This featured quote represents a timeless principle through a modern lens. I’m sure you’ve heard of the idea of not taking things “for granted”. It basically means that there are so many things in our life that we’ve grown accustomed to, that are just normal components of our life and we don’t know much different. But there are many people that don’t have those same things and there’s nothing they want more in the world than that.

Just to provide a few examples: If you are able-bodied and you can walk, that’s a gift. There are many people who can’t, whether it be because of an unexpected accident, a disease, or old-age. We don’t often think about how nice it is to be able to walk until we realize what it would be like if we couldn’t.

The same goes for basic utilities - Water, electricity, internet, insulation. Imagine how much more uncomfortable and inconvenient your life would be if you didn’t have those basic things. There are people on this planet right now who don’t.

But now getting more narrow on today’s quote - “Never take a single breath for granted.” As humans, breath is the indicator of life. If you’re not breathing you’re no longer living. Every single moment you take a breath is another opportunity for you to experience this miracle that is life.

Truly, everything about life is extraordinary. Not only thinking about the odds that you came to be in the first place, but the way that all of your body’s processes are working in perfect synchronicity is phenomenal. And it should be viewed as such, but many people are blind to it.

Many people go another day, getting through what’s ahead of them and “checking the box” in life. They’re not present in the moment, finding joy and curiosity in what’s around them, or feeling the edge of their capabilities. They’re just kind of existing, but they’re not living.

I don’t know anything about what happens after death, but what has been documented for people on their deathbed is that one of their main regrets is to not have showed up for life as fully as they could have.

The end of our life is always around the corner and nothing is guaranteed. So how can you honor that moment and live with more intention, presence, and purpose right now? Tying it back to a timeless principle, all of this echoes what the Stoic philosophers called “Memento Mori”. To summarize, it translates to “you will die”, but it suggests that you must live as fully as possible until that day comes.

I know it’s impossible to never take a single breath for granted, but commit to taking as few breaths for granted as possible. Now that you know better, you can do better.

I don’t mean to be morbid, my intention is to be real and support you in living a life you’re proud of. If you want help with that, click the link here and we can schedule a time to connect about it!

Something that is hard-wired into us, over the course of years of evolution, is negativity bias. To put it more simply, as humans we are designed to find the bad in things. This is because back when our brains we’re evolving, it was very important that we were hyper-aware of the things in our environment that were negative, dangerous, threatening, or otherwise concerning. It literally was a matter of life and death.

But today, things are very different. We don’t require the same vigilance for the things around us, yet that part of us still plays a central role in our psychology. This is often the source the prevents us from dreaming bigger, feeling capable, and having confidence - it’s because our brain finds all the reasons why we "can’t" and overlooks the reasons why we can. It’s an unconscious bias, but we can overcome it by being more conscious about how it affects us. With a little more awareness and understanding this inclination doesn’t have the same power over us.

So how can we get intentional about working on this? It’s by setting an intention on how you want to be in certain situations. When you choose how you want to be you have an extra force in your psychology that pulls you to be that way.

One of the ways we can do this is by implementing a “How can we?” response pattern. Instead of allowing your brain to see all of the reasons why a new idea won’t work, you can train yourself to ask a more empowering question.

Let’s say you couldn’t focus during your meditation. You could get self-critical and judgmental, which is negativity bias, or you could ask yourself “How could we do better next time?” It represents the perspective of possibility and opportunity rather than despair and deprecation.

Or if there’s a daunting new business idea you have. Instead of reflecting on the idea with all of the reasons why it’s going to be hard or where you might fail (which prevents you from even trying), you can ask yourself the question “How can we get the first version of this business off the ground?”

It completely changes the energy you use to approach a challenge. Unconsciously the default is negative, that’s just the way our brains are designed to work, but consciously it can be positive and optimistic. To promote the latter, the goal is to interrupt the normal pattern, create awareness on how you want to relate with the situation, and use the prompt you’ve now learned to change your thinking. You do it enough times and it will become more natural, more familiar, and more default.

You’ve heard it a number of times, the greatest resource we have is our time. We make money to buy ourselves more time, or concentrate the value we can experience within a certain amount of time. More time means more freedom to do the things you want to do, with the people you care about, for the reasons that inspire you.

One of the most important ways to save time is to do things more efficiently. This involves getting the same amount done with less investment, which comes in the form of time, effort, and money. The more efficiently we can live our lives the more capacity we have for the other things.

Something I’ve found to be one of the most important tenets of efficiency is centralization. Centralization means that everything is concentrated, organized, and structured in a way where it is easily accessible and coordinated. 

Think of the concept of the centralization of power in government - That has to do with concentrating the decision making power into a small committee. This is only effective when they have easy access to the information they need and the resources they need to execute key functions.

Now if you want to be more efficient in your life, managing all of your responsibilities seamlessly at once, you need to centralize things. It’s the harmonizing of your self-care, work, relationships, and passions that allows you to squeeze more out of life! And that’s only achievable when you have a strong centralized system to manage it all.

I’ve implemented this for myself in two ways, and it’s also what I have the people I coach do. First is I have a Self-Improvement Operating System. This is the engine and core process behind my development because it allows me to take in all data in one place, recognize patterns and trends, and make decisions to improve in key areas. This lives in a single, centralized place.

The second is about task management. By having a robust task management system and a process behind assigning priorities and urgencies, you can be intentional about how you fill your schedule and thus how you spend your time. I have a core routine in place that helps me keep this resource up to date as things are dynamic, and it helps me to centralize my thoughts, key projects, follow ups, errands, and everything else that helps me to live more efficiently.

If you think a little more structure and intentionality in your life will help you to manage responsibilities, increase your performance, and take better care of yourself and those you care about, then I’d love to help you with that. Again it’s one of the centerpieces to what I do in my coaching. If you want to learn more about that and see if it’s a good fit for you, click here to schedule a time for us to chat about it!

I heard this thought through one of my favorite authors, the brilliant mind behind the iconic book “Atomic Habits”, James Clear. He related our life experience in a very simple and profound way, saying that we don’t always choose the load, but we do choose how to carry it.

The implication behind this is that many people waste their time and effort complaining about the circumstances. It’s unfair that you got looked over for a promotion. That injury you sustained is the reason you can’t work out and you’re gaining weight. The truth is, a lot of what happens to us is out of our control - that’s just the load we carry. What is in control is how we carry it.

Is your tendency to avoid it altogether and act like you don’t need to carry it? Is it that you procrastinate and delay the inevitable because you don’t feel like it? Maybe your ego gets in the way and you struggle to lift it and make life harder than it needs to be.

In having an awareness that we do have a say in how we carry the load, even though we didn’t choose the load, it allows us to get more resourceful. Instead of focusing all of your energy on the problem, this transitions your attention to possible solutions.

What if you chose to get some help in carrying the load, that would make it a whole lot lighter wouldn’t it? Or what if you invested in some tools that helped you wheel the load and make it more manageable? There are options available to you, and when you get your ego and pride out of the way, you’ll begin to see them.

You do not choose the load but you do choose how to carry it. This gives you power in your life when you feel powerless. It gives you the agency to make things right when it appears as though you’ve been wronged. 

A piece of advice I constantly hear from the world’s most successful people, from all backgrounds, is that everything changed for them when they took ownership of their life. They’re not defined by their environment, they assign their own meaning to it and make it whatever they want it to be.

To wrap this up I’d like you to internalize this question - What is yours to carry and how can you carry it better?

We’ve all been there…There’s some small task that you know you need to do, but it’s so small that you put it off for a bit. Then you forget about it and it becomes a little more urgent but also, a little more difficult to complete. And because it’s difficult you find a way to procrastinate on it and before you know it now you have a big problem that grew out of a tiny little seed of a challenge.

I can certainly relate with this - The mail piles up and it becomes a chore to get through it. The rusting gets worse until the appliance is no longer usable. When these small things go unaddressed, they turn into issues with consequences.

Now relating it back to personal development, this unresolved, neglected gunk in our personal lives does the same thing. There was something small going on that you were willing to tolerate for a bit... Then it grew into a bigger problem and became more overwhelming to fix, and it turned into something it didn’t need to be because of negligence. If only you would have “nipped it in the bud”, what came of it all would have been avoided.

This happens when your boundaries are crossed and you don’t enforce them. When there’s a difficult conversation you need to have but things seem to be sitting in limbo. When there’s a big decision you need to make and you put it off, making both options less desirable.

I get it, when it’s small, it’s hard to intervene. Especially when it doesn't seem like a big deal. But it’s kind of embarrassing to face up with the fact that you neglected something and now have to pay the price for it.

So the lesson here - When something comes up and it’s not great, but not awful, it’s best to just clear it up. Engage someone in that honest conversation, get the help you need before it’s critical, and reset the situation back to its normal balance before it runs to the far end of the spectrum. 

It takes energy and emotion to clear things up from the onset, but it will take way more of it, and it will cost you lost time if you put it off. So get proactive about level-setting your life and watch the inconveniences start to resolve themselves without the frustration they normally bring.

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…)

We all share this world but we experience it so differently. Our own two eyes shape what we see. Our own two legs move us around to determine our vantage point. And most importantly, our own experiences cause us to relate with the things around us in our own way.

It’s all a matter of perspective. I love the visual of casting a shadow on a cylinder. If the cylinder is standing upright and the light hits the long face directly, the shadow is a rectangle. But if you lay the cylinder down like you’re rolling it and you cast the light from the same angle as before, now the shadow is a circle. It’s the same object and the same light, but two very different outcomes. When someone asks you about the shape of a cylinder’s shadow, there are two right and wrong answers.

The reason I bring this up is because it’d serve us to have the same understanding for the people we encounter. We don’t know what they’re going through, we don’t know what they need, and we don’t know how they’re feeling. To account for that, and help contribute to a brighter world, it’s a good idea to always be a little kinder than necessary.”

This plays in all settings. Someone you’re really excited to see - how do you make them feel that enthusiasm and a little more. Someone who you hardly know and you’re interacting with them - surprise them with the genuine care and attention you give them. Or someone who’s making you angry and you’re arguing with them - cool your emotions down and treat them with a touch more kindness than what is coming up in the moment.

Looking back at these situations, you’ll never regret having been kinder than was required. However, it’s very likely you’ll regret being meaner or nastier than you should have been. 

So keep that in the back of your mind. As you approach new situations in your life, how do you show up a little kinder than necessary? Try it on for a few days and see how it makes you feel. There’s no faster way to create positivity within you than to ignite it in others.

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…)

We talk a lot about getting better every single day. Even if it’s just 1%, every little bit counts, especially when you do it consistently. But have you ever done the math on it? Do you know what it takes to actually dedicate 1% of your day to improvement?

When I met Brian Cane, the host of a podcast called Mental Performance Daily, he simplified this thought for me. He said that 1% of 24 hours is just 14 minutes and 24 seconds. If we want to transform our life by getting 1% better every single day, we don’t need to invest more than a quarter of an hour. I don’t care how busy you are, if you really care about your future and maximizing your potential you can find 15 minutes in a day to do so.

But as you know, your growth needs to be intentional. As I see it there are two ways to grow - either you raise your standards or you stretch your capacity. In either case, it’s going to feel uncomfortable because you’re doing something different. But therein lies the key - If you want to truly maximize the time you’re investing in your development, it’s important that you pursue genuine, uncomfortable growth.

So let’s make this practical, you truly want to get 1% better every day, what does that mean? It means you need to start doing something differently than you used to, that is representative of a better version of yourself, for just under 15 minutes a day.

According to Brian Johnson from Heroic, the group that introduced me to Brian Cane (I know there are too many Brian’s!), there’s one question that will help you truly identify this opportunity for growth within yourself. He asks, “What’s the one thing you could start doing that you know will most radically change your life if you started today?” 

Think about that. 

What’s the one thing you could start doing that you know will most radically change your life if you started today?

Your task, if you choose to accept it, is to engage in a version of that behavior for 15 minutes. For me, it’s to better manage my energy throughout the day. I have a 3 minute energy revival routine that, if I do it 5 times over the course of the day, it will transform my energy and my life.

That’s what it takes! It’s doable, but it takes commitment. It’s not going to happen on its own. In order to get new results you need to make new decisions to take new actions. Simple as that. And hopefully, this perspective around your growth inspires you to take a bold step toward the best version of yourself.

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 heard this metaphor recently and it added some interesting perspective, so I wanted to share it with you. As we go about our lives we’re constantly observing things around us. We're making sense of things for ourselves and understanding how others relate with different environments. It mostly entails us looking out at what’s around us and finding meaning in it. 

This is kind of like looking out a window. Through your own two eyes, from the perspective of where your feet are planted, you can see the world for how it exists around you. You can find reasons that justify why people made certain decisions. You can attribute a cause and effect to the circumstances you encounter to note the relationship things have to each other.

But if you look really closely into the window, what do you actually see? You see your own reflection. Your silhouette is reflected back in everything you see on the other side of the window. You are always in the picture but until you draw your attention to it, you’re pretty unlikely to see it.

This applies for the conclusions you take from what you see. Your perception of things is not simply as they are, it’s always how you see it. A part of you is always contributing your beliefs, assumptions, expectations and biases to the situation you’re observing. As long as it’s you looking through the window, your reflection will always be integrated into what you’re seeing.

This is why self-awareness is so critical. Once you realize that there’s a part of you in your perception of everything else, you can start gaining insights into that part of you that you may not have had access to before. Getting curious about the conclusions you draw gives you the space to consider how the end results are more a reflection of you and not the situation. And the great part is, once you see this truth, you can’t unsee it. You will carry this awareness into your interactions and be able to show up with more humility.

So to wrap this up, let me ask you this question - Is there a part of you you’ve been unwilling to see in the things around you? That thing that’s causing you anxiety, it’s unfair, or it’s beyond your control… Is it possible you’re playing a role in making it so?

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…)

Let’s get to work! The New Year is here and I hope you feel motivated to bring positive change to your life. Now’s the time where things are really being put to the test - You’re no longer in the fun and excitement of possibility and you’re officially in the trenches of making it a reality.

What must happen now is your intentions must shift into actions. Ideas don’t change your life, it’s the materialization of them that does. The world operates through activity and if you want anything to change, you need to get active. Fortunately though, intentions help to shape action. Our intentions create a subconscious priming and accountability that helps us feel more motivated, more inspired, and more committed. This then gives us the energy we need to follow through on taking action.

But intentions run out if they’re not acted upon. Your brain is constantly trying to find evidence to confirm what it believes to be true about the world around you. If you don’t take action on your intentions, that’s the proof your brain needs to conclude that it must not actually be a priority, and the motivation and inspiration slowly fades away. Or alternatively, if you get consistent taking action, it affirms to your brain that this new way of seeing the world is legitimate and it will sustain a positive relationship with the intention for longer.

Now to be real with you and to tell you what’s coming around the corner, even if you’re perfectly consistent, the inspiration from your intention will go away. That’s because another part of the brain is designed to actively resist change. This new way of thinking about the world is unfamiliar and therefore threatening, and it will make things harder than it has to be. This is self-sabotage, it’s a killer, and you certainly will encounter it as you attempt to bring positive change into your life.

So your goal for the next month should be to establish a routine around taking action on your intention. If you want to get healthier, make choices congruent with that in your diet and exercise until it becomes habitual. If you want to stop wasting so much time on social media, enforce time limits and make a habit of spending time away from your phone.

This is the landscape you’re entering! And I hope to support you through it so that you can make 2023 the best year of your life, yet! If you’re open to it, I’d love for you to share with me your New Year intention or resolution or commitment to the type of person you want to be. This will help you in a few ways:

1) an external representation of your intention will help it hold more value

2) It will require you to get really clear on what exactly your intention is

3) I can provide specific resources or recommendations that will facilitate you being successful!

So if you want to share, fill out the quick form here and I'll check it out!