2011 - Every Year a New Challenge?

January First. No surprise that I would gather enough gumption to write a post, right? After all, today is the day so many of us insistently declare our new habits. How many of you are changing your eating habits, starting this very morning? Promising to exercise - even joining a health club? How about recommitting to following your passion and quitting your J.O.B.? Finding a new relationship, or improving the one you're in? Paying back debt?

The possibilities are endless.

Yesterday, as I started my soul-searching process by looking over 2010, and even a few years before, I discovered a few things that have changed - some that I liked, some that I didn't. I also saw that a lot hasn't changed at all.

- The last time I created a Top 100 Things to do in a Year List was 2008. I tried a short/medium/long term goal list in 2010, that wasn't very effective.
- 2010 saw me cross off many things from my Top 100 Things to do before I Die List - including speaking for a seminar company, going to Disneyworld, Paris, and rappelling down a cliff.
- I finally, as I've mentioned often, moved back to Colorado.
- While I successfully went off caffeine from 1/09 to 2/09 - I've been back on ever since. Two months did not a new habit create.
- The only goal I seriously set for 2011 that was accomplished in full was one I set with Kristi - finish her book - Thriving with Neurofibromatosis, and get it on the market.
- 2010 is the first year since 1999 I ended lighter than I started, though I haven't been at my lowest weight since August.
- 2010 was the first year since 2001 I did not compete in a Toastmasters contest - and I really miss it.

Beyond checklist type items, I still face the daily challenges and choices a husband, a father of six, and an entrepreneur face - balancing time, staying confident, staying committed (as anyone who reads this blog, or its companion blog, Speak & Deliver, cant attest to), staying focused, and, occasionally, staying sane.

In some ways, I've taken some amazing leaps forward in my life over the last two years. In others, I remain mired in the same mud I've been in for the last 20.

All results are still by choice, all results are ultimately my responsibility. Blaming the economy, the many naysayers in my life, the busy life of a big family, the way the healthcare system works (read my wife's blog, where she talks quite a bit about what challenges we have healthwise, and our efforts to Thrive through them), or any number of other easy excuses is unacceptable to me - it's an easy way out, and an easy way to accept less than what any of us are capable of accomplishing.

I'm not going to list a set of goals here to live up to today. I have a private list, and I'll record my process and progress this year as I go. That is, I guess the only goal I'll disclose - that I will write more, be more helpful and more open, and follow through on what I wanted this blog to be for all of you who have ever stopped by.

That, and I'm off caffeine again. So far, so good, on both counts.

Make 2011 your year to be a Champion of Choice!

Just Keep Swimming!

Right before I went to Disneyworld on Nov. 14th with my family for a week, I managed to get my email box down to ZERO. An amazing feat for me.

My habit is to keep 75-100 emails, with a goal of 50, the most I can see on the screen at once in g-Mail with my current settings. I had emails from 2008 sitting in the bottom, filled with testimonials about my speaking coaching that I kept saying I'd get on my website and never did. I still haven't, but I've at least copied the info to another spot on my hard-drive, and filed that email away. I think that was progress.

So I'm gone for a week, and deliberately didn't check email, blog, etc. the entire time. Not that anyone noticed, because I've been pathetic at keeping up with my blogging for awhile now. I'd say I'm CHOOSING to change that, but I'd rather, at this point, shut up and just do it, and talk about the choice later.

Coming back from Orlando, I find just over 500 messages in the inbox. The breakdown was about 20 percent Twitter notifications, 20 percent newsletters, 10 percent personal, and 50 percent Internet Marketing opportunities I've been looking into the last few months. I think the most common name was Matt Bacak.

Two weeks later, I'm still at about 350 messages, because I've told myself I want to pay close attention to those internet messages and take some action. Those two weeks have been filled with so many other projects though - finishing, proofing, and marketing Thriving with Neurofibromatosis, the Thanksgiving Holiday, and staying in the top third of my Fantasy Football pool.

So now, do I just delete them all and start over? I'm sure in a week I could fill it up again. But what amazing opportunity will I miss? It's amazing how too many opportunities can turn into none when we let them paralyze us, or just overwhelm us.

That's probably been my biggest obstacle since declaring the initial Champion of Choice Challenge - too many opportunities. Crazy. Should I pursue speaking, coaching, writing, blogging, marketing - how much of each - or should I take some speaking job with a company willing to fly me everywhere? I made ALL of those choices over the last year, and while I've added a tremendous amount of experiences to my life and helped my wife write her book, I can't say I've done as much as I'd like to, or yielded the results I'd hoped.

It's at this point I feel a bit like Marlin and Dory in their search for Little Nemo - I tell myself "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..." And I do, and I will. Without swimming, I'd of missed a tremendous amount of opportunites over the last 18 months. I just want to swim with even more purpose than before.

So today, among other things, like my daugter's doc appointment, I'll be swimming through all those emails - and tomorrow, my email account will be back down to zero, and I'll have either found some great opportunities, or I'll at least have a clean box to catch the next ones.

What are you going to do with all your opportunities today?

If It Were Easy, It Wouldn't Be A Challenge.

Photo by BKM_BR

Are you equipped for the Challenge, or is your tread wearing thin?

25 days ago, I threw down the gauntlet. 12 days ago, I asked for feedback. It's been suggested that The Champion of Choice Challenge is less than powerful, and that I should dump it altogether.

The beginning of the Champion of Choice concept itself was Spring of 2009 - I was looking for a 'tagline' of sorts to help people know who I am and what I talk about. I wanted to be that "Champion of Choice Guy", since the core of most of my talks is personal choice, power, and responsibility. Turning it into a challenge seemed a logical choice as well, if a bit risky. The original method was daily videos talking about what I wanted to achieve each day, and how well I did. The videos stopped the day I got feedback that my videos were getting repetitive.

I've had multiple reboots of the Challenge - I'm in the midst of 4.0 at the moment.

I've put in a lot of thought over the last 12 days about the future of this blog, and the Champion of Choice concept. From a marketing standpoint, I think I'm better off simply being me - Rich Hopkins. There are very few speakers that are known by monikers other than their names - Scott the Nametag Guy, comes to mind, as does Steve Siebold, the 'Mental Toughness Guy', but only Scott really markets himself that way. Zig is Zig, Jeanne Robertson is Jeanne Robertson, Les Brown is Les Brown. A gimmick simply isn't necessary. If anything, my Speak & Deliver brand, which goes with the coaching side of my business, has grown more quickly, and offers more recognition.

What is the goal of being a Champion of Choice, anyway? What is the goal of the Challenge?

Success. Personal success, be it spiritual, physical, financial, professional, relational, emotional, or any combination of the above. Self-Defined Success. Success that relies on our personal definition of it, instead what the world insists success should be for each of us.

Self-Defined Success is a result I've been pursuing my whole life. Working not to worry about other people's opinions of me, be it kids in school that made fun of me for the way I walked and ran, or pursuing the type of career and family I wanted whether my family or friends understood and supported it or not.

It isn't easy. Judgments come everyday, both external and internal. Either can freeze us in our tracks, and make us want to ease back into the easy fitting roles that will allow us to be accepted and approved of by others, instead of sticking to our guns and learning to approve of ourselves based on our own criteria.

It doesn't mean living in a complete vacuum. Feedback is important - and more important is how we handle the feedback. Instead of making my videos more interesting last year, I went to written posts. Instead of trusting my strategy, I took a job that wasn't right for me, despite some of the positives that came out of it. (Even wrong choices can have positive results if you make right choices within them).

My choices this fall continue to be questioned by the world, and I often find myself questioning them as well, out of fear. This is the same fear that keeps many of us in our boxes, afraid to do what we really want to with our lives, and settling for less success than we are capable of achieving.

If it were easy, it wouldn't be a Challenge. The Challenge continues. What will not continue is my branding effort to be 'The Champion of Choice'. I've always felt that particular moniker is a bit egotistical sounding, a bit cheesy. Maybe I could have made it a successful synonym for me, if I truly believed in it, but I simply don't. What I really believe in is the concept of being a Self-Defined Success, and that being a Champion of Choice will get us there.

Self-Defined Success will now be the prevalent theme, combined with Champion of Choice, but headlined by my own identity.

Why would I put this thought process here for all to see? Same reasons I always have - to be transparent and to potentially help you as you face difficult choices of your own. Besides, some of the fun of four-wheeling is looking at the dirt you've kicked up onto your truck. Self-Defined Success doesn't come always easily, and being a Champion of Choice is a daily challenge.

Watch for changes here - but more importantly, be willing to make changes in your own approaches, if you find yourself running into rough roads on your way to your goal. You don't have to give up - you may just need to upgrade your tires.

Champion of Choice Newsletter....

photo art by Paul Stevenson

Yesterday I was setting up a newsletter list for my wife over at ThrivingWithNF.com, and the harsh reality hit me - I haven't sent out a newsletter all year, and have only sent 3 in the lifetime of my list.

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, and in this case hell is a list of people who probably have forgotten all about me!

There are several choices involved in restarting this newsletter:

A. One or Two - most of you know that I am a speaker, and a coach. My other blog, Speak & Deliver has a strong following, and coaching is a primary income stream. As a speaker, I'm continuing to develop on the Champion of Choice theme, building a keynote and a book. Should each have a separate newsletter, or should I have a combined newsletter that covers both?

B. How Often - Monthy? Weekly? Twice a Month? What can I keep up with? Should it even have a regular schedule? What is valuable to you?

C. Do I Market - Should I put ads in the newsletter? Should I send marketing letters for various products I involve myself with to this list?

D. More Readers - While over 200 people are now subscribed, I want to get over 1000 by the end of the year - which marketing methods will let more people know about our crusade to champion choice? Currently people sign up at my website, which also faces the challenges of Speaker vs. Coach. What else can I do?

E. Content - Should I repurpose the blog? Use guest writers? Offer profiles of great Champions of Choice?

Lots to think about, but choices must be made.

Have you been sitting on a project for days, weeks, months? Share it with us, and your fellow Champions of Choice will chime in to help. As for my project? Please - help me help you!

What is Your Personal Choice Foundation?

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock." (Jesus Christ speaking from the NIV translation of the Holy Bible  (©1984) )


Are your Choices built upon the rock or the sand? How sound is your Choice Foundation? Do you know what your Personal Choice Foundation is?

Choices are made based on a myriad of different factors, including urgency, cost, emotion, logic, attitude, and physical state. The balancing act is imperfect, and leads to many choices we regret fairly soon after making it. We give one factor too much weight, or forget to factor in something else until its too late.

Say, when you got that big tax refund, walked into Best Buy, and bought that $3,000 55", flatscreen, high-definition television, and the sound system, PS3, and blueray player to go with it. The money may have created an urgency in you to spend it before you nickel and dimed it away on silly things like bills - a seemingly logical argument your emotions and physical state (which are anxious for the joy, satisfaction, and even physical rush which comes from large purchases) use to get you bypass cost altogether, much less other emotions about your family, your otherwise logical approach to family finances, and instead plays on your attitude of self-deservedness and entitlement.

None of these factors really went through your mind though, consciously. If they had, you wouldn't be regretting it right now as you look at the family budget, and realize Sally has dance lessons coming up and Bobby wants to join Scouts, and all you can do is tell them to stay home and play Lego Star Wars instead.

How do you control your choices? By creating a Personal Choice Foundation. By building a conscious list of values in your mind that guide your decisions. A list so strong you think about it BEFORE you choose, not afterwards.

I can't tell you what your foundation should be - that is YOUR Choice, fellow Champion. What your foundation will be should be based on your needs, your situation, your hopes and dreams - not anyone else's.

How you build that foundation, however, will also largely determine the overall results of your choices, and how your feel about them after the fact. Perhaps buying the TV, speakers, and gaming system fits your foundation perfectly and you have no regrets. Perhaps your PCF (Personal Choice Foundation) determines that you must go value shopping - finding that TV, speaker system, and game console at a pawn shop instead. (disclosure: I have purchased a $1200 flatscreen, HD TV for less than $400 at a pawn shop, and I still probably overpaid - this satisfied family, emotion, cost, logic, and physical state, while giving me adequate, if not spectacular, results).

The critical aspect is not necessarily how your foundation is built, but that it is built at all, and that you are consciously and intentionally building responsibly. The coolest thing about the PCF is that it isn't buried underground - based on the quality of your results, you can shift your foundations materials at any moment in time. While they don't need to be permanently flexible, malleable beyond recognition, you do want to be able to easily patch any cracks, and feel confident in shoring up your materials.

My own looks like this: family, cost, emotion, logic, physical cost or satisfaction, urgency, attitude, results. Even as I write that, I can see adjustments I might want to make.

Choose to take a moment now and list for yourself the factors in your Personal Choice Foundation - then actively and intentionally apply them to all all your choices in the next 48 hours. You'll quickly start noticing how your choices become more interesting and focused - whether you're buying a TV, ordering lunch, or even participating in a discussion with your spouse.

If you want to publicly declare, describe, and even defend your PCF, and share your 48 hour results - please do, in the comments below. AND - if you have additional factors you use in decision-making, please share with the rest of us.

How Do You Stand?

Picture credit - Greg Tarlin 

We live in a world of individual thoughts that are often warped, twisted, directed, and otherwise constrained to think one way vs. another. In fact, that very statement is written with the intent to get you to believe exactly what it says - but you may not! You may vehemently disagree!

Perhaps you'll comment below. Maybe drop me an email. Or just mutter under your breath 'that Hopkins guy is at it again'.

Whether its my relatively innocuous sentence above (again, emotional, opinion-charged terminology), or issues such as politics, morals, religion, sports, speaking, entertainment, whatever - I challenge you to actively have an opinion about those parts of life you care about, and be willing to communicate them.

We choose our opinions, and we can choose how we share them - but if no one know what our opinions are, how will anyone know? We can show them by writing, by talking, by contributing money, by simply walking the walk of someone with an opinion.

Many of us are great at sharing our opinions, especially the speakers among us. But its also easy NOT to share. To avoid being disagreed with or being proven wrong (which is also an avoidance of learning something NEW).

Our opinion is just that - but our perspective on the world, especially in today's world of social media, can carry as much weight as President Obama, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, et al, depending on who we're talking to, how we say it, and how we market it.

Taking a stand, making an outward declaration as a Champion of Choice - someone who knows what and why they are doing something, will separate you from the crowd, and allow you to be heard. Even if you agree with the majority, just by making the declaration, you will be steps above your competition.

Whether you're a contrarian or a mainstream thinker, choose to take a stand - and HOW to take a stand - within your self-defined life - and watch as your family, your friends, and eventually the world raises their head to hear what you have to say.