Eleven Percent

Monday November 2nd, 2009 - Chicago, IL

Back at Zanies in Chicago after a week off. It felt good to get back in a groove but I’m wrestling with the same issues I’ve always had with time management. I spent all day at home working on tedious but necessary tasks like sorting receipts and answering emails.

I intended to get a walk in but I had so many other things to do, I just didn’t get around to it today. I was on a roll doing what I was doing so I decided that was being productive and chose to keep doing it. There’s no way I can do everything I want to do in each day.

That’s unbelievably frustrating but also reality so I have to make my choices carefully. Today was the tentative start of a new session of comedy classes so I had to be at Zanies by 6pm to see if anyone showed up. We did get a turnout and I’ve got a few more on the fence so hopefully we can squeeze in one more class session before the end of the year.

I’ve come too far with this project to just let it die and I refuse to let that happen. I have a proven system that has taken years to develop and it’s still getting better because I work at it all the time. I know I have a dynamic product, now I have to market it to the masses.

Having Zanies in my corner doesn’t hurt. They have been good to me and have stood by their promise to let me be their exclusive comedy teacher. No matter how many others try to set up shop in Chicago, I’ve got the cherry location everyone craves. That’s one chip in my favor but I still have to get the word out so people know that classes are available.

Bert Haas and I had a meeting after the show tonight to discuss exactly that. He wants a set schedule for the classes, much like Second City has for their improv classes. They’re a money machine when it comes to that and that’s great, but now even they’ve jumped on a growing bandwagon and added standup classes. It’s time to claim this and make it mine.

I listened to some great audio programs on the way to and from Zanies today. I’m trying to pack my head with quality thoughts at every turn. Tony Robbins had my ear on the way there and Wayne Dyer was my choice for the way home. I enjoy listening to both of them.

Every person in that field has virtually the same message, but they’re all correct - what a person thinks about most of the time, becomes reality. Many use the phrase “Thoughts are things” or some variation of it and it’s very true. Our thoughts can be our biggest boost or our biggest bust, and ultimately we’re the ones who control them. That’s the basic theme.

And a most splendid theme it is. Even George Clinton has a variation of it with one of his album titles - “Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow.” No matter how it’s said, the truth is all of us have a lot of untapped power inside our coconut that stays unused.

We’ve all heard the statistic that we use about 10% of our total brainpower. Who’s the one measuring this? I think they’re WAY high on that number, but if it’s true all I’ll need to do is use 11% of mine and I’ll be looked at as a genius. I think I still have a way to go.