One of the great drives of improvement and innovation is feedback. In experiments we need to review what happened in order to make progress on our next attempt. In business we need feedback to understand what’s resonating with our clients, employees, and in the market to get a better sense for how to position ourselves.

Unsurprisingly, the same is true in our self-growth. We need to get feedback to help us figure out what’s working and what’s not in pursuit of our goals so that we can make positive adjustments and change course in beneficial ways. Yet, the majority of people in self-improvement don’t have good feedback systems in place. I believe this happens for two reasons: 

The first is that it hurts to look at the areas where we’re falling short. It’s easier to avoid what’s right in front of us. We pretend not to know because it’s more comfortable to act like our shortcomings don't exist than to face up to reality. Many of us have a tendency to be overly self-critical, and this is a defense mechanism against that.

The second is we just don’t know how. In the areas that we are open-minded to looking at, and dedicated to improving, what does getting feedback look like? And how do we take those insights and integrate them into meaningful improvement? We want to be better, more efficient, and more effective… And the process of optimizing our lives is a cycle of receiving feedback and changing approach on repeat. Finding a way to implement that is the challenge.

There’s a Socrates quote that goes “A life unexamined is not worth living.” While that takes an extreme position, the essence of it is that an ultimate purpose in life is continuous improvement. The world is evolving and we must evolve with it. Our seasons of life will change and we need to reimagine who we need to be to maximize ourselves within it.

It’s through a discipline of self-examination that we can better see the relationship between cause and effect, adjust our inputs, and create new outputs. In fact it’s invigorating and life-giving! But many people are missing the very basics of it.

As Tom Bilyeu puts it, you must be willing to stare “nakedly at your inadequacies” if you want to see what it really takes to maximize your potential in the world. In doing so you get the critical feedback you need to advance your life, your mission, and yourself.

If you want to make the most out of life and you’re feeling inspired to not just talk about it, but actually implement it... Click here to see how I do it!

Merriam Webster’s word of 2024 is “polarization”. It chooses the word of the year based on what people were actively searching to learn more about and using in conversation. Unfortunately, it’s representative of what we went through in the United States this year with a heated and divisive election.

Ironically, the one thing that people can agree on is how polarized the world is. There’s an undercurrent of people wanting to build bridges and better understand each other, but it lacks application. Media is pulling us further into our viewpoints and belief systems. Stances are being taken to their extremes rather than settling somewhere in the middle. And people are starting to distrust and lose faith in those who are different from them.

The opposite of polarization is “unity”. Imagine if that was the word of the year… That 2024 had a narrative of collaboration, putting our differences aside, and joining forces for a greater good. It’s undeniable what a better world this would be!

We can play our part in making unity a major part of 2025, and this is how:

First we need to listen to each other. Rather than trying to get our point in, we need to understand each other's perspective. The only way you do that is by allowing someone to share it, and genuinely listening to understand and not to respond. If you want to change someone's perspective you must be willing to change your own.

Second is accepting them for who they are. It’s okay for two people to disagree. Diversity is healthy and it breeds innovation. It’s because we see the world differently that we can begin to solve the world’s problems. In fact we need these differences to be as effective as possible.

And last is the idea of oneness. At the end of the day we all want the same things - to live a joyful, impactful, meaningful life shared with others. The way we get to that varies, but the foundation is the same. So knowing that we’re all on the same team anyway, and being abundant enough to know that my success doesn’t take from your success, we can collaborate in ways that bring more goodness to all.

Call me naive, but that’s the world I want to see. So that’s the world I’m going to play a part in creating. And I hope you’ll join me.

I was visiting my wife’s family in the mountains and the water is really cold this time of year! I have a personal policy to start every shower I take with cold water as my version of a cold exposure practice. I was standing there in a towel bugging my wife, procrastinating, and complaining about how I have to take a cold shower.

And then I realized… I don’t need to do it. No one is making me step into the cold water, it’s entirely my choice. If I didn’t want to do it, then I wouldn’t do it. And I realized it was so silly to complain about something that I’m choosing to do.

You can even extend this argument about if it’s worth complaining about anything. Let’s say you have a rude co-worker, a crack in your windshield, or you’re stuck in traffic and running late for a concert. They’re not ideal situations for sure, but nonetheless you’re choosing them over the alternatives.

A rude co-worker? No one is making you work with him. You can choose to stay and deal with it, or get a new job.

A crack in the windshield? You’re choosing to keep it there, and not invest the time and money to get it fixed. Your windshield doesn’t need to be cracked.

Stuck in traffic? You don’t have to go to the concert. You burn your ticket, leave your friend hanging, turn the car around and head home.

You’re choosing to endure the inconvenient thing because you want it more than the consequences of choosing the alternative. And when you see it from that perspective, you realize you have way less reason to complain. In fact it gives you reasons to be grateful.

The more Stoic-influenced perspective is acquiescence. To accept how things are. If you can’t do anything about what’s happening, then why let it occupy your mind? Your energy is better invested other places. And if there is something you can do about it, then be empowered to make changes.

The next time you catch yourself complaining, run through what the other options are. Allow yourself to go to the extremes. Recognize what’s in your control. And you’ll realize that there’s a lot more good in the current situation than you gave it credit for, or that there’s little value to complaining about it at all.

It’s really interesting, people have good intentions but have a really hard time following through on them.

Intentions to prioritize their health by getting consistent and routine with their exercise and eating choices, but struggle with it on a day to day basis. To be bolder and more focused as passionate contributors to their bigger mission, but then on most days show up with a fraction of the enthusiasm. To get stronger in the face of adversity and challenge, but give up sooner than they’d like to admit.

What’s getting in the way? What’s missing? There are two reasons why people are chronically falling short of their fullest potential: Fear and laziness.

We fear what other people might think if we try our best and we don’t succeed. We’re hesitant to take risks or bet on ourselves for fear that it doesn’t pan out. Instead of testing the edges of what’s possible, people are stuck contained in their comfort zone, keeping them from taking action on the things that make them feel most alive.

And people are lazy. We eat the more convenient food option, skip the most energy-demanding task, wait for others to figure it out for us, and talk ourselves out of following through on our commitments by convincing ourselves that we deserve a break.

Interestingly, fear and laziness come from the same root - our brain’s evolutionary hardwiring to keep us safe. Safety is the brain’s primary purpose. Fear is a mechanism for keeping us out of harm’s way, and laziness is a mechanism for preserving energy so that we’re prepared to flee from a threat should we need to.

In other words, pursuing our potential exists in opposition to what our brain is designed to do.

Fear and laziness are an unconscious, underlying script. They are always at play shaping our choices and actions in the subtlest ways. And it’s those who are best at limiting their influence that are most positioned to be successful. Those who are better at overcoming fear and laziness do what’s required to achieve their goals.

So my recommendation to you is to use fear and laziness as a trigger to ask yourself a very important question - “What do I want?” Listen to the answer your best self gives in response, and have the courage and discipline to take action on it.

The 21 Day New Year Challenge starts today and it’s not too late to join. If you’ve been struggling with consistency but you want to become more disciplined and intentional, and play a bigger game in 2025, this is a perfect fit. Don’t let your fear hold you back, fortune favors the bold, and you know what you need (even if it's just doing something different). Sign up at www.newyearforgood.com and we’ll get started!

From James Clear to Tom Bilyeu,  Mel Robbins to Darren Hardy, Marie Forleo to Alex Hormozi… Personal development experts across the world all agree that there’s one thing that will most transform your life. For anyone who is setting a goal, trying to get rid of a bad habit, or trying to make positive changes to their life, 9 times out of 10 this is going to be their first recommendation.

And the craziest thing about it is, I bet it’s something that you’re not doing right now: Behavior tracking.

There’s a psychological principle called the Hawthorne Effect that states your performance improves in an area simply by being observed. Literally documenting and reflecting on what you eat makes your diet healthier. Reporting your social media usage will cause you to spend less time on your phone. You’ll even smoke less cigarettes if at the end of the day you had to fess up to how many you had.

The reason tracking drives improvement so fast is because it creates awareness. Rather than going about your life in the old pattern you’ve always had, awareness gives you the opportunity to challenge those patterns and choose different ones. 

But just because it works doesn’t mean it’s easy. Maybe you’ve downloaded a habit app before, used it a few times, and then lost touch with it. Or you committed to start tracking your meals and it became too much work so you stopped. 

Tracking isn’t fun, but it works. Which begs the question - are you willing to do the things that will generate the results you want in life?

Fortunately, there are ways to make your tracking easier, better, and more consistent. Accountability makes it more difficult to ignore and skip. Gamification rewards you for completing it. Having clarity of what you’re looking to improve ensures that you only track what’s critical and don’t get overwhelmed trying to track it all.

Simply put, you can’t improve what you don’t measure. That’s what tracking offers you - a clear measurement of how things are going that you can compare to how you want them to be. 

The value of tracking is undisputed. And whether you know it or not, the most successful people in the world have their own tracking systems. So rather than trying to figure out how to effectively start tracking on your own, you can bypass a decade of trial and error and use my system.

In the 21 Day New Year Challenge I’m hosting that starts on Monday, you will implement the exact same performance tracking system I use on a daily basis. The Challenge gives you step-by-step instructions to create a new routine so that you can do it consistently, and gives you daily accountability from me so that you actually take it seriously.

Learn more about the Challenge, and incorporate tracking into your daily routine, at www.newyearforgood.com.

We know that the most successful, achieving, high-performing and impactful version of ourselves is the most disciplined version of ourselves. A person who is consistent, resilient, self-motivated, and does the things they are committed to. But that level of follow through isn’t easy. It’s energetically demanding and comes at a cost. 

Because it’s so demanding, it often leads to burnout. Willing yourself up early in the morning to get to the gym wears you down. Sticking to a strict diet requires effort and can be inconvenient. Hitting your minimum sales call number, or following through on your schedule of difficult tasks, takes a toll on you when you do it day in and day out. In many cases, discipline isn’t sustainable.

So where does that leave you when you want to hold yourself to a high standard, but doing so is unsustainable and stretches you beyond your capacity?

You need to fuel your discipline from a different source. Rather than using will-power, hustle, grit, and “mind over matter” to get yourself into action, you can use your environment to support you in sustaining high-quality consistency without it wearing you down. 

Things like accountability. Instead of forcing yourself into the gym, you have a gym buddy who’s counting on you to meet them there. Things like building systems. Where instead of toiling over who to call, you have a prepared list of your hottest prospects to run through. Things like having clarity. Instead of waffling about whether to have that slice of pie or not, you have a standard of not eating sweets after 9pm that you can more easily enforce.

Discipline becomes easier when you don’t have to do it and the environment does it for you. Yet many people don’t know how to create that kind of accountability and consistency on their own. And because of it, being the best, most-disciplined version of themselves is way harder than it needs to be.

If you want to start 2025 by taking the easier path to being at your best, that’s something I can help you with. Starting Monday, I’m leading a 21 Day New Year Challenge that walks you step by step through implementing a new life structure that makes self-discipline virtually automatic. I’ll be coaching you through it, so it’s not free, but every dollar of the program cost is being donated to charity so that you can start your 2025 with life change that lasts and makes a difference.

It’s called New Year, New You, For Good!

Happy New Year! Are you ready for 2025 to be the most successful, impactful, unstoppable year of your life? Well guess what? It all starts today, so let’s get to work!

I don’t know about you but I’m fired up! I know that January 1st is just another day on the calendar but for me it feels different. There's a tingle of possibility, hope, and anticipation in the air and it’s causing me to dream bigger!

But I also know that this moment isn’t going to last. Soon the dust will settle and all will return right back to how things used to be before the New Year excitement all began. But that’s not to say it needs to be that way! We can take action from the motivation, inspiration, and energy we feel today that locks in lasting positive change when the motivation goes away.

What we get at the beginning of a New Year is an enriched environment. An enriched environment is a short-term state that positively influences your energy levels, mood, and self-belief, which leads to thoughtful choices and disciplined actions.

The opportunity is, you can leverage the way you feel today by making a pre-commitment that holds you to a higher standard tomorrow. It’s a way of hacking your future and extending the impact an enriched environment has on you.

I’ve used this technique to help with things as big as writing the first draft of my book, and as small as limiting my snacking at a party. And since I’m feeling the inspiration myself, I’m going to take advantage of it by announcing: I’m going to bring back interview episodes for my podcast! 

There I said it! And now I’m held accountable to it, even when the enriched environment goes away and all of the excuses get louder. And that’s exactly the point!

Now it’s your turn - I bet you want to make 2025 the most successful, impactful, and unstoppable year of your life, right? Well it’s never going to feel more doable than it does today. So what are you going to do about it? Because if you choose to make big and bold choices today you dramatically increase the likelihood you’ll get bigger and bolder results tomorrow, and every day.

If nothing comes to mind, let me make a recommendation:

On Monday January 6th, I’m leading a 21 Day New Year Challenge that is designed to help you build the foundation you need to be consistent in your health habits, laser-focused and productive in your work, and more disciplined than ever. You can take advantage of the motivation you’re feeling today, to build the foundation you need to get results every day, by signing up for the Challenge right now. 

Plus, 100% of the program cost is a donation to charity. It’s a win for you and a win for the world. So don’t overthink it or give yourself the time to talk yourself out of it. Take action before you make excuses about why you can’t or shouldn’t. If you really want 2025 to be your breakthrough year, you’re going to need to do something different. And I’m telling you, this 21 Day New Year Challenge to start 2025 by installing 6 New Super Habits, is it!

Happy New Year! I’m fired up about everything that 2025 has in store and I want to make sure you’re set up for success. We can’t afford to go another year without the consistency, focus, good habits and high-performance we know we’re capable of. With that in mind, let’s make one very important correction.

In their self-improvement, many people are focused on acquiring more information. People are putting so much time into listening to podcasts and audiobooks… And they feel like they’re doing the right things because they’re investing so much time in their self-improvement. But after a few weeks or months pass and they have nothing to show for it, they get frustrated that they’re not getting the results or positive life changes they think they deserve.

That happens because real life change requires behavior change. Actions generate results.

If you run more often you’ll be able to run further and faster. If you write 3 things you’re grateful for every day you’ll actually start to see the world more positively. Learning about how to run, or about the benefits of gratitude won’t change your life. Sure, being more educated improves the quality of the actions you take, but that value is completely lost if you don’t take the action.

The metaphor I like to use is that of a car. Knowledge is power, right? Perfect, then consider information to be like fuel in a car. You need some to go, but the fuel alone won’t do anything. And given how readily available information is these days, fuel isn’t the limiting factor. Yet that’s where so many people are investing their time.

The limiting factor to our success and performance is our ability to do more with what we know. In other words, we need to upgrade our engine if we want to go further, faster, and be better in our lives. 

But what does that mean? It’s installing systems that lead to consistent good habits. It’s structuring your environment to support your priorities. It’s becoming clear on the standards you’ll hold yourself accountable to, and awareness of how you did on a daily basis.

As good as it feels to feel knowledgeable and sound impressive in conversations about self-development, what feels better is living up to your fullest potential and letting your actions speak louder than words.

To kick off the New Year I’ve put together something really special. Starting next Monday, January 6th I’m hosting a 21 Day New Year Challenge to help you start 2025 with better habits, routines, more life-structure. It’s a radical upgrade of your self-improvement engine that walks you through how to take consistent, high-impact actions that radically transform your health, productivity, and mindset. And the best part, 100% of the program cost will be donated to charity.

It’s called New Year, New You, For Good - and if you want to start 2025 in the best way possible - with life change that lasts and by making a difference in the world, sign up for the Challenge today!

‍

In personal development people have an obsession with building good habits - to get into the gym consistently, to practice portion control, to get up first thing in the morning without hitting the snooze button, to meditate in the morning, to get some movement in throughout the day, this list goes on and on.

And for good reason. Having good habits is arguably the best thing you can do to live a happier, healthier, more impactful life. If actions create results, then consistent good actions will generate the results you want in life.

But as good as having good habits are, don’t waste your time building them. You should build good systems instead, and the habits come as a natural byproduct.

When most people think of habits they think of being disciplined, of doing what you said you were going to do even when you don’t feel like it. But that’s an uphill battle of relying on willpower to make yourself do the things you’re telling yourself you need to do. 

It doesn’t need to be that hard. In fact, by definition habits are meant to be automatic, unconscious, and habitual. They’re supposed to be effortless. What’s way more effective and sustainable is to put your time and energy into building systems where the natural output of the system is the desired behavior.

The reason systems breed true consistency is because they are part of the environment. Good systems change the path of least resistance in a positive way, making positive action automatic.

This is the difference: Imagine you’re in a canoe on a river. Without any effort, you will float wherever the river is headed. That’s the environment. If you want to go somewhere else, if downstream is not desirable, then you need to paddle and change course. This is using will-power. Building a system is like digging a moat or putting up a dam that changes the direction of the current, so that it naturally pulls you where you want to go.

The biggest opportunity for you to be more consistent in your life, and actually have good habits, is to update the systems in your life.

If you don’t know how to do that, but you know that your inconsistency is holding you back from reaching your fullest potential - it's time you become a consistency, productivity, high-performance, change-making machine. All you have to do is start 2025 by doing this!