Arnold Palmer, one of the world’s most successful golfers, was quoted saying “It’s a strange thing, the more I practice the luckier I get.” I don’t think he’s alone in that sentiment, luck is more predictable than it might seem, and you can leverage it for yourself when you start thinking about it the right way.

You’ve probably heard the expression that “luck is when preparation meets opportunity.” I really like this definition, and when you dissect it you’ll see there’s actually a formula to getting lucky. 

It’s within your power to prepare. It’s the extra reps you put in to feel more confident with a presentation. It’s the craft you’re perfecting and continuously improving. More preparation is simply more practice, which involves you allocating more time to focus on developing in a specific area.

Then there’s opportunity. We often think of opportunity as something that spontaneously landed in your lap, but that’s a disservice to the real mechanism. You can create more opportunities with strategy. All it involves is you planting more seeds and putting yourself in more positions for things to materialize into something beneficial to you.

The more people you tell about something you want, the more likely it is that an opportunity will pop up that’s in perfect alignment. Why is that? You’re giving the universe more pathways to deliver, allowing it to come to you through more channels.

Whether it be through the lens of preparation or opportunity, you can create your own luck. So instead of resigning yourself to accept whatever comes your way, you can be empowered to create the results you want.

The manner in which they come may seem like a “lucky break” or “being in the right place at the right time”, but isn’t that somewhat earned? Isn’t that a skill to be in the right place for you to capitalize on an opportunity to get what you want?

My encouragement to you is to stop hoping and wishing that something will be and instead play an active role in its becoming. It will arrive to you sooner than you expected, so much so that it might even catch you off guard and feel like luck when it happens.

On your personal development journey, you need to be sure you have the right foundation in place. Discover the 7 Fundamentals To Self Improvement and instantly accelerate your growth! (Who knows what you might be overlooking and how it’s holding you back…)

As we pursue becoming the best version of ourselves, it’s very important that we think about the habits that we are building. Simply put - Habits are just a routine way of doing things. It’s the brain's shortcut to executing a certain task without your awareness so that you can reserve your energy for more meaningful things.

Habits are more operating more broadly and diversely than you might realize. Sure, habits are about getting consistent doing certain things like meditating, exercising, or making your bed, but some habits are more subtle and less observable, like your patterned way of thinking (aka your mindset). You can be in the habit of seeing the best in a situation, or the habit of receiving failure as a lesson and an opportunity for growth.

So with all of that in mind, and to share today’s positivity quote - “Make it a habit to brighten someone’s day.” 

All that means is you consistently and naturally make an effort to play a supportive role in other people’s lives. I do this very intentionally. As part of my morning routine I send a voice note of gratitude and encouragement to someone in my life. It makes me feel really good to receive these messages, so I figure if I can take 30 seconds to make someone else feel good, it’s always worth it.

What’s really impactful about this simple, intentional habit is the way that is has shifted my psychology. Over time, making the choice every day to brighten someone's day has shifted my identity. While the morning routine is very conscious and deliberate, this energy of genuine encouragement and appreciation carries into my other interactions. 

This has instilled within me a habit of appreciating and acknowledging the good in people. This has become so natural to me and now it's a normal part of my personality, which is in alignment with who I’ve determined is the best version of myself and how I want to show up for others.

As a side note - The exact same thing happened with gratitude. The deliberate action of daily gratitude journaling shifted my mindset so significantly that I naturally default to seeing the good in the world.

I share my own experience about this with the hopes that a tangible example will help you commit to doing the core behaviors that will transform your mindset and life. And it all starts with one action, one step, right now. So send this article to someone you care about, tell them you’re thinking about them and that you want the best for them.

On your personal development journey, you need to be sure you have the right foundation in place. Discover the 7 Fundamentals To Self Improvement and instantly accelerate your growth! (Who knows what you might be overlooking and how it’s holding you back…)

I was introduced to this topic through the work of a man named Justin Welsh, a thought leader I’ve been following a little closer lately. In today’s overstimulated world, we easily fall into the trap of “Shiny Object Syndrome” where we jump to new ideas or projects really quickly because it looks appealing. It has this fresh, new shine on it that is attractive and fun. So we commit to it without much intention and find ourselves overwhelmed with having too much on our plate, none of which are really advancing to a level that is concrete or valuable.

Welsh says that we have a similar tendency to chase “Shiny Outcome Syndrome”. Instead of having clarity on the few results we want to get, that we know are the most meaningful to achieve, we add on new milestones and objectives simply because we can and we’re kind of already doing it.

The trouble here is that it distracts you from your point of optimization. If you’re trying to fine-tune a process so that it gets better results, you need to have a clear metric for that result that you’re optimizing around. If new key results pop up and become the short-term focus, you’ll constantly be undoing and redoing your work. Obviously this is extremely inefficient but it’s a natural inclination we all have.

This concept parallels what Greg McKeown calls the Clarity Paradox. He says that once someone gets clarity on something, they start to get positive outcomes because they can be more effective about concentrating their efforts. Then once you have a little success, a whole new wave of opportunities comes to you and causes you to get distracted. And if you succumb to these new opportunities and distractions, you lose the clarity that made you successful in the first place and regress back to underperforming.

That’s why in the intentional living coaching I do, I have people determine their optimization quotient - the single metric that is most representative of how they want to feel and experience life. You can try new things and observe how that data point changes, but ultimately all the effort is centered around one key objective.

The antidote to Shiny Object Syndrome and Shiny Outcome Syndrome is clarity. It’s the disciplined pursuit of less but better, and the more you can resist the urge to diversify, the faster and further you’ll go.

I’m still working on my understanding of this and would love to hear your perspective on it. There’s a subtle but fundamental difference between knowing something and believing something. They carry different energies and they’re more appropriate in different settings. I think there’s a lot of value in exploring that difference.

So far my take on it is - When you know something, it comes without a doubt. There’s a level of certainty and conviction. It’s about a set of facts and sure, the same details can be interpreted in different ways, but when you know something there’s really sound reasoning behind it. Knowing is connected to knowledge, which is more a reflection on the way things work and specific details.

When you believe something, it acknowledges more openness and room for interpretation. It suggests that you’ve drawn a certain conclusion and you’ll defend it, but it’s still negotiable. New information could conflict with what you currently believe and you’ll have to incorporate that into the next version of your understanding.

What’s really important to mention about belief, though, is there’s a lot of passion behind it. There’s more of a wanting or longing behind a belief. You’re invested in it and feel like whatever it is that you believe impacts you. It’s more emotional.

Comparing knowing and believing more directly, the core difference is the level of certainty assigned to it. But that’s to to say that more certain is better. When you believe something, you rely on faith to fill the void of the certainty you lack. And that can be an incredibly inspiring, motivating, and empowering force.

Life calls for both knowing and believing. Both are ways that you relate with the events and figures of your life, but they provide subtly different experiences.

Human attention is at a premium right now. Marketers use clickbait headlines to make you curious and pay attention to their products. The people in your life send you text messages hoping that you’ll get back to them quickly. Your work wants you to apply your skills, talents, and time in service of their mission. There’s a lot going on where we’re being pulled in a bunch of different ways. 

But let me ask you this question… When was the last time you gave yourself your undivided attention?

A time when you just sat and reflected on what you want… When you slowed down to check in on how you were feeling… When you silenced all other inputs and allowed yourself to just be and not do…

Saying it out loud, it sounds like such an obvious thing to do, but it’s so rare. It seems as though the moment our attention frees up there are two things already there to claim it. And it also seems as though when we consider how we want to spend our time the one thing we most fail to prioritize is ourselves.

You deserve your undivided attention. You need to make sure that you have what you need, that you’re taking care of yourself and prioritizing your own well-being.

The reason why it might not be as natural for you is because it’s hard. It’s hard to sit with yourself, unstimulated. In fact we often add more to our plate and keep ourselves “busy” to avoid the unfamiliar feeling of being alone with our thoughts.

If you’re open to it, let me suggest a few questions you can ask yourself to check in: How energized have you been feeling? How productive have you been feeling? How is your mental health? What are you working towards, and how is it going? What are you most excited about?

Turn off technology, turn off the roles you feel like you need to play, and even turn off the other people in your life. Be intentional about giving yourself your undivided attention.

We know it’s the best thing we can do for everything else, isn’t it the same for ourselves? When you do you just might learn something new! Then once you know better, you can do better. 

Recently I had lunch with some friends and left really inspired. My buddy Timmy told us about an expression that he and his team have been building around. And it’s a very simple expression - Today can be the day!

Today could be the day that you meet the man or woman of your dreams. Today could be the day that you discover that new passion. Today could be the day that you finally get started on that thing that you’ve always wanted to do. Today could be the day that you’re fed up with the way you’ve been living, the life you’ve been tolerating, and you decide to make a change. A new day brings endless possibility and every moment of it is unknown yet full of opportunity.

But equally important to consider, today could be the day you get in an accident and die. It could be the day that you learn about an unfortunate medical diagnosis. It could be the day where you hear some bad news about a loved one or get in an awful fight with a friend. Just as much as the day has shades of optimism, it has layers of despair. There are people that wake up every day who have no idea that there life is going to change forever.

Today could be the day.

So what’s our task within this? The truth is, everything we have right now could be gone tomorrow, so live with overwhelming gratitude. The richness and possibility of life is constantly around you but it often goes unnoticed or unaccessed. 

Instead of missing the opportunity to meet your new best friend, be present and courageous to take what the moment is giving you. Live as if something amazing is going to happen because then something will! It’s always out there, it just needs to be uncovered.

Today will come and go, and then it will become yesterday. Don’t live with regret about what you wish you would have done, or who you wish you would have become. 

Today could be the day! For what? That’s for you to figure out. And when you do, it’ll be a day unlike any else, and it’ll make you feel like you’re really living!

I’m committed to making more out of my days, unlocking new possibilities, and giving this life all I’ve got! I’m not going to be where I want to be tomorrow, but I can get a little closer. And so can you!

Featuring an iconic quote from prolific entrepreneur Henry Ford (no relation), I wanted to remind you of the power of your own expectancy. You are unconsciously influencing everything that happens around you, some people call it manifesting, and it’s important to make sure that you’re allowing yourself to be in alignment with your best self.

The quote goes “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.” The simplicity of this quote suggests something fundamental. The future is yet to have occurred and it’s impossible to forecast. There often aren't right answers, there are only options that reveal themselves to be more favorable or appropriate over time.

It is within our power to influence what happens next. We are creators in that way, and it’s very exciting. But just as much as we can create the future of our dreams, we can also unconsciously create the life we're trying to avoid. A life of complacency, mediocrity, and reaction.

If you think that you can’t do something, then you’ll find all of the reasons that prove that to be the case. You’ll stack so much evidence that it will appear as if there’s no alternative, and you’ll lose sight of all other possibility and opportunity.

But similarly if you think you can do something, then you’ll start collecting all of the information that proves it right. Instead of seeing the 99 reasons why something won’t work you focus on the 1 reason it might. This helps you to be more persistent, resilient, and determined as you find a solution (until you do!)

That’s how your mindset has the power to shape your reality. Your mind will find the evidence for whatever it is you choose to believe. This evidence then affects what you’re thinking about, the way you’re thinking about it, and what actions you take in response. 

Belief leads to action, which leads to results. So if you believe that you can’t, you’ll take actions that are in line with that and you’ll get congruent results. But if you believe that you can, you’ll take a different set of productive actions that mold the world to your vision.

“Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.” And hopefully now you see why that’s the case, so you can start believing that you’re capable of achieving the things on your heart.

If this quote landed for you today then it certainly will do the same for someone else you care about. Share this episode with them and help themand make their dreams come true!

It can be really frustrating when you have a long list of things to do, that you’re genuinely inspired by and excited about, but for whatever reason you don’t have the energy to show up for it...

This could cause you to be less productive at work and it affects your output, less present with the people in your life and you feel like you’re missing key moments, or less motivated to take care of yourself and your health suffers.

Unanimously I think we’d all agree that it’d be nice to have a little more energy throughout the day. And the truth is, you’ve probably been thinking about your energy the wrong way and it has been costing you. So let’s unravel the most major misconception about energy so that you can experience life with more presence, enthusiasm, and vitality.

When people think about getting more energized, they think about rest and recovery. We’ve been taught that energy is a finite resource and we must reserve it for the times when we really need it. This is even engrained deeply into our evolutionary past as humans were optimized to expend a little energy as possible and abide by the 'law of least effort' to survive. After all, the more energy you save, the better your chances for being able to escape a threat.

But that’s a scarce way of thinking and it’s not representative of how energy actually works, especially as it relates to our emotional experience of feeling energized today. What we really need is a fresh wave of motivation, inspiration, and enthusiasm throughout the day, not a bank of energy ready to go in case we need to escape in some massive burst.

So let’s correct the misconception. Yes, rest and recovery is fundamental to refilling your stores…

But the energy it provides is better spent adding to the quality of the moments in your life rather than just sitting there in storage! So instead of reverting to being lazy and inactive all day, we must redefine our relationship with energy. And what I propose is an underrated truth about energy…

It takes energy to make energy.

When you’re feeling tired, the best thing you can do is get moving and get active. While you may not feel like doing it in the moment, what this does is it opens the door to using that stockpile of energy that is being held in reserve. Your energy is not scarce, it is abundant, you have more than enough of it and you’re only accessing a fraction of it on a daily basis.

As your perception of energy starts to deplete, the first thing that gets turned off is your higher level thinking. When this happens you become more reactive, more emotional, and more impulsive as your subconscious mind takes over. This causes you to feel lazy, make excuses, and do the things you’re not proud of but feel good in the moment.

But if you want to live a more engaged, connected, disciplined, and fulfilled life, you need to stay alert, awake, and aware. Although it’s energetically demanding, you need to get your conscious mind back online because that’s what enables you to have a much richer life experience.

So commit to creating more energy throughout the day by being more active. Briefly stop what you’re doing and use movement to get your blood pumping. It will allow you to show up that much more for your life, and you’ll look back at the end of the day when it’s time to get some rest and feel that you were truly alive.

I hope that helped! My mission is to help you feel on fire more often so that you can go out and change the world in the way how only you know how! That’s what this is all about, and I’m here with you every step of the way!