I heard this thought from John Lennon that I think is so important to remember. But before that I want to comment on something - We live in such an accomplishment based society that values being productive and doing it all. Maybe you’ve felt a pressure to fit more into your day yourself. That’s because we’ve learned to see productivity through the lens of working hard. More productivity is less procrastination, less distractions, and more focused concentration so that you can get more done, right?

I disagree. I think true productivity is just about doing more of what you want. Beyond work, errands and all of your responsibilities, you can be productive on social media, watching tv, or doing anything actually. What matters most is that you’re doing what you want to be doing. It can be for your mental health, a recharge, because you enjoy it, whatever it might be that is serving you. But the unfortunate part is that we resist accepting those reasons as a good enough and instead judge ourselves for not doing more “productive” things.

That’s where I want to jump back to the John Lennon quote - “Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” What might be viewed as wasted time by someone else could be what’s most important for you. And when that becomes the measuring stick, what naturally happens as a result of that is you spend time doing traditionally “productive” things because you have a deep desire to contribute, a need to grow, and a strong motivation to pursue self-actualization. But then you’re doing it because you want to and not because someone told you to, and it gives you space to do everything else without judgment.

So be honest with yourself and answer this question - What do you genuinely enjoy doing that other people might think is wasting your time?‍

If you’re in the US or Canada, text me at 949-799-0788 and I’ll send you daily prompts that help you get to know yourself better and build a more meaningful life every day. 

If you’re looking to grow alongside a community of like-minded improvers, then click here to join the Better Together Community.

Life really is what you make of it and everything is a matter of perspective. The great part about that is if we like certain things, we can choose to have more of it! And alternatively if we don’t like certain things we can change the way we relate with it and create a new result.

Easier said than done of course, but this concept is perfectly captured in today’s positivity quote - “Our attitude towards life determines life’s attitude toward us.”

I think it’s creative how this quote positions ‘life’ as a third party with its own choices. If we see life that way, then we know that things can change because life can change its mind. It helps us realize that we can influence life. Just like a person, life is dynamic and responsive to you. It’s not something that is fixed and predetermined, it is constantly being created from an unlimited amount of possibilities.

One of the most fulfilling perspectives and attitudes we can choose to carry into life is that of positivity. As suggested by Jack Canfield, we always have a choice in the matter. He has the formula E+R=O. Event (Whatever happened) plus response (how we choose to perceive the event) equals outcome. The outcome is always dependent on your response, and if you choose to be grateful for the things that happen and see the opportunity in seemingly unfortunate events, you can manipulate the end result. This is life’s attitude toward us and we always have a say in that. “Our attitude towards life determines life’s attitude toward us.”

To wrap this up I want you to reflect on this - How in control of your response are you to life’s events?‍

If you’re in the US or Canada, text me at 949-799-0788 and I’ll send you daily prompts that help you get to know yourself better and build a more meaningful life every day. 

If you’re looking to grow alongside a community of like-minded improvers, then click here to join the Better Together Community.

We all have something that we’re afraid to do, yet we know we need to do it and we know doing it is for the best. It could be making that tough phone call, changing your approach to something, figuring something out that has been weighing on your mind… whatever it might be. 

The thought of it activates our sympathetic nervous system and it puts us in survival mode, so we avoid doing what we don’t know how to do or we’re scared to do out of physical and psychological protection. It could feel like a monster that is looming over you. That’s where I invite you to hug your monster, and if you do, you’ll find that a few really incredible things happen.

First, you’ll realize that the monster wasn’t as bad as you made it out to be. The idea of it is often far worse than the reality of it - It’s not as difficult, complicated, or threatening as you thought it was. When you go up and confront it head on you can start seeing it for what it actually is and ultimately, work through it.

That’s the payoff! When you overcome the monster you’ll feel liberated. The background emotional energy that was looming over you has been relieved and you’ll find you’re much more present for everything else. You’re proud of yourself for facing off with it and it will inject serious momentum into your day with a renewed sense of self-belief and self-confidence.

That’s why Ed Mylett, an incredible business leader, philanthropist, and motivator chooses to hug his monster first thing every day. It needs to get done, so he prioritizes it and does it, and allows it to kickstart everything else.

What that in mind let me ask you this question - What do you need to do today that you’ve been putting off?

If you’re in the US or Canada, text me at 949-799-0788 and I’ll send you daily prompts that help you get to know yourself better and build a more meaningful life every day. 

If you’re looking to grow alongside a community of like-minded improvers, then click here to join the Better Together Community.

I want to tell you a story about how I failed last week. I grew up an athlete, I played division 1 college soccer and I even played a few years of semi-pro. The fitness test for my college team was to run 2 miles in 12 minutes, it’s called the Cooper and it was inspired by a military training. I’d heard about it growing up and had a healthy fear of it, but then when it came time to doing it I was always fit enough to pass the test pretty easily. My whole life I’ve used the Cooper as a benchmark of personal fitness, and now so many years later it still holds that meaning.

I recently set the intention that I want to get into the best shape of my life and for about a month now I’ve really been making progress on that. But I wanted to see where I’m at now compared to where I’ve been in the past, so I figured I’d get a gauge for where my fitness is now compared to where it has been. So I decided to do a little test to gauge where I’m at. I didn’t feel prepared to do the Cooper, but I figured I could do a version of it, a mile and a half (instead of two miles) at the same 6 minute a mile pace. So I turned the treadmill up to 10 miles an hour and I went for it. I failed. I didn’t even make it a mile and a half, I made it just about a mile and a quarter before I gave up.

This is an incredible thing to have happened to me, and I’ll explain why. First, I knew it was going to be difficult, so before I even started I set expectations and told myself that failing would be a win because it means that I’m pushing myself. It helped to curb the disappointment. But in doing so it made me put myself in a position where I could fail, where I could try something and not be good enough. Failure didn’t feel as bad as I’d made it out to be in my head. It also pushed me in the moment and I trained harder than I would have had I not been trying to prove myself. But here’s the best part - On the backend of failing, it lit a fire in me. Reflecting on my attempt I committed to achieving this goal, not the full Cooper test, but the version of it I just failed at. It has created an intentionality I didn’t have about my training and I know that I’ll get so much more out of it now that I have a clear path forward.

All this to say, failing really served me. Go fail. It will free you and activate you in ways you couldn't imagine.  So let me ask you this - What are you going to go fail at?

If you’re in the US or Canada, text me at 949-799-0788 and I’ll send you daily prompts that help you get to know yourself better and build a more meaningful life every day. 

If you’re looking to grow alongside a community of like-minded improvers, then click here to join the Better Together Community.

People talk about setting intentions all the time. You can do it before a meditation or yoga session, you can use it to bring more presence to changes you want to see in your life… It toes the line of being a real tangible tactic and a spiritual practice.

Ultimately what intention setting does is it brings your focus and awareness toward something specific in your life. It highlights something as valuable or important in your mind, and it leads to a whole sequence of downstream effects.

By bringing what you want into your conscious mind, and having an interest in finding more of it, you prime your Reticular Activating System. Known as the RAS, this part of your brain is responsible for taking all of the sensory inputs your brain receives and filters it so that you’re only aware of what is most important. It is also involved in pattern recognition. So by setting an intention, you’ve taught your RAS to be on the look out for evidence of this intention being true and ways you can make it true. You’ve specifically established the importance of this area of your life, and in doing so, you’ve written the first line of a story that your brain wants to see played out.

Now this process starts to work for you when two things happen. First, you need to believe you’re capable of your intention. Your brain will only grab onto intentions that you believe to be possible. Second, you need to take action in alignment with your intentions. When your behavior doesn’t match your intentions your brain doesn’t take your intention as seriously.

That’s how this all works! And to apply this in your life, let’s set an intention right now - What values do you want to prioritize this week?

‍If you’re in the US or Canada, text me at 949-799-0788 and I’ll send you daily prompts that help you get to know yourself better and build a more meaningful life every day. 

If you’re looking to grow alongside a community of like-minded improvers, then click here to join the Better Together Community.

Our lives are run by the clock. We have meetings and appointments booked at certain times of day, times when we like to do certain things or complete certain tasks… And it’s all important because it allows us to be effective in our collaboration with other people, and ultimately accomplish more overall. However, this emphasis on using time so rigidly has some unexpected consequences.

As a result we tend to see our activity in chunks. Spend an hour here, take a few minutes there, allocate a few days to complete this. While times helps to provide focus it really distracts from what is most important, which is what we’re doing in the moment. The only thing you can control is what’s happening right now, and sometimes we lose sight of that.

When it comes to truly pursuing and becoming the best version of ourselves, it shouldn’t be about looking back at the end of the day and seeing how you did. It should be about evaluating your performance moment by moment. In that way you’re accountable to being your best self in everything you do rather than looking back at a trend of how you did in general. It’s often uncomfortable to do because you’ll notice moments where you take shortcuts, or step outside of your integrity. It’s easier to dilute those experiences within the full day, but that is the greatest opportunity for growth. 

Do what you want to do, the way you want to do it, all the time. Now that’s a standard of excellence! There’s nowhere to hide and you’ll face off with the reality of who you are in all circumstances. Let me finish by asking you this - What values do you want to hold every minute of every day?‍

If you’re in the US or Canada, text me at 949-799-0788 and I’ll send you daily prompts that help you get to know yourself better and build a more meaningful life every day. 

If you’re looking to grow alongside a community of like-minded improvers, then click here to join the Better Together Community.

Let’s keep it really simple. It’s good to be kind. While you may not agree with everyone, or understand why people do things, or even want to spend time with someone, that doesn’t give you the right to treat them any differently. What’s most important is seeing the humanity in another person. Respect that everyone has a story and background that you couldn’t begin to understand. Just be kind.

Kindness is characterized by being friendly and considerate. It’s taking the other person’s emotions into consideration when choosing how you want to interact with them. You don’t need to overextend yourself and invest in everyone you meet, but if you make a habit of being kinder to the people you encounter, it does make a difference.

Even when people are mean to you, try to be the bigger person and treat them with respect. Remember that their malice has nothing to do with you and everything to do with them. They’re doing it to provoke you so that they can feel validated, seen, or otherwise fill whatever need they have that motivated their behavior. You are in control of yourself and what you do, and again, just be kind. 

You’ve probably heard of doing random acts of kindness before. What I think is incredible is that you can create good through your own decision to do so. In being kind, you create a disproportionate amount of positivity in the world for the he amount of time or energy you invested in sharing it. The world appreciates positivity, but it needs people to lead with kindness in order to multiply it. You can be that spark, just be kind.

I’d like you to reflect on this - When was the last time you didn’t respond with as much kindness as you should have?

If you’re in the US or Canada, text me at 949-799-0788 and I’ll send you daily prompts that help you get to know yourself better and build a more meaningful life every day. 

If you’re looking to grow alongside a community of like-minded improvers, then click here to join the Better Together Community.

I read a message from Brittany Burgunder the other day that really stood out to me. Brittany is a coach that specializes in supporting people with eating disorders, which makes this quote that much more meaningful. The quote is “Mirrors are just glass and you are more than that.”

It’s funny as a society we have this odd obsession over mirrors. Movies use it to cue introspection and deep thinking, there are countless lessons that use mirrors as a metaphor, and even Michael Jackson wrote one of my favorite songs of all time about it. But if you place your sense of value on what you see in the mirror you’re doing yourself a disservice. You are so much more than what is physically reflected in a mirror, and that’s what I’d challenge you to consider.

Let’s go one layer deeper and look beyond the zits, wrinkles, and imperfections of our body that are most prominent in our reflection. Let’s look in our own eyes and see the energy and emotion of our being. Let’s see scars as representations of our life history. At face value a mirror is just glass that reflects light, but it also serves as a portal into our soul and everything about us that can’t be observed by the eye.

You are more than what meets the eye. No one knows your intentions like you do, which makes you the judge and jury of your actions. No one knows your pain like you do, which means that you must be empathetic to yourself because you’re the only person that truly understands. The depth of your humanity is radiant, and anyone who wants to place labels, assumptions, and biases on you based on the little they know about you is woefully uninformed. They see you at face-value but you can give them the gift of learning more about you if you’re open to it.

Yes, a mirror is just glass, but it can become much more. With that in mind I’d like you to reflect on this - When was the last time you let someone see you for who you are?‍

If you’re in the US or Canada, text me at 949-799-0788 and I’ll send you daily prompts that help you get to know yourself better and build a more meaningful life every day. 

If you’re looking to grow alongside a community of like-minded improvers, then click here to join the Better Together Community.