Procrastination is a huge issue for a lot of people. Working for myself for the past month has exposed my issues with it even though I'm doing what I love. I procrastinate. The day ends. I stress and feel guilty. I go to sleep. And then I do it all over again. There's got to be a better way.

Here are some solutions I'm experimenting with to heal my habit:

• Find a procrastination partner: Identify the person at work or in your life who will randomly email, call, text, or stop by your desk occasionally and ask you "What are you procrastinating on?" or "What's the one thing that would make your day wildly successful if you accomplished it today?" After you respond, their role is to combat all excuses and encourage you to start working on whatever your "one thing" is right then and there. Note: This doesn't work if they start procrastinating with you.
  
  
• Make a distraction detector list: Write your distractions on a post-it or the wall in front of you so that you know when you're being distracted. Some of mine are sorting stray paper, unwashed clothes, the refrigerator, cutting my nails, and Facebook. When you catch yourself about to do either, just stop and refocus on what you're procrastinating on.
  
  
• Set something in motion: Create an early deadline by setting something in motion that involves another person. For example, if you have a project due in a month, set up a feedback session with your colleague or boss around the 2 week mark.

• Find something worse to procrastinate on: I know this sounds counter-intuitive, but if we find a few things to procrastinate on, we end up procrastinating on the thing we don't want to do with the lesser of the two evils. For example, if you need to do your taxes and go to the DMV but you don't want to do either, you're more likely to get the lesser of the two evils done b having two things to procrastinate on than if you only had one thing to procrastinate on.
  

• Shorten the work day: Just like Parkinson's Law, if we have 8 hours to do 4 hours of work, for some silly reason we tend to expand the work to fill the 8 hours. If you know you only get in a good 4-5 hours of real work everyday, don't beat yourself up about the other 3+. Who made up the 8 hours work day anyway? Consciously excel during your peak hours and consciously rest during your non-peak time.You know how to look busy. After all, you've been procrastinating for years now.
  

As creative as they are, many artist still think in boxes...the page, the canvas, and the CD case. It is becoming harder and harder for artist to make a living doing what they love and the myth of the starving artists is becoming more real...if we only embrace old business models.

Today, consumers of art (music, books, paintings, poetry, sculptures, etc) are more interested in the actual creation process than they are the creation itself. Therefore the CD has become a promotional tool rather than a product and the real value is in performances.

For instance despite a dying industry and only having the 50th best selling CD in the country, Madonna earned more than any artist ever has because of her amazing tour which made up a bulk of her $242M last year. It's all about experience creation through shows, courses, and other events.

Secondly, sell direct. There is no reason Amazon should manage your relationship with you customer. 1 million CDs sold with 1 million email address through your website is better than 3 million CDs sold and no email address. It's about building long-term relationships with fans and customers.

Lastly, artist need to re-purpose their art. Many artist have a whole bunch of great work on their hard drives that they aren't sharing with the world. One day that hard drive is going to crash and then what. Musicians need to be thinking about scores for movie, elevator music, commercials, etc in addition to selling CDs. If we don't share what we've created, then the creative energy will stop flowing through us. The very song, beat, writing, painting we hate may be the one the world is waiting for.

Today I spoke to a group of about 40 undergrads at the University of Michigan on the topic of Purpose + Passions + Profession: How to align your life, work, & goals. The event was sponsored by the University of Michigan Ross School of Business Women's Initiative. Feel free to watch the speech at the link below and see pictures here.

Get out a notepad and pen and
Watch Now!

In indigenous cultures, names were given according to your purpose. In some cultures, people underwent multiple naming ceremonies at birth, during adolescence and then adulthood. For instance, Sitting Bull, one of the most well-known Sioux Indians was born with the name Jumping Badger because of his speed, later given the name Jumping Bull, and then became Sitting Bull because he was slow to think before acting.

Sometimes our nicknames are more telling of who are than our given names. Without a naming ceremony, parents tend to choose names that sound cute. Most names have some sort of meaning or legacy and sometimes our lives parallel with those who have bore the name before us and sometimes they don't. Nicknames usually come from the conscious choice of someone close to us. At any given moment, they choose to forgo using our given name and call us something different because they feel it is a more accurate depiction of who we truly are. Some of my nicknames include Navigator Newt, J-Love, J-Conxus, and J-Money.

Nicknames are just the beginning. They communicate back us what we've communicated to others through the way we live. But even more powerful than accepting a nickname is choosing your own superhero name. The TV show Heroes and most Marvel characters are everyday human beings who have recognized a special superpower they hold. In the same way, we are each born with special superpowers that get reduced to language like gifts, strengths, and talents. Your superhero name should communicate your uniqueness and how you create value for the other people. Some good ones on TV are The Dog Whisper, a guy who has the power to train dogs, and The Locator, a guy who helps people track down lost family members. Below is a list of more superhero names that have we use today and a list of names that have been christened in Driving School for Life.

Share your superhero name and powers in the comments section below.

For Social Enterprises

For Technology Start Ups

Click here to see all POTLUCK pictures...

Everybody say cheese! Thankfully there weren't too many lactose intolerant people present this time because we had 3 different types of macaroni and cheese. All them tasted great. Is anybody still constipated?

Sunday's potluck was an amazing group of entrepreneurs, businessmen and women, lawyers, musicians, dancers, students, educators, writers, fashion experts, and more. There was also a lot of love in the room as we were blessed a few groups of best friends, three couples, and
8 Driving School for Life alumni. The evening involved watching Beyonce's abs, salsa dancing, and a conversation around the last thing you did to love yourself. Answers included going to the spa, getting a gym membership, traveling with friends, singing and dancing freely at home, saying "I love you" in the mirror, moving across the country for love, among others.

We welcome the 14 new potluckers to the family. Thanks again to Ronethea for being such a great host. 17...18...19...20...21 makes this the biggest potluck in New York yet. Potluck has now reached 156 people.

Don't forget to continue loving thyself <3

Upcoming Events

• March 7th: Jullien's Driving School for Life Course. Visit www.drivingschoolforlife.com for details. Save $25 with early registration.
  
• March 12th: James' TechonOrganizing Workshop to get your Gmail organized. Email James at james.e.bartlett@gmail.com for details.
  
• March 13th: Karaoke Soul. Email Pam at pamelasjackson@gmail.com for details.
• March 14th: House Party @ Ronethea & Terry's
  
• March 15th: Potluck #16 in Brooklyn, NY at Kanako & Danya's
  

1. Soak in a bath with candles and music
2. Go for a walk
3. Make yourself a cup of tea
4. Exercise
5. Stretch and move to music
6. Practice Yoga, Tai Chi or another gentle activity
7. Sit in the sun for 15 minutes
8. Change one thing to improve your diet
9. Watch birds and animals interact in nature
10. Sit in a park or garden
11. Take a nap
12. Eat totally healthy for one day per week
13. Be mindful of an ache or pain, focus healing energy and love to that
14. area of your body for 5 minutes
15. Recognize when you need comfort, and seek it out, cuddle up in a warm
16. blanket, light a candle, call a friend, put on loving music etc.
17. Get lost in a book or a movie, or create a fantasy . . .daydream for
18. 15 minutes
19. Be playful or silly, let your inner child play ? color, blow bubbles,
20. paint or sing your favorite childhood song
21. Create a nurturing nook in your home, set up your own personalized sanctuary
22. Cry or laugh with a plant, tree or something from the earth
23. Engage in a hobby or craft project
24. Write yourself a letter about the obstacles you?ve overcome and things
25. like about yourself
26. Do something you have wanted to do for a long time
27. Hug yourself for 3 minutes
28. Breathe deep and think about a calm peaceful place, imagine yourself there
29. Remember a special time that brought your joy
30. Sing
31. Hug someone or ask for a hug
32. Talk to someone by pretending they are there
33. Make a to do list
34. Write a poem
35. Connect with nature
36. Concentrate on the flame of a candle
37. Meditate
38. Pray
39. Talk to your guardian angel
40. Write about your spiritual purpose
41. Write about an experience that has been meaningful
42. Smile every time you see a particular object (one that you see a lot of)
43. Email a friend, tell them how much they mean to you
44. List things you will do to improve your life
45. Identify negative beliefs that limit your life
46. Journal write about your reactions, thoughts, and feelings for a month
47. Learn about a different religion or spiritual practice from your own
48. Make a list of short and long term goals
49. Practice unconditional love and forgiveness with yourself and others
50. Work on your family tree
51. Smile at a stranger, send them thoughts of peace, acceptance and joy
52. Affirm yourself daily
53. Watch children play, talk to your inner child in a loving way
54. Acknowledge yourself for your accomplishments, be proud
55. Talk to or smile at an elder
56. Feel a fear and take a risk
57. Telephone a friend or relative
58. Do something of service for your community or another person
59. Eat something sweet or sour
60. Accept a compliment
61. Read love quotes to yourself
62. Give yourself a hand or foot message
63. Find two things you love about your body
64. Close your eyes, and smile for the gift of life

For most people passions are part-time instead of full-time. They are things you do on the weekend if you get around to them. A lot of people drive to work park in the parking lot and leave half of who they are in the passenger seat while dragging the other half of themselves into the office.

What if could align our passions and profession? I think it's possible and here's why.

One day I met a woman who worked in HR at Google. I asked her if this is what she was passionate about and she responded "I really love archaeology." As our conversation progressed we realized that she was still pursuing archaelogy. Instead of digging for fossils and artifacts she was digging through talent pool of resumes to find hidden gems in people.

Passions are action-based where the interest are topic-based. Archaeology was her interest, but digging and finding were her passions. The same framework may apply for someone who has manifested their passion for strategizing through playing chess. Someone like that may want to explore a career in consulting.

Believing that our passions and professions can and should be aligned would revolutionize the career exploration process and hiring process. Instead of hiring based on Grade Point Averages, employers would hire based on Great Passion Advantage. And instead of searching for jobs by industry, company, or title, we would search for jobs by actions.

Here is a simple process to do this for yourself:

1. List five things that interest you now and as a child.
   Ex. baseball
   
   
2. For each entry write down all of the actions associated with that interest.
   Ex. playing baseball, coaching baseball, collecting baseball cards, watching baseball
   
   
3. Circle all of the action verbs that excite you.
   Ex. coaching, collecting
   
   
4. Identify career opportunities that would allow you to do those actions regularly.
   Ex. life coach, executive coach, sports coach, IRS (collect money), forensics (collect evidence)