Sometimes, life feels like one big game of tug of war where you make progress in one area, just to realize you lost ground somewhere else. As we know, perfection is impossible, but there is a perfect balance for us to find that is specific to our own lives.

The idea of a balanced living mindset was first brought up to me by Mark Lynch, the founder of the Instagram page "excellence.addiction".

Balanced living doesn’t need to be even, it just needs to be right for you. It requires some effort to come about that right level and balance, but nothing good in life comes easy. Explore that side of yourself in conversations. journal to uncover where your priorities really lie, and make a life that matches those intentions.

The end of the day is a great time to have a nightly routine. My nightly routine consists of doing push-ups, evaluating my goals, and journaling. I’m a big fan of positive affirmations. Matter of fact, I used to recite my core principles before bed, and maybe I should get back on that also. Positivity paints everything you did in a positive light and gives you hope that the next day will be great as well.

It reminds me of one of the lessons taught by Admiral William McRaven in his commencement speech at the University of Texas. McRaven stated,"everyday we should make our bed because no matter what happens, we will come back to a made bed, which gives us optimism that the next day will be better". Similarly, positivity at night can have the same effect, both, when reflecting on how we spent the current day and when we are thinking about how we are going to spend the next day.

So, always end the day with a positive thought. Fortunately, positivity can come in a number of ways. For example, some people pray and some people journal. whichever method works best for you. Throw a little gratitude in at the end of your day and see how much your life improves.

In your mind, what is the difference between a talent and a skill? To me, talent is more of a gift, and something that is innately part of you. It’s something that you’re born with. A skill, however, is developed with time, it’s the end product of your efforts, and something that you choose rather than receive.

But, the most important difference in my opinion is skills are practical, and talent is theoretical. Does that mean they can’t work hand in hand? No.

Use your talents to build skills. Each and every one of us is naturally gifted in a certain area, and predispositioned to succeed at something by virtue of our inheritance.  Our success is then dictated by how good we are at acknowledging areas where we are talented, and working hard to improve upon the platform that we inherited.  That’s why the best of the best are known to just have it, because they have built upon a talent to achieve a magnificent level!

But remember, hard works beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard, and those who might not necessarily have the initial talent can win by working harder than those who did but didn’t work at it!  It really is a beautiful concept!

We are all perfectly imperfect.  It’s human nature and it’s part of life.  I think a huge factor that separates to “good” from the “great” is how we manage those imperfections. Let’s listen to Jeremy Ryan Slate, the hugely popular podcast “Create Your Own Life”, and hear his thoughts on this.

Slate says, " Are you going to make mistakes in business? Absolutely! Because I will tell you why. I do not care how many years you have been in business, there is going to be something you are doing in your business that it is the first time you have ever done it. And it could be in life. Like, it could be the first time you ever asked a girl out. First time you have ever had a kid. There is always going to be the first time you ever do something, so it is not going to be perfect. I think that the real success or the real winning at something is how quickly can you learn for that mistake and create a solution that actually works and actually solves the problem, and does not create that same problem again. So, I think the real idea here is how quickly can you learn from your mistakes because they are absolutely going to happen".

So, learn from your mistakes. It’s not about the mistake you make, but rather the way that you go about correcting that mistake. The first step to correcting a mistake is to act quickly by accepting that the mistake was made. Instead of holding onto our previous position and wasting precious time to protect our ego, we can move onto the more actionable component of it, which is correcting it. Once you’ve made it there, be sure that the lesson is learned by reflecting on the experience a number of times, ensuring the same mistake won’t happen again.

In the United States, we are celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day, who is one of the most influential leaders in the history of the country. His dedication to the civil rights movement changed the face of the world for the better, and his legacy lives on with every breath of every American. Thank you Dr. King.

He was an effective leader because he possessed a dangerous combination, which was a mission that he wholeheartedly believed in, and a clear vision for how he wanted to bring about that change. Dr. King is the epitome of a person who had a voice, built a platform, and stood up for what they believe in.

Not only can we take many great lessons from Dr. King’s work about leadership, public speaking, and idea execution, but we can extract King's mentality as well. I encourage all of us to stand up for what we believe in.

With a strong sense of self, and a confidence in your voice, you too can impact this world like Martin Luther King. Yea, everything is relative to scale, but we all have a lot of influence in our micro-communities that we live in, and a better regional environment will leak into neighboring environments, and continue to cascade farther than you would believe!

The theme for my 2019 is to be dialed in. To me, this means to be laser focused and engaged in everything I do. The main way I believe I can achieve this is to eliminate distractions, and for most of us, the largest source of distractions is on our phone.

Try to change your iPhone’s “raise to wake setting”. The raise to wake setting is basically the feature that you don’t need to push a button to have your phone light up, you just need to move it a little bit.  Throughout my day, I find myself picking up my phone to quickly check to see if I have any notifications. As quick as that check is, it significantly interrupts my work flow and any momentum I had working on a task. By changing this setting, it will require more effort to check my notifications, and therefore I think I will do so less, and overall be less distracted.

If you want to change your settings, it will 15 seconds and 3 touches. Open your Settings application, then find and click the “Display and Brightness” section. From there, click off the setting called “Raise to wake”.  

If this works for me, I’ll start exploring other ways to minimize distractions through my phone, and will proudly report back other opportunities for improvement.

 “Always remember that your present situation is not your final destination. The best is yet to come.”

This quote references the journey that we are all on. Although it doesn’t seem clear, we are all on our own life path. Different opportunities open up, some other doors close, but it’s important to remember that the journey we are does have a direction.  I am a firm believer that anything good in life is a process, and the process is meant to be enjoyed just as much as the final result.  But, this quote also serves as a good reminder on troubled days that our current state is not indicative of the larger picture, which brings some optimism to our tomorrows.  

Good things take time, and everything that is happening to you right now is preparing yourself for that imminent breakthrough. If you truly believe that, then the challenges you experience have found a new context, and the hard times more bearable. That’s where this “the best is yet to come” part ties in. Our path might feel aimless and without direction, but we have greener pastures ahead, and one day we will look back on our life experience and understand how everything worked out the way it was meant to.

So, have a belief that your present situation is not your final destination, and that the best is yet to come. Painting your future with a positive finish will help you get the most out of your today, and appreciate the progression we experience as we get there.

I played college soccer, and more than anything I wanted to win a conference championship my senior year. My co-captain, Ramon Martin Del Campo, and I adopted a simple message for or season, “Why not us?”.

There were 8 teams in our conference, and obviously somebody had to win it, so we figured “Why not us?” It didn’t feel like too much of a stretch, and it gave us a renewed confidence stepping onto the field to help try and turn our dream into a reality. With this mentality we became the #1 seed and clinched home field advantage.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t us. Our season ended with a heart-breaking last second loss, but I learned the valuable lesson that it’s okay to dream to beat the odds. And I feel like this lesson translates beyond sports. This has encouraged me to be the one that stands out from the crowd in all areas of my life.

“Why not us?” is a mentality, and it creates an aura of possibility. And that hope is all of the motivation you’d need to dedicate yourself to making it happen. Take it from this timeless quote from Dumb and Dumber. After Jim Carrey’s character, Lloyd Christmas, hears that it’s one in a million that he will end up with the girl he loves, his response was “So you’re saying there’s a chance?”