Sports stars have their agents negotiate relatively short term contracts for them to maximize their earning potential and in some cases extend their careers.

The rest of us should be no different.

Here is the approach I use and write about in my book that makes me a “free agent” every summer even though I own my own business.

• Take at least a week – I use a vacation week – to review the past year.  Ask yourself the question:  “Do I want to do this again next year?”  Perhaps the answer is yes, but I need more.  Now is the time to figure out what that is.
• Isolate the things you want to do – today, tomorrow and further on in life.  Question:  are you doing them?  If you’re not pursing your dreams in some way, you’re in a dead end career even if you are being paid well.
• Once you know what you want to do next year, divide it into the following categories – off-season (the one you’re in when you are reviewing the past year), pre-season, the season and post-season.  For example, you may want to add something rewarding to your career that requires additional education.  That’s your pre-season.  Once you’re ready to follow your dreams, consider that your season.  Post season is reserved for upping your motivation to accomplish greater goals at the end of the regular season.
• Everything is on the table.  If you want to go to nursing school but you work in sales, the moment you know what you want to do you have taken the first step.
• I sign a new contract with myself every year for one year only and then I go through the process all over again in 12 months.  It is amazing at how my “contracts” have changed from 5 or even 10 years ago.  Had I not done this, imagine what I would have missed out on.

My grandfather worked for the railroad all his life.

At the end, a year before retirement they tried to get him to quit and assigned him to handling a locomotive 100 miles from home each day.  He persisted, got his retirement but wasted whatever dreams he had by passively devoting himself to a company that did not have his best interests in mind.

Think of your life as a renewable contract that is renegotiated by you with you to put you in the best position to start realizing your dreams.

Subscribe to these Day Starters for free here.

Share them with friends and family by forwarding this email or posting to social media.

Maybe you’re like me and have tried everything else.

Here’s a guaranteed way to reduce stress immediately.

Simplify your life.

• Digital communication makes our lives richer but more stressful.  Consider that more than 95% of our digital and social interactivity is an interruption to productivity and rarely brings us happiness.  It can wait, so let it.
• Multitasking sounds good but it induces even more stress.  Since when does doing two or three things simultaneously make us happier and more successful?  Actively and constantly look for ways to do less.  Twenty percent of what we do everyday gives us 80% of our productivity.  Doggedly search for the things that make up that 20% and do only them.
• Use focused attention.  Work uninterrupted.  Break tasks into small pieces because it is a fact that the bigger the task ahead of us, the harder it is to get the time to work on it.  Divide it into smaller steps and do one at a time.
• Who are the most important people in your life?  Spend your time with them first, not interrupters, usurpers or less important people demanding your precious time.
• Yes, exercise, diet and a positive attitude contribute to stress reduction but actively looking for things to let go of is the Holy Grail of stress reduction.

Eliminating stress will always be replaced by more stress unless you focus your attention on only that which means the most to you in life.

Subscribe to these Day Starters for free here.

Share them with friends and family by forwarding this email or posting to social media.

There are now more Millennials (roughly 18-34) in the workplace than any other generation including Gen X and Baby Boomers.

So chances are if you are not already working with or for people who are younger, you soon will.

• None are so old as those who have outlived their zest for enthusiasm.  The enthusiastic worker or co-worker is ageless and rarely thought of by their age.  If you get this right, you won’t need the next few suggestions.
• The good old days are not that good.  Most people would never want to go back in time to a “better” day.  So give it up and stop talking about it.  Nothing says out of date and out of touch more than a person who speaks of the past when working in the present.
• Young people expect a fast track for their ideas (just like older people did in their youth).  Check your ego at the door and help them realize their ideas and your value multiplies.
• Think of younger people with the love you have for your own children.  As a professor at USC I thought of my students as extended family.  And healthy families disagree and disappoint but they like each other.  Ironically, I have seen some teachers who disliked the Millennial generation and the feeling of the students was mutual.
• You don’t have to dress like someone 25 or 35 years old to gain the respect of your boss or co-workers.  I’m thinking of Steve Jobs who was a baby boomer in jeans and turtlenecks who loved The Eagles and The Beatles.  But Jobs respected the desires of a much younger generation and built great products for them.

Only a fool tries to be younger but a wise person becomes invaluable by having the confidence to leave their resume in the past and helping others realize their dreams.

Subscribe to these Day Starters for free here.

Share them with friends and family by forwarding this email or posting to social media.

You don’t walk out of the movie early if you want to know how it ends.

Same is true of a bad day or bad streak of luck.

Everyone always rebounds.  It just feels so terrible until then.

To pick up a down day, consider that a day has 24 hours and lots of things can happen in that period of time.

Think of it as one of many other things that make up your life.

“Every adversity, every failure and every heartache carries with it the seed of an equivalent or a greater benefit.” – Napoleon Hill

Subscribe to these Day Starters for free here.

Share them with friends and family by forwarding this email or posting to social media.

Nothing has proved to be better than the way Ben Franklin decided things:

“My way is to divide half a sheet of paper by a line into two columns; writing over the one Pro and over the other Con. Then during three or four days’ consideration, I put down under the different heads short hints of the different motives, that at different time occur to me, for or against the measure. When I have thus got them altogether in one view, I endeavor to estimate their respective weights; and where I find two, one on each side, that seem equal, I strike them both out. If I judge some two reasons con equal to some three reasons pro, I strike out five; and thus proceeding, I find where the balance lies; and if after a day or two of further consideration, nothing new that is of importance occurs on either side, I come to a determination accordingly.”

• Two columns (pro/con)
• Take 3 days to consider
• Assign weights but if two are equal strike them both out
• If it’s close, throw both pros and cons out and figure out where the balance lies.
• If nothing new can be added to your list, you have come to a determination.

The best decisions result from weighing the evidence pro and con.

Subscribe to these Day Starters for free here.

Share them with friends and family by forwarding this email or posting to social media.

The first time I was on television on the ABC affiliate in Philadelphia, I read the Teleprompter like a champ.

What an easy job, I thought.

Until the director walked into the ice-cold studio and said “We’re running about 4 minutes early, you’ll have to fill”.  Adlib!  I thought he was kidding.  I hoped he was kidding.

What gets us through public speaking opportunities and presentations is not what most people think it is – not some learned air of confidence but something more deep-seated that all of us can attain.

• You have earned the right to be speaking in public or leading a group.  Remember that fact often.
• Be yourself. Trying to imitate a speaker is the formula for failure but to be yourself makes you an expert.  I am Italian and enthusiastic.  I speak with my hands.  “Good” speakers are encouraged to be someone else but I don’t believe it.   Be you with hand gestures and all.
• Be authentic.  When I started a new class as professor of music industry at USC I would say, “I’m Italian and from New Jersey, anyone have a problem with that?”  The students would laugh because that is the way I talk.  It’s real.
• The biggest fear a speaker or presenter has is that they are going to forget what they intend to say.  Even to this day I rehearse my presentation or talk three times.  That’s it.  Each time it comes out differently which is good. The fourth time is the actual presentation and the way I do it is different again.  This is how you know you are being effective.  You know the material well enough to not worry about how it comes out.
• Confidence booster:  no audience ever knew if a speaker forgot something so don’t worry about remembering everything.
• Never memorize.  You’ll get caught.
• You can start with a set opening line and end with a memorized line – no longer – but the rest of your talk even if you use notes should be extemporaneous.
• To be enthusiastic as a speaker, I mingle with the audience before I talk so they can see I am just like them and to get my mind off the talk and focused on real people.
• When you take questions even from people who disagree with what you are saying – let them have their say, you had yours.
• Oh, and try not to use slides.  Make them available on Google Drive after the talk but the surest way to put an audience to sleep is to use PowerPoint.  Or as one of my USC students said, “if you use slides, make it a picture.  No words”.  They want to hear you!

Subscribe to these Day Starters for free here.

Share them with friends and family by forwarding this email or posting to social media.

I had a friend who, when we were at a restaurant and were interrupted by the waitress, would come back and remember wherever I left off before the interruption.

I marveled at how he could do it because I sure couldn’t.

He always said, “When you speak, I listen, JD”.

One thing that can endear us to others in this digital connected world in which we live is to practice focused listening.

To listen instead of hear, being in the present is required.

Shaking off distractions is a skill that must be acquired.

And getting the feeling of being connected with another person desired.

Some people seem to be born good listeners but for the rest of us, there are these skills:

• Listen intently turning away distractions looking directly into a person’s eyes.
• Summarize in your mind as you hear interesting or significant things.  Imagine that most of us cannot recall what others in our lives say accurately because we’re not present in the conversation.
• Limit the conversation to your ability to concentrate.
• Ask questions when you can.
• Do not give in to the temptation to talk about yourself or your reaction to what another person is saying – and you won’t have to because most people who have been heard will ask you questions.
• Bette Midler’s line comes to mind:  “But enough about me, let’s talk about you. What do you think of me?”  Self-centered people talk about themselves even when they would have you believe they are listening to you.

Try deflecting attention away from yourself even once and you will have all the motivation you need to be a better listener.

Subscribe to these Day Starters for free here.

Share them with friends and family by forwarding this email or posting to social media.

There is so much pressure every day to be someone else.

The person a family member expects, the spouse one of you really wanted, the parent your children seem to want even if that isn’t good for them – even someone in your workplace that you were not hired to be.

The games people can play are maddening.

And eventually our lives become like bumper cars banging around from expectation to expectation where we never quite feel right and where we can never win.

Refuse to play the games.

Do not try to win battles.

Win the war.

And the war should be always being the person you want to be.

When someone hits us, our natural tendency is to hit back, but consider letting them fight with themselves.  Always stay on course.

At the end of the day we are happier when we avoid needless games and stay true to the person you want to be.

Subscribe to these Day Starters for free here.

Share them with friends and family by forwarding this email or posting to social media.

In a self-absorbed world, sometimes it feels like we’re not appreciated or respected.

This can impact our self-confidence.

But you can take matters into your own hands.

• Every time you have an accomplishment, write it down.  I add them on my iPhone’s note app for review when a boost of confidence is needed.  Scroll through frequently.  For some reason we don’t have to remember what we do wrong so this counteracts that.
• Think of every accomplishment large or small as an IOU redeemable by you when you are doing something new or that takes a great deal of confidence.
• Only work on self-improvement when you include a moment of self-appreciation.
• Never let anyone else commandeer control of your self-esteem.  Either spend less time with them or cut off contact if possible.  Letting the negative voices of others into our heads is a guarantee of diminished self-confidence.
• Memorize this mantra:  “I’ve done it before and I can do it again” and repeat it many times a day.

Think of your mind as a digital recorder and never allow anyone other than you to record directly into your psyche.

Even compliments!  Take them as substantiation of what you already know or when a person changes how they feel about you, you are vulnerable.

Subscribe to these Day Starters for free here.

Share them with friends and family by forwarding this email or posting to social media.

Netflix now offers paid maternity and paternity leave for an entire year.

Google will do your dry cleaning, take care of your child for free and let you spend one day a week working on anything of your choosing.

Millennials love these benefits yet still, they leave these jobs just as someone unhappy in theirs would leave.

They are perusing their dreams.

Benefits, loose job descriptions and even pay do not guarantee a happy, rewarding and fulfilling career.

Here’s what I tell my young students to do when they are seeking a job they can love.

• Write down 5 things you would love to do in life even if you do not have the training or skills to get the job (you can always get it later).
• Do not include your current job or the thing that you have trained for or, for that matter, the career in which you have spent the most time.
• Take up to three months (and I mean this) to compile a list that you are sure of.
• Then rank the main areas of interest in order of importance.
• Look to see whether any two can be combined meaning one job would allow you to do two of your main interests.
• Repeat this process every year. Avoid a rut. It is surprising how many people stay in dying industries because they dare not dream about doing something different.

I am about to complete my annual list at the end of the summer after I take more beach days to think things through. Even though I have three businesses I always check to see if what I am doing now is what I want to continue to do and sometimes things make the list to make me aware of a dream that I may have shrugged off.

Last year I saw short form video pop up on my list so I am working to integrate it into what I do. Who knows what will show up this year.

We have one life — why waste it by ignoring the dreams that make us love what we do for a living.

Subscribe to these Day Starters for free here.

Share them with friends and family by forwarding this email or posting to social media.