I need to give today’s thought credit to the incredible orator Jim Rohn. His philosophies are so simple yet cut straight to the heart of what he’s trying to inspire. One of his thoughts that I strongly agree with is “What is easy to do is easy not to do.”

In some cases making a decision is that easy, either we do it or we don’t. But what Jim Rohn brings such great attention to is that neither choice is all that hard to do, it’s just a matter of making the right choice. We know that lasting positive change requires consistency and it’s your choice to do the small things consistently that make all the difference. Having an extra glass of water, choosing the healthy snack, taking a 10 minute walk break in your work day, giving your partner a good night kiss, - It’s all easy to do. It takes very little effort and it’s probably something that you’d be happy you did when you do it. But it’s just as easy to ignore or skip it, because what difference does that small decision make anyway?

Rohn calls this idea of not prioritizing positive choices as neglect, and he warns you not to neglect doing what is easy to do. It’s the discipline required to constantly make small empowering decisions that will carry you to your goals, and neglecting to do those small tasks will put you on an entirely different trajectory.

So how do we turn our positive intentions into action, and consistently do what’s easy to do? Well you need to take the time to build systems of triggers, accountability, and contingencies that support your success. You need to change your environment so that it’s more conducive to doing the small positive behaviors you hope to do. Discipline isn’t all about will-power, it’s about having a comprehensive plan that supports your positive action taking. 

It’s hard to see just how everything is coming together for you. The pain, stress, and hardship of life is real and it can feel unfair. For some things there can’t possibly be an explanation that makes everything okay. But I’d like to provide a different, more empowering perspective that is centered on having faith in the process and that everything happens for a reason. While it’s easier to look back, observe, and have opinions on how things went, I think it’s equally as important (and generally more effective) to bring that philosophy into the present moment. That’s why today we’re building around the quote - “Trust the timing in which things are happening.”

It can feel as if things are going too fast or too slow, like they’re incomplete or ready too early, but things are happening exactly as they’re meant to. Like a seed that takes time to sprout, the processes around you are following their natural progression so that they can mature and activate at the right time.

Something I like to do to really practice this philosophy is to choose to surrender. I put my arms out wide and I say “Universe, thank you for taking care of me and giving me everything I need right when I need it.” And then I also have a casual conversation and say “Look, I’m not that smart. I can’t see all of the very clear signs you’re leaving for me. Please help me be more aware so I can be a part of helping everything come together.” And then I say “Thank you for being so patient and giving me so many chances.” 

This practice takes the pressure off me trying to force things to go how I think they should and reminds me that there’s more going on than I can see. With that perspective I’m less prone to judge or be frustrated about how life is unraveling because I am choosing to trust the process, and trust the timing in which things are happening.

To wrap this up I want you to reflect on a time when this was true for you - When was the last time things happened exactly as they should have, and you didn’t realize it until later?

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.

If you’re a self-improving, aspiring high performer like me then there are a lot of things you want to get done. What if I told you that was actually possible? It is possible if you set yourself up for success, and there are 2 major things to consider to be able to do it all.

First is setting the right expectations. What does doing it all mean, and what is a reasonable amount to get done? If you expect too much then you’ll fail to live up to it, and along the way you’ll start doubting yourself more because of the overwhelm you experience by the growing list. Getting everything done starts with knowing what the right things are to get done, which closely ties in with your core values and major commitments.

Second is having a system in place to not let anything slip through the cracks. This requires a certain amount of organization and structure so that you can manage it all. The structure I learned is from my mentor David Meltzer and he shares it in a quote I absolutely love - “100% of the things you do now get done.” He calls it 'do it now', and his approach encourages you to either 1) Do the task immediately if it’s something you can do quickly (and he argues it will save you time overall), or 2) Capture the task immediately so that you can reliably return to it later.

It’s pretty simple if you put it that way, right? You need to have the right expectations so that you commit to doing the right things and only the right things, then you need a process in place to actually do it, whether that be immediately or later on. You’ll find ‘doing it all’ actually involves doing a lot less than you think because we keep ourselves busy doing so many things that are non-essential.

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 reflect on a word that has taken on an entirely new meaning for me in the last few days, and I’ll explain why. The word is “appreciate” and it has a few different definitions that all actually feed into each other.

Of course to start, to 'appreciate' is to be thankful for something but not just that. It’s to recognize the value of something. When you appreciate you acknowledge the blessings and circumstances of your life, and you are intentional about not taking things for granted. There’s a presence to it.

The other definition of 'appreciate' is to grow in value, like an investment. There’s a growth and increase that is indicative of the appreciation process and it usually only relates to positive things where there’s a benefit to having more of it.

This all ties together in the expression “What you appreciate, appreciates” which draws a direct correlation between gratitude and the amount of good things in your life. But the major realization I had relates more to a value exchange. 

Take a simple sales scenario. You’re selling something for $100 and someone else wants to buy it. That means that they see at least $100 worth of value in it, which makes the cost justifiable. Good transactions like that involve someone getting good value for what they invest, and this helped me realize that I want to be an appreciation machine. Yes, I want to be grateful, but also I want my core focus to be that everything I touch or am involved in delivers more value than I ask for in return. I want your 2 minutes of time reading this to be worth 10 minutes of knowledge, and I want every dollar I earn to facilitate $10 worth of value delivered.

With all of that in mind I’d love for you to think about where you can be an appreciation machine too, so I’ll ask this question - What is the most valuable thing you do for other people?‍

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 can be challenging and test us in various ways. Sometimes things just aren’t clicking like you’d like them to, or the small things become bigger headaches than they need to be. These annoying, inconveniencing moments can start to add up and feel overwhelming. This happens because you start running low on will power and emotional control. More simply put - these things can start to wear you down. Unfortunately, after carrying this weight for a long time you are most prone to outbursts.

I don't think anyone would choose to have big emotional releases, responding in ways that are outside of their values. Yet it happens to the best of us, so it’s important to learn how to manage emotions and keep our composure.

First, you need to think about how to limit impulsivity. We do and say things we don’t mean because we don’t give ourselves the time we need to process things, and determine that we don’t want to respond in certain ways. What happens is your brain takes a psychological short cut and operates unconsciously and instinctually, but we can combat this by giving ourselves a pause. When you’re in the heat of an emotion take a deep breath. Give yourself the time to think and let the conclusions you draw determine your response rather than succumb to an impulsive outburst. In that way you can be more accountable and led by the outcome you want rather than the emotional release.

Keeping your composure is an important skill to develop because it is inevitable we will be tested, and our ability to manage our emotions directly correlates with the quality of our performance. You can be better at managing tight deadlines at work, growing stronger relationships, and being someone others turn to.

What are some of the inconveniences life throws at you that you’d like to be able to manage better?

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.

Many people want a more fulfilling and passionate life. From an existentialist approach many people wonder what it’s all for - "It’s not about counting the days but rather making the days count." We often put a lot of pressure on ourselves to discover our passion so that we know the time we’re spending is meaningful, but passion is an elusive characteristic and misunderstood.

To be passionate is to feel with more intensity. As humans we’re really good at feeling, but sometimes our experience is only a fraction of what would be our fullest-expression. Logically we all want to express ourselves more and feel more connected to the moments we’re experiencing, but society tells us to limit the ways we show up as to encourage conformity. So there’s this interesting paradox to passion which is that we all desire it yet we don’t allow ourselves to pursue it.

Society has also taught us to be less patient. It seems like everything is available on demand at the tips of our fingers so when we can’t immediately access what we want we get frustrated about it. This is exactly what happens with our passion. We’re so accustomed to getting everything we want that when we don’t that we wonder what’s wrong with us, and we place an urgency on attaining it. But passion isn’t something you ask for or that’s handed to you, it’s something you go out and find. It takes initiative and exposure to new things.

So if you want to have more passion in your life, it’s on you. You’re the one that goes out and creates it. You’re in control of how you show up and you’re responsible for immersing yourself in environments that develop passion. And the best way to design the future is to recreate the past, so I’ll leave you this question: What was the last thing you were truly passionate about, and why did it make you feel that way?

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 learned something game-changing from John Assaraf that I wanted to share with you. He was talking about following your dreams and he said “the universe wouldn’t be so silly to give you a dream that you couldn’t achieve.” The implication here is that anything you can think of is possible, and John challenges you to overcome the limiting beliefs that hold you back and make you think  differently.

Talking about the universe we need to touch on the spiritual side of things. If you think about manifestation you need to think about quantum mechanics and our metaphysical world. The idea is that while we live in and can only perceive things in the physical world, there are dimensions that we cannot perceive but that still influence us. That’s the metaphysical world. My relationship with this is similar to John’s in that I believe that the possibilities we can imagine in our physical world represent the connections and opportunities that exist in our metaphysical world.

With that in mind I want to share today’s positivity quote - “Nothing is impossible”. It’s naive to think that you know what you’re capable of, and the fact that even the idea of something exists is evidence that it is real somewhere. I must say that It’s true that current technologies or circumstances can not achieve everything, but that does not mean it’s impossible. All that means is it can't be done right now.

So let’s end by dreaming and reflecting - What do you want in life that feels like it’s impossible?‍

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.