About six years ago I was working with an executive coach and he had me do this

exercise he called the three three and three and the first three was three areas

of your life.

So your work life, your family life, and then your personal life,

you outside of your work and family.

The second three was three years,

so let's pick a time frame that's urgent enough to apply pressure

but short enough that it also gets you excited you can get excited about

something three years from now and the last three was three pages so So put all of this down, this three three and three down on three pages or less, pen to paper.

It gives you a constraint of space. So you have to be succinct.

And here's what happens. It's a miserable exercise, not because the words don't flow.

They do for me and for everyone I know who has done this exercise.

The words flow, the ideas come fast and furious.

The reason it's a challenging exercise is because very

quickly, if you're anything like me, you are underwhelmed by your lack of vision,

by your lack of focus and clarity about what you would like to have in those three areas in the

next three years.

And it becomes a very sobering experience where you realize, wow, mostly, on most days

I get up and react. On most days I do what other people ask of me on most days I'm I'm pushed around by societal norms and emails and inboxes and ping notifications and most days I really don't have a clear focus. My guest today on this

week's podcast is not that executive coach but he is a high-performance

psychologist who does similar work and it made me remember this

exercise that I've done and a lot of our conversation touches on many of the

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