An alchemist is someone who transforms or creates something through a seemingly magical process. Historically this skill was used to create potent cures to rare diseases, making valuable metals out of random raw materials, or more specifically how Jesus is said to have turned water into wine. While you might not believe you have these magical abilities yourself, you absolutely do have a version of it. We’re all capable of life alchemy and shaping our reality into whatever form we choose.

One of the most powerful forces for living a fulfilling and purposeful life is choice. We make decisions and choose what we invest our time into. We make big life choices that shape our environment and direct our lives in certain ways. But most importantly we have the choice to determine how we want to perceive certain situations. 

Just because something happened does not guarantee the end result. It’s simply the beginning of your perception of the event. You have the opportunity to decide how you want to make meaning of the things that happen to you. Did you pour yourself into something only to fail miserably? That could discourage you and cause you to quit, or it can be seen as exactly the lesson you needed when you needed it. 

There are multiple ways to perceive any situation, and that’s life alchemy. It’s shaping the events of your life so that you can tell the story you want about it. And as long as you have a clear picture of what success authentically looks like to you, then you can start making that a reality by seeing everything that happens to you as a support to materializing it.

The way your mind makes meaning of things is very complex that involves past experiences, beliefs, emotions, and a lot of other things. It takes a lot of self-growth to truly alchemize the life of your dreams from the events that happen within it. But want to know where to start? Say thank you. Any time something happens, good or bad, say thank you. This injects gratitude into every area of your life and positions you to receive everything in a positive and supportive way. With these two words, you become a life alchemist.

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…)

If you’re in the US or Canada, text me at 949-799-0788 and I’ll send you daily text messages that help you grow and discover yourself every day.

Our lives are improved by the presence of others. As much as we’re living out our own passions and missions, we cannot do it alone. We require other people to really make the most out of life. Humans are inherently social creatures that require each other to survive and proliferate. We’re meant to be cooperative, collaborative, and collective.

But the problem is, right now many people don’t trust each other. In an age where information is abundant and unreliable, it’s hard to know what is true and what is not. Not only do we have a collective distrust about information, but we’re also hesitant to trust each other. A shocking Harvard Business Review statistic states that 58% of employees trust a stranger more than their boss. This suggests that we’re in a very skeptical chapter of human where we’re questioning other people’s intentions.

When you reflect on a thought like this, it’s very easy to remove yourself from it and think of yourself as the exception. I want to challenge that thought and encourage you to think about how this applies for you.

So the question becomes, how you can cultivate trust-based relationships? In other words, how can you confidently trust other people more, and how can you be more trustworthy? This is a complex topic but here are a few things to think about.

First, be honest. It’s that simple. People trust others who tell the truth. This means that when you’re struggling with something, voice it. When you were wrong about something, admit it. When you’re feeling something, express it. The more your truth is out in the open for others to see, the less skeptical they’ll be about what you’re holding back (and the more trust you’ll earn).

Then second, hold space. Give people the permission to be themselves without judgment or criticism. Let them feel accepted for who they are. This creates trust because when people get more comfortable with you, they feel like they can confide in you. And through the principles of commitment and consistency the rest of their psyche will be pulled to act in congruence with that.

As with anything, the key to having more trust in your life and relationships is to go first. Set the tone by going there yourself, and you'll see how willing people are to meet you there.

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…)

If you’re in the US or Canada, text me at 949-799-0788 and I’ll send you daily text messages that help you grow and discover yourself every day.

Sometimes we don’t give ourselves enough credit for how much we’ve learned, how much we’ve improved, and how far we’ve come. As growth-oriented individuals, we focus on areas where we’re falling short of our own expectations. It dominates our attention (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing), but for every shortcoming we have right now, we have 10 things we’ve mastered without realizing it.

That’s because everything that feels easy today used to be hard when we were first getting started. Our focus is placed disproportionately on the things that require our energy and effort. Things that have become easy don't get the same attention because it’s not as important to allocate resources to - You’re already in the swing of it! But the only way it got to that point is because you were focused on it at one point, you used to spend your energy figuring out how to do it better, which led to your improvement and efficiency.

Here are a few examples. As a kid, we learned how to walk, tie our shoes, and hold objects. If you’ve watched a kid recently learning how to do any of those things, you see their focus. It’s a challenge for them. But once they invest the time to master whatever it is, it has become easy. How about as adults. When we were first learning how to cook, how to pump gas, how to work our smartphones. It was difficult at first, but now you do those things without trouble.

Beyond the awareness and appreciation of this, what does this mean for you today? Take a look at the things that are hard for you to do. It could be improving at a new skill or hobby, or dialing in a new process. It’s hard now but it won’t be that way forever. 

So don’t give up on it, don’t sell yourself short because it’s not working how you want it to now. Have faith in this process that you’ve seen play out time and again in your life, and invest the time and energy required to overcome whatever frustrations this new challenge presents.

Everything easy was once hard to do. These hard things you’re doing now will become easy and integrate into the foundation that allows you to stretch even further.

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…)

For Thursday positivity I wanted to share a reflection I had about a word that has come up consistently over the last few months. It’s an underappreciated and underspoken term because it’s typically reserved for a certain type of person, and I think it’s a disservice to the intention of the word. And that word is “muse”.

A muse is the inspiration for a creator. It’s often applied to describe artists and where they draw their creative inspiration from. Since artists are usually more expressive, unconventional, and free-spirited people, this source of inspiration has a different connotation to it. It’s described as something that is much more visceral, much more personified, and in that way it permeates layers deeper.

My addition to this definition is that I’d argue we are all creators. We are all artists of sorts whether we identify as such or not. This means that we all have our own muse that inspires us in the most profound and intuitive of ways, but we may not be connected to it because we don’t have the vocabulary to explore it.

I want to help you not only discover your muse but teach you that you are your greatest source of inspiration. Yes you, that human who sees yourself for all your flaws and shortcomings. You speak the language of your soul better than anything else. You have the example within you that you’ve been looking to model. Your muse is your best-self that is starting to come out in some ways and still remaining latent in others. Your potential is your muse.

You already have everything that you’ll ever need. You are deeply connected to goodness and abundance. Of course we don’t live this completely, that’s our human nature, but our mission is to access all of this potential within us and work through all of the things that are getting in the way. 

The first step on this mission is believing it. Believing in your potential, believing in the greatness inside of you. And to make that more tangible, I want you to try reciting this affirmation to yourself to see how it feels for you - “I am my own muse”.

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…)

If you’re in the US or Canada, text me at 949-799-0788 and I’ll send you daily text messages that help you grow and discover yourself every day.

Our frame of reference is relative. Our aspirations are within the context of what we’ve learned is possible based on our environments. Our challenges and problems are perceived through the lens of other challenges we’ve experienced. The human experience is a full spectrum but we only taste our own sliver of it, and we acclimate to that level over time.

This is where having a broadened perspective can be really helpful. Instead of narrowly seeing life as it is in front of you, you can be more self-aware of your position relative to others. This helps you gain insight into the blessings you have in your life that are underappreciated, the resources and opportunities you have access to that have become expected, and all of the things you’re taking for granted.

Don’t take for granted what other people are wishing for. As you're breathing right now, there are people all over the world that are on ventilators because they can’t breathe for themselves. Their wish is to breathe comfortably again. You might be reading this while you’re driving in traffic (hopefully not!), there are people not so far from you right now who desperately desire easier transportation. Virtually everything around you is an example of something that you’re privileged to have that someone, somewhere, really wants for themselves.

You can honor these blessings and privileges with gratitude. Finding times to be present and observing the comforts of your life. Making an effort to make the most of the incredible tools you have at your fingertips. Believe it or not, there are people who would want to trade places with you.

I understand that this is all easier said than done. You’ve grown accustomed to the way that things are, and therefore you don’t really notice it anymore. But that’s where I want to challenge you to prove this concept to yourself right now. Look around you and find one thing that you have, or that you can do, that other people would wish was possible for themselves?

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…)

If you’re in the US or Canada, text me at 949-799-0788 and I’ll send you daily text messages that help you grow and discover yourself every day.

Have you ever talked yourself out of doing something that was important to you? Maybe you were with a group of friends and you didn’t have the courage to explore something new. Maybe you’ve been postponing an important conversation because you don’t want to create confrontation. Or maybe you’re unwilling to dive into a new passion because you don’t know what you’re signing up for.

What I’ve found to be true in my life is that it’s usually not as bad as you think it is. Exploring with friends wasn’t as scary as you thought it would be. That tough conversation was actually well-received by the other person. You discover that you're more capable than you believed yourself to be once you got your hands dirty in that new passion.

The reason people are so hesitant to do new things is because they talk themselves out of it. They tell themselves a convincing story that rationalizes why they shouldn’t do something. In that internal dialogue, what’s happening is your subconscious mind is preventing you from doing things that might threaten you. It’s the uncertainty and unpredictability of the outcome that prevents people from getting started, because what comes to mind is the worst case scenario (which of obviously undesirable).

This is called negativity bias. Our brains have evolved to flag the negative things that could happen to protect us. So by default, when there’s doubt or uncertainty, your mind fills in the gaps with the things that could go wrong because that’s what will keep you safe.

But it’s very rare that the worst case scenario actually plays out. That’s why it’s not as bad as you think it is. You experience the reality of the situation rather than the assumed negative outcomes your mind forecasts, and you’re pleasantly surprised when you experience the truth of it. It’s not as scary, challenging, painful, or threatening as you made it out to be. And when you start to see through the story your mind is making up about whatever it is in front f you, you can start pursuing things more courageously and with more confidence.

Now let’s integrate this concept into your life by reflecting on this question - What’s something that you want to do but you’ve postponed it because you don’t know enough 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…)

If you’re in the US or Canada, text me at 949-799-0788 and I’ll send you daily text messages that help you grow and discover yourself every day.

As someone who is passionately on his own self-improvement journey, I have arrived at two really fundamental elements to how we experience a good life. It’s within these two elements I have discovered my own fun, excitement, fulfillment, and significance. And those two things are growth and choice.

We talk about achieving growth but less often we talk about what growth actually is. Growth is evolving toward the next version of yourself. It’s integrating new perspectives so that you see the world differently. It’s upgrading your beliefs and expectations about yourself and others. It’s developing skills and learning lessons that help you to make better decisions. 

Growth is something that you achieve by way of experience. It’s not just what happens to you, but how you relate with what happens to you and the shifts it causes. In that way it is closely connected to the idea of transformation. Transformation is simply that things used to be one way, then something changed, and now it’s different. Growth is the process that bridges the gap between how things were and how they are.

The second piece here is choice. Through the choices you make, you shape everything around you. Externally, you make decisions that put you in certain places and you do certain things, which then leads to the experiences you have. Even though many things can feel out of your control, and in the moment they are, everything hat happens is a byproduct of the choices you made that led you to that moment.

Your choices don’t only influence the events that happen around you, your choices also help you assign a meaning to the events. These are your internal choices. And that meaning then affects the way you feel, what you think, and ultimately the outcome of everything you’re experiencing.

Here’s the cool part about this - The choices you make are influenced by the growth you’ve experienced. The perspectives, beliefs, and standards you’ve grown to have provide a lens that you see your choices through. So if you want to consistently make better choices, which lead to better perceived outcomes and a more fulfilled life, you must prioritize your self-growth so that you apply your best self to the situations you encounter.

In summary, we have two great gifts in life - Growth and choice. Growth allows us to evolve and express a better version of ourselves through experience. Choices dictate the situations we find ourselves in, and the meaning we assign to those situations, which is influenced by the character we’ve invested in growing.

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…)

If you’re in the US or Canada, text me at 949-799-0788 and I’ll send you daily text messages that help you grow and discover yourself every day.

Recently I’ve been learning more about the inspirational message and story of Inky Johnson. As a kid Inky grew up sleeping on the floor in a rough neighborhood and difficult circumstances. He earned his way to play college football and had his eyes set on a career in the NFL, but experienced a career ending injury that his right arm and hand paralyzed. 

He embraced this life change, found a new dream and purpose, and has become one of the most inspiring keynote speakers in the world. I share all of this to provide context around one of his core philosophies. Inky says “How you view what you do is how you do what you do.”

You are always in control of the story that is told. You are always in control of the end-result for anything that happens to you. And that’s because you get to decide the meaning you take from experiences, the way you perceive the things around you, to shape your personal reality. This is evidenced in the formula E + R = O. Event (or what happened) + Response (or how you interpret the event) = Outcome. The story and power of choice we have lives in the response.

How you view what you do is how you do what you do. Your thoughts and perspective lead to action. There is no separation between the two. The more empowering thoughts you have, the more empowering actions you take. The more dismissive thoughts you have, the more dismissive actions you take.

The opportunity then becomes, how can you be more present and intentional about the thoughts that make up your response? I believe that you must intentionally build it in as a core process or routine. During my night routine, I journal on a series of questions to help me shape my perspective. I call it my Failure Roll Call. I ask myself, “How did I fail today?” I write a few examples down. Then after I ask myself “What did I learn from my failure?”

This helps me to view my shortcomings as learning opportunities, which helps me to take inspired action. I’m controlling my response to the event and have a practice in place that helps me see the opportunity and learnings in the failure instead of the discouragement. How you view what you do is how you do what you do.

I’m in this becoming my best self just like you. If you want direct access to my own personal practices and systems so that you can quickly reach the next level in your own development, I’d love to tell you about the 3 step process I use that helps me implement new positive habits overnight, shape my mindset, and achieve a fulfilling life balance with strong relationships, inspiring accomplishments, and energizing health. Want to tell chat about how it can do the same for you?