Marc Chernoff's Blog, page 47

3 Daily Habits that Often Drain 90 Percent of Our Potential in Life

“In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.”
— Abraham Lincoln

As you age you will learn to value your time, genuine relationships, meaningful work, and peace of mind, much more. Little else will matter.

Deep down you know that already, right?

Yet today, just like the majority of us, you are distracted by so many others things. You give your time to lots of meaningless time-wasters. You take your important relationships for granted. You get to work skeptically with inner resistance. And you let everyday stress get the best of you…

Why?

Because you’re human, and human beings are (more…)

10 Hard Things that Are Always Worth Doing for Yourself (Before it’s Too Late)

Even when the struggle is real, remind yourself that it almost always feels better to be exhausted from taking tiny steps forward, than it does to be tired of doing absolutely nothing.

In 1911 two explorers, Amundsen and Scott, embarked on a race against each other to become the first known human being to set foot upon the southernmost point of Earth. It was the age of Antarctic exploration, as the South Pole represented one of the last uncharted areas in the world. Amundsen wished to plant the Norwegian flag there on behalf of his country, while Scott hoped to stake his claim for England.

The journey there and back from their base camps was about 1,400 miles, which is roughly equivalent to a round-trip hike from New York City to Chicago. Both men would be traveling the same exact distance on foot through extremely cold and harsh weather conditions. And both men were equally equipped with experience, supplies, and a supporting team of fellow explorers. But what wasn’t certain is how each of them would approach the inevitable challenges they faced on the road ahead.

As it turned out, Amundsen and Scott took entirely different approaches to the very same challenges.

Scott directed his team to hike as far as possible on the good weather days and then rest on bad weather days to conserve energy. Conversely, Amundsen directed his team to follow a strict regimen of consistent daily progress by hiking exactly 20 miles every day, regardless of weather conditions. Even on the warmest, clear-sky days, when Amundsen’s team was capable of hiking much farther, Amundsen was absolutely adamant that they travel no more than 20 miles to conserve their energy for the following day’s hike.

Which team succeeded in the end?

The team that (more…)

9 Popular Social Habits that Drain the Life Out of Our Relationships

There’s something to be said for slow and steady progress. But there’s also something to be said for decisive and sweeping action. When it comes to negative social habits, there’s no time like today to quit cold turkey. Of course that’s a lot easier said than done, but with practice we can do better almost immediately.

Lately I’ve been making it a point to bring more awareness to the specific negative social habits our coaching clients have been either complaining about or engaging in. And perhaps more importantly than that, I’ve also been noticing many of the same behaviors in both myself and my close friends and family members. In fact let’s be honest, we’ve all acted in negative, damaging ways to the people around us at one time or another. None of us are immune to occasional negative mood swings. But that doesn’t excuse what we do to each other habitually. 

Over the years, through our coaching practice and live events, Marc and I have literally worked with hundreds of individuals looking to fix or strengthen their relationships, and we’ve learned a lot about what it takes to make this happen. One of the most significant realizations, (more…)

10 Wake-Up Calls for Those Days When You Lose Your Motivation (and You’re Unsure of Everything)

“Head up, heart open. To better days!”
— T.F. Hodge

Struggling to find your motivation? Feeling unsure about the next steps?

There are just a few things you need to know right now.

This quick read is for YOU…

Once upon a time there was a woman in her mid-sixties who noticed that she had lived her entire life in the same small town. And although she had spent decades enthusiastically dreaming about traveling and seeing the world, she had never taken a single step to make this dream a reality.

Finally, she woke up on the morning of her 65th birthday and decided that now was the time! She sold all of her possessions except for some essential items she needed, packed these items into a backpack, and (more…)

7 Rituals and Routines You Should Steal from Extremely Creative People

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it; they just saw something and connected the dots. It seemed obvious to them after a while.”
— Steve Jobs

Over the past 15 years, through our coaching practice and live events, Angel and I have spoken with hundreds of entrepreneurs, artists, and creative types about their unique daily rituals and routines. The truly nice thing is that we often learn just as much from our clients as they do from us. They tell us about some of the most incredibly creative ideas and projects imaginable, and we help them fine-tune the process of getting from where they are to where they want to be. A good coach-client relationship is truly win-win.

Today, I want to share seven of the most common and prolific rituals and routines we’ve seen repeated by the most creative people we’ve worked with over the years… (more…)

10 Sticky Notes We All Need Hanging on Our Walls (Until We Feel Stronger)

Happiness doesn’t start with a relationship, a vacation, a job, or money. It starts with your thinking and what you tell yourself daily.

The best lessons we learn in life are the lessons we learn over and over again.

The human mind needs lots of reminders — lots of practice — to operate effectively.

For example, deep down we know it’s OK to…

Say “no”Speak upTell the truthBelieve differentlyChange our mindPrioritize our needsLearn from our mistakesEmbrace our imperfectionsForgive and seek forgivenessBegin again, stronger than before

Yet, we often (more…)

3 Wake-Up Calls for Those Days When You’re Overwhelmed (and Not Sure What to Do Next)

“Do not ruin today with mourning tomorrow.”
— Catherynne M. Valente

Ever feel a little overwhelmed? Or really overwhelmed?

This quick read is for YOU…

Once upon a time there was a man who had been lost in the desert for three whole days without water. Just as he was about to collapse, he saw what appeared to be a lake a few hundred yards in front of him. “Could it be? Or is it just a mirage?” he thought to himself.

With the last bit of strength he could muster, he staggered toward the lake and quickly learned that his prayers had been answered: it was no mirage — it was (more…)

10 Ways Our Lives Change When We Let Go of Things We Can’t Control

The most practical changes happen when we choose to take control of what we do have power over, instead of craving control of what we don’t.

Holding on can be painful. Holding on can directly contribute to stress, unhappiness, relationship problems, and so much more. Yet, as human beings, we cling desperately to almost everything…

We don’t like change, so we resist it.

We want life to be the way we think it “should” be.

We get attached to our ideals even when they hurt us.

Over the past decade, as Marc and I have gradually worked with hundreds of coaching clients and live event attendees, we’ve come to understand that the root cause of most human stress is (more…)

10 Life Choices We Will All Regret in 10 Years (If We Aren’t Careful)

“If only…” These two words paired together create one of the saddest phrases in the English language.

In the end, more than anything else, we regret the small chances we didn’t take, the priceless opportunities we were too busy to nurture, and the good decisions we waited too long to make. Angel and I have learned this over the past 15 years from the countless hours we’ve spent coaching hundreds of clients, students, and live event attendees from around the world. The exact same regrets pop up in the personal stories people share with us, time after time.

Here are ten very common and specific life choices that ultimately lead to that “If only…” phrase of regret, and how to elude them on the average day:

1. Letting others tell us what we are worth.

We tend to forget that most people judge us based on (more…)

12 Quiet Habits of Enormously Successful Humans

May your actions speak louder than your words. May your life preach louder than your lips. May your success be your noise in the end.

The result of enormous success is often pretty noisy — lots of people talking, writing, and sharing stories about it. The actual process of achieving enormous success, on the other hand, is far more discreet. But it’s this process that happens quietly, behind-the-scenes, that makes all the difference in the world.

Marc and I are fortunate enough to know a number of enormously successful human beings. Regardless of lifestyle, industry or profession, they share many of the same quiet habits. And that’s precisely what I want to discuss with you today. Here are twelve key things the most successful people we know do quietly and diligently: (more…)