I wanted to share a perspective shifting quote that introduces a new approach to fulfillment. The quote is “What we most enjoy is what’s best for us, and what is best for us is what we most enjoy.”

In life we’re all chasing a richer, happier, more joyful, higher quality experience. We want to be present in the things around us and infuse a sense of purpose in everything we do. What this quote suggests is that we do not achieve that through pleasure and the senses. True, deep, authentic joy goes beyond that and into your being.

That’s exactly what this quote is telling us, but it does so in two parts:

Going a layer deeper into the first half of the quote, “What we most enjoy is what’s best for us”, this is really a statement of self-awareness. What’s best for you is different from everyone else, and knowing what you want is a requirement to finding joy because then you can go get it. It isn’t just about material things, this is lifestyle, quality of relationships, physical abilities, career and purpose, and other elements of your vision.

This takes us to the second part of the quote - “What is best for us is what we most enjoy.” While yes, we all have our own unique ways of finding joy, there are definitely recurring themes that apply for everyone. 

What’s best for us is taking care of our bodies and health so that we are physically capable of doing things and energetically ready to be a part of it.

What’s best for us is having full clarity on what we want in our career, in our relationships, and taking real action to make it so rather than just dream about it. 

What’s best for us is to see the positivity and possibility in the world around us, not the dread and despair that’s the reality of life.

So in order to put ourselves in a position to truly enjoy life, we must not neglect to do the fundamental things that are best for us. It requires action, discipline, commitment, and follow through.

Now if you feel like you’re not taking action as consistently as you’d like to, and you feel like your self-confidence, self-belief, and overall happiness is negatively affected by it, let me propose an idea of something you could do about it.

The Best Self Breakthrough Challenge helps you to install the core life-system and infrastructure that makes elite consistency permanent, even when you don’t feel like it, so that at the end of every day you feel proud of how you showed up. Imagine how much more enthusiasm and excitement you’d have for life when you start making undeniable progress and allow yourself to pursue your dreams with more confidence and conviction.

That’s what this Challenge will unlock for you. Click here to learn all about it and register for yourself - It’s a live challenge and it starts on Monday!

** And FYI if you already tried signing up but had website issues, I’ve got that all fixed now! **

So I know more about you than you think I do. The fact that you’re listening to this podcast / reading this right now means that you’re growth-oriented, you have a desire to live life to the fullest and to maximize your potential and see what you’re capable of in your life-time. It’s an incredibly noble worthwhile pursuit, but there’s just one problem.

Maybe it’s not going as well as you want it to.

Maybe you’re having a hard time striking the right balance in your life, you don’t feel as motivated or inspired as you used to, you aren’t as consistent with the habits and routines that you know put you in a position to be at your very best. Or no matter how hard you try you keep getting stuck and fail to make meaningful progress in your health or finances.

I think about all of this all day and I’ve found that all of this comes back to the one core problem that so many people are experiencing, that they don’t even realize is a problem, and it’s holding them back.

The problem is - Many people spend so much time trying to improve their lives but they’ve reached the capacity of their current systems.

This means that people are piling things on in their self-improvement - New habits, new intentions, new routines - But it doesn't get incorporated to the extent they’d like it to. It’s because all of these new changes are being supported by old systems, and the effectiveness of the changes are limited.

It’s like having a kink in the hose of your self-improvement. Once you undo the kink you find that the hose flows so much better than it used to. But again, people don’t even know that they have a kink in the first and wonder why things aren’t flowing for them.

The fastest way to reach the next level of your self-improvement, productivity, and daily processes is to focus on upgrading the core systems that enable it. Whether you realize it or not, you’ve been operating informally on certain self-improvement systems.

Let’s do a quick check in to see the state of your current systems...

Do you have a way to keep track of your daily habits and commitments?

Do you reflect on a daily basis on the limiting factors that keep you from being disciplined or consistent?

Do you have accountability in place to support you in following through on things that are challenging but good for you?

Have you established standards for yourself that you evaluate your choices against?

Do you have a process to understand what things contribute to you having an energized, productive day versus a lazy, distracted day? 

If your answer to most of those things is no, that’s GREAT news. It means that you are ripe for a massive breakthrough in your self-growth where all of the hard work you’ve been putting is about to come to fruition. 

Should you choose to update your self-improvement systems...

If you’re ready for that, I host a challenge called the Best Self Breakthrough Challenge where over the course of 21 days we install a new self-improvement system into your life that includes all of the things I just described, and more, at a whole new level. 

The Challenge kicks off with a live session on Monday August 7th, if you want to seize this opportunity to level up your life, in just 5 minutes a day for 21 days, click here to register for the Challenge so I can take you step-by-step and show you how!

You’ve probably heard the expression “work smarter not harder” before. At its core, the advice in the expression is that there are higher leverage ways to pursue things to get the same results with less. In other words it is always possible to do things better while making them easier to do.

In our personal development we’re constantly looking for better in the form of ‘life hacks’ and ‘time-savers’. While there’s no single thing that will cause you to live a wildly fulfilling life, there are certainly things you can do to make your life much better when you implement them.

These are the little hinges that swing big doors.

If you want to make massive moves in your life, sometimes it’s as simple as focusing on the little hinge that controls the door and has the power to make it move.

The reason this works is because a hinge creates leverage. The definition of leverage is “to use something to its maximum advantage”. It’s to be intentional about how you take action in your life so that you are working smarter and not harder, maximizing the amount of output for the amount of input. 

There are ways to create leverage in your life, which are ways to create more little hinges that swing big doors. The first is by structuring your environment. When you change your environment around you it changes the influence you feel on a moment by moment basis. This is why accountability, goals, gamification, and clarity are so influential in your behavior. These are high-leverage things you can do to make action-taking easier to do.

Then the second way to create leverage is to build systems. A system is a reproducible process you can use to achieve a certain result. The great part is, once you’ve invested in building the system, it works for you and you begin to achieve the desired result on autopilot.

Now if you’re looking for the one little hinge that swings the biggest door in your personal development, read this closely.

I call it your Keystone Habit. It's the one small thing you can do that impacts your success in every area of your life. This one habit becomes your new Self Improvement Operating System, which includes everything I just described - Helping you craft a fully-intentional environment that supports your goals and a gives you a step-by-step system to improve anything about your life.

The only reason you don’t have this in place yet is because you haven’t put in the work to install it. But that can very easily change! 

On Monday we’re beginning another round of the Best Self Breakthrough Challenge where it takes just 5 minutes a day for 21 days to implement your one Keystone Habit. This is the little hinge that leads to you getting in the best shape of your life, multiplying your productivity and focus, building a stronger mindset, filling your days with more purpose, and so much more. And I walk you through every detail of it so that you can actually change your life in all the ways you’ve wanted to for so long.

If there’s anything I could recommend to quickly and permanently take your daily energy, productivity, and success to the next level - this is it!

If you’re anything like me, I can imagine there are a ton of things you want to do in life. To travel more, make time to be with friends and family, complete a milestone fitness competition like a marathon or ironman or Spartan Race, try new hobbies, attend more events… the list goes on.

And I also imagine that a lot of these things have been on your list for a while now already. The question I want to ask you is ‘Are you happy with a long list of almosts?’

I almost signed up for that race. I almost booked that trip. I almost pursued that new opportunity at work. This idea is very personal to me because of my mission statement, which is to turn human intention into action. When you almost do something it means that you really thought about it, you wanted to, but for whatever reason you didn’t pull the trigger. You had a strong intention but you didn’t take action.

I want you to reflect on how prevalent this is in your life. Have you made promises or pacts with yourself to get in better shape, have a better attitude, be a better and more present family member, or stop procrastinating so much?

If so, do you expect that things will change if you keep on doing the same things, or might it serve you to give something else a try and see if it gets you a better result?

A life of 'almost' is a life of regret. It’s a life of missed experiences and opportunities, lost excitement, and unfulfilled potential. But fortunately at any moment you can choose do something different and shift your trajectory to turn the vision you have for your life into a reality. Seriously you can do it.

The two missing ingredients that I find people are missing when they have high intention but little action are discipline and awareness. Discipline is the ability to take action consistently in alignment with who you want to be. Many people know what they need to do but don’t have the follow through to actually do it. 

Then there’s awareness. Oftentimes people aren’t aware of the things they’re tolerating in life, the standards that they’re not enforcing, and the conditions that cause them to feel more tired, lazy, or unmotivated than they’d like to be.

These two characteristics are at the base of what I call is your Self Improvement Operating System. Without discipline and awareness you can’t get into the habits, routines, and mindsets that represent the best version of yourself because you’re missing the essential raw materials.

Once a month I host a 21 day challenge where I help you to build elite levels of discipline and awareness so that you stop feeling so bad for yourself that you’re not making the most out of life. Your future is in your control, and in this Challenge, I teach you how to claim it so that you can have a lifetime of rich experiences and fulfillment. 

The process takes only 5 minutes a day for 21 days to complete and at the end of it, you’ll be on fire and ready to take on anything that life throws at you! This is a live Challenge and the next one starts on Monday August 7th. Click here to learn more about the Best Self Breakthrough Challenge and register! Either that, or keep tolerating ‘almost’ being the person you want to be and convincing yourself that you’re okay with it.

This is a concept you’ve heard your entire life but hopefully, this different perspective on it adds the reasoning you need to take it more seriously. 

Any high performer will tell you that in order to reach great heights you need to master the basics. Those who are dedicated to the fundamentals build a strong infrastructure that can support the rest of their life. But on top of that, and what a lot of people overlook about the fundamentals, it’s not just about maintaining the way that things are… Mastering the basics is the best mechanism for growth.

That’s because fundamentals are dynamic. They’re not something that you’re meant to rinse and repeat exactly the same each time. As you get more reps in with the basics, you find ways to increase them, elevate them, and hold yourself to a higher standard within them. The basics relate to the foundational activities you need to get done, that must not be neglected. What that definition misses is that the extent of those activities is variable.

For example, one of the basics might be to do your morning routine, non-negotiable. Isn’t it possible that you could elevate your morning routine so that it becomes more intense, more beneficial, and higher quality? When you elevate the basics, what you’re doing is elevating the foundation that everything else rests upon, helping you reach higher heights but with the focus still being on the fundamentals.

I call this concept “raising your baseline”. With a raised baseline you create a better, improved normal. You come to expect more of yourself, you strive to become more of yourself, and when you do have “bad days”, they’re not so bad because you’re falling down to a higher platform.

Doing the right things is just the first step. It’s how we do things that makes all the difference. And as it relates to the basics, it’s a lifelong pursuit to always increase the quality of how you show up to the fundamentals of life.

To wrap this up, let me share a perspective from a mentor, Brian Johnson with Heroic. He says that it’s hard to have a bad day when you complete the 3 most important things in your energy, productivity, and love. That’s what prioritizing the basics can do for you, and no one is beyond it. So embrace it and make sure you’re staying consistent with what’s most important!

If you need a refresh on the basics, to implement the ones you’ve been missing, or you're ready to take your fundamentals to a consistently higher level, you'll want to check this out!

Wayne Dyer says “Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.” It’s a great intention, but it doesn't anything by itself. I’ve found the best way to operationalize it is by changing the questions we ask. A new, different, better question serves as a prompt that leads your thinking down a new, different, better path. With new thoughts your perspective changes, and it creates new conclusions.

With that in mind, let’s use a famous quote from former US president John F Kennedy to demonstrate its power. Kennedy says "Some people see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not."

Instead of collecting a list of why something is going to be challenging, why you’re going to struggle, why you can’t do it right now… Trade that line of thinking for 'why not?' When you approach your life ahead of you with the attitude that anything is possible, things become more possible.

The difficult part is we’ve been taught to focus on all of the reasons why we shouldn’t do something. Is starting your own business the responsible thing to do? Is it really the right time to sign up for a marathon, can you actually train for it? What if when you ask that person out on a date they reject you?

I’m not encouraging you to recklessly do whatever’s on your heart without regard for the consequences of it, but I am giving you this alternative perspective to find evidence around why it might be a good idea. When you ask a better question, ‘Why not?’, and let that influence the way you think about achieving your goals and dreams, you’ll feel so much more inspired to actually change your life! 

And in this quote, JFK approaches the future with a world of optimism - To do what’s never been done before, to conquer the unconquerable, to turn your vision into reality. And while his scope is related to the happenings of the entire world, you can take the same philosophy and apply it to your world.

So think about it - What’s that one thing that you’ve been ruling out being possible for so long in your life? That dream you have, the achievement to earn, the next level to reach, and ask yourself - Why not? You’ll see that the first steps you need to take toward making it reality become evident, and it’s up to you to step on the path.

This is something that has completely transformed my life, and I know it could do the same for you and many others. Share this with someone in your life doing big things to let them know that you’re here to support them with it!

Do you want to change your life - To get into the best health you’ve ever had? Go on that dream trip? Make enough money to retire your parents? Have a deeply loving marriage?

You need to believe that you can. If you don’t think that the future vision you gave for yourself is even possible, you’re going to keep getting in your own way and keep yourself from materializing it.

When you have belief, it’s an intangible force working in your favor. Things just happen for you as you effortlessly navigate forward. The reason being is that your beliefs shape the unconscious way you show up for things. A belief creates an environment that dictates the decisions you make, the actions you take, and the results you get. 

Having the belief you can achieve something is like wind in your sails pushing you forward. Not having the belief you can is like a head wind you are constantly fighting against. Either way, you feel yourself putting in the same amount of effort but the corresponding progress you make for it is very different.

Fortunately, you can change your sense of self-belief around something. The subconscious mind is impacted by your daily behavior and grows in the direction of your actions. So the more consistent action you take, the more you’re strengthening your belief.

Now the question becomes, what’s keeping us from taking action? The answer is self-sabotage. This is literally the subconscious mind’s way of keeping you from doing new things, and it uses fear, irrational thinking, procrastination, negative self-talk, and emotions to keep you from taking action.

A specific form of self-sabotage that’s worth considering is ‘overwhelm’. If you see the wide gap that exists in your life between where you are and where you want to be, it could produce an emotional experience (like overwhelm) that causes you to conclude that you can’t do it.

But all you need is a little evidence otherwise to pierce that belief. If you hit a simple milestone that’s on the path to the end goal, you start to believe that you can do it again (and again) all the way until you achieve it. And the only way you reach that first intermediate goal is by clearly defining it and taking action in the face of the overwhelm, fear, and emotions of self-sabotage.

That’s where a simple, clearly defined goal like a 21 day challenge can get you over that bump and unlock a new world of potential. It builds self-belief, and with that, what was impossible becomes easy!

In leadership positions, or when we’re trying to influence people, there are two ways we can show up. The differences are subtle but they lead to drastically different outcomes and levels of sustainability. It’s the difference between using power and authority.

As you can imagine, using power is more destructive. It involves using force to create a certain result with way less care for the consequences. Power is something that you impose on others and it manipulates the result because there’s a certain pressure being applied to shape it.

Authority is more grounded. It comes from a place of mutual understanding, and its effectiveness has been earned.  When you have authority it means that you have credibility on a topic and that your instructions, recommendations, or guidance should be taken seriously. The outcome of authority is that people get to respond to the influence that you offer rather than be unwillingly manipulated by it.

This contrast makes the most sense through the lens of leadership. If you want to influence someone to do something, flexing your power over them is less ethical and sustainable than leveraging your influence. Different situations call for different needs, but for the most part you’ll want to come from a place of genuine trusted authority rather than power.

But beyond the way this distinction plays in relationships, there’s a similar application in the way we view ourselves. When you use power over yourself, like will-power, it has consequences. You use power to do things that you don’t feel like doing in the moment, which works in the short-term to change your behavior (and again is needed for certain reasons) but overall it doesn’t come from a place of pure motivation or desire.

Again, authority is more grounded. In a personal application you have authority when you feel inspired to maintain a certain standard, to follow through on a certain habit, or to make a certain choice. That’s not to say all of that is meant to feel easy, but when you reflect on it you’re connected to the purpose of it. It makes consistency easier because it doesn’t take from you like power does, it gives to you in the form of self-belief and self-gratification.

Let’s use the example of choosing whether you want to have ice cream as a dessert. Using power would be telling yourself not to do it. Using authority would be connecting that reason not to do it with your health goals, and that you’re choosing progress toward that over the short-term gratification of enjoying something sweet. Again, authority has reason and purpose to it.

To make this actionable, the way you cultivate more authority in your life is through clarity. Having clearly defined goals, expectations, standards, and habits will help you to live in alignment with them.