbein

In pursuit of a healthy and disciplined lifestyle. My goal is to help people attain and sustain their health.

Three Words for 2014

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We need words to take us places. Sometimes to get the most done, to be the most productive, we need to go to a special place. I’ve spent the first couple weeks of the new year crafting goals and processing why I wrote them and how I’ll follow through. I’m no expert. I fail. I need to remember. And sometimes to remember requires me to go somewhere.

I’ve done 3 words for five years now. The idea (as far as I know) came from Chris Brogan who described it as follows: take three words that drive everything you do this year. It can be abstract. One year, I used the word “linebacker.” You have no idea what that means, but there’s a story behind it, and any time I needed a reminder that year I thought about “linebacker” and I was reorientated on what needed to get done. Plenty of abstract stuff there, right?

As I sit in my office and draft these goals for 2014, I’m in a new place. I’m in a good place. My job has taken great turns in the past four months. They took another upswing this week. I’m not sure how that relates to my desire to “go places” but I’m writing about my three words and I keep gravitating to three locations. My three words for 2014:

Newsroom1955 Newsroom

There is something very romantic about a newsroom. I’m thinking about the old ones with typewriters, writers smoking cigarettes, editors barking orders from their offices. Those rooms were so chaotic, but if you wanted to be in the know, that’s where you needed to be. Calls were being made. Interviews were happening. Stories were being written, edited, and published. Our digital world looks very different these days, but writing is still writing. Putting thoughts to words, words to paper, both literally and digitally. Many of my hours this year will be in a newsroom, writing and editing so that I publish great works.

Coffee Shop Danforth_Coffee_Shop

There’s a guy at the Monona Starbucks that knows everyone. His name is Frank. When I met him, he informed me that the coffee shop is his tavern. How cool is that? While it would be easy to think this word and this location for me is quite literal this year, and you would be selling me short. When I go to the coffee shop this year, it’s about being intentional with relationships. Let’s leave it at that. I’m very fond of coffee shops, and there will be plenty of literal interpretation of this location, but at the same time so many other places it could go.

Mission Bay mission bay

Last year I competed in my first triathlon. What an experience! And yes, I have the bug. I’ve become fascinated with multi-sport and as a fitness professional I am so excited about the energy around this sport. Mission Bay (San Diego) is credited with hosting the first American triathlon on September 25, 1974. I’m taking this word for 2014 a little more literally, but my goal certainly involves more than triathlons. I have personal, family and professional goals all wrapped up in this trip to Mission Bay, California.

There you have it. I hope my three words for 2014 have inspired you to think about your goals for the new year. I hope you can find creative ways to publish them and work towards them the entire year.

Published Goals Require Execution

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I love to execute. I love to jump into something where I know how it works, I know what’s going to happen, I see it through and get the results I expected. I love to execute. But what about when I’m executing something new? What about executing a goal I’ve had for a few years and I’ve failed just as long? Execution on tasks like this is a different bird. Execution is uncertain. If I’m honest, execution doesn’t even get a fair shot.

So what needs to change? I’ve published my goals for 2014 and I know they are important. They will get me where I want to go. They not only benefit me, they benefit my family. As it sits right now, I’m motivated to make these goals a reality. The reality, though, is that some of these goals are pretty big. Big enough that I failed in the past. I don’t want that to happen again. What do I do differently? execute

Instead of the mountain of a goal in front of me, I need to think about President Jed Bartlett. What? You’ve never heard of him? He’s the main character from the West Wing, a show that enjoyed seven seasons of Emmy award-winning honors and a cult following. President Bartlett was famous for saying, “What’s next?” He had big decisions in front of him, he had big meetings to conduct, big conversations to navigate. But he understood that the fundamental question to ask when big things need to happen is this: what’s next?

This week at church Matt Metzger was talking about living our lives in such a way that we pursue rules for Godly living. This is not a religious post, though. It’s a post about taking steps. Watch this video from 32:55-36:22.

Step one of this blog series was to identify the big goals for the year. Step two is to understand that we reach these goals by executing a number of small steps. What are those steps? I can’t launch my wellness program until I survey the employees to determine their interests. I can’t compete in an olympic triathlon until I train for a certain number of days in the pool, on the bike, and in my running shoes. Every project, every goal has a next step. Not a finished product, a fast track. But a next action step (as David Allen would call it) to move closer to the end game.

It’s a big task, but this week I’ve drafted every project (all the big ones, most of the small) and figured out the next action step on each project. This helps focus our daily efforts which in turn helps us conceptualize our place in the bigger picture of accomplishing these goals, finishing these projects.

As Jim Collins says, great work requires great discipline. This week I’m finishing a disciplined process to convert my big goals into manageable next action steps.

Published Goals for 2014

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Goals have gotten a bad reputation. That’s why I like drafting them early in the year and publishing them in the next couple weeks, so we avoid the emotional “conquer the world, do a 180-in-life” kind of commitment. It’s a negative thought to begin this blog post, so let’s get away from that. Let me paraphrase my favorite quote about goals: If you aim at nothing, you are sure to hit it every time. If we do not have clear goals, what can we really expect in 2014? On the other hand, if we plan now, execute all year, how will we fill in the middle of December?

I argue that well-crafted goals, a disciplined routine of execution, and a support staff or inner circle will guarantee 2014 to be the most productive year ever. Big statement, I know. The reason I can make this claim is because very few people follow through with their resolutions and goals. That’s just a fact. Many will read this and put it away, move on to the next Facebook update. Some will participate in the comment section, some will participate alone at their desk. Cool! I’ve done this for quite a few years, I’m ready to take it to the next level. How about you?

(The following goals are in no order of importance.) 2014 Goals Hans Schiefelbein

Wellness program shipped

I will have an functional wellness program for small businesses by March 1. I will done the research, I’ve done the homework, I’ve even worked out some of the kinks with small businesses already. But I’m working towards literally publishing a manual for how to implement a wellness program for small business. I also have a goal in the number of companies I want to work with this year, but I’ll keep that goal internal. Here’s the thing – March 1 is on the calendar because it aligns with a current client and relationship that’s already in place. It will evolve throughout the year and with the subsequent clients, so there’s lots of work after the third month of the year. But the goal is March 1, wellness program.

Exercise is Medicine

I will double the number of doctors I work with for exercise prescription. I think (again) it’s wise to keep numbers to myself right now. Trust me, there’s an inner circle that’s well aware of my numbers goal, and failing to reach those numbers – I take that very seriously.

Correspondance project

I was talking with Katie the other day about when email came into my life. Do you remember your moments? I had an email in high school, I think I was the only one. But when I got to college, it was required. It immediately made communications (basic letter writing) simple. Painfully simple. I always new in middle and high school that I should write more letters. I loved in English class when Mrs. Curtis made us have pen pals with 4th grade students (mine was Katie Ruffel). But in reality, I never made writing a priority. Now with email – it was easy, it was fast, and with pictures it was fun. I want to bring that back. I want to write people more often. I’ll go public with this goal. My goal is to write one person a personal email (or FB message) each week. Relationships are important (more about this coming later in this post). This correspondence project will force me to slow down and improve the quality of my relationships dramatically. I’m especially excited about this goal.

ETB2014

My spiritual goal for the year is to finish Eat This Book. This is the third (!!) time attempting this goal. I’ve failed in the past and I’m not giving up. Not much else to say. I think the Bible is an excellent book, certainly worthy of the first 20 minutes of my day. Talk to me around the 4th of July, I hope to be on pace. Then the week of Christmas you can check in again, it should be just finishing up.

Keep Tri-ing

Last year I became a triathlete. This year I want to continue that and take it to the next level. My goal is to compete in an Olympic distance triathlon and also improve my time in the sprint distance.

Summary:  Your mileage may vary. You may have more detail, you may have less. You may have more goals, you may have one. Please consider having at least one goal by the end of the week. You don’t need to conquer the world. You don’t need to do a complete 180 with your life. But let’s set ourselves up to succeed this year in new and exciting ways. Today was about publishing our goals. Later this week we’ll talk about a plan for executing them. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Preview of Goals Project for 2014

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I think the best time to set goals for a year is right about now. The emotion and energy from New Year’s Day is gone, but still lingering is a sense of promise for a better year. We’re still looking at 2014 with only twelve days behind us, so many ahead. We can make our plans, set our goals, take our aim at things with a sober mind. So obviously I need to ask: what’s it going to be?

Two of my favorite people on Twitter (Shaun and Mike) made concerted efforts in the last few weeks to focus on the importance of goals. They created programs where people could sign up and be mentored by these guys and be part of a community to help achieve these goals. I’m leery of crafting my goals in a context like this because it feels too emotional. But I respect these two gentlemen so much that I really considered each one. I retreated from the invitations to my home office to think about goals and execution. I thought about what it would feel like to hit my goals. And then of course my next thought was what it would feel like to miss them. It’s that mentality that proves that I have a lot of growth to do in this area. Maybe you feel the same. Maybe you’re afraid to fail just like me. Maybe we could take this journey together. Just a thought.

Back to the goals. It’s not too late to work on a goals project for the year. I’ve been crafting my 3 Words (version 2010, version 2011, version 2012 version 2013) for the last couple weeks. I heard a great message by Matt Metzger that got me thinking about goals and taking small steps towards a goal. I’ll share that post later this week. For now, we need to establish some goals. There’s actually research that says people who set goals and focus on execution are more successful! Well that’s enough for me!

So this week I’m getting bold. I’m posting three days this week on this subject of goals. Of course I’d love for it to be a discussion, taking place in the comment section. But if you message me privately that still counts. If you keep it to yourself that’s good too but please consider going public on some kind of level. We’ll all grow if/when that happens.

Here’s to goals affecting 2014!  See you this week.

Routines to Increase Freedom and Flexibility

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Last week I met Jon Swanson for the first time in person.  We’ve been friends over Twitter for a couple years.  Yes, those relationships can happen, yes they can be good.  This one is a home run.  About a year ago, he started talking about the importance of routines.  He even wrote about a book about routines.  I’m very fond of conversations and initiatives that involve routine, discipline, planning and the likes.  After my meeting this morning I jumped on to Twitter and came across a tweet from John about working from home.  The post by Joelle was a great read.  It reminded me that routines aren’t he enemy.  Don’t hold freedom and flexibility so high that we think routines will get in the way.

Joelle medium blog post

I’m traveling the same road as Joelle, trying to figure out my daily routine when some days I have meetings, some days I work at my favorite Starbucks, some days there’s nothing like my home office.  But it’s worth examining how routines fit into our daily or even weekly flow.