SCOTT ROWLEY

Meditation Mind Space

1/30/2016

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Meditation creates free mind space for our accent and decent strategies. Both are critical components to a safe and successful journey.
Summit of Niseko Mt. Resort Grand Hirafu
Summit of Niseko Mt. Resort Grand Hirafu
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Courage

1/30/2016

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"It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies, but a great deal more to stand up to your friends." - Dumbledoor - Harry Potter
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A Dream Come True - *Japanuary Pow Days*

1/27/2016

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Japan Flag
How I made a dream of skiing powder in Japan come true and how you can make your dreams come true too --->

I write this from Niseko, Japan.

It is a somewhat surreal experience to reflect on how I got to where I sit today. To realize that my childhood dream of skiing powder in Japan with some of my best friends has come true.

I am incredibly grateful for all the support from family, friends and mentors along the way. If you are reading this then you are part of my support group and I thank you.

We geared up, caught the shuttle to Base, hopped on the Gondola and began hiking toward G5 aka Gate 5. The moment I stepped into G5 I almost could not believe what was about to happen. My first run in Japan was in a backcountry (BC) zone literally titled the same as a digital marketing company in Bend, Oregon that I have worked with for the past four and a half years. A meant to be moment.

G5; Hanazono Gate, Alt. 1050m. Extremely unstable cornices are developing above when G3 and G4 are closed, and traversing to Higashi 1 during that time is especially discouraged.


Reflection on How Dreams Come True...

In my reflection I found the process used for catching my best of dreams. A process that is simple and can work for you too, if only you are willing to put forth the work. It will take work.


Dream = imagination, ideas, thoughts, visions, or feelings

The journey to anything you wish for in life starts with a dream. Your dreams will remain stuck in your mind without a framework and action to make them come true.

I am living proof that dreams really do come true…

Vision = to create a picture in your mind of something you desire in the future

A vision board will help you attract the results you wish to see in your life much faster than otherwise. You will begin training your subconscious mind to take actions toward your vision.

As Einstein said - “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions.”

Goal = result or achievement from directing your energy in a specific direction
​

Setting goals is a critical activity if we wish to move our lives forward. Without a roadmap of where we wish to take our lives we are literally lost in the woods.

Where will we go from here? - 2016 is your blank canvas just waiting to be painted. Here is a framework for guiding your daily, weekly, monthly and annual goals.

After setting a goal it is important to enjoy the process, because it will take time, sweat and tears to reach your desired destination.

I thought of the PBP equation one day in another reflection and it really helps keep your mind set in a positive direction during your journey toward achievement.

Plan + Build + Play = Results (P+B+P=R)

  • Step 1: Plan - Remember planning is the most important step to success.
  • Step 2: Build - Start with the first step you defined in your plan.
  • Step 3: Play - Gamify your process to results.
  • Step 4: Results - Enjoy the outcome of your work whether positive or negative.

"A dream doesn't become reality through magic or by mere luck, it takes sweat, determination, hard work, early mornings, emotions and so much more."

To your journey towards catching your dreams.....

Summit as friends! ^^^
Scott
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Leadership Lessons from Extreme Ownership

1/26/2016

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- How U.S. Navy Seals Lead & Win is a book written by Jocko Willink and Leif BabinExtreme Ownership
Extreme Ownership - How U.S. Navy Seals Lead & Win is a book written by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, former U.S. Navy Seal Officers They are the owners of Echelon Front, a consulting firm offering solutions to complex global problems.
Extreme Ownership had a profound impact my approach to leadership.

Here are some takeaways I bookmarked along my journey to the last page.

Simplicity is the key to success and happiness. We have a tendency to over complicate everything and I am one of the worst culprits of this. As Albert Einstein said, - “Out of clutter find simplicity.”

Simple means ---> easy to understand.

Keep your plans, gear, processes and communication as simple as possible. Complexity will surely result in chaos and catastrophic results.

Team Structure is critical to the success of any enterprise. No one manager should have more than four to six direct reports. Having more will surely result in unmanageability when issues arise.

Middle and lower leaders must be empowered with decision making power on each mission and they need to understand not only how and what needs to be completed, but why they are leading it. Without a clear "why" the intrinsic motivation necessary for success will not exist.

In order for this type of Decentralized Command to be successful junior leaders must have trust that senior leaders will back their decisions. This requires excellent and simple communication up and down the chain of command. As new information arises that impacts the strategic direction of a mission it must be communicated upward and downward to ensure the right decisions are being made at the right time. Without this level of trust and communication, junior leaders cannot confidently execute their mission.

Give time and thought to all you do. - Fortune

Planning is the first and most critical step for any mission. It is the foundation upon which the rest of your mission is built.  A solid foundation will help ensure excellence in mission execution.

Here is an example of what a leader's planning checklist might include:
  • Analyze the mission
    • Understand higher headquarters’ mission, Commander's intent, and end state (the goal.)
    • Identify and state your own Commander's intent, and end state (the goal.) for the mission
  • Identify personnel, assets, resources and time available
  • Decentralize the planning process
    • Empower key leaders within the team to analyze possible courses of action
  • Determine a specific course of action
    • Lean toward selecting the simplest course of action
    • Focus efforts on the best course of action
  • Empower key leaders to develop the plan for the selected course of action
  • Plan for likely contingencies through each phase of the operation
  • Mitigate risks that can be controlled as much as possible
  • Delegate portions of the plan and brief to key junior leaders
    • Stand back and be the tactical genius

The above standard operating procedure for planning might not be what you need for your team or organization, but it is critical that you have one way of planning that can be replicated across teams to help create consistency and flow through each project. This kind of behavior creates predictability and helps prevent chaos. Adding multiple procedures for a repeatable task results in chaos, a decrease in quality and productivity, uncertainty , unhappiness and greater risk.

After each mission be sure to debrief with your team. Answering these simple questions will help instill the concept of Constant and Never Ending Improvement (CANI).
  • What went well?
  • What went poorly?
  • What should we change to our procedures to make them better for the next mission?

Leadership is a constant balancing act that requires a humble and competitive spirit.

There are hundreds of components that must be kept in balance in order to remain an effective leader.

The Dichotomy of Leadership

A good leader must be:
  • confident but not cocky;
  • courageous but not foolhardy;
  • competitive but a gracious leader;
  • attentive to details but not obsessed by them;
  • strong but have endurance;
  • a leader and follower;
  • humble not passive;
  • aggressive not overbearing;
  • quiet not silent;
  • calm but not robotic, logical but not devoid of emotions;
  • close with the troops but not so close that one becomes more important than another or more important than the good of the team; not so close that they forget who is in charge;
  • able to execute Extreme Ownership, while exercising Decentralized Command.

A good leader has nothing to prove, but everything to prove.

Throughout my life as a son, brother, friend, Boy Scout, Digital Marketer and Entrepreneur I have found that leadership is by far the hardest thing that I have ever set out to master; and therefore it has been the most rewarding. To lead people including myself from chaos into a state of zen is truly humbling and something I hope everyone can experience in their lifetime.

I recommend every leader read Extreme Ownership. You can order the book on a variety of online retailers and learn more about it on Echelon Front.

To your success and journey as a leader…

Source:  Willink, Jocko and Leif Babin. Extreme Ownership – How U.S. Navy Seals Lead & Win. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2015.

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A Soul Cleansing Journey to Mt. Fuji

1/24/2016

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New Formulas for Success

1/22/2016

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Tokyo Dove,,,

1/21/2016

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^2016^ Where will we go from here?

1/21/2016

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Friends and Family,

2015 was a roller coaster ride of changes for me and I am certain you experienced something very similar.

Life is full of ups and downs and I accept that, as a result I am now seeking answers to some very complex questions…--->


  1. Why do we experience times in life that make us feel on top of the world and other times in which we feel stuck in the bottom of the dark sea?
  2. How do we reach the top of a mountain in life only to fall on the way down resulting in catastrophic events?
  3. What can we begin doing on a daily basis to make the ascents and descents throughout life safer and less stressful resulting in more happiness?

Train Your Brain Daily
G5; a digital marketing company in Bend, Oregon that I work with gifted us a daily “Train Your Brain” journal that is really simple and provides positive results…
  • Three New Gratitudes
    • I have more clarity than I ever remember having in life+++
    • I understand my “why”...
    • ---> My travels to Japan were safe and successful…
  • Journaling (1+ experience in the last 24 Hours)
    • ​I made it through the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) with very small hiccups and actually learned something…
  • Exercise (10-30 concious minutes)
    • Carried 50lbs of gear throughout my travels to ensure we are prepared for whatever comes our way^^^
  • Meditation (2 concious minutes)
    • Closed eyes in the waiting line for a few minutes...
  • Random Act of Kindness (email, write or do one positive thing for another)
    • #everyone thank you message to G5ers

I now practice this daily with a little salt and pepper.

What the heck does that mean?

In addition to the five tasks listed above I feel it is critical to review your vision, objectives, goals and values on a daily basis to start training your subconscious mind to take action even when everything seems to be working against you.

I typically end my morning planning session by drawing something… Anything… A cloud, sun, rain drop, house, treehouse, mountain… something beautiful or sloppy… it doesn't really matter… What matters is the fact that you draw something to get your creative mind going...
A Simple Picture
Set Goals That Matter To You
Sometimes we have to lose ourselves to find a better piece of ourselves that we never consciously knew existed. We lose track of what matters most… family, friends, co-workers, happiness, things that really make a difference in the world. When this starts happening we need an e-brake in our back pocket…

For the past several years I have used a goal setting framework created by Scott Dinsmore’s team at Live Your Legend. The framework rocks. Why? It works. It empowers us to set goals that truly matter to us and begin executing on them now.

The framework takes some serious time to complete, but I guarantee you with 99.9% certainty that you will achieve everything you could possibly imagine. However, I must warn you - Your success will simply take work. Like me, you will fail your way to success; meaning you will stumble many times on your way to the top. When you are on top it will feel like your whole world is resting in the palm of your hands. You will have aligned your purpose and life; something you could have only dreamed of in the past.

Start your planning today by reading this post written on LiveYourLegend.Net ---> 2016 Goal Setting & Weekly Planning Workbooks – Free PDF Downloads to make 2016 the Best Year Yet!

Good luck on your journey… ---> ^*^*^

​-Scott+
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2015 Goals - Successes and Failures

1/21/2016

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This is one of the steps in my annual reflection process. What did I acheieve that I set out to do in early 2015 and what did I not? You will see successes littered amongst failures. This is to illustrate a simple principle - You will have to fail over and over again in order to succeed.

It is not the man who fails to success, but the man who fails to fail that determines whether or not success will be reached...

Personal
  • Backpack at
    • Mt Rainier - Fail
    • Glacier National Park - Fail
    • Redwoods - Fail
    • Central Oregon - Much Success - I backpacked all over Central Oregon
  • Ski at
    • Mt Hood - Success 
    • Mt Adams - Fail
  • Coffee With New and Old Friends - Success
  • Read 1 New Book Per Month and add to the Book’s Page on Website - Fail, I did read a lot more than ever.
  • Grow a Vegetable Garden - I tried, but failed.
  • Volunteer With a Local Central Oregon Non Profit - Success - I helped sponsor a G500 Family and deliver them XMAS... :)
  • Run / Hike Around Mt Hood in 1 Day - Fail, but I did do this last year and hiked around the Three Sisters and ran around Mt St. Helens this year instead... So did I really fail???
  • Help 100,000 People - I have no idea how to measure this... 2,900 unique people visited my personal website + 100's of thousands of people visited G5 websites = more than 100K, so I guess I succeeded...
G5
  • Rewards and Recognition: Integrate values into current RR programs - Success, Lead the G5 to Thrive RR Committee
  • Promote a culture of experimentation - Success - Ran many successful tests and tests that failed
  • Operational efficiency improvements and measured for the SEO team - Success, Training Program is One Example
  • Education: Google Analytics, CRO, Powersearch User and One Conference - Success
  • Promotion that has a positive impact on G5 and my team - Success, Promoted to SEO Delivery Manager
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Birds in the Sky's @PDX

1/20/2016

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