So many successful people spend the majority of their time on one area of their life where they excel, but perpetually feel unfulfilled. With this in mind, Riley offers these 9 methods to help high achievers tap into the other 90% of “who they are,” beyond “what they do,” and realize greater life balance, joy and fulfillment in kind.

According to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the book Flow: The Psychology Of Optimal Experience, we take in 2 million pieces of information per second, yet we can only process 134 bits per second. How then do we determine which 134 bits of information to focus on? We choose those 134 bits of information based on our values, beliefs, attitudes, past experiences, memories and how we process information.

One critical element in a well-written novel is that the characters seldom do anything “out of character.” You are the central character in your own story and your life makes more sense when you stick with the script.

Ever wonder why goals seem so impossible to reach at times? Here's what I learned about reaching goals while hiking the Inca Trail.

Like many people in business today, I spend a lot of my time on airplanes, flying from point A to point B. I generally am among the very first people to board so I get to sit and relax as I listen to all of the other people scrambling to get on the plane, find their seats, and stow their carryon luggage. For most of us, the high points and low points in life are inevitable. But the average routine days are within our control.

What if we embraced change more consciously and learned how to not only "manage" it, but thrive through it. Whether you're someone who enjoys change and handles it quite well, or you hate it and get totally stressed out by it, all of us can benefit from embracing change more deliberately and supporting those around us as we all go through the big and small changes of life - especially these days.

The process of self-discovery can be a lifetime process. Examining oneself in earnest can be a never-ending path like hiking in the mountains. Just when you think you have reached the highest peak you see another even higher one off in the distance.

Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimension.” I believe one of the fastest and most efficient ways to gain new ideas is to read books. The most powerful, creative, influential, and interesting people who ever lived on this planet are waiting to share their best secrets with you in the pages of a book.

In the past few months I've had a couple conflicts with important people in my life get blown way out of proportion, mainly because I engaged in them via email, instead of talking live to those involved. As I look back on these and other similar situations I've experienced in the past, I can see that it was my fear to connect live and my poor judgment in using written communication that contributed to the increased conflict and lack of resolution.

We live in a society that constantly focuses upon immediate rewards and instant gratification. We want microwave efforts with crock pot results. Nothing worth having ever comes quick and easy. There are three states that we can dwell on in our lives. These include being, doing, and having. In our world today, everyone is focused on having. They want to have everything now and worry about paying for it later. When we understand that success is planted on the inside and manifests itself on the outside, we begin to realize that the knowledge we gain and the wisdom we apply are the keys to our success.

I believe and have often said that we are all one quality decision away from anything we want. A quality decision is a certain state of mind. It is not the process of deciding to try, attempt, or pursue something until it becomes difficult. A quality decision means that you have firmly set your course. You are no longer flexible on your mission; however, you may be flexible on your method. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Once you make a decision, the world conspires to make it happen.”

When we become so internally focused that we ignore or disinvite feedback, consciously or unconsciously, we are being bureaucratic. When our primary interest lies in our routines, our habits, our thinking, our "organization of one" becomes bureaucratic. This "bureaucracy of self" can be just as intractable as the most bureaucratic government organization.

I admit it: I've had it -- Rat Race Fatigue (RRF). It's an increasingly prevalent syndrome. Have you experienced it? Have you felt it nipping at your heels? How can you tell? Well, the Rat Race has its tell-tale signs, and we'll get to a few of those in just a minute. It makes sense that, sooner or later, you'd get fatigued by the Rat Race. I mean, let's face it -- it's called The Rat Race for a reason. Yet it can be surprising -- really surprising -- where and how its tell-tale traits show up.

A few weeks ago I listened to a radio interview with Michael Beckwith, author of Spiritual Liberation, and he said, "A bad day for the ego is a good day for the soul." When I heard this I laughed out loud. The wisdom of his statement resonated with me deeply.

Are you facing challenges in your life or your business right now? These days, there are some real challenges facing many of us - at work, at home, in relationships, with money, with family, with housing situations, and much more. The challenges themselves, even the most difficult ones, aren't usually the real issue; it's our relationship to them that causes us the most difficulty and suffering.

How do you feel about asking other people for help? I've noticed that many of us, myself included, get a little funny about requesting support. While we're all different and we each have our own unique perspective, reaction, and process as it relates to reaching out to others, it seems that this can be quite a tricky exercise for most of the people I know and work with.

We do not go to work or live our lives to fill up every minute. Our goal is to accomplish things that matter to us in our personal and professional realm. As you go through your day today, remember: It’s always best to be working on the right thing, at the right time, for the right reason, and doing nothing is better than doing the wrong thing.

With the New Year still in its first few weeks, the annual "new year, new you" phenomenon is all around us - in the worlds of advertising, media, self-help and more. And while this time of year can be a great catalyst for positive change in our lives, what if we made a commitment to live our lives in 2011 focused on who we are, and not so much on what we do, what we accomplish, what we look like, what we're striving for, and more?

The longer I live, the more I believe that the great truths are the simple ones. We make them complicated out of our ignorance or self-serving motives. Simple truths endure. They cut through the clutter and bring us clarity. We need nothing else. Rarely do we fail because we didn’t know what to do. We, instead, fail because we didn’t do what we know.

As you may know, I have been dedicating a series of these columns to the memory of my friend and mentor, the late, great Coach John Wooden. Coach Wooden passed away earlier this year, just a few months before his 100th birthday. He leaves behind a huge hole in humanity but an immense legacy of wisdom. He was fond of saying, “Adversity is a state in which man mostly becomes easily acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then.”

Sharing powerful stories from his anti-obesity project in Huntington, W. Va., TED Prize winner Jamie Oliver makes the case for an all-out assault on our ignorance of food.

Fear can and does stop us in life - from being ourselves, speaking our truth, and going for what we really want. But, when we remember with compassion that there's nothing wrong with us for getting scared and when we're willing to lean into our fears with vulnerability and boldness - we can literally transform them into something that catapults our growth and fulfillment in life.

A worldwide web of viewers watched 33 miners being pulled to the surface following a 600,000 ton cave-in that happened nearly one-half mile below the ground on a barren plain in southern Chile. Besides showcasing the tenacity of rescuers and the miracle of technology, the miners themselves offer dramatic lessons in resiliency that anyone can learn. If your business and/or personal life has taken a downturn or if you can't seem to get over the tough times then these tips are for you.

As a young man, one of my earliest business mentors told me that the secret to success is “Always do what you say you are going to do.” I was looking for the shortcut to riches, and this elderly multimillionaire continually frustrated me by spouting what I thought were proverbial platitudes. He went on to explain that if you commit to always doing what you say you will do, you will be known as an honest person, and you will be very careful what you commit to because you know you will be holding yourself to a higher standard.

With all the excitement of the playoffs and the World Series (which, thanks to the success of the San Francisco Giants, we get to experience directly here in the Bay Area), I've been thinking about, watching, and appreciating the great game baseball a lot these past few weeks. As someone who spent eighteen years of my life (from the age of seven until the age of twenty five) playing organized baseball and who has been a huge fan all my life, the game has taught me a great deal.

How controlling are you? Would you consider yourself very controlling, moderately controlling, or not controlling at all? While each of us falls somewhere along the continuum of control and for some of us this is a bigger issue than others, for most of the people I know and work with, control is an issue that gets in our way - especially in the most important (and stressful) areas of life.

It’s hard to find anyone, including myself, who gives advice through the written or spoken word that doesn’t at some point implore everyone to focus on the things that matter. I have written and said this many times, but I still realize that in my own life it’s easy to focus on what matters if you can ever define what matters.

How often do you compare yourself to others? If you're anything like me and most of the people I know and work with, probably more than you'd like to admit. And, as you may have noticed (like I have), this comparison process never seems to feel very good or work very well, does it?

How easily do you grant your trust to other people? What factors play into your ability or inability to trust certain individuals around you? What do people need to do to earn your trust? As I personally reflect on these questions, I'm reminded of both the importance and complexity of trust in our lives, our work, and our relationships.

By putting more of our attention on wanting what we already have, and less attention on fixing things or wanting what we don't yet have, we can create a deep sense of peace and joy in our lives, our work, and our relationships, which, more than most specific outcomes or material possessions, is what most of us truly want anyway.

Life is for purposefully and consistently growing into the best and truest version of ourselves. It is for creating a life that is meaningful, filled with passion and a feeling of fulfilment. The good news is that if we do not already have the life we desire and want we can create it.

These questions have no right or wrong answers, and sometimes asking the right questions is the answer, from Practical Tips for Productive Living.