You’re probably familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which is basically the progression of attaining different tiers of needs from physiological to safety to love and belonging to esteem and then to self-actualization. We all interface all of these needs, some are more prominent than others based on the state of your life, which means that they are weighted differently depending on what’s most important to you.

You can gain insights into your needs by looking at the problems you’re experiencing. At the end of the day, problems are just unmet needs. We’re motivated to solve problems and meet our needs because we experiencing discomfort when we leave things unresolved. With that deeply rooted motivation, what that means is you will always get your needs met. What’s important to consider is the way that you’re doing that.

Let’s say that you have a need for more belonging and intimacy in a relationship. You could be vulnerable in your relationship and communicate about your needs, or you could seek out getting attention from someone else to fill that void. You can not have your baseline need of having food met so you can go and buy food (if you can afford it), you can get assistance from government organizations, or you can steal it. If you don’t address the need it will grow stronger and stronger until eventually it creates an urge to satisfy it that is unavoidable.

Seeing this through the lens of your best self, it is very important that you are aware of the problems you’re experiencing, what underlying need that problem is suggesting is not getting met, and what you’re doing to meet that need. You can build structure and expectations to be accountable to doing productive and healthy things to meet your needs. Combining intention and awareness will help you get what you need and ensure you’re doing it in the right way.

To integrate this into your life today ask yourself this question - What problem do I keep on experiencing and how am I solving it?

If you’re in the US or Canada, text me at 949-799-0788 and I’ll send you daily prompts that help you get to know yourself better and build a more meaningful life every day. 

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I had a first-world problem moment of realization that added some really important perspective to my life, and I wanted to share it with you. Have you ever gotten frustrated about not having enough space in the fridge or the pantry to fit all your food? What happens is you need to take everything out, put it on the counter, and strategize how to make all the puzzle pieces fit one by one. It can take 10, 15, 20 minutes to organize and sure, it’s a little inconvenient. But here’s the perspective shift.

How blessed are you to have so much food that you can’t fit it all? When you put it that way, it’s such a good problem to have because it certainly defeats the alternative of not having enough food.

While we’re on the topic, something else I think about is how magical a grocery store is. There are people in this world that wouldn’t dream of seeing so much food in one place, available for you to pick exactly what you want and take it with you. We live this every day, we take that kind of access for granted and we’ve grown accustomed to the incredible privileges we have that we don’t appreciate them as much as we should.

And this is 100% myself included, which is why I wanted to bring it up. The more mindful we can be about the things we have in our life, and the more often we can be grateful for it, the better our personal experience becomes and the more inspired we’ll be to share what we have with others in need.

To wrap this up let me ask you a question - Can you relate with this? Have you ever been frustrated by having too much food to fit in your fridge?

If you’re in the US or Canada, text me at 949-799-0788 and I’ll send you daily prompts that help you get to know yourself better and build a more meaningful life every day. 

If you’re looking to grow alongside a community of like-minded improvers, then click here to join the Better Together Community.

I wanted to call out a concept that is massively important to me because 1) It’s the first chapter of the most transformational books I’ve ever read, “The Promise Of A Pencil” by Adam Braun, and 2) My good friend John Piasta brought it up in conversation and made me question my understanding about it. The thought is - Do people want to stand out from the crowd? Do people want to achieve and contribute, and be more than average? I always thought the answer is “Yes” without having a second thought, but today I’m reconsidering it.

I’m cut from the cloth where I have always wanted to excel. I’m a competitor that constantly wants to push the boundary for myself and what I think is possible. This also means that my happiness and identity is wrapped up in how much I’m creating or contributing to society. It’s what I authentically enjoy doing and it motivates me to think and desire bigger. It can certainly lead to disappointment when you fall short, but when approached correctly I think ambition can be very healthy.

However I’m realizing that guess what… There are people that are not like me. They are content in the simplicities of their own life, present in its richness and at peace with their circumstances. They don’t desire to be anything more than average. And that is okay! I don’t want to impose judgment on this, I think it’s an amazing gift to know what makes you happy and to live in alignment with that. I don’t expect that anyone dedicates their life to anything other than what makes them happy, but I do hope that they have the perspective to know what is available to them and what exists around them. For example I was shocked to learn that, if you want to be in the top 1% of income earners in the world, you need to make $52,000 a year. Hopefully that helps contextualize your privilege and good fortune.

There’s no right answer here, there’s just what’s right for you. And to integrate this into your life I want to ask you the question that Adam Braun asks in the first chapter of his book - “Why be normal?” And think about how that lands for you. Do you find yourself justifying why it’s okay to be normal, or do you feel pulled to do more to step outside of your comfort zone?

If you’re in the US or Canada, text me at 949-799-0788 and I’ll send you daily prompts that help you get to know yourself better and build a more meaningful life every day. 

If you’re looking to grow alongside a community of like-minded improvers, then click here to join the Better Together Community.

The concept of luck is a misunderstood thing. We often relate luck to chance, that there’s a random probability that something can happen. While it’s true there is a relationship between luck and chance, it’s much more elaborate than calling them the same thing. There’s an expression from the Greek Philosopher Seneca that goes “luck is when opportunity meets preparation” and I've really found this to be true.

Chance is relevant to luck when you relate it to the first part of this expression - Opportunity. When something is an opportunity it simply suggests there’s potential that something can happen. An opportunity is just one option among many, and the fact that an opportunity exists does not guarantee that anything is going to come of it. There is an element of random chance that puts certain opportunities in front of you, we call this “catching a lucky break”, but that alone is not sufficient. Luck is only observable when that random, chance opportunity materializes into something good.

That’s where the second part comes in - Preparation. Being prepared increases the odds that an opportunity will yield positive results because you have built the skills, infrastructure, work ethic or whatever it takes to maximize the opportunity. You’re ready to make the most of everything in front of you because you have the right pieces already in place. And when that chance opportunity arrives, you can apply your preparation to convert potential into something meaningful.

One of the most successful golfers in history Arnold Palmer said something that perfectly summarizes this thought. He says “The more I practice the luckier I get”. Why is that? It’s because his practice has prepared him to seize the moment, and the more often that happens, the luckier you appear to be. Luck is just an observation that things seem to go right often. If that’s the case, then we all can be lucky by creating more opportunities and refining our skills.

I’d love for you to reflect on the role luck has played in your life - Do you consider yourself to be lucky?

If you’re in the US or Canada, text me at 949-799-0788 and I’ll send you daily prompts that help you get to know yourself better and build a more meaningful life every day. 

If you’re looking to grow alongside a community of like-minded improvers, then click here to join the Better Together Community.

I am guilty of this just like anyone else. There are days when I don’t feel like doing what I’ve committed to. Days when I’m low on motivation, have little enthusiasm, and if I don’t intervene would naturally just waste the day doing things I don’t want to do. Things like spending time on social media, getting caught watching videos, or finding other random chores to feel like I’m productive but really it’s just to occupy my mind and avoid what I don’t feel like doing. Have you been there?

When you’re feeling uninspired like this it can really destroy any momentum you have for the day. The silver lining though is that it’s not permanent. Being uninspired is a feeling, and feelings can change. Being uninspired is simply a temporary emotional state that comes up as a response to the way you’re perceiving your immediate environment. So if you change the way you feel, you can change the way you relate with how you’re feeling.

The first way to change your feelings is to use mindset to reframe the situation. Something that I learned from Jim Bunch that has been game-changing for me is that anything in life is either inspiring you (filling you with energy) or expiring you (draining you of energy). When you set a goal or intention that you’re genuinely excited about, the tactics required to get there have a whole new meaning because there’s a concrete purpose behind doing it. No longer do you view mundane tasks as chores, you see them as stepping stones toward something that makes you excited.

The second way to change your feelings is to change your physical state. Being uninspired is characterized by lethargy and laziness. If you can change your state to be more energetic then those qualities are no longer appropriate within the context. Getting up and moving, dancing, breathing, anything all serves to change your state and in doing so, changes the way you feel.

This is game-changing because I think we all desire a more inspired life, and this is a proven way to achieve it. To finish this thought let me ask you a question - How do you plan to incorporate more inspiration into your life?

If you’re in the US or Canada, text me at 949-799-0788 and I’ll send you daily prompts that help you get to know yourself better and build a more meaningful life every day. 

If you’re looking to grow alongside a community of like-minded improvers, then click here to join the Better Together Community.

I think many of us look up to and admire people in the spotlight. Professional athletes, movie stars, music legends, millionaire entrepreneurs - There’s an appeal to these people and a fasciation around what they do because they do it at such a high level. It’s natural to feel jealous and to want to be like them, but before you uproot your life and commit to it there’s something very important to consider. There is a price to being world class. I’m not taking anything away from people who have accomplished something incredible, but I do want to clarify that what you see is not the full story.

To excel at something and operate at an elite level takes an absurd amount of sacrifice. The time required to perfect a craft can strain relationships. The attention you receive when you’re on a global stage can make you compromise on your priorities and values. You must consistently place yourself in the discomfort of doing challenging things that you don’t necessarily enjoy. It is brutal to be the best.

But the truth is anyone can do it. It’s within your power to make the choice to be world class at something. It’ll take a decade of intense focus and prioritization, but it's true when you hear "anything is possible". The question becomes - Is that what you want? Is there a part of you that so strongly desires self-mastery that you’ll run through anything to attain it? Are your dreams so important to you that it’s worth prioritizing over other people and opportunities and experiences? There’s no right answer, there’s only your answer.

Yes, being the best there is might seem cool when you’re watching the highlight reel, but when it comes to living in a way that achieves it, it may no longer be so appealing. And that’s okay because all you need to do is what’s right for you.

Now it’s time to ask you that tough question - How interested are you in being world class at something (knowing the price you pay to get there)?

To share a dose of positivity I wanted to talk about a word that is overlooked a bit in positive psychology - Cheerfulness. When you encounter someone that is cheerful it completely shifts your energy, bringing a smile to your face and a skip to your step. Not only will incorporating cheerfulness in your life improve your mindset and lead to more positive experiences, but it actually creates a positive cycle within your health and wellness. That is summarized in today’s quote “Cheerfulness is the very flower of health.”

The first and more obvious side of the cycle is how your happiness impacts your health. There are countless studies that show how things like gratitude and compassion generate measurable health benefits. More indirectly, cheerfulness helps you reduce negative self-talk and avoid stress-inducing thought patterns. Your happiness, mindset, and perspective produce good health.

The second, less obvious side of this is what’s referenced in the quote. “Cheerfulness is the flower of health”, meaning that a happy demeanor is also the byproduct of good health. This is because our psychology is extremely influenced by our physiology, and when we’re fueling our bodies right, exercising often, and getting good rest, it creates an environment for our psychology that is conducive to positive experiences.

Now for me if this is a self-fulfilling cycle the question becomes which comes first? Should I focus on my happiness and let that impact my health... Or should I focus on my health and let that influence my happiness? While the answer is of course "both", like the quote suggests I would advise to focus on the health side first. Your body is quickly responsive to changes, your psychology is notoriously slow at adapting, and if you want to be more cheerful I’d encourage you evaluate your health habits first.

To wrap this up let ask you this - In what area could you most improve your health?

If you’re in the US or Canada, text me at 949-799-0788 and I’ll send you daily prompts that help you get to know yourself better and build a more meaningful life every day. 

If you’re looking to grow alongside a community of like-minded improvers, then click here to join the Better Together Community.

Something I’ve been committed to doing over the last year or so is re-reading books. To be honest, I have pretty bad reading comprehension and I don’t always get as much as I want from the books I read.  It has been helpful to revisit major topics and themes multiple times, but what has been most eye-opening is how the same book can have two very different meanings depending on when you read it.

That’s because everything we’re exposed to is contextual. Imagine you see a woman wearing a bikini in an airport, that’d be pretty unusual right? Now what if she’s wearing a bikini by the pool. Same behavior, different context, very different outcomes.

Similarly the phase of life that you’re in dictates the way that you approach the lessons you learn. One line in a book can leave two different impressions on you based on how you’re integrating the information. We can only add value to the present moment, which includes what you’re working on now and what you’re excited about now. Whatever is top of mind becomes a lens on top of what you’re learning. 

That’s why re-reading a book can be so impactful. Depending on where you’re at, you will extract completely new takeaways and ideas because the meaning has changed so significantly.

This is all a representation of what happens in our lives on a larger scale. No two experiences, conversations, or moments are the same because meaning always requires context. So if we approach everything with more curiosity (the more redundant and mundane stuff too) we’ll be able to uncover the lessons we’re looking for that will help us advance our lives.

To help this all integrate let me ask you this question - What book would you most benefit from re-reading?

If you’re in the US or Canada, text me at 949-799-0788 and I’ll send you daily prompts that help you get to know yourself better and build a more meaningful life every day. 

If you’re looking to grow alongside a community of like-minded improvers, then click here to join the Better Together Community.