Scheffy's Blog

Well, it’s a week into the new year and it’s been a good one… having prepared over the last several months… (funny how I wasn’t even trying to do it, it just happened based on what I was reading and listening to)… but I found myself, especially during the final weeks of the year reflecting a lot… a lot on the past, since I had been doing a lot of archiving, organizing, filing, etc.

You see it all came from getting started with the “Getting Things Done” methodology… don’t you love that?  The simplicity of that?  And believe me, the methodology is VERY complex, because it has to do with collecting EVERYTHING in my world… papers, photos, files, recordings, etc… the list goes on and it can be SOOOO overwhelming, in fact, it had been for many years…

Left to my own devices I would try my best to figure it out on my own… I’d get frustrated at how messy and unorganized my life was… just look in my studio, or my car!  And then I’d go on this 1 day rampage of “I’m going to get ORGANIZED!!!”  Put some laundry list that looked like some scroll a mile long that was virtually impossible to finish but by golly, I was going to do it!

I’d start on the first item, go pounding away at these things only to realize at the end of the day I’d spent the whole day running around checking these things off, that ultimately didn’t get me anywhere!  It STILL wasn’t completed and it felt empty… sooooo, I’d go back to my old patterns… not put a to do list together… wake up the next day and just do whatever inspired me… MR. Spontaneous. 

Well, getting an Ipad actually unleashed some pretty amazing things… I had a magazine I bought in an airport one day that was all Apple apps… I got to a section of *productivity* and saw some very inexpensive *to do* apps, so I started trying them… hmmmmm, this was pretty cool because there was a bit of method to the madness… you could actually *schedule* the to do items… prioritize, WHAT?  A brand new world was opening up… I was the guy who never wrote anything down… looking back on it, HOW STUPID WAS THAT?  As I said, ever since 1985, at 23 years old, I’ve been involved with a team of some of the best organizers, schedulers, etc. on the planet so it’s kind of been mapped out that, if I choose to, all I have to think about is music, stay conditioned to pull that off and we’re good to go…

But something was fraying at the edges… basically all the things I’d promised I’d do… all the projects just kind of sitting there… all the memorabilia I’d collected over the years, (and there’s a lot… you’re talking the ultimate pack rat here), and it just finally hit me last year… I found myself LOOKING for stuff around my house WAY TOO MUCH… whether it was a song idea, my car keys, important papers, etc.  I just remember saying to myself WAY too many times last year, as I was trying to get out of the house for an appt., (I was becoming late for), “I HATE LOOKING FOR STUFF!!!” 

I remember times I’d be looking and immediately start thinking of the family putting it somewhere and starting to get heated at them… only to find it was under a stack of papers in my studio… (ooooops, blushing).

But I said that SOOOO much last year… and then, I got this Ipad, bought a magazine that had some apps and a sidebar talking about “David Allen’s Getting Things Done Methodology”.

All the apps were being measured up to how much you could use GTD (Getting Things Done) with the apps… hmmmmm, what is this Getting Things Done stuff?  So I investigated…

Boy, did my life transform OVERNIGHT with this stuff… in fact, when we flew home from Australia, which was 14 hours, I remember one of the guys in the band asking me what movies I’d watched and I told him none… he looked at me with complete disbelief… but the truth was I purchased a 2 day seminar of David Allen that he gives on using his methodology, in mp3 audio format… I listened to about 9 hours of it on that flight!  haaaaaaaa   yes, those who know me know I’m a bit insane… obsessive, yes… but let me tell you the condensed flight time university I experienced… you see, all the people I’m reading and listening to these days have inspired me to take advantage of the bits of time we have…  just like right now… sitting in a hotel room tweaking websites, email newsletter, etc.  It’s efficiency…

I went from a guy who was doing nothing but bouncing around like a pinball a year ago to becoming a highly efficient, focused grown up… it’s only taken almost 50 years!  And the best news?  The idea of growing up has been something that most of us have avoided but it’s actually quite fun… there are times to let my hair down, but right now, it’s time to learn, grow, share and find the pockets of time for things I used to do all the time… I’m also finding that my time is much more pleasurable by not being preoccupied with “Oh yeah, I need to get THAT done… Oh yeah, I forgot to call THAT person back…” and so on…

What it means to anybody who has been watching my music?  All the things I’d talked about starting… are all on the assembly line… I have been putting together some GREAT recordings of the band Lou Pardini and I had back in the early 2000’s, Big Talk… Yeah, I have several nights of multitrack recording of that band and it sat, for years… with the, “Oh yeah, we’ll get to that someday…”  Well as I’ve learned last year, and continue to learn, there is no such thing as someday… there are 7 days a week and none of them begin with “Some”.  Someday is today…

And now I have a method of taking whatever has been bouncing around in my brain… commitments, promises, etc., and getting them into a storage tank MUCH more efficient than my brain… and they’re getting taken care of, one by one… it’s EXTREMELY empowering…

So for starters, the book, “Getting Things Done” by David Allen is life changing… which reminds me, on my new site I’m going to have a “Books to read” list on it… I’ll start over on my old site, “Scheffland”, as a beta, but this has helped me so much I just want to share it with whomever is interested.  And if you use any of this stuff and it’s helped you, I want to hear from you!  We all do!

So that’s about it for now… basically, I’m happy to say the first week of 2011 has been a huge success… I started my 10th round of P90X, using Shakeology as my daily meal of weight regulation and overall wellness, and as the people I’ve been listening to keep stressing, success is based on 3 things… Health, Finances, Spirituality and not necessarily in that order…

So there it is… thank you to all who have embarked upon this journey with me… what I’ve found is it takes this… community and am I glad that I decided to take this out into the world back in 2007.  What a great ride…

Oh, and to answer the subject of this blog?  My why?  My why is my family… everything I’m doing in my life right now is based on creating time to spend with my family… to lead them… to grow by sharing things that are working and I can’t tell you how exciting it is to take my existing life, one where I’m away from my family a LOT and realize that I can create this time needed to spend with my family…

And as many of know, I’m a Team Beachbody coach… an independent coach which means I’ve turned my fitness journey into a side business… the original reason was so that I’d stay the course, when I veered off of it, which I do all the time… most of us do… but I get back, because I’m connected to a lot of people… that’s why I did it, and it works…

Right alongside that are ideas of “Spend more time with your family”, “Dream Big” and “Earn Extra Income”… now I’m always skeptical of phrases like that where it’s so abused and misused… Times are tough and people are out there doing whatever they can to stay afloat and the promises of quick riches is one of the most irresponsible things on the planet… that’s what got everything in the mess it’s in…

Here’s my promise… anybody who gets involved with me and becomes a coach, you’re going to have some of the best fitness products available and you’re getting a discount on them… if you’re not interested in this stuff, don’t get it!  But if you ARE interested in it… like say someone wants to commit to 90 days of P90X, or Power 90… and they want to use Shakeology which has proven to lower cholesterol, get people off blood pressure medication, help Diabetic type II’s turn their lives around and generally just stop the cravings of bad foods… as a coach, it’s cheaper… again, for ME?  This is a no brainer… the fact I can stop this any time I want?  Not be roped into any contract?  I can get off the ride any time I want, but why would I?  It works…

It’s like doing anything to get healthier… if I were to join a gym and I had 2 choices… to pay more or pay less?  There’s the scenario…I give it a shot for whatever the length of the commitment is, 90 days?, pay less and then if I wanted to stop, I stop… OR, during, if I wanted to stop, I stop… but pay more?  Why?  And then as my journey continued, and all my buddies I’d asked to be part of an accountability group kept things going with me?  That’s all that coaching is… and it’s working…

So that’s the promise I make folks… it’s an opportunity… an opportunity to literally turn your life around, starting physically, but sticking around in the club to gain the knowledge… read what successful people read… learn what they do… as most of you know, I love sharing this stuff and it’s all for free… www.teamscheffy.com is the accountability group, my site, www.jasonscheff.com, is where my journey is centered and focused.  Your promise also goes further to say that if you need to find more time for your family, just stick around and start paying attention to these tools and tricks to help you find what you’re looking for… and for those who need to earn a few extra bucks, check out the Team Beachbody opportunity… not promising to get rich, and CERTAINLY not overnight, but start to turn things around, IF YOU NEED TO… again, if you’re in good shape… great!  Let’s hear from you to help us as well… let us know what’s working for you… we’re all ears… it’s not just about Beachbody.

And my big dreams?  I always thought that was hype to get people to join things that would manipulate them out of their money… but boy was I wrong… look around… at anybody who’s successful… first thing?  Start dreaming!  Pull em out of the attic, dust em off and let the imagination run wild… not that we’ll get to em all but just to start the process… if you were to ask me what my dreams were?  I’ve already achieved a lot of them… but then, I let some of them start collecting dust, half finished, half baked… like the Big Talk recordings… so these dreams don’t have to be new ones… I can’t tell you how exciting it is and what momentum is being gathered by creating the time to get to my half finished dreams… and, it’s opening up my mind for the new ones…

So there are 2 of the catch phrases… “Spend more time with the family”, accomplished, AND, not much changed to make it happen!  Because I’m one of those guys who DOESN’T want to fire his boss!  I’m just a guy who is trying to find more time with my loved ones and all it took was to start reading books like Brian Tracy’s “Eat That Frog”… check that one out… transformational…

And the 2nd phrase, “Dream Big”… I get it… complete the half started big dreams to make way for new ones, (and they immediately started coming once I started making way for them)  Finish my music projects I’d started over the years…

And the last phrase, “Earn Some Extra Income”… as many of the coaches in my organization have found, they are earning extra income… lives are changing with this stuff… people who’ve lost 10,20, 50 lbs… earning some extra cash to make a car payment, etc.  and it’s just getting started… and for me?  It unleashed that ultimate fear of “Making money off of people”.  How silly is that?  Have I not made records over the years?  Had I not worked long and hard to master those skills?  Have I not worked hard at my fitness and helped others?  Taken time FROM my family to build a 2nd business? 

And to realize the help it’s provided, for everybody… now I get a glimpse of when people who are truly out there helping, caring for others, create an abundance, they do something with it… they help… just as we are doing in Nolensville with Yoga And Arts with our Fit Club’s going to 3 days a week starting this month of Jan. 2011.  We’ll be going to the schools giving free yoga classes to the teachers, taking the kids through some Beachbody workouts… and that’s because I’m finding the TIME to be able to do that… through the incredible lessons and people I’m involved with…

There’s no turning back now!  It’s on… those are my reasons WHY.

Yes, having been a Team Beachbody coach for a little over 3 years has given me a few things… mainly, it has *taught* me how to grow up and become a better person… taught me how to manage my time, to organize which means, guess what?  MORE TIME WITH THE FAMILY…

My original assumption hearing phrases like that were that it was saying, “Earn a LOT OF MONEY so you can spend more time with your family…”  Well, just as in ANY type of business, there will be people who are absolutely LIT with a business idea and run with it… they become VERY successful… that’s a rare breed though, right?  Well, what about someone who is just moderately motivated?  Hey, as I’ve seen now in the 3 years I’ve been involved with this there are many different levels of approach… some folks are motivated to earn a couple hundred bucks a month, by helping others get healthy and fit… and I’ve seen that couple hundred bucks make a huge difference in their lifestyle… that’s a car payment, or part of one…

But getting back to what “Spend more time with the family”, I got to do that just by starting to *read* the right stuff… NOT People magazine… not knocking that… People is fine, but if I need to spend more time with my family… I can’t look myself in the mirror anymore and blame it on the economy if I’m burying my head in gossip magazines, or 24 hour network news.  Such simple stuff… and as I said, this is NOT directed at anybody other than me…

I was thinking earlier how when I start thinking of this stuff it might come off like I’m telling others they need to do certain things… another by-product of all I’m taking in these days is to keep all this stuff as personalization… I have no idea what’s going to be right for anybody else… I’m sharing what works for me…

And as I said, the fact I’m gone so much as it is, it was a simple equation that for now, if I need to find more time to be with my family, I’m going to read, (especially in my pockets of time I can find… drive time?  (car) (airplane), and listen to information that will help me solve these problems… what a revelation to realize one day that I truly can do something about this… it has NOTHING to do with any outside forces… economy, anybody’s mood, NOTHING but my attitude and my growing.  And as I said, it feels REAL good to start clearing the air… seriously, the breathing room I’ve found over these last 6 months… and when I think of where it all came from?  This silly little network marketing business called “Team Beachbody” that costs me 15 bucks a month… For ME?  A steal.

So that’s my why… in this first week of the year, I’m reflecting on WHY I’ll put the time in… WHY I’ll go down to the gym after I’m done writing this to put my deposit into the health account for my future… it doesn’t take long… and it compounds BIG TIME in the long run… simple, small, daily disciplines repeated over time, compound…

And a note to anybody who had a New Years Resolution that you’ve already gotten off of?  Let’s start it again, this week… it’s as simple as that… what’s the good in beating ourselves up over not sticking with it… as Jim Rohn says, “We never quit… we make mistakes, but we never quit.” 

Thanks for listening… J

As many of you know, Chicago has been offering the chance for people to bid on the opportunity to come up and sing a song with us… it’s for the American Cancer Society and it’s been one of the joys of my life seeing these folks experience a dream come true…

I’ve had the pleasure of seeing these folks from all ranges of singing ability step up and stand center stage.  It never ceases to take my breath away when you see how much it means to these people and I’m standing right next to them… I’m basically who they lean on if they’re not feeling comfortable and It’s been my extreme pleasure to try and make them feel comfortable…

2 nights ago in Dallas, we performed with the Dallas Symphony and a gentleman came up to sing with us who had bid the highest… his mother was with him, (who is a cancer survivor), and his daughter is also a cancer survivor.  So it was a magical night because as we got into the song I could see how moved he was… I knew he was nervous and was sweating a little bit and then I caught it…

I saw right under his left eye he was sweating more than the rest of his face… but it wasn’t sweat… it was a tear forming… and then is just started streaming down his face.  These are the things you’ve got to be right next to to catch and I’ll tell you this… I look at these moments and realize the gift I’m being given… to witness it… to help… it’s truly amazing to walk through these moments with folks…

That’s one of the things I’ve been hearing lately a lot… “Don’t miss anything… pay attention… take it in…” and I do. 

I’ve kept his name out of this post because I’ll let him speak up if he wants to… but all I can say is Thank You… for letting me see what that meant to you… and for sharing with the entire audience what it meant to you… I knew… it was for daughter and Mom…

My Mother and Mother-In-Law are both cancer survivors so one more time, you reminded me how lucky we are to have survivors… and let me take the opportunity to reach out to those who haven’t been so lucky… we love you… and are thinking about you… this is for all of you… to wake us up and pitch in… Jason

I have to share this title with you… many of you have already read it but this has got to be one of the most profound reads I’ve come across in years…

You know what I love most about personal development?  It’s common sense… nothing we haven’t heard growing up, but just lost our way… didn’t pay attention… not everybody, but I certainly fall into that class… and judging by the state of economy, it seems a lot of other people lost their way…

So, how do you get out of it?  We’ve become conditioned to look for the quick fix… the refinancing… blah, blah, blah… most people fell for it too… at least when I was living in California the climate was not only great weather but that of robbing Peter to pay Paul… in refinancing…

I love this book so much because it’s got all the elements of what happens when people come into money as a *gift*, what happens when they try to make up losses quick, etc.  How they fall into bad partnerships, bad lifestyle, etc. all while just not paying attention…

What’s amazing is it’s so insidious… nobody sets out to end up this way… it just happens, almost without even knowing it… it creeps up on you… I love the analogy of being *nudged* into the wrong direction because to me that infers being so subtle it’s almost unnoticeable, and if you’re not paying attention, it’s absolutely not noticeable…

The reason I write this now is because it’s the beginning of a new year… people are making decisions on how to improve themselves… the 3 things I hear the most, and have completely identified with are…

• Health
• Finances
• Time Management

Ah, my favorite subjects these days… what I’m finding is they are all so closely intertwined… they really are… think about it…

“I don’t have time”… for what?  Health?  Paying attention to the credit card bill?  I don’t have time to MAKE TIME for the things that matter? 

One of the most revolutionary things that happened to me last year was when I heard Craig Holiday talk about time management… he put is SOOOOOO simply…

“Fold a white piece of paper in half… write down on the left side the 5 most important things in your life… Family, Finances, Faith, Health,”  (well, one of them had to start with something other than an *F*, right?  ohhhh, maybe that’s a message… have we been FAILING in these areas/subjects?  wow, so cosmic all of a sudden), “and ok, maybe it’s only 4 things, or 3… you get the picture… put down the things that matter…

and then on the other half of the paper write down ALL the things you do each day… how you spend your time… Yeah, I know… just the thought of it is enlightening… when I heard this exercise, 2 things happened to me… I IMMEDIATELY got where this was going and saw how much time I was wasting along with how SIMPLE and what COMMON SENSE this was!  It revealed something that had to be known… I hadn’t been USING much common sense… but I felt pretty comfortable… I was in GREAT company… not many people I saw were using it either…

The more I dove into this realm of personal development it began to show me that there is nothing new… no new method, system, etc. was going to make it easier… and it didn’t have to become easier because the tried and true methods that have been around for THOUSANDS of years work… and they’re simple…

One HUGE piece of common sense… “Don’t spend the whole dollar”.  Now before anybody points out that some people can’t afford to not spend the whole dollar with the economy, I want to make sure that it’s understood that I’m speaking generally… I believe MOST people can make adjustments… can find what to sacrifice… I’ll be sharing what I’m doing with my family over the next several months because it has had an incredibly profound effect on us… it’s called, “Starting to pay attention”.  It doesn’t take long, but it does take time…

The simple act of looking at credit card statements, every month… finding some stupid charge of 12 bucks a month… that you don’t even know what it is!  Plugging all those holes…

But getting back to the basics… I’ve been sharing with my children what I’ve learned by reading books like “The Slight Edge”.  The story of the 2 brothers who start saving for their retirement at age 24… I don’t remember if they’re twins but let’s say they are to stay consistent with the illustration… doing the simple, daily disciplines that compound over time… $2,000 a year is what they agree upon… that’s $166 a month… can a 24 year old afford to put $166 a month away?  Well, as the story progresses, the 2nd one asks the 1st one how it’s going on their 30th birthday and the 1st one says, “I”m done.”  “What?”, asks the 2nd one.  The 1st one says, “Yeah, I’ve kicked in 2 grand a year for 6 years, 12 grand total… 24 to 30 years of age and now compounding at 10 percent a year it will yield just over a million bucks at age 65.  (they show this table in the book “The Slight Edge”)

The 2nd brother says, “Well, I haven’t even started!  I’d better get going…”

Now here’s the part I love the most… most of us would think, 30 years old?  That’s way early enough!  I sure didn’t start then!  And what I’ve come to realize is in the last 30 to 40 years, these generations have been sold this bill of goods to just keep consuming, spending EARLY so that most men haven’t even STARTED a retirement account until into their 50’s!  WHOA!!!! 

But 30?  That’s still real early… BUT, the cost of waiting was that the 30 year old started kicking his 2 grand a year into his retirement account and guess when he was able to stop contributing like his twin had at 30 years old?  62 years old!!!!!!  2 grand a year from 30 to 62 years old to match the million dollars his brother had, by starting earlier…

THIS IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE!  But who’s teaching it?  This should be MANDATORY in grade school… THE BASICS… DON’T SPEND THE WHOLE DOLLAR!!!!

I’m glad I started waking up to not spending the whole dollar many moons ago, but I didn’t start at 24, or 30.  BUT, I can sure pass this on to my kids, and I do… I asked them a simple question… “You want a million dollars when you’re 65 years old?”  They didn’t even hear the 65 years old part… they heard the million dollars part, as they should… it meant security.

I showed them the story of the 2 brothers and they both said, “Dad, I want to do it!”  I told them that we were going to do something they wouldn’t even notice!!!  Taking 10% of everything they earned and put it away for retirement… STARTING RIGHT NOW AT 12 and 9 YEARS OLD… they couldn’t start contributing soon enough… My wife told me while I was on the road that they’d come downstairs with their dollars to put into their new coffers waiting to go the bank… WHAT AN INCREDIBLE DISCIPLINE… and I learned it by picking up a book… a quick read… I FOUND the time to read it… because I was given a tool… in this crazy fast paced world we live in where there’s no time the scenario wasn’t presented to me that “If I want to turn my life around and not keep getting worse… physically, financially, I’d have to revolutionize EVERYTHING I did… and RIGHT NOW!!!!!  READ 50 BOOKS!!!!  TONIGHT!!!” 

You see, that’s our culture… FIX IT!!!! IMMEDIATELY!!!  But it doesn’t work that way, and thank heavens for that!  Because I wouldn’t DO IT if that were the criteria…

No, what I found by listening to real smart, successful people and reading the right material is that this happens in a very subtle way… positive as well as negative… we all know if we’re completely going down the wrong path and hopefully will correct it but I’m talking about the nudging… in one direction or the other…

The recipe for COMPLETELY changing my life, in an instant, was to do small things… but every day… over time… compounding interest… not just financially but physically…

Reading?  10 pages a day… can I find time to read 10 pages a day?  That’s 15 minutes that just might be transformational, (and it is).  So there is my first sacrifice… nothing against People magazine but if I’ve only got 15 minutes a day for reading… for me, it makes all the sense in the world to read something that is going to improve my life and let me tell you, it’s absolutely astounding how fast it happens… for those who’ve read “The Slight Edge” you know what I’m talking about… the first 10 pages will absolutely change your life, forever, never to come back to the way it was… truthfully.

And physically, the same thing applies… I had my fun over the holidays… kept my workouts going but enjoyed the taste treats to the point where I’ve got to lose body fat… no problem!  I know exactly how to do that… exercise daily, watch what I eat and over time that compounded interest will be in my favor… this is not hard stuff to grasp.  And the thing I’ve really realized is I have a group… a group of people after the same things, so we stick together… that’s you… you who are reading this and writing me back saying, “Me too…”  That’s my medicine… it’s what keeps me moving forward…

So there’s my rant for the day… I’ve got the day off in Dallas and I’m going to have dinner tonight with one of my dearest buddies who’s on this path with me as well… Can’t wait to see him and talk about the future! 

So if you can pick up “The Richest Man In Babylon”, if you haven’t yet, you’re going to be amazed… it’s a great lesson for kids too…

Rock on!  Jason

Day one of round 10, I think?  I had a bit too much fun over the holidays so I’ve got some work to do but it’s ok… it is what it is and I’ve learned over the last several years that there is no benefit to beating myself up… I had a great holiday season… had a year that I loved, 2010 and now am ready to pound this year. 

So here’s my first official day of full blown commitment and dedication… I have to thank all the folks who are with me in it as well…

I’ll be posting all my accountability, including reps, weights, etc. here, in my blog, as well as www.teamscheffy.com.

So if you need the extra accountability, there it is!  And if you need help, just raise your hand… J

Alright!  So it’s down to the moment of truth… my biggest New Years Resolution is to PREPARE… Amazing how it’s taken me until almost 50 to see how important that is…

Looking back, I see how lucky I’ve been… to be able to live pretty spontaneously and for those who’ve been paying attention to my rants and raves, it’s all old news at this point… I’ve grown tired of the *by chance* mentality…

All that I’ve been reading and listening to on personal development point to one very common theme and that’s to *design* my life… my future… makes PERFECT sense.

I’ve never been a goal setter… and I won’t speak for anybody else… in a way, it kind of worked for a long time but I know look at that, for myself, as incredibly stupid… because the luck will run out one day… if there isn’t a plan, good luck…

I didn’t even realize a few years ago when I’d had it with my health, or lack thereof, that I made a few goals along with developing something else I ABHORRED!  DISCIPLINE… sure, the things that were easy I could *appear* to be very disciplined…

But now I have children entering one of the most pivotal points of one’s life, adolescence… I see how important it is to instill some things that have been working for me over the last few years… the discipline of doing things I may not want to… but I’ve found a trick… to not think I have to fix it overnight… no, it’s the small disciplines… the things that are almost unnoticeable… things easy to do, and easy not to do… let them compound…

So here I go into 2011 with the knowledge that last year was a great year… development-wise… so it only stands to reason that I’m going to keep doing it but actually having refined some things and constantly learning…

Map it out… but first, DECIDE what it is that I want… and then, methodically go about achieving the goals… oh, and before it sounds too boring, too clinical… there is exponentially more spontaneity involved… that’s the thing that’s the most mindblowing… I would have thought that without letting whatever happens determine EVERYTHING in my life it would get stale and stiff… quite the contrary…

It appears things, people, opportunities, basically LOTS of growth happen by doing a few simple things… DECIDING what it is I want and when I want it to happen… DOING the daily disciplines, etc.  all of a sudden the right people are in my life… the people who are going UP rather than down… and for those who’ve bought the lie, that life sucks and the world sucks, it’s amazing how when people come together and focus on all that is wonderful out there, it changes… EVERYTHING…

There’s my New Years Resolution… to focus on that… all it takes are a few things, daily… and how it’s always worked for me is to put it out there… to share it… hey, I’ve been putting a large part of my life out there publicly for more than half of it so far, right?  Might as well share the things that are working…

Stay tuned, if you care… to the reports… Oh, and if any of you are interested in being part of a group to keep yourself accountable… you can CLICK HERE FOR THE 2011 ACCOUNTABILITY GROUP.  This will be a bunch of us sharing what we’re doing, daily, to stay the course… it’s not specific to any products, plans, etc.  It’s simply whoever wants to check in to stay accountable… share what your goals are… what your New Years Resolutions are and run with a group who will stay accountable… that’s how it works, and it’s pretty fun!

If all you want is the music of Jason Scheff… you can CLICK HERE FOR THE JASON SCHEFF MUSIC PAGE.

Other than that, stay tuned… I have a new site being built so Scheffland will be phased out… let me thank all the folks who’ve made that such a fun place over the last several years but I’m consolidating everything so I can keep clearing the decks to become more efficient… I’ve got a couple of music releases planned for this year… so stay tuned…

Talk to you soon!  Jason

I’m writing this on New Years Eve, 2010… I said this time, last year, 2010 was going to be a great year, and it has been… not that it didn’t have its challenges… but making that declaration said something very powerful to me…

Design it… in the face of many challenges, (we all have them, don’t we?), I took the chance on saying it… and actually feeling like I may be a bit of a fraud to myself… “Is this hocus pocus stupid stuff?  Affirmations?  Belief system?”

I’ll tell you what… it worked… and as I’ve found books along the way, great motivating people, mentors… I pay attention… because I’m ready… I’m pushing 50 and not comfortable just letting things happen haphazardly… not anymore…

I thought that was fun for the longest time… I don’t anymore… it’s got too much urgency for my taste these days… now that I’m learning to plan, prepare… it’s amazing… clearing the decks to just follow through.

I’ve been taking the last 2 months to just finish things… close the open loops… follow through on commitments I’d made 3 years ago… it’s amazing to hear and see the astonishment of people when I tell them, “Well, it took a long time but here it is…”

And that’s because I remember too much… I think we all do… even if it’s not right there in the forefront of my brain, it’s in the subconscious and it rears its head at the worst times…

When I really need to focus and finish something, a little thing pops into my head saying, “Oh yeah, I have to get to THAT thing…” and then it starts feeding on itself… the realization that I haven’t followed through.

If I’ve learned anything through these last several months it’s that the reason it’s piled up so much is because I never learned to say no… didn’t want to disappoint… but now I’ve seen that it’s much worse to not deliver than to say no…

And since I’ve been learning to methodically design my future, saying no becomes easier because it’s a no based on fact, rather than emotion…

This is such simple stuff but it’s taken reading the right things… listening to the right people… it doesn’t take much to turn it around…

This new year I’m going to tighten up all of my places of presence on the internet as well as publicly… I’m capable of doing a lot but now it’s got purpose and vision so my Facebook presence, Myspace, Reverb Nation and my personal website, which will be launched in the near future, will have a lot of clarity and focus…

But for now, tonight… enjoy the evening… be safe out there and here’s to an INCREDIBLE 2011… no matter what happens… we have the choice… we really do… so I make the choice to have an incredible year… and I’ll share it all with you…

Cheers!  Jason

My buddy Keith wrote me a few weeks ago and said he was cutting one of my songs… YEAH!!!  I got a CUT! 

Funny how that used to be the way of life, back in L.A., in the early days… all about that… and now it’s funny to be in a city where it’s a way of life… Nashville… it’s all about the writing, the getting cuts…

Well, I have to say, this grand journey I’ve embarked upon in the last few years has taught me so many great lessons on balance… still working on it, as we all are, but to realize that all these things are merely components… none of them are the entire picture, so the elegance of that is it takes too much importance from any one of them…

I am a person who likes to do a lot of things… it’s never only been about music for me, although sometimes it may have seemed that way… but I’ve always been one who enjoys many things in life. 

I’ve always shared with my pals that “I’m glad I’m not that brilliant!”, meaning, most of the folks out there out there who are the ultra genius artists seem to be troubled in ways I’m not interested in… not that they’re interested in them either…

But to hear the voices that sing and rip your heart out… I mean the ones who REALLY do it… that comes from a source deep within and a lot of times it’s pain… pain of growing up… pain of NEVER growing up… you name it…

Sure, I’ve had my pains but my point is I don’t feel it’s excessive… to be  honest, I think it’s probably a fairly normal amount of growing pains…

So that’s why I can enjoy going out and playing a round of golf, to exercise, to do things with friends that don’t have anything to do with music… again… one of my favorite phrases is, “I’m glad I’m not that brilliant!”  I’ll take a modicum of talent so I can get it done but then I’d like to live a full life as well…

And what does this have to do with Keith Olsen cutting one of my songs?  Well, I guess it’s to point out that when I got the track today, (yes, I’m going to be doing some background vocals on it), it fired up something that I haven’t been doing much of lately,  “Making new music!”  But it’s just in time…

I’ve been organizing my life, my studio, my computers, my filing system, so I can get to everything… I’m designing a game plan for 2011 and I’ve cleared the decks to prepare… ahhhhhh, prepare?  What a novel concept… and now it’s just a matter of setting up the tasks and executing…

I love the idea of David Allen’s, (Getting Things Done), of planning, preparing and then doing… while doing I’m not going to be *thinking* too much… just executing… I understand this having practiced a LOT of music over the years… practicing a LOT of golf over the years… once you’re trained, once you’ve reached a level of mastery, the best at it simply just DO and can turn the brains off…

I’m not sitting there while playing the bass saying in my mind, “Ok, be sure you move your finger THIS fast to the next fret, and then here comes the next one…”

No, I just lose myself in the moment and DO it… that only comes from a LOT of preparation…

So that’s my first discipline of 2011… preparedness… I’ll keep you posted as to how the recording is going today…

Until then… have a GREAT day my friends… Jason

Today is different than yesterday, very different… and tomorrow will be a world away… what am I going to do to get all I can out of it?  I’m going to make small, simple, daily disciplines to insure that a year from now I will be better, than today…

And tomorrow will be better than today was, and yesterday… EVEN with the bumps in the road… EVEN with the bumps in the road… you wanna know why?  Because I’ve got a plan… it’s being designed… I’m done with just doing whatever happens… I think hitting 50 has awakened me to the reality that I don’t want to be that spontaneous anymore… it’s not something I want to pass along to my kids…

So here’s my plan…

• Read 10 pages a day of a great book… (click here for an example)
• Listen to 15 minutes of great audio… (click here for an example)
• Exercise my body… (click here to see what I do)
• Put great nutrition into it… (click here to see the magic potion)

Oh, and one more thing…

• Share it with people (as I’m doing right now)

As I listen to this stuff, read this stuff and do my workouts the world is a wonderful place, even with the stuff that’s tough going on these days… my philosophy is “What can I contribute?” rather than just point out what’s wrong… it’s amazing how it works, and it does.

Here we go into 2011 and I’m hitting it with a bang… I’ve got some goals set in place, have the plan and now it’s just a matter of showing up… so I’m inviting you to join me… that’s something I’ve found to be as universal truth as anything, I need you… and you’ve told me you need me as well… it’s called accountability…

Yes, we all go through peaks and valleys… I’ll show you what getting involved with P90X and doing it with a group achieved… First, I have to say that I can’t tell you how many times I got close… would work out for a little bit, get going but then find a reason to quit… because I didn’t tell anybody I was doing it… it was WAY too easy to quit, when nobody knew…

And then 2007 came along and I threw it out there… I did something that was so exciting and scary at the same time… I TOLD YOU I was going to do it… no turning back… and I got there…

Yes, I’ve had setbacks along the way… welcome to life, right?  It’s not a linear journey… it’s zigs and zags… but what I’ve found is to keep taking in the right stuff… hang out with the right people… and move forward…

So here’s to ramping it up for 2011… throwing it out there AGAIN!  Here we go… my new site, coming up, will have my full journey on it… music, health and LOTS of accountability… I’ve learned, that’s how you pull it off… design it, discuss it, share it with people who are supportive, nurturing and begin… my favorite question to ask myself when people balk at the idea of doing this… “What’s the alternative?”  At my age, there is none… it’s time to swim…

So there it is… join me… whatever program works for you… even a short walk but be part of the group… it’ll keep you on track… it always does…

If you have exercise plans, regimens, nutrition plans that you like and work for you, by all means, break em out and share with the rest of us… personally, as I mentioned, I use Beachbody products because they work, if you work them…

So my plan is to start a new round of P90X on Jan. 3rd following the P90X nutrition plan… and believe me, it’s a LOT of food!  If you like to eat, that’s the program for you!  I’ll also be using Shakeology because it’s one of the greatest things I’ve put into my body ever… my wife and I were just talking about it this morning… how over the holidays if you go overboard it’s just a Shakeology cleanse to put you right back on track… amazing… going from feeling lethargic to bouncing around, in one day…

So there it is… join me, with whatever your pleasure is but show up… I’ll have a very easy way to stay connected in place over the next week…

Here we go!  Jason

Oh, and here’s my transformation the first go around with P90X…

CLICK HERE TO JOIN MY MAILING LIST

While my new site is being built, I’m going to use Tumblr for my blogging… it’s temporary but I like the freedom of ranting and not thinking about whether it’s a status update, (short message), or a full blown novel, which I’m prone to do from time to time…

You see, I never really know where it’s going to go… that’s the beauty of these last 3 years… just starting a new journey… a new life… leaving the old one behind… you see, 3 years ago I was sick and tired of being sick and tired… I knew that feeling well, 23 years ago I’d gotten sick and tired of being sick and tired of other things I was abusing myself with, asked for help, got it and Nov. 12th of this year, 2010, I celebrated 24 years of continuous sobriety from drugs and alcohol… not preaching… if people are having a good time my hat’s off to you and I support you… if you’re in trouble, like I was, that’s why I put this out there… I understand… I’ve been there and I’m here, now, to help…

Just as my physical condition 3 years ago had gotten to where I was about to give up.  Felt I’d tried everything, (what a great excuse that is!), and was about ready to throw in the towel… conceding the fact I was middle aged, had back problems, 50 lbs overweight but hey, so was most of the rest of us so what’s the big deal, right? 

Well, it was a huge deal… first of all I felt horrible… second of all, I’m not the type of person who is ultimately going to *settle*.  I will for a while but the dam will break eventually, and it did. 

So I reached out for help in the summer of 2007 and they were there… Tony Horton, first, who I called and told me, “Jason, just do P90X.  It’s so much of what you and I used to do in 1989… but just do it.  You don’t need to spend a fortune in gym memberships… just get this $120 program, commit to it and your life will change…” and it did.

So starting with Tony and then you guys and gals… the people I shared it with… the ones who I’d connected with personally over the years and then in the social networks… suddenly it was much more than me… it was us… and it was working… and still does… even with the bumps in the road… the falling off the wagon… my life is DRAMATICALLY different than it was 3 years ago and in an incredibly great way… I feel fantastic… I help people, as they help me…

And it continues… here we are going into 2011 and I’ll tell you what, I see a very bright future… not just for me but for you as well… it has nothing to do with outside circumstances… what I learned in my other forms of recovery along the way is that when I get outside myself… get out of my head and my problems and help others, my problems go away… when I make sure others’ financial troubles get better, mine get better… it’s classic recovery, and I think I’ll keep going… haaaaaa

This has been the cheapest deal I’ve found and the best part is that it WORKS… I’ll attach a photo of my transformation at the beginning… I’ll be posting a lot more content as my actual site gets up and running in the new year… it’ll be here quick so stay tuned.

I’d also like to share what the ultimate motive is… it’s a deep personal one and it’s a bit selfish… I want to make sure I stay alive, and healthy, and pass those philosophies on to my children… they need it… their generation is set to have 10 years less of a life expectancy than the one before it due to the obesity epidemic… I want to pass on practices, attitudes and disciplines to my kids… to be a part of the answer for their future…

So that’s why I started a fit club here in Nolensville, TN… and you know what?  You know what my expectation is?  It’s that *I* show up… if anybody else comes, great… but it’s not going to bring me down if I’m the only one because I have 3 years now of experience in this… if my first motive is the *I* get better, I can’t lose… and the fact I get to use products that are as inexpensive as they are, compared to the money people are paying for personal trainers and bad food?  Well, that’s what experience will give you…

This morning we had an 8:30 workout and I got up and had a feeling I might be the only one showing up… the only one at Yoga and Arts with my Epson projector under my arm and my workout DVD’s.  I was imagining myself in there, alone, doing my workout and I immediately got peaceful… it’s ok… I’m going to do it FOR ME… and I’m going to LEAD… that’s why I became a coach… not to make money but to stay the course… to stay accountable… and through this holiday season, I’m having the treats like everybody else but I’m not using that as the reason to open the floodgates… to say, “Aw, i’ll get to it on Jan. 1st.”

Well, my wife got up and asked which workout we were going to do and I told her to pick… she came with me and it was just me and her… we had a blast… we knew we had put another deposit into the insurance policy of health… it was awesome…

Hey, I know people are busy and the last thing I want to do is brow beat anybody to do anything they don’t want… all I’m doing is sharing my life because seeing it in black and white, in this blog, makes it real… and I get to see my progress…

That’s 3 years later… being able to do P90X+ Intervals X and keep up with Tony, Mark Briggs and Traci Morrow, who’ve all become my friends now… it’s amazing… and so many of you have become our friends as well… what a great ride… I ask myself, “Where were you 3 years ago?  And where are you now?”

It happens, my friends… for anybody who wants to change, ask yourself where you were a year ago, 2 years, 3 years, 5 years?  If you’re getting worse and want, or at least need to change, reach out… we’re here to help… it works too… and it’s not about purchasing Beachbody products… it’s about community… our products work, and they work REAL well but you can do this on no money… there are so many resources out there on the net for free to get the info…

So there it is… Here’s to the next 3 years… I’m coming up on 50 years old and I’m not afraid of it, I’ve embraced it… I can’t wait to get to be one of the best examples of what a 50 year old man can be… physically, mentally, etc.  It’s taken a long time but I’m growing up… and don’t mind it… that Peter Pan thing just aint working for me anymore and it’s the LAST thing I want my kids to use as a model.

Have a GREAT day, friends… Jason