We’ve been seduced in today’s society that we need more things to solve our problems. Having trouble at work? Try this new software and automation. Feeling lonely? Join a new gym or social club and meet new people. Want to have a healthier diet? Buy the latest nutrition program with all the gimmicks and guarantees.

The truth is, you probably already have everything you need to overcome that challenge at work, to strengthen your relationships, and to prioritize your health. You already have the tools, knowledge, and ability to make progress on whatever it is that needs to be addressed. Yet still we look externally to solve our problems.

This is where I want to make an important point - It’s not that we need new tools to make advancements, we need to get better at using the tools we already have.

It’s unfair to say that a software isn’t working for you if you’re only using a fraction of its functionality. It’s premature to move on from a strategy before you experimented with different ways it might work. It’s silly to throw away a book because you’re trying to read it upside down. 

The value is there and it’s in plain sight, nothing about what we have access to needs to change. It’s our ability to use it that does.

So in order to overcome this hurdle, I have a recommendation - Understand that you need to invest time to get something to work better. Even though you want instant results, you need to invest in your ability to produce those results sustainably. 

This is one of the primary points in Steven Covey’s book “The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People” where he talks about the difference between ‘production’ and ‘production capacity’. Sometimes things need to get worse or delayed before they can get better and more efficient.

Known as a learning curve, once you overcome that threshold of ability you can start scaling and exponentiating the output you get from any given input. That’s what leads to efficiency, predictability, and sustainable returns.

I was listening to an incredible podcast episode between Ed Mylett and Lewis Howes and learned a valuable distinction between success and greatness. This insight is a centerpoint to Howes’ new book “The Greatness Mindset”.

Success is a very elusive thing. We often associate it with achievements, accomplishments, and accolades. There’s an extrinsic component to it that motivates us to attain a certain thing. I’ll be a success when I get a raise or a promotion, when I buy my dream house, when I win that award. It’s almost conditional in nature.

The problem is, as we delay our self-perception of being successful we inadvertently postpone our happiness, believing that we’ll find it when we’re successful. This is only until we realize how empty it is once we hit the goals we set for ourselves, and they weren’t fulfilling.

Even though we’ve been taught to change our relationship with success and define it for ourselves so that we don’t get trapped by comparing ourselves to others, it is still very self-centered. At the end of the day it’s about your goals and dreams.

As I paraphrase Howes’ philosophy - Greatness is actually what we’re after, not success. It’s about engaging other people in your goals and dreams so that they win with you. There’s a shift from ‘me’ to ‘we’ that the best leaders in the world can espouse and inspire in the people around them.

With that in mind, let’s take a pause. You’re motivated, ambitious, hard-working, and committed to making the most out of this gift called life. How can you make it more other people? How can your example be the torch that other people get to follow toward their goals and their dreams? 

It’s a subtle shift… But the more you can lead from a place of service, the more you'll actually experience the deep fulfillment you’re chasing. We all have greatness inside of us, and Lewis Howes’ new book just might be your way to tap into it! You can check out Howes' new book by clicking here!

An unavoidable part of life is controversy. Controversy happens when there’s a disagreement that escalates to massive levels, becoming seemingly irreconcilable. Many people have a natural response to unconsciously exacerbate the situation, making things worse, which of course does way more harm than good. Hopefully the perspective I share today helps you to overcome that.

The core psychology is - When you find yourself being challenged, or that your conclusions are being put into question, it activates a response to get defensive. It comes as a threat to your worldview which you desperately want to maintain. In that way your response to the stimulus is a great mirror for psychological safety.

This causes many people to dig deeper into their opinion, close their minds to alternative explanations, and become much more difficult to negotiate with. At this point, being on the right side of the controversy isn’t just about the immediate facts in question, it has become a representation of your self-image. Very quickly, the stakes can get very high, which is why it’s so difficult for disagreements to reach a good resolution.

So if you find yourself in a controversy, where your character is being put to the test, you too might feel yourself getting protective and defensive. The next time this happens, here are a few things you can do to intercept the thought pattern.

First, think about the ideal outcome. It probably doesn’t involve being in a petty battle with someone. It likely will encourage you to acknowledge and incorporate the other side of things and be empathetic to their viewpoint. Even better if you can communicate this mutual positive outcome.

Then second, I’d encourage you to delay any kind of significant response. When emotions run high and we’re caught off guard, it may provoke us to respond in ways that are out of alignment with who we want to be. This is a core tenet of stoicism - Not letting your emotions influence your decision making. Take some time and slowly let the emotions wear off by doing some deep breathing or using perspective in your self-talk.

We’d all like to think that we have the presence to be our best selves despite adversity and difficult moments. They will inevitably come, and hopefully you feel a little more prepared to have integrity the next time you find yourself in one.

For our entire lives we’ve been told that it’s a bad thing to be selfish. That it’s bad to be self-centered, to lack consideration for others, and to only care about your own profits, pleasure, comfort, and well-being.

Overall that thought might be true, but there are extra layers to it that I think are a bit misunderstood. Many people overgeneralize the sentiment of being selfish and therefore don't take good enough care of themselves out of fear that doing so would make them selfish.

The first thing to clear up in the definition: It does not mean that it’s not okay to put yourself first. In other words, you should prioritize your own well-being. It’s that maxim of ‘filling up your own cup before filling up someone else’s’. Your capacity to give to others is limited by your personal capacity.

With that in mind, here’s a tangible perspective shift. A lot of people have the desire to help others. They want to change lives. With that intention, why doesn’t your life count? Is it not impactful to change your life, is that not a meaningful life made better from your actions? When you consider that you are a person just like those you hope to help, you see that you’re just as worthy of your time, attention, and care as someone else may be.

Do you know what is selfish? Humble The Poet has an interesting thought on this. He says it’s “expecting other people to put you first”. When you make demands of others or feel entitled to something from someone else, that’s selfish. Their priority is to prioritize themselves just as your should be to prioritize yourself.

So with that in mind, let me ask you a question. Feelings of being selfish aside, what is one thing that you so readily are giving away but you’re in need of yourself? Yes, the fastest way to get anything in life is to give it away, but that requires that you’re open to receiving it.

People tend to glamorize things and today I’m going to give you the truth, using the metaphor of running a marathon. 

When we have a goal or project ahead of us the one thing we’re looking forward to, that motivates us, is the sense of accomplishment we’ll get when we hit the finish line. It’s that moment where you get to reflect on what you just did and remind yourself of what you’re capable of.

And it’s anything but easy. There are many challenges, setbacks, and obstacles that get in between you and the finish line. You hit the wall and you need to fight through. You get a cramp and you need to take a break. You miscount your miles and realize you’re not halfway yet when you thought you passed it a while ago. 

But do you know what is the most difficult part of running the race that is often overlooked?

It’s getting to the starting line. 

The main reason people don’t experience the fulfillment of running a marathon doesn’t have anything to do with the race itself. It’s everything that happens (or doesn’t happen) before the race even starts. 

There are countless people who commit to running a marathon in any given year but only a fraction of them do. And the fall off doesn’t happen during the race, it happens in the steps before.

Metaphor aside, this is true for everything. The hardest part to anything is just showing up. It’s making the commitment, deepening your investment, being serious about what you want, and then beginning to follow through. 

We often wait to feel a certain way - motivated, inspired, in flow, or for the time to be right - in order to take next steps on what we want. But that waiting is better described as delaying, postponing, or wasting valuable time in pursuit of what you want.

Maybe you wish you would’ve started sooner. There’s a Chinese proverb that goes “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time to plant a tree is now.” If you can make the decision to get yourself to the starting line, today, so that you can begin the process of getting what you want, then there’s your next step.

And this is where I”m giving you one last opportunity to do exactly that - to get that hardest part behind you once and for all. The 21 day Best Self Breakthrough Challenge starts today, March 6th, and it’s not too late to be a part of it. Together we’ll install the 2 habits that activate a life-time of high performance so that you start getting more done in a day than you do in a week, and get more consistent with the meditation, exercise, and self-care habits that make you feel at your best. And you can make the choice right now to step up to the starting line, to see your path forward toward your fullest potential, and to start moving forward.

Alright, let’s get to the root of what personal development actually entails. And to do so I quickly want to tell you a story about my journey thus far in pursuit of becoming my best self.

For years I was caught up in the "information trap" - Listening to podcasts non-stop, reading the books, filling my down-time with videos, TedTalks, courses, anything I could get my hands on that I thought offered valuable perspective and information...

I felt motivated by it because I saw myself putting in the work, and it gave me enough of a reason to tell myself I was doing the right things to grow and pursue my potential. 

There was still a big problem with it, though - nothing was actually changing about my life.

I was still feeling disappointed that I wasn't performing at the level I knew I could... Still believing I was talented but wasn't getting the results to back it up... Still feeling held back and falling behind without being able to pinpoint why...

It was frustrating, deflating, and honestly made me question if I had what it takes to accomplish what I wanted to in life and reach my goals.

That is until I made one fundamental shift, and the day you make this shift for yourself, everything will start to click.

Our focus should not be to acquire more knowledge... It should be to find ways to apply and optimize the few, transformational things we already know!

The summary is - If you want to take your life to the next level, to be less distracted and more productive, to stop making excuses and start taking care of our mind and body, to have moments where time seems to stop because you’re so present with the people around you, you need to learn less and implement more.

And I was able to make that shift when I established a process to put the things I was learning into action. A tangible mechanism to define, measure and improve my habits. To reflect and grow my mindset. To uphold higher standards for who I know I can be.

This is hard for me to admit as an educator and content creator but it's the truth - What I have to say will only go so far. It’s the action you take from what you learn that will really generate growth.

Which is why I’m taking my responsibility one step further. Starting on Monday we’re beginning a 21 day Best Self Breakthrough Challenge. In this challenge you will do two things: 

1) You will implement a new system into your life that I call your Self Improvement Operating System. This is a real tangible tool and resource that will help you improve anything about your life - following through on good habits, living out your intentions to be the friend, family member, and co-worker you want to be, anything. And you’ll get in the routine of using this resource over the course of 2 days because it’s only valuable if you use it. 

Then 2) You will install what I call your “Best Self Reflex”. This helps you increase your self-discipline by upgrading your mindset. We do this intentionally through a subconscious priming audio program called Discipline On Demand and it will literally change the conversation in your mind so that you reflexively make the positive, empowering, healthy choice without making excuses or negotiating with yourself about it.

In any case, whether you’ve been following my content for a long time or you’re brand new to it, early on in your self-growth or very experienced, even if you’ve registered for the challenge before but didn't’ follow through on doing it - This is your invitation level up. You read because you want to improve your life and I’m telling you, you’re plateauing if you don't take actionable next steps. 

Register for the 21 Day Best Self Breakthrough Challenge and that’s exactly what you get - You’ll pick up so much momentum in your life that you’ll breakthrough into new tiers of performance and self-belief that represent what you’re truly capable of!

I hope this positivity quote provides you with hope, belief, and expectancy so that, as Jason Mraz puts it, “the best of your todays are the worst of your tomorrows.”

We have a tendency to have a bleak outlook on life - To rule things out before they even start, or count all of the reasons why something won’t work out instead of focus on the reasons why it might. One of those lines of thought might tell you that you’re too late, you missed your opportunity, and it’s all your fault. 

That’s where I’d like to inject this George Eliot quote - "It's never too late to be the person you could have been."

The inspiring, motivating, and real truth to is that no matter what you do you’ll never be the person you know you could have been. That person is an elusive holograph that you’ll never become and frankly, you were never meant to become. 

Relating this to what Matthew McConaughey said in his Oscar Acceptance Speech, his hero is always himself in 10 years, a moving target that he’ll never reach. But if you were to pursue that ideal imagine who you become along the way! 

Now back to the quote - Do you know why it's never too late to be the person you could have been? Because it doesn’t matter if you started chasing that version of yourself 10 years ago or 10 minutes ago, it plays the same role in your life. 

You haven’t missed your opportunity to let that influence pull you into becoming a better version of yourself. The difference though is now you have different experiences, beliefs, and worldviews that affect how willing you are to answer the call.

And here it comes a-ringing. The best version of yourself is on the other side of becoming more consistent, accountable, organized, and intentional about your growth. If you want to taste what that’s like, and get a glimpse of what you’re capable of achieving and who you’re capable of becoming, then register for the Best Self Breakthrough Challenge. The next group starts on Monday and while there’s an unbelievable amount of growth opportunity in stepping up to this challenge, it’s not that challenging. All it takes is for you to stay consistent with two keystone habits, that I will walk you through slowly, which take 5 minutes a day to do, for 21 days. 

If you want to show up with more enthusiasm and quality for the work, people, and moments that matter most to you, register for the challenge now so you can generate unstoppable momentum in your life that carries you to being your very best, in 21 days!

When it comes to being the person you want to be, investing your time doing the things that are most fulfilling, most inspiring, and most effective, there’s a lot to think about. My coach and mentor Jim Bunch taught me a framework that helped me make sense of things and I thought I’d pass the lesson along to you!

There’s a clear distinction between goals, strategies, and tactics. Sometimes they’re used interchangeably and that’s because they’re so interconnected. Let’s take some time to understand exactly how they connect so that you can put your energy and focus into the right things.

First are goals. I prefer to use the word desired outcomes. These are the results we want to achieve. They can be concrete and definitive or broad. In either case they are designed to give you a target to aim for that’s inspiring and gets you into the next layers of action.

Then there are strategies. These are the paths you can take to make progress toward a goal. There are an infinite amount of ways you can approach obtaining a certain result, and what’s most important about strategies is that you have one. This then provides a filter through which you determine the actions you’ll be taking, which leads us to…

Tactics. This is the real mechanism of making progress. You need to take action in key ways to achieve key results. This means that the tactics need to align with specific strategies that serve as paths to our desired outcomes and goals. 

So in order to make sure that you’re creating the right results, you need to work from the top down to then arrive at the right tactics. You are always generating results in your life, and without the extra consideration you might be receiving results that aren’t what you want.

You have accountability at each of the 3 levels of goals, strategy, and tactics. You can make adjustments to each of the 3 levels as well, but know that any adjustment you make at one level impacts everything that happens under it.

So if your goal is to become the best version of yourself, you need to define the strategy. Maybe you’ve been pursuing that by listening to podcasts and reading books... Has that been impacting your life how you wanted to? Do you feel like anything tangible is improving? Do you feel like every day you’re sprinting toward being the most energized, fulfilled, productive, inspiring version of yourself?

If not, then maybe it’s time to try a new strategy. And I have one that works better than anything else I’ve ever seen. It’s to install a Self Improvement Operating System. This is the process that helps you become more disciplined to your best-self habits and accountable to living in alignment with your best self.

And if you want to take action on it and implement this strategy for yourself, all you have to do is register for the 21 Day Super Habits Challenge. If you commit to this new strategy you will reach levels of daily productivity and fulfillment that you didn’t know were possible!

Of course I’m here to support you regardless, but beyond the content if you really want me to help you, this challenge is the best way I know how! So take your dreams to be a better version of yourself seriously and register for the challenge, we go live on Monday.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what it takes for people to show up at their very best, every moment of every day. I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again - A good life is made up of good years, good months, good weeks, good days, good hours, good minutes, and good moments. The only thing we truly have control over is the present moment, so we must place our focus in the present to have a more meaningful life.

Living in the moment is mindfulness. It’s being fully aware of the environments around you and self-aware of how they’re affecting you, and how that makes you feel. The more you can direct your attention toward the present moment, and not reliving the past or forecasting the future, the more mindful you’re being.

Now as it relates to what we do in those moments, we’re best suited to draw inspiration from the vision of the life we want to live - The values we embody, the standards we uphold, the boundaries we enforce, and the activities that deliver the most benefit to our lives. This is accountability.

Now here’s the important connection, the marriage of the two - When you live a fully accountable life (taking ownership of everything that you do and happens to you) and you’re doing so with full awareness and mindfulness in the moment, now you’re living with intentionality.

To live intentionally is to have a purpose behind everything you do. It’s to realize you always have a choice and you’re accountable to making the right choice, having fully evaluated the implications of each decision. It requires mindfulness to honestly quantify those tradeoffs so that you can make the decisions that cause you to live with more alignment.

The North Star in my personal development is to live with as much intentionality as possible. Having the idea is one thing and following through on it is another, which is why I’ve created an intentional living process that I call my Self Improvement Operating System. It is incredibly powerful in how it holds me accountable to making the right decisions consistently throughout the day, helping me to experience life with more peace, excitement, discipline, and consistency.

Of course I am a work in progress, and so is this system, but if you want to incorporate the exact process I use to improve every aspect of my life, which has been fine-tuned for almost a decade now, that’s exactly what we’ll do together in the 21 day Best Self Breakthrough Challenge.

At the end of the day, this challenge will help you to show up as the best version of yourself in every moment of every day. Want to maximize your potential and the mark you’re capable of leaving on this world? These next 21 days could be the kickstart you needed to live your best life.