Self Improvement Daily Podcast

James Clear in his wildly popular book “Atomic Habits” taught us about the requirements to create a new habit. The first thing that needs to happen for us to take a habitual action is we need to be exposed to a trigger. The trigger basically serves as the start button to the full habit or routine.

The book is phenomenal, but one thing that it doesn’t expand to touch on is how these major concepts also influence our daily non-habitual actions as well. Rather than playing out an unconscious script, a trigger can bring our awareness to do things we normally wouldn't think to do ourselves.

This is why awareness is one of the tenets of self-improvement and mindfulness. You can’t do or change anything about what you’re not aware of.

It’s the exact reason why so many people care about living a better life, getting healthier, having more fun, or doing more of the things they want to do around the New Year. It’s a season that serves as a trigger for us to reflect on our lives and the changes we want to invite into it.

The desire and interest to improve our lives hasn’t changed, it’s simply our awareness around what we can do about it that has. When you surround yourself with more positive triggers, it creates more consciousness in your life which then helps you to make better decisions and live with more intention. And it’s through making better daily choices that when things actually start to change.

All of that to say - Let me lay out a big fat trigger for you right now! If you’ve been looking for a sign or an insight or kick in the butt to change your life, or what to do to actually take yourself and your self-growth more seriously, here it is!

You can create the life change you want in your life. You can create a better balance, transform your health, mend and strengthen important relationships, and take a chance on your dreams. But if you keep waiting for things to be right, after you get through this busy season or to have more money, you’re going to stay stuck waiting.

That’s the hard truth on the opposite side of the opportunity that is today. Nothing changes if nothing changes. You’ll keep finding yourself relieving the same loop until you choose to pull yourself out of it. This is your sign to do something different and put your life on a different trajectory!

Whether you’ve been listening to the podcast for 6 years or this is your first episode, you’ve been on your self-growth journey for years, months, or moments - I host a 21 day challenge that helps you completely transform your lifestyle by installing the 9 Super Habits and upgrading your self-improvement operating system. You can learn more about the challenge and how to become the healthiest, most productive, most resilient, disciplined, and fulfilled version of yourself here!

You know how people talk about going on a spending spree? How about we try going on a living spree! What if we entered a period of our life where we chase new adventures and experiences, build strong and real relationships, put ourselves out there chasing our dreams, and look back with pride at the progress we’ve made, and who we’ve become in the process.

Unlike a shopping spree, there’s no limit to a living spree. We’re not restricted by dollars and cents. The only resource you need for a major living spree is intention, which is abundant and knows no limits.

But trust me I know - This is easier said than done, and we need to be practical about the real things that have kept us from living life to the fullest. One element is distraction. We’re saying “yes” to so many things that it’s pushing the opportunity to live our best life out. Another element is clarity. What if we don’t know what we want, or how to get it?

The main thing holding us back going on a living spree, above all else, is fear. Fear that we’ll be perceived a certain way, that we’ll be judged for our decisions, that we’ll make others feel worse about themselves and their life, or embarrass ourselves by stepping into the unknown.

On the other side of this fear is the greatest opportunity for living your most fulfilling life - Will you choose to allow people to see the very best version of yourself?

Get the fear, doubt, insecurity out of the way and you’ve opened the door to your living spree.

Isn’t that what we all want? To feel capable of working really hard to make our biggest ambitions a reality. To have strong boundaries and say “no” to everything else that’s not a “heck yes!” To be intentional about your exercise, rest, and diet so that you take care of your body and mind, and allow yourself to experience life so presently.

It’s a big choice, but you don’t need to have it all figured out to get started. All you need to do is start betting on yourself, surrounding yourself with people who tell you that you can have it all instead of pointing out all of the reasons why you can’t, and taking your first step.

If you want my support with that, the first step for you to take is to register for the 21 day challenge that starts on January 1st to install the life operating system that permanently improves your lifestyle and allows you to operate at your next level.

It’s so easy and common for us to look at other people doing incredible things in admiration. People building great businesses, going on incredible trips, and making a real difference in the world. But for some reason they feel separate from us, as an example of what’s possible in the world but when we consider it for ourselves it seems untouchable.

I say this because I’m not immune to it myself, but I also choose to see it from a few other perspectives.

First is that any person who has accomplished anything is human just like me. Whatever another human has accomplished is genuinely possible for another human. A part of me was afraid to admit that, but when I started cheering for other people’s success rather than feeling discouraged when I compared it to my own, I started attracting more of it.

Another perspective is all about the come up. Everyone who has ever been on stage started in the audience. Anyone who has ever won a championship has made a critical mistake to lose a game. We see these figures at the finish line and neglect the process that brought them there.

And last, once you’re there it’s not all that it’s made out to be. Different lifestyles create different problems, and no one is above having problems in their life. When we think about the most successful people in the world I think we underestimate this. 

Ed Mylett often asks his world-leading guests on his podcast “Looking back on everything you went through to get here, was it worth it?” I think he asks that because he doesn’t know the answer for himself. Wherever we go we take ourselves with us, and often the more important work is to be content with where we are so that no matter where it takes us we can feel that same level of contentment.

That point aside, and for those of us who do have big ambitions for who we can become in the world, I want to share a simple quote for you: “If not you, then who? And if not now, then when?” 

Those dreams and desires you have, they can be your reality! That difference you want to make in the world, no one else can do it exactly like you do. And it all needs to start somewhere. Everything has a Day One.

If you want to make January 1st of this New Year that day 1, I have two things to share with you. First, I’ve put together a New Year goal achieving workshop to make 2024 your breakthrough year, featuring actionable concepts from experts like James Clear and Tom Bilyeu. And second, if you want to install a new life operating system that permanently raises your standards in 21 days, a new challenge is starting on January 1st to install the Super Habits System.

As we near the end of the year, it’s common to reflect on what we’ve achieved and who we’ve become over the course of these last 12 months. For many, this reflection is bittersweet because there’s a sense of pride for how you showed up but also an undeniable acknowledgment of how some things didn’t change, or didn’t change to the extent that you wanted them to, over the course of the last year.

But as with anything, our reflections exist on a spectrum. It’s not that you grew or you didn’t. Had a successful year or you didn’t. Implemented better habits or didn’t. It’s a matter of how much. And often we discount the amount of growth we experienced, or success we achieved, because we’re seeing the gap between where we are and where we wanted to be versus the gain from where we were to where we are.

Let me share an example that comes to mind for me from this year.

I’m still not where I want to be as it relates to how I want to respond in emergencies. I want to be the type of person that springs into action and is very helpful. In college, a friend of mine in a new comical stunt jumped off my couch and hit his nose on a beam. He went down hard, started bleeding from his face, and I froze. Other guys I was with sprung into action and took care of him, but I froze.

Different story: Only a few weeks ago, I was having a peaceful picnic at a park and all of a sudden there was this vicious barking as one dog started to attack another dog. I hesitated when it happened, but was one of the first to jump up and help separate the dogs and fortunately, there was blood but no serious injuries. In the aftermath I was there to support the woman whose dog was attacked to see how I could help, but in a semi-traumatized state left the park.

I criticized myself a bit because I didn’t respond as quickly as I would’ve liked to, although I did respond, and didn’t think to offer her a wipe to get the blood off her arms.

But look at the growth from that first incident with my friend to how I responded in this dog attack! It’s a great step in the right direction, and I’d miss that if I only saw the gap between where I am from where I wanted to be rather than the gain from where I am to where I was.

If you want to give yourself credit for your growth this year, the first part of the New Year goal setting workshop is to walk through a facilitated year in review exercise. In this workshop you’ll also set your goal for the year and establish a plan to make it infinitely more likely you’ll achieve it. You can access the video session for that immediately by clicking here!

A lot of people wonder if affirmations even work. The idea that saying something to yourself can fundamentally change your life seems too good to be true. If that’s you, once you understand the chain of events that comes from affirmations you’ll start to be more of a believer.

Saying affirmations is just a technique to begin controlling your thoughts. The majority of our thoughts are unconscious and based on old patterns that we’ve learned and reproduce. An affirmation is a conscious thought that breaks your unconscious thought pattern and makes the suggestion that something new might be true. The strength of that belief grows over time with consistency until eventually it has reshaped your thinking.

That’s why we call it reprogramming the mind. Affirmations help replace the previous thought pattern with a new one of your choosing.

This shift doesn’t happen overnight. It takes a while for a new belief to take root and become a predominant thought. For example, let’s use the affirmation “I am abundant”. We won’t all of a sudden start living completely free and unattached from things because we’ve told ourselves to be more abundant.

However, what will start to happen immediately is a new awareness and accountability toward the affirmation. Because you’ve primed your brain with an affirmation, it will start to notice more instances where that new belief is at play. This new awareness creates consciousness, which then serves as an opportunity to follow through in alignment with the affirmation.

To extend this ‘abundance’ example - Let’s say someone asks to be introduced to someone you know. Your natural, scarcity based approach may be to protect that relationship, but you’re more likely to make the intro and act abundantly because your brain flags it as an opportunity to be abundant.

I deeply, deeply believe in this, which is why I use affirmations as a tool every day to prime myself to be self-disciplined. I believe that having the power to follow through on making the right choice on something, when you do have the awareness, is a fundamental ingredient to changing your life. The habits, routines, to do lists, and growth moments don’t happen if you don’t have the discipline to get yourself to do them.

That’s why every evening I listen to a subconscious audio program called Discipline On Demand to reinforce my self-discipline, so that when I encounter moments where I’m more likely to make an excuse, or collapse into comfort rather than step into growth, I seize the opportunity and accelerate forward.

The affirmation is the consistent thought that over time rewrites your belief system. It basically trains you to start thinking differently, and with new thoughts and beliefs, you have an entirely new life!

A belief in abundance and being self-disciplined are just two of the three most fundamental beliefs we need to have to be the best version of ourselves! Find out what the last one is, and incorporate all of them in just 21 days when you install the Super Habits System