I want to feature a timeless quote from one of the founding fathers of personal development, Jim Rohn. Jim Rohn has a way of distilling the complexities in life into the simplest points that anyone can understand. One of my favorite Jim Rohn quotes is “What’s easy to do is easy not to do.”

This directly addresses one of the most frustrating components of personal development and living a good life. If we know what we should be doing, then why is it that we don’t do it? It’s easy to order a side salad instead of fries. It’s easy to stop working at 5pm on a work day so you can enjoy your evening with loved ones. It’s easy to pick up a book for 5 minutes a night before you go to sleep. It’s easy to set goals that inspire you.

But guess what, it’s also easy not to order the salad, stop work on time, read a book, or set goals. That’s why Rohn’s biggest recommendation for this is “Do not neglect to do the things that are easy to do.” Because if you do, then you must accept that you made the choice not to do it. 

It all comes back to our choices. At any given moment we’re making choices that impact our lives. As Darren Hardy, Jim Rohn’s protégé puts it: “You make your choices and then your choices make you.”

The challenge is, there are many things that get in the way of us making good choices. Our physical and emotional state, desires, circumstances and necessities all play a role in subtly influencing our choices. And our minds try to convince us to choose something other than what we know we want to do through acts of self-sabotage. For that reason we must remain vigilant about pursuing what we want and let our voice of reason be louder than our voice of complacency.

So what are the things right in front of you today that you know you should be doing, that are easy to do, yet you’re not doing them? Pick one and commit to doing it with conviction and discipline. Even if it’s only for a week, and you’ll see how your life gets unstuck and unfolds!

As someone who has released a new podcast episode every week day for over 6 years, I know a thing or two about being consistent. And not only am I familiar with the benefits of being consistent (I’ve managed to grow a significant audience and the podcast has amassed over 20 million downloads) but how to stay consistent over the long term. 

Truthfully, what I’ve found to work for me is probably different than what you might expect. And it works in every area of my personal and professional life.

Consistency is often closely correlated with being self-disciplined. When you’re self-disciplined it means that you follow through on doing what you said you were going to do. But discipline isn’t just about using will-power to force yourself into action when you don’t feel like it… It’s a result of the design of your environment.

• You stay consistent in going to the gym because you have a gym buddy that’s depending on you to show up, which leverages accountability. 
• You stay consistent at work by setting up app limits to keep you off social media, by closing down messaging and email windows when it’s time to focus on a specific task, and by telling a coworker that you’re going to have something done by a certain time. 
• You stay consistent with a good diet by having a coach that makes you report what you ate every single day. 
• You consistently wake up early in the morning because you set up your phone to charge overnight across the room, so that when the alarm goes off in the morning, you need to physically get out of bed to turn it off.

In all these cases, the consistency comes as a byproduct of the environment around you and not your own will. Making your environment conducive to your success is the single biggest hack in being more consistent in life. Rather than trying to pull ‘positive action taking power’ from your own efforts, you can let your environment do a lot of that work for you.

Now as it relates to designing your environment for success, so that you can be consistent in taking positive action toward your goals and ambitions, it might be challenging knowing where to start. That’s why I’ve created a resource that teaches you about the 9 Super Habits. The most important, effective, highest-leverage things you can do to get consistent in the major areas of your life. And not only that, but I teach you a step-by-step process to implement all of these Super Habits in a way that takes less than 15 minutes a day!

It’s the ‘smarter not harder’ approach to being the best, healthiest, most focused, and most disciplined, most consistent version of yourself.

You can learn more about the 9 Super Habits here!

Have you ever done one of those quizzes where you evaluate the major areas of your life? A few years ago I featured Garrain Jones’ process called “The Wheel Of Power” where you rank yourself 1-10 on various categories. 

Depending on how you score yourself on something like that, you could have two different conclusions. One is that you’re more clear on areas in your life that aren’t as good as you’d like them to be, which highlights an opportunity for improvement. And another is that you feel like you score fairly high on each dimension and life is good!

I want to elaborate on the latter, because it’s actually an uncertain place to be in. Especially individuals who find fulfillment and joy in growth, if they no longer have that outlet then it really could impact the quality of their life.

Here’s what you can do about it: Let’s say you score 8 or more out of 10 in every category. When that’s the case, take every 8 and turn it into a 2.

What does that do? It resets your point of reference. It completely shifts your perspective and invites you to explore what your next level truly looks like. It makes you play a bigger game.. Because if what used to be an 8 in your mind is now a 2, there must be massive room for improvement, and this helps you to see it. 

Let’s say you score an 8 in the relationship category. You have a good marriage or partnership with a weekly date night, you make an effort to see family and spend quality time with friends. And you’re happy with it. Now make that a 2. What would a 10 look like? Maybe it’d inspire you to start weekly relationship check-ins, create more deep and connected moments, or ramp up your level of daily thoughtfulness and romantic gestures.

In your family maybe it elevates your current normal of being around them to planning more moments where you can concentrate more quality in the moments you spend together.

These opportunities for improvement aren’t in your consciousness until they have to be. And once they are it illuminates new ways to take every area of your life to the next level.

That’s not to say that you can’t be happy with the way things are - you absolutely can and should. You can be grateful and still want more at the same time. The intention is to offer the encouragement to never stop trying to make things better, because you’ll find a deep fulfillment in pursuing it.

Many of us are motivated by the idea of being successful. There’s a traditional definition that we’ve been fed for most of our lives that success is about being wealthy, and many people chase that ideal until they realize it doesn’t make them happy. 

To be truly successful, each of us must define what success looks like for ourselves and then have the courage to pursue it. And to begin finding that, I'd like to recommend using John Wooden’s definition of success as a better place to start than what society has provided us: “Success is peace of mind attained only through self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable.”

There’s a saying Ed Mylett says a lot that goes “success leaves clues”. The idea is that you can observe what successful people do and let it guide the choices and actions that you take. But that guidance is only helpful if this person has achieved what you authentically want. And if that’s true, there’s a lot you can borrow from their life experience to inform your approach.

But still I think we’re missing our biggest opportunity. As with most things, the right answer isn’t waiting to be discovered in the outside world. It’s already within us. And while it’s easy for people to look to others to figure out how to be more successful, what’s less common is for people to take the time to understand the conditions that have made them successful in the past.

If you want to achieve better life-balance you can look to see how your favorite influencer-CEO does it... Or you can think back on the last time you had it for yourself. If you want to start turning failures into lessons that fuel your growth, you can listen to a podcast about it... Or reflect on the personal mindset shifts that worked for you the last time you got through it.

If you were to start studying yourself as much as you studied others, your success would accelerate. And that’s simply because you’re pulling from insights that are most likely to work for you because they already did. Central to this is having feedback loops in place that prompt you to reflect on your ups and downs. It’s by being more aware of it all that you can better position yourself to succeed with it.

In other words, identify your conditions for success, plant yourself in those conditions, and watch your success grow!

One of the most helpful things to do for your personal development is set goals. When you have a goal it orients your behavior so that you can take action in ways that are most meaningful for you. Goals give you a lens to view your choices through to see if they’re helping you make progress toward what you want or not.

The most traditional type of goal is an ‘Outcome Goal’. This is an outcome or result that you want to achieve as a byproduct of your efforts. These are things like losing a certain amount of weight, increasing your income, or landing 3 speaking opportunities. Whether you achieve an outcome goal or not is usually out of your control, although there are things you can do to increase the likelihood that you achieve.

Then there are ‘Process Goals’. These are goals that relate to your own effort, output, and action. If the ‘Outcome Goal’ is to lose weight, then the process goal is to “eat less than 1800 calories a day” or “do 30 minutes of cardio 4 times a week”. They’re the clearly defined input that you can control with hopes that you get the results you’re after. For that reason, ‘Outcome Goals’ and ‘Process Goals’ often go together. The ‘Process Goal’ serves as your strategy for achieving the ‘Outcome Goal’.

Then finally, a type of goal that you’ve maybe never heard about before, are ‘Evolution Goals’. These aren’t as objective or binary as other goals, they represent a certain intention. Rather than them being something you can objectively pursue, they represent a reality that you’re constantly pursuing. Examples of ‘Evolution Goals’ include “to always be capable of living an active lifestyle”, “to maximize the contribution I make in the world”, "to always seek to increase the love an connection in your marriage", or “to be as knowledgeable of a teacher as possible”. The destination is blurry, but the direction is clear.

Whether it’s an ‘Outcome Goal’, a ‘Process Goal’, or an ‘Evolution Goal’ - When you have goals in place they serve as a guide for your daily choices. They represent what you consciously want at the level of awareness you currently have. And if you become aware of something new and realize you want something else, then adjust your goal. That way it can always be a force that positively influences you on your path forward toward being the best person of which you are capable, and finding fulfillment in life.

One of the most powerful things we can do in work and life is embrace simplicity. The irony of simplicity is that it’s easy to appreciate but hard to create. It takes effort and skill to make something simple, as Leonardo Da Vinci famously said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

The simpler something is, the better it works. A clear request is more likely to be followed. A simple system is less prone to errors. A simple life avoids the stress of overcomplication.

Yet, human nature often pushes us toward complexity. The ego craves it, making us feel smarter when we understand things others don’t. But the best thinkers and writers focus on clarity, crafting their messages to avoid confusion and maximize impact.

I’ve fallen into the complexity trap myself. Early in my podcasting / content creating journey, I tried to sound smart to cover up my insecurities. Over time, I’ve learned that simple messages are far more effective. Now, my goal is to take the complex world of self-improvement and distill it into themes and ideas that are easy to understand and apply.

This doesn’t just apply to how we communicate but also to how we solve our own problems. Overthinking creates more problems, and overcomplicating leads to wasted effort or disappointment.

As Tony Robbins says, "The quality of our lives is determined by the quality of the questions we ask ourselves." A powerful question to create simplicity is: What about this isn’t necessary? What can be simpler?

That’s what I tried to do with this episode. Hope you noticed!

I don’t have a depth of knowledge in nutrition, which is why I don’t often talk about it. However I think even I’m qualified to give this piece of advice: As a society, we need to be eating less sugar.

In the 1800s refined sugar became commercialized and was introduced as a staple in our diet. But even so, on average people are eating 60x more sugar today than they were 100-200 years ago. This overindulgence on sugar is responsible for the obesity crisis where 40.3% of US adults are classified as obese, it increases risk of cancer because it literally fuels overactive cells, it creates chronic inflammation which offsets our immune system, and it increases the risk of heart disease and diabetes. And on top of that, it’s addictive.

It is shocking to witness how much sugar an average person has on a daily basis. For someone looking to decrease their sugar intake, here are some recommendations:

1) Stop drinking your sugar. This is a staple to the Heroic philosophy. Sodas, energy drinks, sweetened coffee and teas, sports drinks, and even juices are loaded with sugar. If you consume any of those frequently, the fastest way to decrease the amount of sugar in your diet is to stop drinking it.

2) Be intentional about your snacks. Often when we’re feeling snacky, it’s more compulsive rather than actually seeking nutrition. This means that our bodies are craving something sweet and rewarding. Many snacks are packed with sugar because sugar doesn’t spoil, so it’s easy to keep in a cupboard for a long time. But instead, you can find healthier alternatives that are vegetable, protein, or nut-based that will satiate your appetite. I even find that flavored water does the trick for me.

3) Read labels. A good rule of thumb is to look over what’s actually in your food. If something has unnatural sugars, or is ultra-processed with ingredients that you can’t pronounce, it’s probably best to limit those. This takes the most work but it’s an incredible way to optimize your diet toward more whole foods.

Again, I am not a registered dietician and everyone’s body and nutritional needs are different. However, in general, it serves us to limit our refined sugars and fuel our bodies from better, more natural sources. As a takeaway, think about the one thing you can do to start limiting your sugar.

Last week I had a conversation with one of the community members in my coaching program and it ended on a much different note than he expected.

He’s building a new invoicing system for his business and he wanted to streamline it - make sure the process from start to end was as efficient and dialed in as possible. Seeing the quality he already had, I asked him “What’s the constraint? What’s keeping you from getting the result you want?.” And after a brief dialogue we realized the limiting factor wasn’t the system itself, it was the consistency with which he was using it.

This is such a common problem. There are thousands of products in the marketplace that can help you with anything and everything, and people figure that a new tool or resource is going to get them a new result. That’s often not the case. The problem isn’t that we don’t have the right tools, but rather that we don’t know how to use the tools we have.

There are so many habit tracking apps out there designed to support you in being healthier and more focused. And people bounce around from one to the next hoping that it’ll be the one that changes their life. But they all fall into the same unfortunate fate of being lost and forgotten.

It’s like an assembly line where you’re trying to make one step of the process 10% better, but the real problem is getting people to show up to do each task.  Who cares if that one step is 10% better if there's no one there to do it!

For this Community Member, the constraint wasn’t the quality of his invoicing set up, it was his consistency of using the system, following the process, and delegating the work to his team. So that’s what we improved upon - helping him build new systems of time management and awareness that prompted him to use what he’s built more easily and reliably.

No matter what tool you choose to use, the limiting factor is your ability to use it. Any tool can work when you work it, but that’s where most people fall short.

If you’re looking to get into better habits and routines, let me share with you my system for being more disciplined in the things you know you should be doing or could be doing better. And not just the tool, but the process behind the tool that helps you to use it consistently (and really accelerate your progress in ways you never have).