Category Archives: featured
Cure Procrastination & Attention Drift With Mission Focus
Military training teaches you self-discipline and focus that can give you an edge in a world of distracted procrastinators. Distraction, procrastination and mission drift come easy to our brains in any environment, be it in business, in the wild or on the battlefield. On the show Man vs. Wild, survival expert, mountaineer and special forces soldier, Bear Grylls often talks about the distractions and the importance of having the right priorities .In particular, in tough situations, the ability to get mission focused is key.
In survival scenarios, when times are tough and energy is low, get focused on the mission.
The unavoidable truth about getting things done in any scenario, is that it takes discipline and will power to focus the mind on accomplishing a task. There is no secret work-around to cultivating self-discipline. Call attention to your tasks while recognizing the distractions, simply by entering a mission focused mindset. (more…)
Let Your Ideas Take Flight- Play Harder
Playing with ideas, in the literal, like-a-child sense of the word, is at the epicenter for creative innovation. Creatively solve problems and present new ideas is one of the most valued abilities in life and business today. Whether you’re trying to keep energy high, approach things from new perspectives, or solve complex problems, you should harness the power of play. (more…)
11 Tips For Whole-Hearted Living
In life, entrepreneurial and cultural mythology, and Heroik chronicles neglect to tell you all the important stages of self development required before you run off to slay dragons and conquer the world. The facts are that everyone comes ill equipped and most turn around and give up. If you want to succeed you’ll need to pursue life whole heartedly, with a sense of worthiness. People who have a strong sense of worthiness, have a strong sense of love and belonging. The difference between those that have it and those that struggle for it and wonder if they’re good enough is simply belief. People who have a strong sense of love and belonging believe that they are worthy of love and belonging.
The way the whole hearted live. The following tips are based on over 8 years of research by Dr. Brene Brown and are pulled from common traits of those who feel worthy and live with a strong sense of love and belonging. So, how do you achieve worthiness? (more…)
10 Reasons to Read Linchpin by Seth Godin
. After revisiting it, I expanded upon a few key take-aways that every business owner should know and use right now. 
Time Travel 101: How to Go Back Change the Past, Present and Build a New Future
It may come as news to you time travel is possible, when it comes to our perceptions of the past. Your timeline, the way you record your life makes up your story. That story is far from objective mechanical truth and up for interpretation.
How do you define your life? As a collection of moments, are they mostly good, or mostly bad? How do you hold on to them? Your perception of your life and how you remember isn’t a fixed absolute. You can change your perception of your past and change your future. (more…)
38 Memory Biases That Change The Story
Not all memories are treated equally. A memory bias is a cognitive bias that either enhances or impairs the recall of a memory (either the chances that the memory will be recalled at all, or the amount of time it takes for it to be recalled, or both), or that alters the content of a reported memory. There are many different types of memory biases, some that tend to serve you in positive ways and others that tend to get you in trouble. All of them effect your story and the way you remember it and retell it. (more…)
The Heroik Decision Matrix: 1 System 6 tips to Help You Decide What to Do First and Get it done
Are you ready to decide what to do right NOW? Do you feel overwhelmed with tasks but don’t know where to start?Enter the Decision Matrix. What is the Matrix? The decision matrix is a simple chart that will help you score and rank your tasks. By ranking different aspects of a task (1-5), adding the scores up and compare them with other tasks, you can quickly decide what task(s) you should start first.
You can create your own matrix on a blank sheet of paper or download the FREE Heroik Decision Matrix PDF template. There are 7 columns and 7 rows. Across the top label the columns Task, Enjoyment, Impact, Effort and Energy, Profitability, Alignment with Vision, and Total Score. Leave the most room for the task column as the rest will have numbers in them. For each row, write down your task item. (more…)
Posted: Nicholas McGill
Categories: Blog, Chronicles, featured, From The Meet Up, Unlocking Victory
15 Summer Gear Essentials for the Heroik Road Warrior
- ENO Double Nest Hammock
($60-$80) Perfect for 2 and great to wrap yourself in on your solo mission, I’ve used this hammock for over a year, and it’s one of my all time favorite must carry toys. The Slap Straps Pro
kit is sold separately but makes this hammock a 2 minute setup. Together they’ll set you back about $80, but enjoying sunsets by the water, grabbing a nap at camp, it is all well worth it.
- Kindle Fire
($200)- I love my iPad, but if you want to actually focus on reading enjoying the best in at an affordable price point, this is a great way to go. Amazon Prime users (recommended purchase as well) enjoy free access to instant media including movies, TV shows, books and magazines. You’re no longer just buying a device, you are buying into a platform, a marketplace, and an ecosystem. Amazon + Android seem to offer more customer centric features and benefits than the iOS/iPad market.
- The Life of Pi
- ($8.50 Kindle, $9 paperback)I often have to peal myself away from the stacks of business books and client author works to read some fiction for my own personal enjoyment. The life of Pi is an award winning adventurous work about a son of a zoo keeper, who finds himself stranded aboard a lifeboat with a tiger, orangutang, zebra, and hyena. The book is ripe with life lessons and symbolism. It’s as much a book about spiritual exploration as it is about survival, endurance and the power of mind. This book will enrich your life. It’s an easy summer read.
- Apple MacBook Air
($949-$1300+) – Thin, light, powerful. The best personal computing experience available at a great price point. There are many imitators who offer less features packed in heavier, more expensive machines. There are few different screen options and pricing ranges from. Worth it.
- i.Sound Portable Power Max ($70)- This battery pack has 16,000 mAh, 5 USB ports, a flashlight, LED battery life indicator, and enough juice to charge your phones and gizmos a few times over. A fun essential for any camping trip or other excursions that pull you away from the power grid.
- Moleskine Plain Notebook
– An essential item for any kit, the Moleskine Notebook is a writer’s best friend. Capturing ideas as they come is an essential habit of successful people. Don’t let I recommend the small & medium, blank page versions.
- Ray-Ban Wayfarer Sunglasses
($73-$236)- Available with many different lens configurations, these classic frames are still one of the most popular glasses out there.
- Bose QuietComfort 3 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones
($349) or Sennheiser CXC 700 Active Noise-Canceling Ear-Canal Headphones
($230)- Sometimes the surrounding noise can be distracting and beyond your control. Seek refuge inside a pair of noise cancelling headphones. The Bose Quiet Comfort Headphones you’ve probably heard of or seen time and time again on TV, SkyMall magazine or in Brookstone stores. The lesser known proven underdog brand, Senheiser has built a solid reputation for superb sound quality at affordable prices. The Senheiser CXC700 headphones pack away nicely, and why the noise cancellation feature requires some additional AAA batteries, the silence is worth it.
- Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX
($149) or Samsung Galaxy S III
($TBD)- While I carry an iPhone4, I’m a recent convert to the Android interface for it’s automation and believe it or not a more personal and customizable experience. The Droid Razr Maxx offers longer battery life than the previous models in a slim and relatively light package. And you can make your life easier with great apps such as any.do, Microsoft’s on{x}, (watch the video) and now you can stream video from your Dropbox account. The new Samsung Galaxy 3 features a new quad-core processor and the latest that Android has to offer.
- Fitbit Wireless
($99)-Healthcare coverage is expensive. Preventative and proactive care is cheap. Fitbit is a tiny device you can clip to your hip and use to track your physical activity, workouts, calories, steps, etc. It syncs with your computer and some solid software to help you track your health.
- Livescribe 4GB Echo Golden Package
kit with Evernote
($195)- Store and organize audio notes, lectures, classes and interviews with the LiveScribe +Evernote combo. Evernote stores all your notes locally and in the cloud. You can also organize them into tagged notebooks and sub-notebooks, great for any of your projects.
- Livescribe Single Subject Notebook
4 pack ($25)- These one subject notes are essential on the job. Don’t miss a word and capture every moment with this combo.
- Panasonic Lumix TS4 TOUGH
($329) – You may recall, this is the GPS enabled camera we dragged through the Tough Mudder, high altitudes and it came out on top.
- Sanyo eneloop 1500 Super Power Pack
($40)- Despite all the rechargeable solutions out there, I still own a lot of gear that takes an assortment of varying types of batteries. This Sanyo Eneloop kit has you covered. Featuring the best battery life and recharge time money can buy, 12 AA, 4 AAA, 2 C and D spacers, and 4 position charger and case for only $40. Did I mention it includes a 3 year 1500x use warranty. When’s the last time your batteries lasted that long? Amazon loves these batteries so much, they’ve branded them as their own (Amazon Essentials).
- Timbuk2 D-Lux Laptop Messenger Bag
($60-$130)- Made out of Ballistic Nylon built by bike messengers to be comfortable, organized and tough enough to take a bomb blast. Timbuk2 is a company that pays attention to all the important details and this is evident in all their bags via quick access pockets, organizational systems and protective sleeves.
You can find most of this gear in the Heroik Gear Store.
If you enjoyed this story, or have some favorite gear you’d like to share, please leave a comment and share the knowledge.
The $10 Startup- A BootStrappers Quick Reference to The Art of Hustle.
While I don’t completely write off the various investment/funding business models, I do have a larger respect for the art of hustle and the adaptive mindset of the true entrepreneur. I’m a big fan of bootstrapping business models and their success stories of small wins that lead to big victories. Looking at the small things, or the ability to make more of something from next to nothing, is a great exercise to use to help you hone in on the important things. That said, the big challenge is this: if you only had $10 to start a business, what would you do? What would you focus on? How would you go about it?
Read on to see some of our recommendations on how to start a business with little more than lunch money. Be sure to chime in and comment with your own ideas as well. (more…)
Posted: Nicholas McGill
Categories: Becoming Heroik, Blog, Chronicles, featured, Heroik Life Hacks, Heroik MBA, Leadership, Simplicity, TEE Savers
How to Reclaim 2 Hours Per Day By Cleaning Up Your Inbox
Is it possible to carve 2 hours or more out of your work day everyday?
I believe so. It happens the instant you stop treating every activity as necessary and develop a discerning discipline of priorities. Where can you apply just a little bit more discipline and get a lot more time in return? Email is an easy target.
How much time do you spend checking email?
If you’re like the average person, the answer is at least 2.5 hours according to recent PEW Internet Research study. And, that does not count the time spent distracted after clicking a link originating from an email either. Attacking spam (illegitimate and unsolicited email) is actually a small part of the battle. Legitimate email is the real time suck and the new battlefront for your time,effort, energy and attention. Think about notifications from LinkedIn,Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Quora, Meetup, etc.
What if you could get that time back with some simple automation and a few tools to support focused habits? You can. (more…)
15 Things Angry Birds Can Teach You About Business
Video games can teach you a thing or two about the challenges of life and business. One of the most popular titles to sweep smart phones, TV’s and tablets across the globe is Angry Birds. It too, offers nuggets of practical business wisdom. Here are 15 pulled from the experiences of Angry Bird addicts around the world. (more…)
Tougher Than Your Mudder
We all had our reasons; vindicate our training and tough talk, to remind ourselves that we’re brave and capable, to satisfy our thirst for epic adventure, to do a little team building, to demonstrate leadership, and perhaps most important- to have a good time and enjoy the adventure. Staring from the starting line, knowing what was in store, I was more excited than afraid. Doing the Tough Mudder after recently pulling a hamstring, I’ll admit, was an intimidating notion. I knew we’d survive. I knew we’d get it done. I trusted my team and I wasn’t going to allow myself to quit, come hell or compound fracture. (more…)
Posted: Nicholas McGill
Categories: BYOX, Chronicles, featured, Heroik MBA, Required Courses, What We Do
Heroik MBA Intro
What skills and wisdom are required to thrive and lead a balanced life? What wisdom can we carry over from the industrial age? Which practices and mentalities are obsolete? What are the new rules, guidelines and best practices, for life and business in a global, information based economy? If we are to honor in our professions the belief systems and principals we hold personally and individually, how would we go about that? These questions were filling my head in 2010, when I started down a path of seeking answers, cultivating experience, wisdom, skills, discipline and a eventually finding a new Way, new models, that scale and profit in more than just dollars. I’ve since been reviewing and organizing the practice into what I call the Heroik MBA. (more…)
What We're All About
Our job is to inspire others to Get Heroik. This site is chiefly, an entertaining collaboratory for Heroik Media; a repository for our quixotic adventures (and misadventures), projects, insight, tools, and lessons about life and business in an empowered work environment. (more…)
Bring Your Own Bravery
The first step to become Heroik is to cultivate bravery.
Recklessness is bravery to excess. Cowardice is a lack thereof. Much of the world prefers cowards. We believe it’s better to edge a bit towards the reckless side of the bravery continuum as often times, the worst case scenarios aren’t nearly as perilous as the world would have you believe.They’re easier to manage and will work for less. At Heroik, we have a mantra that allows us to Get Heroik each and every day. We remind ourselves to bring our own bravery; to own and control our efforts and outcomes in life. Every challenge we undertake, every project and adventure, the least we can do is to be responsible and courageous enough not to look to others when it is time to get things done, have a good time, share epic experiences and lend a hand. We bring our own bravery, lead by example; get in there and get dirty. (more…)
Master Productivity By Putting it On Paper
Picture Batman robbed of his utility belt. He’s still more than able whoop your ass, solve the riddle and save the day. You too, should aspire to cultivate your skills to the point that armed with only the most primitive of tools, locked in an 8×10 room with a magic marker, you (your ideas, filters, lenses and processes) can be just as dangerous and powerful. Do you want more mental clarity, focus, less anxiety and stress? This year, this month, this week, try something different and get back to the basics. Brush the dust off a pen and paper, visit ye olde staples, follow along, get involved, and measure your gains. Spend the $10 on a pad of paper and something to write with. I recommend a moleskine notebook and a good pen. Just as a fool trusts his life to a weapon, do not place ultimate faith in your gadgetry. I’m not anti-tech. I’m a thrivalist. Read on if you want to become a bare knuckle biz champion of productivity. (more…)
Posted: Nicholas McGill
Categories: BYOX, Chronicles, featured, Paper Practice, Productivity, Simplicity
Setting Goals & Creating Action Plans
Setting goals and creating action plans is a great pen and paper exercise that can result in a clear road map to achieving your dreams. As a personal productivity skill, prosperity skill and healthy habit, it’s strongly recommended. Grab your pen (I recommend the G2 Extra Fine Point) and your Moleskine Notebook
Posted: Nicholas McGill
Categories: BYOX, Chronicles, featured, Paper Practice, Productivity, Simplicity
Check Out The New Chronicles View
Hey all, we’ve added a big, visual, iPad friendly Chonicles View to the Get Heroik website. Click here to check it out or choose “Chronicles” on the main menu at the top of the page. The purpose of the Chronicles view is not only to give you a way to bask in the glory of all the epic articles we post, but also to provide you with a way to visually browse content. In the Chronicles view, Each story has a featured thumbnail, title, and a few words to help you quickly skim and navigate to the content you want. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you’ll see there are more pages to choose from. It’s a small, straight forward addition, but simplicity too can be empowering. We’re trying new things to make it easy to mix, match and choose your own adventure here, so give the Chronicles view a try and send us your feedback.
We’re always open to suggestions, so please feel free to comment.
- The Heroik Team
info@getheroik.com
@getheroik
23 Points of Wisdom: The Book of the 5 Rings
The Book of the Five Rings is a work written by a legendary swordsman and artist, Miyamoto Musashi. Active during what is called the Kyoto Renaissance 1550-1650, Musashi traveled throughout Japan studying many different styles of Martial Arts and many walks of life. He met, studied and conversed with masters and leaders of his day, and with a critical eye and focus on fluidity and effectiveness, he adapted only that which would achieve victory. His style and skill led him to over 60 victories, which is an astounding feat, even for a master in those days. On October 10, 1643, in an act of purification after sensing a fatal disease, Musahsi, climbed Mount Iwato in the province of Higo on the island of Kyushu, and began to write The Book of Five Rings. He intended his work to be a guide for his followers he had trained face to face. In this book, Musashi offers timeless advice on navigating life, training the mind and defeating an adversary.
Today, The Book of the Five Rings is required reading for Harvard Business students and is of tremendous value to those with sense enough to see beyond material, linear, checkerboard solutions to life’s challenges. Below is an assortment of important lines from the book, along with a few modern thoughts strewn in here and there. As with many works of the East, this isn’t simply a book you read. The knowledge in this book is best captured by taking the time to read, practice, study, re-visit and re-read.
5 Apps I Never Leave Home Without
I prefer to operate lean, mean and mobile when it comes to tech. I live by the Principles of Digital liquidity – A discipline for the digital lifestyle consisting of constant pursuit of 6 factors; speed, simplicity, independence, mobility, control and tactility. The tools that make it onto my utility belt help keep me free and in control of my digital lifestyle. All of these applications are cross-platform, synchronized, mobile-reachable from the web as well as via apps for iOS, Android, etc. Though I use many apps and solutions, these are kept in my pocket and on call everywhere I roam- digitally speaking. Here are 5 I never leave home without:
(more…)
