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”.

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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?

You’ve certainly heard this expression before, but hearing it is one thing and believing it is another. It goes “When one door closes, another one opens.” This isn’t just a feel-good quote, this has basis in science and physics.

Let’s start with Newton’s 1st law of thermodynamics which is “Energy and matter cannot be created nor destroyed.” Everything around us takes the form of energy and matter including intangible things like ideas, opportunities, and thoughts. Everything has a frequency to it. What happens then is that when things change it’s not that anything has been lost or gained, it’s that things have transformed. So when one door closes that energy transforms into something equal somewhere else, which is the other door opening.

The reason this is hard to believe is because we don’t always have immediate evidence that this happened. Sure another door opened, but if it’s across the world then that’s not going to do you much good, right? Understanding that everything is connected, these energetic shifts always return to you over time and in indirect ways. It might seem completely unrelated, but the goodness that enters your life is tied to the struggles you experience.

The most important ingredient in this equation is faith. It requires faith that things happen for a reason. That you’ll get exactly what you need when you need it. That when a door closes another will open in some way beyond your understanding. Newton’s 3rd law of motion is “Everything has an equal and opposite reaction”, which means that these ripples are constantly being created to maintain abundance. Napoleon Hill, the author of “Think and Grow Rich” calls this the seed of equal and opposite benefit. 

You must have faith that you’re being taken care of, that your connection to abundance is always intact regardless of the circumstances, and that you’re on the right path. It’s a more encouraging, empowering, and inspiring way to live to assume that things are going to work out for you, and it’s your choice to make that your reality. 

I’m fortunate to have benefited from some of this recently, there’s always a larger plan that I have no awareness of, and that I might disagree with when I evaluate the small slivers I have access to, but at the end of the day I try to let my faith in my destiny project louder than the concerns I have. And I have come to believe that when one door closes, another one opens.

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.

This is one of those things that you know to be true, but maybe hearing it said a different way will inspire you to take action on it. You can have whatever you want in life. That’s not just something that sounds good on a Hallmark Card, it’s actually true. But what happens is many people fall short of having, getting, and living how they want to because they wait for it to happen on its own. 

You know that’s not how it works. You need to lead the charge. You are a powerful creator capable of shaping your life, but those powers will not do much for you unless you are intentional about putting them to use.

This is where I want to share a concept that has really resonated for me. You’re rewarded in public for what you practice in private. What does that mean? It means that the work you do behind the scenes and the preparation you put into building a skill, lead to the results that everyone else sees. It honors the hustle no one sees that they get to admire when it’s all said and done.

But here’s the kicker (and you knew this was coming) - You can’t expect to get the outcomes you want without putting in the work. You won’t achieve the results you want without developing the craft. Many people shy away from that part and are entitled to get what they want simply because they want it. That was me for a long time, but I've made a change and I want to show you how I’m working on it.

I’ve always imagined in my career that I would be a keynote speaker. I imagined that I would be on stages, inspiring thousands of people at a time, and I’d be paid to do it. But I always assumed this dream would materialize at some point out of thin air and I didn’t put any energy behind it other than a distant desire.

Reflecting on this idea, that you’re rewarded in public for what you practice in private, I committed to practicing my speaking skills in something that I’m calling the Keynote Speaking Project. Every week for one year, I am giving a practice keynote speech. I am putting in the reps so that when the opportunity comes, I’m ready and confident.

About 15 weeks into this commitment, it’s pretty unbelievable what’s already happening. That’s a story for another time, but what I want you to take away from this is that you can make the decision to start practicing whatever it is you’re hoping to do today, and accelerate your ability to reach the achievements you have on your heart.

I’d love for you to be a part of the Keynote Speaking Project Story. If you have a group or an event, or an opportunity where you need someone to speak, I’m your guy! Feel free to reach out to my email brian@selfimprovementdailytips.com and we can get it set up!

Something that I’ve found really beneficial is using the expression “That’s like me!” to acknowledge and bring presence to my performance. Basically, when I do certain things that are in alignment with my best-self (how I interpret a challenging circumstance, how I stay disciplined to taking action even when I don’t feel like it, or I do something else that’s enforcing my personal integrity) I whisper to myself “That’s like me!” to affirm that quality within myself.

Our behavior is the greatest proof of our identity. Who we are influences what we do, and in that way, what we do is the confirmation of who we are. It’s a feedback loop. But the impact of this feedback loop can be multiplied when you bring more consciousness to the behaviors you’re doing. That’s why saying a simple expression like “That’s like me!” can bring presence to how you act in integrity, highlighting the evidence for your subconscious mind to process it and integrate it. Now not only implicitly does your behavior leave an imprint on your identity, but now explicitly you’re magnifying the instance with your self-affirmation.

It's kind of like giving yourself a high five for a job well done but on a whole new level. At first it’s hard to do because it’s unnatural. You don’t think to do it. But when you set the intention, and you start doing it a few times when you encounter more obvious opportunities for it, slowly it becomes a more normal reflection and process. Like anything, if you commit to it as a practice you’ll experience compounding increases in performance over time.

But I’d be remiss to not mention the other side of it, which is when you act out of integrity. The times when you don’t follow through on a commitment, or you make excuses or exceptions, what happens then? Failing to take action or taking negative action also informs your identity. But you can override that with your own self-acknowledgement by saying “That’s not like me, needs work!”

In both cases, a short expression helps to shape the development of your identity so that it is in better alignment with the person you want to be. And incorporating this simple practice will accelerate that development and get your subconscious mind to start working for you.

Knowledge is good but if you want to see real positive change in your life, book a call with me now so you can start start living the health, fulfillment, and success you always dreamed of in 60 days. All you have to do is click this link here.

Let me share about something that sounds like an oxymoron but is actually very insightful. It’s this idea that being busy is being lazy. Before you throw your arms up and disagree let me explain. I’m not speaking from the conventional sense where being busy means being active, and being active is not being lazy, I get that logic. But I want to focus on laziness in a little more depth. It’s not enough to show up and be active doing the work, you need to be efficient with your effort and invest in your ability to produce better outcomes. Many people are too lazy to take the extra step.

What happens is we’ve grown accustomed to being busy. It has become familiar to us and predictable for us to know how challenging, or demanding, or engaging things might be. If you want to settle for plateauing at that level then so be it. Being busy in this way is lazy because you’re unwilling to do more than what is expected of you.

Do you know what takes work? Simplification. It’s hard to make things look so easy. Albert Einstein is quoted saying “The definition of genius is taking the complex and making it simple.” It requires putting in that extra work to streamline, optimize, and iterate in the attempt of producing new levels of growth.

The problem is many people deflect diving into that hard work by signing themselves up for things that keep them occupied. It’s more comfortable to be in the familiar flow of activities than to breach something new and uncertain. So instead of doing the hard thing that is for the best, they do the easy thing that is ‘good enough’. That’s laziness, isn’t it?

So take a look at your schedule, your commitments, your life, and have an honest reflection. How much of these things are absolutely necessary, and how many are fillers that make you feel more productive because you have more going on? 

This is advice I’ve been practicing myself over the last few months. I’ve been saying “no” more often. I’ve removed myself from different commitments I’ve taken on. And this has liberated me to make more progress on fewer things because I have the space to do the hard work of simplification and scale.

All I’m asking for you to do is to be honest, nothing else. Get in the habit of being honest with yourself, not telling yourself a fake rational story, and your life will start to angle into your truth.

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.

Not in the US or Canada? Send me a DM on Instagram to @self.improvement.daily