I’m an absolute nerd when it comes to understanding how the mind works, and last week I arrived at a conclusion I’d never had before!

One of the greatest opportunities for changing our life is to make new choices. New choices lead to new actions, which lead to new outcomes. In that way the choices you make are the lead dominos that dictate the direction of your life. The fascinating thing is, we make millions of decisions every single day. Our brains are constantly evaluating our surroundings, emotions, resources, other people... everything! And working hard to make decisions that keep us safe. The majority of this is happening without our awareness.

The epiphany was - Choices are simply the decisions we make that we’re aware of. This is the conscious mind electing to do certain things based on drawing logical conclusions. But even so, it's not entirely independent. These conscious choices are biased and contextualized by our subconscious environment. We come to make choices that are rationalized by the needs and information available to the subconscious mind.

But putting that aside for a second, let’s talk about all of those decisions you’re making that you’re not aware of. Those are your habits and routines. They’re your conditioned, habitual way of responding to different stimuli. And for the most part it’s a good thing we have this. Imagine if we needed to make a decision on everything we ever encountered every day. Our conscious mind does not have the capacity, and we’d certainly never have the ability to do anything creative or imaginative.

In this lies exactly why making new positive choices can change your life. When you choose to engage in new positive behaviors you’re teaching your subconscious mind how to make decisions for you. And when that transformation is complete, you start making unconscious decisions that are in alignment with the better life you’re consciously choosing to have.

Now this is a whole other concept in itself, but just to share quickly - This is exactly why you need to be so present in establishing new habits. It takes focus, and attention to detail, and conscious follow through to create new habits because new habits first require taking conscious action. Then through repetition these effortful actions evolve to become unconscious habits.

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…)

This Thursday positivity quote really inspires me. It could be because I truly believe in other people and want to see them succeed, or because seeing ‘possibility’ is a core value of mine. In any case, hopefully this quote inspires you too.

“Your dreams are a preview of what’s possible.”

Your dreams are not these absurd, outlandish, unattainable figments of your imagination. How do I know this? Because someone else has probably already accomplished what you dream to do. They’re human, just like you. Different circumstances? Of course. On an accelerated path? Maybe. But for every one thing you can think of that makes you different from that person, you can probably think of 10 things that make you similar. 

Your dreams are your destiny calling to your potential. The universe is not so mean to give you a dream you aren’t capable of achieving. While you can’t make all of your dreams come true tomorrow, you can put yourself on the path today to making your dreams come true at some point in the future.

That’s exactly what this quote describes to you - “Your dreams are a preview of what’s possible.” When something is possible it means that there’s a real chance it can happen. It can be the reality that you live and breathe every day. That’s what happened for other people that made their dreams come true, isn’t it?

The main thing keeping you from your dream right now is that you’re telling yourself it’s impossible. That it can’t be done. That there are too many conflicts, challenges, and excuses in the way. And that poor way of thinking keeps you from even trying in the first place.

Sure, it could be more comfortable living in the land of make believe, where you dream without any intention of your dreams coming true. But what does that do to change your life? I’m telling you, you can make your dreams come true, and you have these dreams for a reason. It’s your purpose, your soul begging you to do what you were meant to do in this world.

It might not turn out exactly as you planned, in fact it never does, but once you get in the energy of pursuing your dreams you give yourself the experience to allow it to evolve, mature, and settle into your life. But it’s not going to happen on its own.

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…)

In a society where we can have anything at the click of a button, we've lost our sense of patience. This exists in the micro as it relates to our immediate needs but also in the macro and how quickly we expect to get results in our lives. Things take time to grow and develop, but practicing this philosophy is different than knowing it.

Dave Meltzer shares this concept called the empty mile. When it comes to any race or pursuit, do you know which literal or metaphorical mile is the emptiest? It’s the last, because people quit along the way. But the empty mile is the most fruitful and has multiplied value because it is earned. You want to find yourself in the empty mile. But you can’t expect to reach the empty mile at the very beginning of the race. You need to give it time and earn your way to it.

And there’s a process to that. It’s Dave’s cornerstone philosophy which is that we must enjoy the consistent (everyday), persistent (without quit) pursuit of our potential. When we resiliently focus on taking action in the present moment, and fee fulfilled and validated by it, we aren’t as concerned with the outcomes being produced. This is a great thing because it creates more time for the outcomes to mature.

I’ve very much seen this come to life in a project I’m leading. Outside of the work I do with the podcast I have a social impact agency where we’re organizing a Veterans Day campaign. In our 2nd year, we’re slowly starting to see partnerships open up, opportunities come to life, and the full vision for what’s possible with this campaign to materialize. It’s inspiring but it has only been possible because we have stayed consistent and persistent in the face of setbacks.

You might be curious to hear about it - The campaign is called BurpeesForVets and our mission is to inspire 1000 people to do a burpee for every dollar they fundraise leading up to Veterans Day. Veterans Day is a month away and if you feel inspired to step up to the challenge, or you know a gym owner or leader in the fitness space that might want to get involved in supporting, please be a part of this movement by helping us grow it! Send an email to burpeesforvets@forpurpose.com with any ideas or interest and I’ll personally follow up with you there! And you can sign yourself up for the burpee challenge at www.burpeesforvets.org!

The world around us is one big system. You can look as granular as an atom or the function of a single cell, or as big as the interactions of galaxies and solar systems, everything works as a connected network. It’s a universal quality that exists in all things. These systems involve processes that achieve certain ends and then there are other processes that restore things to how they were.

Take decomposition for example. We take in food, use the nutrients to support our bodies, and we expel what we don’t need. That contains the specific nutrients that make for good soil, supporting the growth of a plant that then produces the food we eat. It’s a cycle.

Slowing down this thought, let’s zoom in on the first half the cycle. There’s a relationship between the input and the output, and in our lives we overlook this relationship. If we want things to improve at the end, we can influence that by being intentional about what happens in the beginning. 

That’s where today’s thought becomes appropriate: Value in, value out. Everything you take in is part of what comes out. This means that if you want better outcomes and results, you should look at the inputs and see how they’re setting you up.

For example, your diet. When you eat good and quality foods, you’re preparing your body to perform at a higher level. We may not realize this on a daily basis, but we certainly do when we have bad inputs - like if you drank too much alcohol or ate a lot of junk food. Similarly with the content and information we consume. If we surround ourselves with ideas that are empowering and inspiring we’ll naturally be a part of more incredible things! But if you are caught up in gossip, drama, and unhealthy comparison online you’ll start creating more of that in your life.

My recommendation is to audit and track your inputs. If there’s a particular area of your life where you feel like you’re out of balance, or whatever you’re doing is not serving you, invest in becoming more aware of that thing. That way you can understand the what, when, how, and why of it, and you’ll be able to take corrective action on that awareness.

The full formula looks like this: Inputs + Process = Outputs. We spend so much time focusing on changing the process to change the outputs, but just as easily you can modify your inputs and see how things adjust for you.

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…)

When it comes to being a better person, or improving at anything, you need to control your patterns of thinking. Our thinking is simply the process of asking and answering questions to ourselves, and if we want to start having better answers in our life we need to start asking better questions.

This might be one of the best ways to ask questions that positively impact your life as 'How might I?' questions.

How might I get a raise at work? How might I be a better friend or romantic partner? How might I get in the best shape of my life? How might I become a more resilient person? How might I love myself more?

Psychologically this expression ‘how might I’ does some incredible things. The word ‘might’ allows you to truly dream and brainstorm without restriction because it isn't meant to be connected to reality. It doesn’t suggest any commitment from you, and therefore, your mind doesn’t resist it because it doesn't feel threatened. 

Without this expression you’d engage in a more diluted form of thinking, which creates diluted outcomes. But with an easy change in vocabulary you can get rid of the governor that hold you back so you can more forward faster!

Now let's add on a layer.  Let’s say you are doing some goal setting and you really want to maximize the experience. On top of asking yourself ‘How might I’ questions, I’d recommend that you also go into a new inspiring environment. What this does is it removes any previous associations you have with your normal spaces and allows you to really engross yourself in the possibility of your answers!

Let me show you what I mean by asking you your first question to reflect on - How might you finally conquer that thing that’s always been holding you back? 

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…)

Life isn’t perfect and it never will be. There will always be things that come up that aren’t ideal - They’re inconvenient, unfortunate, disappointing, and stress inducing. That’s just the nature of the human experience. These are the problems and challenges of life, but we approach each one differently depending on how we label it, which is evident when we contrast them side by side.

A problem suggests that something needs to be fixed. It implies that things are worse right now than they should be. A challenge is more an opportunity for improvement. It implies that things aren’t dire right now, but they can certainly be better if you put work into it.

This distinction carries into the energy both words carry. A problem is something that consumes your energy. It’s something that you try to avoid and prevent, and when it comes up it’s usually a bad thing. A challenge is something that inspires you, it excites you, and you look forward to doing it. A challenge energizes you and gives you a game to play that you get to enjoy and feel good about.

As you probably determined for yourself, we should try to approach our problems as challenges more often. Anything that helps us live more moments with enthusiasm and inspiration is something we should take seriously because it’s an opportunity to improve our life experience. When we gamify life we tap into a youthful, curious, and optimistic energy that truly alters our reality.

But having said that, sometimes it’s really hard to have perspective. Some things are just meant to be problems, that’s the nature of them and it’s difficult to reframe your mind. In those moments, my suggestion is to not force something that is out of integrity with your best self. Give yourself the space to confront and accept whatever it is, feel it in the short-term, and once you’ve processed that then you can get to work on reframing a more positive way you can do something about it.

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…)

When things are going really well, when we have a lot of momentum and enthusiasm for life, one way that we describe that is by saying ”I’m on top of the world!” Literally this expression doesn’t make much sense, but metaphorically it holds a lot of meaning.

I mean just picture it. If you’re physically on top of the world, to me that could mean two things. Literally it could mean you’re at the highest point in the world, which is the summit of Mount Everest. Or more abstractly you could be floating at the edge of space, where the planet and outer space meet. 

From either viewpoint you can see how the world is. Instead of being so consumed in the details you see things from a much broader lens. Instead of being discouraged by the limitations, chaos and realities of the day, you get to see life more with less restriction and more curiosity. It allows you to dream bigger, think bolder, and move faster! 

The metaphor is that when you’re feeling on top of the world you’re taking this vantage point. You see the world with more possibility and opportunity. While being on top of the world is an emotional moment with rich positivity, it also holds a lot of optimism for the future. It shapes your perspective beyond the now and influences you well into the future, which hopefully helps you to maintain the momentum you’ve earned.

When you’re on top of the world you feel unstoppable, you feel limitless, and you feel encouraged. You see how life is happening for you, which is much easier to do when things are going well. But if you can capture that feeling and store it for when you need it, it can be an incredible source of inspiration and groundedness.

But important to mention, you need to climb. You need to earn the vantage point. There’s truth to the expression “it’s about the journey not the destination” because the destination only has significance with respect to the journey. So pick your mountain to climb, one that inspires you and feels aligned with how you want to live, and start climbing. Put your head down and soon enough you’ll be on top of the world and enjoying every bit of it!

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…)

You’ve probably heard the expression “actions speak louder than words” before. I think that’s a gross understatement. Anyone can say anything, words don’t mean much unless they’re believable, and that’s where your actions are the proof that gives truth to your words.

So we need to take it a step further. To quote Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Your actions speak so loud I can’t hear what you say.”

When you speak - Talking about your dreams, making plans about the new exercise routine you want to be in, or whatever it might be - you’re setting an intention. Intentions are good in that they help guide your behavior, but intentions alone don’t change your life. They’re supportive of the thing that does change your life, which is doing.

Your behavior is the greatest evidence you have in your life. It proves what’s most important to you, what you’re committed to, what you care about, and what you’re investing in. Every action you take (or don’t take) is an imprint to your subconscious providing proof of your character.

Take these examples - Someone says that they’re adventurous but then they are too scared to try something new. Or someone says they want to be better with their budget but then they make an extravagant purchase. In both cases I’m going to believe what they did way more than what they said until proven otherwise. 

Some people are incredibly gifted speakers who have great ideas and inspire others. But in my experience I’ve tried to get less emotionally evoked by what people say and look at the facts. The follow through is everything and it’s important we wait to see it before drawing any conclusions.

Your actions speak so loud I can’t hear what you say.”

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…)