10 Action Points from High Performance Academy 2019

Gena and I took a lot away from High Performance Academy with Brendon Burchard this past week—an unforgettable 4 days designed to impact your personal life and your business from all sides.

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The thing about attending a motivational conference is that it’s EASY to get excited and go back to “the way things were.” But I refuse to do that. I discovered something recently when I signed up for Mark Dawson’s Self-publishing Formula 101 course recently: If I put a teaching I hear into practice BEFORE moving onto another module of teaching, magic happens. I actually end up seeing results.

For years I’ve indulged in great training. I’m a learner at heart. I’ve received a BS, and MBA and more than a dozen certifications…but so much of my training has been theoretical—except what I’ve DONE after the fact. So with HPA, just as with SPF101, I’m doing something with my knowledge. I’m coupling my faith in subject with works to getting it done.

High Performance Academy 2019 – Our Takeaways

Here are the 10 action points I’m putting into practice, starting with placing them into my calendar so they’re more than just wishful thinking.

1. Goals are front and center. I’m putting them on my computer. Not the desktop—I mean the outer rim of the case. Since I spend more time in front of that screen than anywhere else, that’s where I’ll constantly be reminded of my goals. In this way, I’ll be able to look at every project I take on and measure whether it’s congruent with what God has called me to do.
2. Block-time is the new rule. I’m blocking out time on my calendar—every day—for my writing. Not my writing for other people, but my writing. Very soon you’re going to see more novels and books by Christopher P.N. Maselli. And I don’t mean in years from now. I mean the first draft is scheduled to drop next month.
3. Time-travel has been invented. I’m gaining back four weeks each year by stopping stupid stuff. No longer will I spend 20 minutes a day watching YouTube videos or 20 minutes playing a game on my iPhone. That 40 minutes alone will gain me back 5 hours a week, 20 hours a month, or 30 work days each year. And that’s enough time to write a full book.
4. Everything will have a due date. When I need to research something, I’ll have no more than 5 days to research it. At that point, I’ll move forward. Jeff Bezos makes decisions based on a 40% certainty. That’s good enough for me.
5. I’ll schedule a monthly project review to make sure everything is on schedule and adjust as needed.
6. Health is front and center. Starting today, I’m only buying the groceries that fuel my body. I’m exercising every day. I’m setting a timer for drinking 4-5 liters of water daily. And as I read daily, I’m finding a passage to read aloud to myself to give myself energy through my own voice.
7. The Pomodoro technique works. So I’ll use it. When my butt hits the chair, a 50-minute timer starts. When 50-minutes is up, I’ll energize my body for 10 minutes with a good break and a short series of exercises. Then I’ll go at it again.
8. Focus. I’m using Three Words to keep my mind focused on who I am. These three words will be on my bathroom mirror, my computer, and an alarm on my phone three times a day. I will live by these words by keeping them at the forefront of my mind.
9. We’re hiring. To start, we’re interviewing two interns. One will help us with our book proposals and writing. The second to help with technology. In return, we’ll be mentoring these individuals with our 25 years of knowledge and experience in the publishing industry.
10. Our goals for the upcoming months include starting a podcast, releasing a new book on writing, submitting multiple proposals for upcoming fiction and non-fiction books and more.

There’s a lot here, but I’m already scheduling these items on my calendar, taking action daily. Gena is too. I believe we’re crossing a threshold in our career. Please watch us and keep us accountable. We’re all in this together!

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