HUGH CULVER
Author, Speaker, Coach
I co-created the world’s most expensive tours (to the South Pole), have presented to over 1,200 audiences, built and exited 3 businesses, and I’m the author of Give Me a Break – the art of making time work for you.
This is my blog.
Productivity
How to stop procrastinating in 3 simple steps
I have a superpower I want to share with you. No, it’s not Thor-like strength or the web-crawling agility of Spider-Man. But, this superpower will make you feel better, help avoid disastrous outcomes and undoubtedly make you money. I’m talking about the ability to get...
How to Stay Productive and Sane While Working From Home
These are strange times. I’m writing this from home. Nothing too unusual there. But, I’m also working from home while on Day 6 of a 14-day isolation during the Covid-19 crisis. My youngest daughter just returned from Myanmar and we are taking all the prescribed...
Why I Lost My Motivation For Work and What I Did Instead
When I was 15 years old my whole world changed. My older brother Dan, fresh back from his second year of whitewater raft guiding in Northern British Columbia had started his own company. He wanted my help. My first job job was painting our newly fabricated rafts in...
Why you need to Plan like a Pilot to get super organized, laser focussed and insanely productive
If you want to overcome procrastination, don’t read another time management book. Please. Trust me, I know how complicated time management advice can be. In fact, I wrote a time management book. The challenge often is that all the great advice in a well-meaning book...
Hyperbolic discounting and why your goals suck
If you struggle to reach goals you might have a bad case of hyperbolic discounting. What?!? Before I get to what hyperbolic discounting is, let me back up and first talk about goal setting. A typical assumption is that BIG GOALS (think: Jim Collin’s BHAG (Big Hairy...
Life
My cartoons are (yikes!) online.
It’s been a while. Earlier this year I was writing a lot. Most blog posts. A couple of book ideas came and went and then withered on the keyboard. And I was drawing. At the start of the Pandemic, I challenged myself to scratch out one cartoon-like drawing every day...
What, me worry?
I was in a car the other day with a radiologist and a neurosurgeon talking about hypertension. This conversation is actually not as unusual as it might sound. I volunteer for a local society that does trail clearing in a popular hiking and mountain bike park and many...
The Art of Asking for What You Need
When I was a kid my Dad was my hero. He wore a 3-piece suit to his accounting office, was always in control, and could fix anything. On weekends, the older kids became his soldiers marching around the property hauling downed branches, stacking wood, or some other work...
Why I ran the Boston Marathon
There are at least two reasons we do anything. The most obvious is what we think we should do, like “Some expert on a podcast said I should eat more blueberries.” Then there is the second, less obvious reason, like “I want to feel better about my health.” Last week I...
Want to listen better? Stop thinking
“We have a lot of new leaders and I’m hoping you can inspire them to speak their minds.” my client said on the zoom call. I feel my chest tighten, pupils dilate - I’m suddenly alert (my body loves the promise of a paycheck). “This sounds great!” I reply, having...
Habits
21 Small Wins that can Lead to Big Wins in Your Life
"If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way." -Napoleon Hill “Our meetings are out of control!” a manager complained to me at a workshop I was leading. “I have so many in a day,” she added, “sometimes I don’t even have time to go to the...
Small Wins – why little steps are the path to big rewards
It was a cool July morning in the forest of Snoqualmie Valley, Washington. Just me and about 300 other nervous people in shorts - all about to run a marathon. It had been 15 years since my last marathon distance race. Back then, I was in my 40s, and long-distance...
How To Finally Stop Procrastinating On Exercise
This post was originally published in 2014 and has been updated in 2022. Enjoy! You don’t need more books about exercise and fitness. And I doubt you need more advice, tips, gurus, or videos on how to “gain muscle in just 10 minutes a day.” Don’t worry—that’s not what...
How to stop procrastinating in 3 simple steps
I have a superpower I want to share with you. No, it’s not Thor-like strength or the web-crawling agility of Spider-Man. But, this superpower will make you feel better, help avoid disastrous outcomes and undoubtedly make you money. I’m talking about the ability to get...
How to stop procrastinating, get what you want and be happy
It’s always seemed strange that some people are unhappy. Sure, if you’re dirt poor and begging on a street corner, that makes sense. But, if you’re reading this, that’s not you. I’m writing this in Cape Town at the tail end of month long family trip through Southern...
Business
How to sell your business for more money
“Anyone who takes a ‘we’ll figure out how to profit in the future’ attitude to business is being ridiculous.” - Jason Fried, Rework Here’s a largely ignored secret about owning a business. Often you make more money selling the business than running it. Most business...
Measure What Matters
When my daughter was young, we opened her first bank account. We went to my bank, opened an account and she made a small deposit. All the way home she held tight to her shiny new bank book. Back then they even imprinted her name on the cover. It was hers and it...
Is your business too complicated?
My business coach squinted as he pointed at the long, winding snake of connected boxes I’d drawn on the whiteboard. “And why,” he asked as he pointed at my convoluted diagram of colored boxes, circles, and interconnected lines, “do you need to build that sequence...
The Salesperson in You
“Never mistake a quantity of calls for a quality of salesmanship." - David Ogilvy The speaker before me is brilliant. They are an encyclopedia of knowledge, spilling out facts, statistics, and convincing arguments. Slide after slide delivered brilliant graphs...
A Better Way to Win More Sales
Soon after arriving for my meeting, my client opened with “Tell me about your program.” I’d been anticipating this meeting for over a month and couldn’t wait to talk about my time management training. Within minutes I was deep into the details - all the lessons and...
Speaking
Want to listen better? Stop thinking
“We have a lot of new leaders and I’m hoping you can inspire them to speak their minds.” my client said on the zoom call. I feel my chest tighten, pupils dilate - I’m suddenly alert (my body loves the promise of a paycheck). “This sounds great!” I reply, having...
How to Stop the BS and Get Started
My audience was financial planners. Not any financial planners - these were the gold star, top performers in their region. They walked on water. I had been invited to speak about goal setting at their upcoming conference. And I had a problem. How do you get a...
Why You Need to Tell More Stories
“People do not buy goods and services. They buy relations, stories and magic.” - Seth Godin Cruising garage sales one weekend, researchers Rob Walker and Joshua Glenn spent the morning collecting dozens of random items including a common office stapler, a box of...
Death of a Public Speaker
The business of public speaking is a strange one. There’s no real “product” - not much to measure – and nothing you can put in a box or weigh in your hands. Just you talking. Your client wants to make the “perfect” decision and will often run you through a gauntlet of...
The fastest way to get more consulting, speaking, or coaching work
Sometimes the best solutions are also the simplest. Instead, we love, love, love to make life complicated. Take getting hired for example. I help content experts get hired. Consultants, coaches, trainers, and speakers all want one thing. More clients. And that’s where...
End procrastination. Start taking action.
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