Benjamin P. Hardy's Blog, page 11

10 Steps To Become A Millionaire In 5 Years (Or Less)

Wired

It doesn’t matter where you currently are in your financial situation — whether just starting out or already making lots of money.

Most people, no matter what their income, are treading water. As a person’s income rises, so does their spending.

Few people understand how to continually increase their income, lifestyle, and joy at the same time.

In this article, you will learn:

how to become wealthyhow to build a life that continually increases your level of confidence and joyhow to continually expand, learn, grow, and succeed as a personhow to develop mentorships, friendships, and strategic partnerships with nearly anyone you want

If these things are not interesting to you, then this article was not written for you.

Here’s how it works:

1. Create A Wealth Vision

“When riches begin to come they come so quickly, in such great abundance, that one wonders where they have been hiding during all those lean years.” — Napoleon Hill

Step 1 of becoming financially successful is to actually create a “vision” for yourself financially. Einstein said that imagination is more important than knowledge. Arden said creativity is more important than experience.

How much imagination do you have for your future?

Do you see huge potential and possibility for your life?

Or, do you see a pretty average life?

Creating a vision is an iterative process. You don’t just create a vision once and then never look at it again.

You continually create and write your vision — every single day (see #3 below).

Look at any area of your life that you’re doing well and it’s because you see something beyond what you currently have. By that same token, look at any area of your life that isn’t exceptional and you likely don’t see something beyond what you currently have.

Most people are living in and repeating the past.

Having a vision is focused on the future.

Your life and behavior immediately shift when you begin imagining a different future and stridently striving for it.

In order to do this, you must obliterate your need for consistency. From a psychological perspective, people have a high need to be viewed by others as consistent. This keeps people in behavioral patterns, environments, and relationships that are ultimately destructive and unsatisfying for far too long.

Instead, you could abandon your need to be viewed as consistent by others. You can be okay with the fact that you’re not perfect. You can be okay with messing up. You can be okay with having values you stand for and goals you want to accomplish, regardless of what those around you think.

Having a vision for your life means you no longer care what other people think of you. It means you’re ready to begin actually living the life you want. It means you’re no longer going to just go with the flow, as you have for most of your life. It means that regardless of what your parents, peers, and social environment have presented you thus far, you’re going to create the life you want.

The more detailed your vision the better. The more quantifiable your vision the better.

Your brain really loves numbers and events. These are tangible. Thus, your vision should center around specific numbers and key events.

For example:

“I will be making $1,000,000/year by January 1, 2022.”“I will get a check for over $100,000 by October 2020.”“I will take a 6-week vacation in Thailand in the next 6 months.”

Quantify it.

Measure it.

Get excited by it.

The more detailed the vision in your mind, the more believable it will be to you.

It’s okay if you don’t know exactly what you want right now. Having more money, creating powerful experiences, and continually growing as a person are all in the right direction.

As you build confidence through successive and small wins over time, your vision and imagination will expand.

Thus, in order for your vision to become clarified and congruent with your values and genuine desires, you’ll need to start building confidence.

That’s where the next step comes in:

2. Develop A 90-Day System For Measuring Progress-Future-Pacing

The following are 4 questions Dan Sullivan, founder of Strategic Coach, has his clients answer every 90 days:

“Winning Achievements? Looking back over the past quarter, what are the things that make you the proudest about what you have achieved?” “What’s Hot? When you look at everything that’s going on today, which areas of focus and progress are making you the most confident?” “Bigger and Better ? Now, looking ahead at the next quarter, what new things are giving you the greatest sense of excitement?”“What are the five new ‘jumps’ you can now achieve that will make your next 90 days a great quarter regardless of what else happens?”

Every 90 days, you want to 1) review the previous 90 days and then to 2) set measurable and challenging goals for the next 90 days.

In the book, The Art of Learning, Josh Waitzkin said: “Short-term goals can be useful developmental tools if they are balanced within a nurturing long-term philosophy. Too much sheltering from results can be stunting.”

Short-term goals are how you build progress. Working toward a timeline is crucial for productivity. Focusing on only a few key milestones each 90 days are how you build momentum.

Every 90 days, when you look back on the previous 90 days, you want a system for tracking your learning and progress. You want to get out of your routine environment and take a “recovery” break. Tim Ferriss calls this “mini-retirements.”

Every 90 days, you want to take a few days off. You want to get away where you can ponder, reflect, think, visualize, strategize, and play.

During this recovery session, you want to pull out your journal and take time to reflect on the previous 90 days.

What went well?

What were your key wins?

What did you learn?

What has you most excited?

Where do you need to pivot?

Given what you’ve done and what you’ve learned, what do you want to do in the next 90 days?

What 2–5 “jumps” or “wins” will make the biggest difference toward your ideal vision?

Every 90 days, when you review your progress, you could be increasing your confidence, because confidence comes through watching yourself succeed.

Very few people truly take time reflecting on what they’ve actually done. We’re very good at seeing where we’re coming up short. We are less reflective of where we’ve succeeded.

Chances are, you don’t even remember what you ate for lunch three days ago.

Chances are, you don’t recognize all of the good things you’ve done in the past 90 days. However, you can train your brain to notice, focus, and pay attention to the progress you’re making. When you begin seeing progress, you’ll start feeling progress and excitement.

These feelings are very important.

Feeling movement and momentum gives confidence.

Confidence is the bedrock of imagination, action, and power.

Want more confidence?

Start setting short-term goals (every 30–90 days), track your progress, count your wins, recovery, reset, and start again.

When you have a big vision, you don’t need to make HUGE progress every day. You only need to take a step or two forward daily. You then track that progress and watch as the compounding effects take over.

Every 90 days, track the key areas of your life.

Track your money.

Track your health.

Track your time.

Track the progress in the areas you want to succeed.

3. Develop A Daily Routine To Live In A Flow-Peak State

“Assume the feeling of your wish fulfilled.” — Neville Goddard

Alright — so you’ve created a big picture vision that inspires you.

You’ve also set 90-day short-term goals to help you build confidence and keep you progressing on the path.

Now, you need a daily routine to keep yourself in flow.

If you can get yourself into a flow-state every single day, and live in and operate from that flow state, you’re going to be feeling really good.

It is your responsibility to organize your life so you can be in flow as much as possible. In positive psychology, a flow state, also known as being in “the zone,” is the mental state in which you are fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment.

In essence, flow is characterized by complete absorption in what one does, and a resulting loss in one’s sense of space and time.

That’s a great way to live.

Flow creates high performance.

High performance creates confidence.

Confidence creates imagination and excitement.

Imagination and excitement lead you to thinking bigger and differently about yourself and your life.

With that in mind, it’s key to look at why most people are not in flow most of the time. Not surprisingly, it starts first thing in the morning. Momentum is activated with the first decision of your day. Rather than proactively putting themselves into a flow state, most people put themselves into an unconsciously reactive state.

People are not the product of habits, they are the product of environments (see point #4 below). According to Stanford psychologist and behavior expert, BJ Fogg, design beats willpower. Design is about how you’ve set things up. Most people have not designed their environment for flow. Instead, most people’s environment and life have been set up for continual distraction, which is the opposite of flow.

Flow is something that must be designed for.

You have to decide to live in flow. You have to commit to it. The reason flow is so commonplace in extreme sports is because extreme sports require a great deal of commitment, risk, and focus.

If a motocross rider loses focus while trying a backflip over a 100-foot dirt jump, they could die. Therefore, the situation evokes deep flow.

Flow comes by not over-thinking it.

Flow comes when you just let it happen.

For example, when I’m writing a blog post, my best writing is when I stop thinking altogether. I just let it rip.

That’s how high performance works. You put in the preparation, then you just let your body take over.

When it comes to morning routines, the primary purpose is to put yourself into a flow or peak state. There are some useful activities for putting yourself into flow.

First, you want to change your environment to change your mindset. Begin visualizing and IMAGINING your desired future. Affirm powerfully to yourself that you are going to achieve that future. Florence Shinn stated, “Faith knows it has already received and acts accordingly.”

That’s what morning routines are all about. You put your mind into the mode of your future. You emotionally commit and connect with that future. You then BE that future self.

You act as that future-self would act.

This is why the need for consistency needs to drop from your life.

Instead of being consistent with who you’ve been, you want to be consistent with who you’re going to be. If you’re going to be a millionaire, you need to start acting like one now.

Recent research studied the brains of actors with MRI machines. What they found is that, when the actors were in character, their brain’s showed significant change.

In other words, acting a different role changes your brain. And this is actually what you want to do every morning in your morning routine.

Rather than triggering the brain of your former self and addictions, you want to trigger the brain of your desired self, or character.

Who do you want to be?

Imagine that self.

Feel that self.

Assume the feeling of your wish fulfilled.

Affirm the reality of that self.

Know that what you want you can have.

Commit big.

Invest yourself in that reality.

Begin, right now, acting consistent with that reality.

Enjoy the rush of flow that comes from being present and congruent.

4. Design Your Environment For Clarity, Recovery, And Creativity

“A lot of people think we are creatures of habit but we’re not. We are creatures of environment.” — Roger Hamilton

In order to truly upgrade your life, you can’t just set goals, build morning routines, and begin acting differently.

You need to reshape your environment.

You need an environment that matches the future you plan to create.

You need an environment that not only resonates with your values and vision, but also propels your values and vision.

Most people’s environment is like a rushing river, going the opposite direction of where they want to go. It takes a lot of willpower to tread upstream. It’s exhausting. Instead, you want your environment to literally be pulling you the direction you want to go.

You want to proactively surround yourself with people who inspire you.

How many role models do you regularly encounter?

How many role models are you helping?

Different environments have different purposes. You want environments for rest and rejuvenation, for focus and work, for meditation and clarity, and for excitement and fun.

The more mindful you become as a person, the more you realize that you and your environment are two parts of the same whole. You cannot disconnect yourself from your environment. Therefore, you want to be mindful and intentional about your environment.

This means you do not contaminate recovery environments with things like cellphones. If you’re going to go to the beach to relax, don’t ruin that amazing opportunity by bringing your phone.

When you change a part, you change the whole system. Don’t spoil the whole barrel with one bad apple.

5. Focus On Results, Not “Habits” or “Process”

“In polite conversation, most of us will say we admire successful people for their hard work, positive habits, and ironclad principles. That’s not really true. It doesn’t take much digging to uncover a major disconnect between what most of us say we respect and how most of the icons of our age actually behave… Keep in mind that the only thing most people really care about is the score on the board. Everything else is hype.” — Forbes

It’s quite hilarious, really. Nowadays, you hear people talking about how “goals” and “results” don’t matter.

This is totally nonsense.

It’s also lies.

It’s not about “habits” or “process.” It’s about results.

The reason we admire certain people is because of the results they get. There are countless other people who have just as “inspiring” of habits but fail to produce powerful results.

Tim Ferriss, in his book, The 4-Hour Body, defines what he calls, “minimum viable dose.” Basically, this is the minimum amount of effort to produce the desired result. 212 degrees is all that is needed to boil an egg. Anything beyond that is wasted effort.

Therefore, what is the desired result you want?

What is the most effective way to get that result?

Rather than obsessing about the habits and process, you instead want to get very clear on the result you want, and then reverse-engineer how to get it.

It is the goal that determines the process, not the other way around. Moreover, it’s the results that also determine the process. If you’re not getting desired results, then you need to adjust your process. Don’t be insane and do the same things over and over and expect a different result.

Even still, we live in a culture that is obsessed with habits, hacks, and “process.” None of these things make any sense in and of themselves. They only make sense in the context of a specific goal.

My process won’t look like your process, because my goals aren’t the same as your goals. My goals are what determine my process.

My habits won’t look like your habits, because my goals aren’t the same as your goals. My goals are what determine my habits.

When you get serious about big results, you stop obsessing about process altogether. Big and bold goals require ingenuity. They require courage and attempting stuff that might not work. They require going above and beyond anything you’ve ever done.

In reality, your goal IS the process. You set a goal and that goal organizes your life. Once you hit it, you then set a new goal that re-organizes your life.

Goals are means, not ends. They are means to growth and progress. Once you hit a goal, you take what you’ve learned and continue expanding.

6. Identify Ideal Mentors/Partners

“Everybody wants to be somebody’s Yoda.” — Aminah Mae Safi

Don’t just look for a job. Instead, create a job.

How?

You create a job by providing opportunities to ideal people you want to learn from and work with.

This is how you can come to work very closely with your ideal mentors.

Wealthy people work to learn. Poor people work for money.

So, who do you admire?

Who is a role model to you?

Who is doing work you absolutely love?

Who has a life you want to emulate?

How can you help them achieve their goals?

How can you use your skills and abilities to enhance and improve what they are doing?

It is really so easy to get closed to just about anyone. I’ve observed this over and over in my life. I’ve been able to develop very close relationships with anyone I’ve wanted.

It started with a vision.

I wrote down that I was going to learn from and work with certain people.

I studied their work.

I developed skills that would be useful to them.

I got myself into their environment.

I offered my skills to them in the form of an opportunity, one in which would help them further succeed at what they want to do.

I spent my time and efforts helping them, and in due process, learning a great deal in the process.

I became part of the inner-circle.

Being in the inner-circle, I’m now afforded rare knowledge, experiences, and opportunities.

This is what you want.

You develop mentorships and partnerships by being useful. You dedicate your thoughts and efforts to helping them. By helping them, you position yourself in a unique place. In this unique new position, making lots of money becomes easy.

7. Become A Brilliant Listener And Observer

“Listening is such a simple act. It requires us to be present, and that takes practice, but we don’t have to do anything else. We don’t have to advise, or coach, or sound wise. We just have to be willing to sit there and listen.” — Margaret Wheatley

“Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” — Stephen Covey

Interestingly, in helping ideal mentors and role models, I’ve seen time and again how people overly value their own “wisdom.”

Recently, I was on a call with one of my mentors. There were three of us on the call. The mentor, myself, and one other. We were all three on the call to discuss “the mentor’s” goals and plans for expanding their business and simplifying their life.

The conversation lasted about 90 minutes.

60 of those minutes were the other person spouting endless ideas without clear context. They were trying too hard to be useful or smart.

It wasn’t helpful.

Instead, it’s better to ask thoughtful questions.

What are they really trying to accomplish?

What are the current challenges?

What do you feel needs to happen?

Why do you want to make these changes?

Once you get the right context, then and only then will your words be useful. When it comes to relationships and communication, sometimes the stakes are very high. Sometimes, you want to measure 10 times and cut once. In other words, you want your words to be relevant and on-point. You want it to be obvious that you’re there for them, not to boost your own ego.

If it’s really about them, then make it about them. Ask questions before providing ideas.

Help them get clarity themselves through their own talking.

Make sure they understand what is really going on in their head by helping them clarify.

Then, when you feel you could provide insight, do it in the context of what they’ve already said.

They will then know that you are truly listening to them and that you’re truly trying to help them. They will love and respect you, because unlike most people, you are genuine. You’re a listener.

8. Focus On “Who” Instead Of “How”

“Stop asking ‘how’ and start asking ‘who.’” — Dan Sullivan

Part of becoming a millionaire, or financially successful in whatever way you define that, is by evolving beyond what Dan Sullivan calls “rugged individualism.”

When ambitious people set goals, they often ask themselves, “How do I do this?”

When you’re first starting out, this is a fine question. But when your vision expands and your time becomes more valuable, you start asking a different question.

“Who can either do this for me or help me do this?”

Rather than trying to do the “how” yourself, you find the “who” to take care of the how.

Hiring people or even using services like Upwork is so easy these days. There are people all over the world with time and skills who are ready and waiting. Utilize these people.

You get the best people onboard to whatever you’re trying to accomplish by powerfully and clearly conveying the “what” and the “why.”

What are you trying to accomplish?

Why is it so important?

This is how you get people excited and committed. Simon Sinek, an expert of work culture, explains that everyone needs more from work than simply a paycheck. We all want to feel like we are a part of something important, meaningful, and worthwhile.

You offer that to people through the “what” and the “why.”

You may not see yourself as an “entrepreneur.” And you certainly don’t have to be one. But if you want to start making more money, you’ll need to stop doing everything by yourself.

Becoming a millionaire doesn’t happen by being a one-person-show.

You need to start building a team. And like everything else, you want to do that before you feel ready. Because in truth, you’re never ready before you start. You’re never pre-qualified to do anything. It is always the leap itself and then working through the process that you become qualified.

9. Continually Update Your Values-Definition Of Success

“If you’re not embarrassed by who you were 12 months ago, you didn’t learn enough.” — Alain De Button

Transformational experiences can change your life. Similarly, transformational relationships can change your life.

You want to regularly be having experiences and engaging with people who upgrade your current approach and perspective of life.

Right now, you see the world a particular way based on your environment, your goals, and what you’ve been conditioned to focus on.

You can only see what is relevant and meaningful to you. Psychologists call this selective attention. What you focus on expands.

Right now, what you focus on may be different from what you were focusing on 2–3 years ago.

When you were young, you were focused on what your friends thought about you. As you get older, your focus shifts.

Peak experiences are a certain type of experience that bring something that has been out of focus to you, into focus. When you have these experiences that shift your focus and attention, you begin to see the world differently.

You want to continually shine the focus of your attention on things that are meaningful and valuable to you.

How much of your time and attention is on things that don’t really matter?

How much energy to you put into stuff that isn’t serving you?

What could you be focused on, that would be way more worth you time?

I recently met a person who helped me focus way more directly on my relationship with my kids. He told me a story that really changed my perspective. I was really listening and receptive to what he was saying.

The story he told me hit upon things I’d already heard before, but that weren’t strong enough signals to shift my attention. But his story and the whole experience really made it real for me, enough so that it changed my values and goals.

There are things you’ve heard before, which went in one ear and out the other. Those are things you know, but don’t do. Stephen Covey said, “To know and not do is really not to know.”

Just because you’re aware of something doesn’t mean you pay attention to it. Becoming emotionally connected to something is how you begin paying more attention to it. As you engage in something, and begin to identify with it, then it becomes a bigger part of your life.

Right now, look at your health. How much attention do you give it? You’ve heard a million times that your health is important. You’re aware, but are you paying attention? Or, is your attention on other things?

Your attention can be measured by what triggers you in your environment. Hence, people who are addicted to alcohol get triggered by many things in the environment to think about alcohol.

What triggers you?

That’s what you’re focused on. That’s what you identify with. That’s what’s meaningful to you. That’s where your story of yourself lies.

You can design your focus so that your external environment triggers what you want to see.

Similar to attention, there are things you know are valuable, but that you personally don’t value.

For example, you probably believe that good health is something worth valuing, but your behavior demonstrates what you really value. What you pay attention to is what you value.

So, you want to have experiences that shift what you could value to what you do value. You want to truly value things that will make the biggest difference in your life. You want to stop valuing the things that are sabotaging your success.

You want to set goals around the values you aspire to have. You want to create routines and an environment that bring those values to the forefront of your attention. Your input shapes your outlook. You then want to live-out those values daily. Then, you want to regularly have experiences which upgrade, expand, and refine those values.

If your definition of “success” hasn’t changed in the past 12 months, then you haven’t learned very much. If your definition of success hasn’t changed, then you haven’t been having powerful experiences.

10. Don’t Wait Too Long When You Know It’s Time To Change

“What got you here won’t get you there.” — Dr. Marshall Goldsmith

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” — Albert Einstein

“The way to enjoy life best is to wrap up one goal and start right on the next one. Don’t linger too long at the table of success, the only way to enjoy another meal is to get hungry.” — Jim Rohn

Goals are means, not ends. Once you’ve achieved something big, don’t get stuck there just because it worked before.

Everything you’ve done has brought you to this point.

What is the next big adventure?

What does the situation call for?

What does your imagination inspire?

What’s the next big mountain?

One of the fundamental problems with success is that it becomes a trap. People who have succeeded big get stuck living in their past. They continue to explain themselves based on what they’ve done, rather than what they’re doing.

Elon Musk is a powerful exception. You never hear Elon Musk talk about the “Paypal days.” Instead, you hear him talking about the problems he’s currently solving and the vision he is currently pursuing.

He’s not stuck in the past. Instead, he’s using all of his past experiences to propel bigger and bigger results and goals and challenges.

He’s always growing, transforming, changing, striving. This is a very healthy approach to life.

Conclusion

It’s surprising how simple it actually is to become financially successful.

It’s not hard.

You just need to know what you want and then become the person that gets it.

You can become a millionaire.

It may take 5 years. But 5 years of focused attention on something can take you a really long way.

What’s the minimum viable dose for the results you want?

Becoming a millionaire will require you to change. But as Albert Einstein said, “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.” Jim Rohn said it best: “Become a millionaire not for the million dollars, but for what it will make of you to achieve it.”

Here’s the reality: you are currently fixated and focused on something. That’s a fact. If we want to understand who you are, all we need to do is discover where your current focus and attention lies.

A fundamental part of conscious evolution is learning to control and direct your attention — so that you can shine that spotlight onto what you want, rather than what you’ve been conditioned to want. Fundamental to that is updating your environment and values, since these things center your attention.

What are you currently focused on?

What is currently meaningful to you?

What could be meaningful to you?

What could you value?

Who could you be?

Ready to Upgrade?

I’ve created a cheat sheet for putting yourself into a PEAK-STATE, immediately. You follow this daily, your life will change very quickly.

Get the cheat sheet here!

10 Steps To Become A Millionaire In 5 Years (Or Less) was originally published in Thrive Global on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

10 Skills To Becoming A Millionaire In 5 Years Or Less

Wired

It doesn’t matter where you currently are in your financial situation — whether just starting out or already making lots of money.

Most people, no matter what their income, are treading water. As a person’s income rises, so does their spending.

Few people understand how to continually increase their income, lifestyle, and joy at the same time.

In this article, you will learn:

how to become wealthyhow to build a life that continually increases your level of confidence and joyhow to continually expand, learn, grow, and succeed as a personhow to develop mentorships, friendships, and strategic partnerships with nearly anyone you want

If these things are not interesting to you, then this article was not written for you.

Here’s how it works:

1. Create A Wealth Vision

“When riches begin to come they come so quickly, in such great abundance, that one wonders where they have been hiding during all those lean years.” — Napoleon Hill

Step 1 of becoming financially successful is to actually create a “vision” for yourself financially. Einstein said that imagination is more important than knowledge. Arden said creativity is more important than experience.

How much imagination do you have for your future?

Do you see huge potential and possibility for your life?

Or, do you see a pretty average life?

Creating a vision is an iterative process. You don’t just create a vision once and then never look at it again.

You continually create and write your vision — every single day (see #3 below).

Look at any area of your life that you’re doing well and it’s because you see something beyond what you currently have. By that same token, look at any area of your life that isn’t exceptional and you likely don’t see something beyond what you currently have.

Most people are living in and repeating the past.

Having a vision is focused on the future.

Your life and behavior immediately shift when you begin imagining a different future and stridently striving for it.

In order to do this, you must obliterate your need for consistency. From a psychological perspective, people have a high need to be viewed by others as consistent. This keeps people in behavioral patterns, environments, and relationships that are ultimately destructive and unsatisfying for far too long.

Instead, you could abandon your need to be viewed as consistent by others. You can be okay with the fact that you’re not perfect. You can be okay with messing up. You can be okay with having values you stand for and goals you want to accomplish, regardless of what those around you think.

Having a vision for your life means you no longer care what other people think of you. It means you’re ready to begin actually living the life you want. It means you’re no longer going to just go with the flow, as you have for most of your life. It means that regardless of what your parents, peers, and social environment have presented you thus far, you’re going to create the life you want.

The more detailed your vision the better. The more quantifiable your vision the better.

Your brain really loves numbers and events. These are tangible. Thus, your vision should center around specific numbers and key events.

For example:

“I will be making $1,000,000/year by January 1, 2022.”“I will get a check for over $100,000 by October 2020.”“I will take a 6-week vacation in Thailand in the next 6 months.”

Quantify it.

Measure it.

Get excited by it.

The more detailed the vision in your mind, the more believable it will be to you.

It’s okay if you don’t know exactly what you want right now. Having more money, creating powerful experiences, and continually growing as a person are all in the right direction.

As you build confidence through successive and small wins over time, your vision and imagination will expand.

Thus, in order for your vision to become clarified and congruent with your values and genuine desires, you’ll need to start building confidence.

That’s where the next step comes in:

2. Develop A 90-Day System For Measuring Progress-Future-Pacing

The following are 4 questions Dan Sullivan, founder of Strategic Coach, has his clients answer every 90 days:

“Winning Achievements? Looking back over the past quarter, what are the things that make you the proudest about what you have achieved?” “What’s Hot? When you look at everything that’s going on today, which areas of focus and progress are making you the most confident?” “Bigger and Better ? Now, looking ahead at the next quarter, what new things are giving you the greatest sense of excitement?”“What are the five new ‘jumps’ you can now achieve that will make your next 90 days a great quarter regardless of what else happens?”

Every 90 days, you want to 1) review the previous 90 days and then to 2) set measurable and challenging goals for the next 90 days.

In the book, The Art of Learning, Josh Waitzkin said: “Short-term goals can be useful developmental tools if they are balanced within a nurturing long-term philosophy. Too much sheltering from results can be stunting.”

Short-term goals are how you build progress. Working toward a timeline is crucial for productivity. Focusing on only a few key milestones each 90 days are how you build momentum.

Every 90 days, when you look back on the previous 90 days, you want a system for tracking your learning and progress. You want to get out of your routine environment and take a “recovery” break. Tim Ferriss calls this “mini-retirements.”

Every 90 days, you want to take a few days off. You want to get away where you can ponder, reflect, think, visualize, strategize, and play.

During this recovery session, you want to pull out your journal and take time to reflect on the previous 90 days.

What went well?

What were your key wins?

What did you learn?

What has you most excited?

Where do you need to pivot?

Given what you’ve done and what you’ve learned, what do you want to do in the next 90 days?

What 2–5 “jumps” or “wins” will make the biggest difference toward your ideal vision?

Every 90 days, when you review your progress, you could be increasing your confidence, because confidence comes through watching yourself succeed.

Very few people truly take time reflecting on what they’ve actually done. We’re very good at seeing where we’re coming up short. We are less reflective of where we’ve succeeded.

Chances are, you don’t even remember what you ate for lunch three days ago.

Chances are, you don’t recognize all of the good things you’ve done in the past 90 days. However, you can train your brain to notice, focus, and pay attention to the progress you’re making. When you begin seeing progress, you’ll start feeling progress and excitement.

These feelings are very important.

Feeling movement and momentum gives confidence.

Confidence is the bedrock of imagination, action, and power.

Want more confidence?

Start setting short-term goals (every 30–90 days), track your progress, count your wins, recovery, reset, and start again.

When you have a big vision, you don’t need to make HUGE progress every day. You only need to take a step or two forward daily. You then track that progress and watch as the compounding effects take over.

Every 90 days, track the key areas of your life.

Track your money.

Track your health.

Track your time.

Track the progress in the areas you want to succeed.

3. Develop A Daily Routine To Live In A Flow-Peak State

“Assume the feeling of your wish fulfilled.” — Neville Goddard

Alright — so you’ve created a big picture vision that inspires you.

You’ve also set 90-day short-term goals to help you build confidence and keep you progressing on the path.

Now, you need a daily routine to keep yourself in flow.

If you can get yourself into a flow-state every single day, and live in and operate from that flow state, you’re going to be feeling really good.

It is your responsibility to organize your life so you can be in flow as much as possible. In positive psychology, a flow state, also known as being in “the zone,” is the mental state in which you are fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment.

In essence, flow is characterized by complete absorption in what one does, and a resulting loss in one’s sense of space and time.

That’s a great way to live.

Flow creates high performance.

High performance creates confidence.

Confidence creates imagination and excitement.

Imagination and excitement lead you to thinking bigger and differently about yourself and your life.

With that in mind, it’s key to look at why most people are not in flow most of the time. Not surprisingly, it starts first thing in the morning. Momentum is activated with the first decision of your day. Rather than proactively putting themselves into a flow state, most people put themselves into an unconsciously reactive state.

People are not the product of habits, they are the product of environments (see point #4 below). According to Stanford psychologist and behavior expert, BJ Fogg, design beats willpower. Design is about how you’ve set things up. Most people have not designed their environment for flow. Instead, most people’s environment and life have been set up for continual distraction, which is the opposite of flow.

Flow is something that must be designed for.

You have to decide to live in flow. You have to commit to it. The reason flow is so commonplace in extreme sports is because extreme sports require a great deal of commitment, risk, and focus.

If a motocross rider loses focus while trying a backflip over a 100-foot dirt jump, they could die. Therefore, the situation evokes deep flow.

Flow comes by not over-thinking it.

Flow comes when you just let it happen.

For example, when I’m writing a blog post, my best writing is when I stop thinking altogether. I just let it rip.

That’s how high performance works. You put in the preparation, then you just let your body take over.

When it comes to morning routines, the primary purpose is to put yourself into a flow or peak state. There are some useful activities for putting yourself into flow.

First, you want to change your environment to change your mindset. Begin visualizing and IMAGINING your desired future. Affirm powerfully to yourself that you are going to achieve that future. Florence Shinn stated, “Faith knows it has already received and acts accordingly.”

That’s what morning routines are all about. You put your mind into the mode of your future. You emotionally commit and connect with that future. You then BE that future self.

You act as that future-self would act.

This is why the need for consistency needs to drop from your life.

Instead of being consistent with who you’ve been, you want to be consistent with who you’re going to be. If you’re going to be a millionaire, you need to start acting like one now.

Recent research studied the brains of actors with MRI machines. What they found is that, when the actors were in character, their brain’s showed significant change.

In other words, acting a different role changes your brain. And this is actually what you want to do every morning in your morning routine.

Rather than triggering the brain of your former self and addictions, you want to trigger the brain of your desired self, or character.

Who do you want to be?

Imagine that self.

Feel that self.

Assume the feeling of your wish fulfilled.

Affirm the reality of that self.

Know that what you want you can have.

Commit big.

Invest yourself in that reality.

Begin, right now, acting consistent with that reality.

Enjoy the rush of flow that comes from being present and congruent.

4. Design Your Environment For Clarity, Recovery, And Creativity

“A lot of people think we are creatures of habit but we’re not. We are creatures of environment.” — Roger Hamilton

In order to truly upgrade your life, you can’t just set goals, build morning routines, and begin acting differently.

You need to reshape your environment.

You need an environment that matches the future you plan to create.

You need an environment that not only resonates with your values and vision, but also propels your values and vision.

Most people’s environment is like a rushing river, going the opposite direction of where they want to go. It takes a lot of willpower to tread upstream. It’s exhausting. Instead, you want your environment to literally be pulling you the direction you want to go.

You want to proactively surround yourself with people who inspire you.

How many role models do you regularly encounter?

How many role models are you helping?

Different environments have different purposes. You want environments for rest and rejuvenation, for focus and work, for meditation and clarity, and for excitement and fun.

The more mindful you become as a person, the more you realize that you and your environment are two parts of the same whole. You cannot disconnect yourself from your environment. Therefore, you want to be mindful and intentional about your environment.

This means you do not contaminate recovery environments with things like cellphones. If you’re going to go to the beach to relax, don’t ruin that amazing opportunity by bringing your phone.

When you change a part, you change the whole system. Don’t spoil the whole barrel with one bad apple.

5. Focus On Results, Not “Habits” or “Process”

“In polite conversation, most of us will say we admire successful people for their hard work, positive habits, and ironclad principles. That’s not really true. It doesn’t take much digging to uncover a major disconnect between what most of us say we respect and how most of the icons of our age actually behave… Keep in mind that the only thing most people really care about is the score on the board. Everything else is hype.” — Forbes

It’s quite hilarious, really. Nowadays, you hear people talking about how “goals” and “results” don’t matter.

This is totally nonsense.

It’s also lies.

It’s not about “habits” or “process.” It’s about results.

The reason we admire certain people is because of the results they get. There are countless other people who have just as “inspiring” of habits but fail to produce powerful results.

Tim Ferriss, in his book, The 4-Hour Body, defines what he calls, “minimum viable dose.” Basically, this is the minimum amount of effort to produce the desired result. 212 degrees is all that is needed to boil an egg. Anything beyond that is wasted effort.

Therefore, what is the desired result you want?

What is the most effective way to get that result?

Rather than obsessing about the habits and process, you instead want to get very clear on the result you want, and then reverse-engineer how to get it.

It is the goal that determines the process, not the other way around. Moreover, it’s the results that also determine the process. If you’re not getting desired results, then you need to adjust your process. Don’t be insane and do the same things over and over and expect a different result.

Even still, we live in a culture that is obsessed with habits, hacks, and “process.” None of these things make any sense in and of themselves. They only make sense in the context of a specific goal.

My process won’t look like your process, because my goals aren’t the same as your goals. My goals are what determine my process.

My habits won’t look like your habits, because my goals aren’t the same as your goals. My goals are what determine my habits.

When you get serious about big results, you stop obsessing about process altogether. Big and bold goals require ingenuity. They require courage and attempting stuff that might not work. They require going above and beyond anything you’ve ever done.

In reality, your goal IS the process. You set a goal and that goal organizes your life. Once you hit it, you then set a new goal that re-organizes your life.

Goals are means, not ends. They are means to growth and progress. Once you hit a goal, you take what you’ve learned and continue expanding.

6. Identify Ideal Mentors/Partners

“Everybody wants to be somebody’s Yoda.” — Aminah Mae Safi

Don’t just look for a job. Instead, create a job.

How?

You create a job by providing opportunities to ideal people you want to learn from and work with.

This is how you can come to work very closely with your ideal mentors.

Wealthy people work to learn. Poor people work for money.

So, who do you admire?

Who is a role model to you?

Who is doing work you absolutely love?

Who has a life you want to emulate?

How can you help them achieve their goals?

How can you use your skills and abilities to enhance and improve what they are doing?

It is really so easy to get closed to just about anyone. I’ve observed this over and over in my life. I’ve been able to develop very close relationships with anyone I’ve wanted.

It started with a vision.

I wrote down that I was going to learn from and work with certain people.

I studied their work.

I developed skills that would be useful to them.

I got myself into their environment.

I offered my skills to them in the form of an opportunity, one in which would help them further succeed at what they want to do.

I spent my time and efforts helping them, and in due process, learning a great deal in the process.

I became part of the inner-circle.

Being in the inner-circle, I’m now afforded rare knowledge, experiences, and opportunities.

This is what you want.

You develop mentorships and partnerships by being useful. You dedicate your thoughts and efforts to helping them. By helping them, you position yourself in a unique place. In this unique new position, making lots of money becomes easy.

7. Become A Brilliant Listener And Observer

“Listening is such a simple act. It requires us to be present, and that takes practice, but we don’t have to do anything else. We don’t have to advise, or coach, or sound wise. We just have to be willing to sit there and listen.” — Margaret Wheatley

“Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” — Stephen Covey

Interestingly, in helping ideal mentors and role models, I’ve seen time and again how people overly value their own “wisdom.”

Recently, I was on a call with one of my mentors. There were three of us on the call. The mentor, myself, and one other. We were all three on the call to discuss “the mentor’s” goals and plans for expanding their business and simplifying their life.

The conversation lasted about 90 minutes.

60 of those minutes were the other person spouting endless ideas without clear context. They were trying too hard to be useful or smart.

It wasn’t helpful.

Instead, it’s better to ask thoughtful questions.

What are they really trying to accomplish?

What are the current challenges?

What do you feel needs to happen?

Why do you want to make these changes?

Once you get the right context, then and only then will your words be useful. When it comes to relationships and communication, sometimes the stakes are very high. Sometimes, you want to measure 10 times and cut once. In other words, you want your words to be relevant and on-point. You want it to be obvious that you’re there for them, not to boost your own ego.

If it’s really about them, then make it about them. Ask questions before providing ideas.

Help them get clarity themselves through their own talking.

Make sure they understand what is really going on in their head by helping them clarify.

Then, when you feel you could provide insight, do it in the context of what they’ve already said.

They will then know that you are truly listening to them and that you’re truly trying to help them. They will love and respect you, because unlike most people, you are genuine. You’re a listener.

8. Focus On “Who” Instead Of “How”

“Stop asking ‘how’ and start asking ‘who.’” — Dan Sullivan

Part of becoming a millionaire, or financially successful in whatever way you define that, is by evolving beyond what Dan Sullivan calls “rugged individualism.”

When ambitious people set goals, they often ask themselves, “How do I do this?”

When you’re first starting out, this is a fine question. But when your vision expands and your time becomes more valuable, you start asking a different question.

“Who can either do this for me or help me do this?”

Rather than trying to do the “how” yourself, you find the “who” to take care of the how.

Hiring people or even using services like Upwork is so easy these days. There are people all over the world with time and skills who are ready and waiting. Utilize these people.

You get the best people onboard to whatever you’re trying to accomplish by powerfully and clearly conveying the “what” and the “why.”

What are you trying to accomplish?

Why is it so important?

This is how you get people excited and committed. Simon Sinek, an expert of work culture, explains that everyone needs more from work than simply a paycheck. We all want to feel like we are a part of something important, meaningful, and worthwhile.

You offer that to people through the “what” and the “why.”

You may not see yourself as an “entrepreneur.” And you certainly don’t have to be one. But if you want to start making more money, you’ll need to stop doing everything by yourself.

Becoming a millionaire doesn’t happen by being a one-person-show.

You need to start building a team. And like everything else, you want to do that before you feel ready. Because in truth, you’re never ready before you start. You’re never pre-qualified to do anything. It is always the leap itself and then working through the process that you become qualified.

9. Continually Update Your Values-Definition Of Success

“If you’re not embarrassed by who you were 12 months ago, you didn’t learn enough.” — Alain De Button

Transformational experiences can change your life. Similarly, transformational relationships can change your life.

You want to regularly be having experiences and engaging with people who upgrade your current approach and perspective of life.

Right now, you see the world a particular way based on your environment, your goals, and what you’ve been conditioned to focus on.

You can only see what is relevant and meaningful to you. Psychologists call this selective attention. What you focus on expands.

Right now, what you focus on may be different from what you were focusing on 2–3 years ago.

When you were young, you were focused on what your friends thought about you. As you get older, your focus shifts.

Peak experiences are a certain type of experience that bring something that has been out of focus to you, into focus. When you have these experiences that shift your focus and attention, you begin to see the world differently.

You want to continually shine the focus of your attention on things that are meaningful and valuable to you.

How much of your time and attention is on things that don’t really matter?

How much energy to you put into stuff that isn’t serving you?

What could you be focused on, that would be way more worth you time?

I recently met a person who helped me focus way more directly on my relationship with my kids. He told me a story that really changed my perspective. I was really listening and receptive to what he was saying.

The story he told me hit upon things I’d already heard before, but that weren’t strong enough signals to shift my attention. But his story and the whole experience really made it real for me, enough so that it changed my values and goals.

There are things you’ve heard before, which went in one ear and out the other. Those are things you know, but don’t do. Stephen Covey said, “To know and not do is really not to know.”

Just because you’re aware of something doesn’t mean you pay attention to it. Becoming emotionally connected to something is how you begin paying more attention to it. As you engage in something, and begin to identify with it, then it becomes a bigger part of your life.

Right now, look at your health. How much attention do you give it? You’ve heard a million times that your health is important. You’re aware, but are you paying attention? Or, is your attention on other things?

Your attention can be measured by what triggers you in your environment. Hence, people who are addicted to alcohol get triggered by many things in the environment to think about alcohol.

What triggers you?

That’s what you’re focused on. That’s what you identify with. That’s what’s meaningful to you. That’s where your story of yourself lies.

You can design your focus so that your external environment triggers what you want to see.

Similar to attention, there are things you know are valuable, but that you personally don’t value.

For example, you probably believe that good health is something worth valuing, but your behavior demonstrates what you really value. What you pay attention to is what you value.

So, you want to have experiences that shift what you could value to what you do value. You want to truly value things that will make the biggest difference in your life. You want to stop valuing the things that are sabotaging your success.

You want to set goals around the values you aspire to have. You want to create routines and an environment that bring those values to the forefront of your attention. Your input shapes your outlook. You then want to live-out those values daily. Then, you want to regularly have experiences which upgrade, expand, and refine those values.

If your definition of “success” hasn’t changed in the past 12 months, then you haven’t learned very much. If your definition of success hasn’t changed, then you haven’t been having powerful experiences.

10. Don’t Wait Too Long When You Know It’s Time To Change

“What got you here won’t get you there.” — Dr. Marshall Goldsmith

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” — Albert Einstein

“The way to enjoy life best is to wrap up one goal and start right on the next one. Don’t linger too long at the table of success, the only way to enjoy another meal is to get hungry.” — Jim Rohn

Goals are means, not ends. Once you’ve achieved something big, don’t get stuck there just because it worked before.

Everything you’ve done has brought you to this point.

What is the next big adventure?

What does the situation call for?

What does your imagination inspire?

What’s the next big mountain?

One of the fundamental problems with success is that it becomes a trap. People who have succeeded big get stuck living in their past. They continue to explain themselves based on what they’ve done, rather than what they’re doing.

Elon Musk is a powerful exception. You never hear Elon Musk talk about the “Paypal days.” Instead, you hear him talking about the problems he’s currently solving and the vision he is currently pursuing.

He’s not stuck in the past. Instead, he’s using all of his past experiences to propel bigger and bigger results and goals and challenges.

He’s always growing, transforming, changing, striving. This is a very healthy approach to life.

Conclusion

It’s surprising how simple it actually is to become financially successful.

It’s not hard.

You just need to know what you want and then become the person that gets it.

You can become a millionaire.

It may take 5 years. But 5 years of focused attention on something can take you a really long way.

What’s the minimum viable dose for the results you want?

Becoming a millionaire will require you to change. But as Albert Einstein said, “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.” Jim Rohn said it best: “Become a millionaire not for the million dollars, but for what it will make of you to achieve it.”

Here’s the reality: you are currently fixated and focused on something. That’s a fact. If we want to understand who you are, all we need to do is discover where your current focus and attention lies.

A fundamental part of conscious evolution is learning to control and direct your attention — so that you can shine that spotlight onto what you want, rather than what you’ve been conditioned to want. Fundamental to that is updating your environment and values, since these things center your attention.

What are you currently focused on?

What is currently meaningful to you?

What could be meaningful to you?

What could you value?

Who could you be?

Ready to Upgrade?

I’ve created a cheat sheet for putting yourself into a PEAK-STATE, immediately. You follow this daily, your life will change very quickly.

Get the cheat sheet here!

10 Skills To Becoming A Millionaire In 5 Years Or Less was originally published in Thrive Global on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This Morning Routine will Save You 20+ Hours Per Week

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The traditional 9–5 workday is poorly structured for high productivity. Perhaps when most work was physical labor, but not in the knowledge working world we now live in.

Although this may be obvious based on people’s mediocre performance, addiction to stimulants, lack of engagement, and the fact that most people hate their jobs — now there’s loads of scientific evidence you can’t ignore.

The Myth of the 8 Hour Workday

The most productive countries in the world do not work 8 hours per day. Actually, the most productive countries have the shortest workdays.

People in countries like Luxembourg are working approximately 30 hours per week (approximately 6 hours per day, 5 days per week) and making more money on average than people working longer workweeks.

This is the average person in those countries. But what about the super-productive?

Although Gary Vaynerchuck claims to work 20 hours per day, many “highly successful” people I know work between 3–6 hours per day.

It also depends on what you’re really trying to accomplish in your life. Gary Vaynerchuck wants to own the New York Jets. He’s also fine, apparently, not spending much time with his family.

And that’s completely fine. He’s clear on his priorities.

However, you must also be clear on yours. If you’re like most people, you probably want to make a great income, doing work you love, that also provides lots of flexibility in your schedule.

If that’s your goal, this post is for you.

Quality Vs. Quantity

“Wherever you are, make sure you’re there.” — Dan Sullivan

If you’re like most people, your workday is a blend of low-velocity work mixed with continual distraction (e.g., social media and email).

Most people’s “working time” is not done at peak performance levels. When most people are working, they do so in a relaxed fashion. Makes sense, they have plenty of time to get it done.

However, when you are results-oriented, rather than “being busy,” you’re 100 percent on when you’re working and 100 percent off when you’re not. Why do anything half-way? If you’re going to work, you’re going to work.

To get the best results in your fitness, research has found that shorter but more intensive exercise is more effective than longer drawn-out exercise.

The concept is simple: Intensive activity followed by high-quality rest and recovery.

Most of the growth actually comes during the recovery process. However, the only way to truly recover is by actually pushing yourself to exhaustion during the workout.

The same concept applies to work. The best work happens in short intensive spurts. By short, I’m talking 1–3 hours. But this must be “Deep Work,” with no distractions, just like an intensive workout is non-stop. Interestingly, your best work — which for most people is thinking — will actually happen while you’re away from your work, “recovering.”

For best results: Spend 20% of your energy on your work and 80% of your energy on recovery and self-improvement. When you’re getting high-quality recovery, you’re growing. When you’re continually honing your mental-model, the quality and impact of your work continually increase. This is what psychologists call, “Deliberate Practice.” It’s not about doing more, but better training. It’s about being strategic and results-focused, not busyness-focused.

In one study, only 16 percent of respondents reported getting creative insight while at work. Ideas generally came while the person was at home, in transportation, or during recreational activity. “The most creative ideas aren’t going to come while sitting in front of your monitor,” says Scott Birnbaum, a vice president of Samsung Semiconductor.

The reason for this is simple. When you’re working directly on a task, your mind is tightly focused on the problem at hand (i.e., direct reflection). Conversely, when you’re not working, your mind loosely wanders (i.e., indirect reflection).

While driving or doing some other form of recreation, the external stimuli in your environment (like the buildings or other landscapes around you) subconsciously prompt memories and other thoughts. Because your mind is wandering both contextually (on different subjects) and temporally between past, present, and future, your brain will make distant and distinct connections related to the problem you’re trying to solve (eureka!).

Creativity, after all, is making connections between different parts of the brain. Ideation and inspiration is a process you can perfect.

Case in point: when you’re working, be at work. When you’re not working, stop working. By taking your mind off work and actually recovering, you’ll get creative breakthroughs related to your work.

Your First Three Hours Will Make or Break You

According to psychologist Ron Friedman, the first three hours of your day are your most precious for maximized productivity.

“Typically, we have a window of about three hours where we’re really, really focused. We’re able to have some strong contributions in terms of planning, in terms of thinking, in terms of speaking well,” Friedman told Harvard Business Review.

This makes sense on several levels. Let’s start with sleep. Research confirms the brain, specifically the prefrontal cortex, is most active and readily creative immediately following sleep. Your subconscious mind has been loosely mind-wandering while you slept, making contextual and temporal connections.

So, immediately following sleep, your mind is most readily active to do thoughtful work.

On a different level, the science of willpower and self-control confirm that your willpower — or energy levels — are strongest immediately following sleep.

So, your brain is most attuned first thing in the morning, and so are your energy levels. Consequently, the best time to do your best work is during the first three hours of your day.

I used to exercise first thing in the morning. Not anymore. I’ve found that exercising first thing in the morning actually sucks my energy, leaving me with less than I started.

Lately, I’ve been waking up at 6AM, driving to my school and walking to the library I work in. While walking from my car to the library, I drink a 250 calorie plant-based protein shake (approximately 30 grams of protein).

Donald Layman, professor emeritus of nutrition at the University of Illinois, recommends consuming at least 30 grams of protein for breakfast. Similarly, Tim Ferriss, in his book, The 4-Hour Body, also recommends 30 grams of protein 30 minutes after waking.

Protein-rich foods keep you full longer than other foods because they take longer to leave the stomach. Also, protein keeps blood-sugar levels steady, which prevent spikes in hunger.

I get to the library and all set-up by around 6:30 AM. I spend a few minutes in prayer and meditation, followed by a 5–10-minute session in my journal.

The purpose of this journal session is to get clarity and focus for my day. I write down my big picture goals and my objectives for that particular day. I then write down anything that comes to my mind. Often, it relates to people I need to contact or ideas related to a project I’m working on. I purposefully keep this journal session short and focused.

By 6:45, I’m set to work on whatever project I’m working on, whether that’s writing a book or an article, working on a research paper for my doctoral research, creating an online course, etc.

Starting work this early may seem crazy to you, but I’ve been shocked by how easy it is to work for 2–5 hours straight without distractions. My mind is laser at this time of day. And I don’t rely on any stimulants at all.

Between 11 AM-noon, my mind is ready for a break, so that’s when I do my workout. Research confirms that your workout is better with food in your system. Consequently, my workouts are now a lot more productive and powerful than they were when I was exercising immediately following sleep.

After the workout, which is a great mental break, you should be fine to work a few more hours, if needed.

If your 3–5 hours before your workout was focused, you could probably be done for the day.

Protect Your Mornings

I understand that this schedule will not work for everyone. There are single-parents with kids who simply can’t do something like this.

We all need to work within the constraints of our unique contexts. However, if you work best in the morning, you gotta find a way to make it happen. This may require waking up a few extra hours earlier than you’re used to and taking a nap during the afternoon.

Or, it may require you to simply focus hardcore the moment you get to work. A common strategy for this is known as the “90–90–1” rule, where you spend the first 90 minutes of your workday on your #1 priority. I’m certain this isn’t checking your email or social media.

Whatever your situation, protect your mornings!

I’m blown away by how many people schedule things like meetings in the mornings. Nothing could be worse for peak performance and creativity.

Schedule all of your meetings for the afternoon, after lunch.

Don’t check your social media or email until after your 3 hours of deep work. Your morning time should be spent on output, not input.

If you don’t protect your mornings, a million different things will take up your time. Other people will only respect you as much as you respect yourself.

Protecting your mornings means you are literally unreachable during certain hours. Only in case of serious emergency can you be summoned from your focus-cave.

Mind-Body Connection

What you do outside of work is just as significant for your work-productivity as what you do while you’re working.

A March 2016 study in the online issue of Neurology found that regular exercise can slow brain aging by as much as 10 years. Loads of other research has found that people who regularly exercise are more productive at work. Your brain is, after all, part of your body. If your body is healthier, it makes sense that your brain would operate better.

If you want to operate at your highest level, you need to take a holistic approach to life. You are a system. When you change a part of any system, you simultaneously change the whole. Improve one area of your life, all other areas improve in a virtuous cycle. This is the butterfly effect in action and the basis of the book, Start with Habit, which shows that by integrating one “keystone habit,” like exercise or reading, that the positivity of that one habits ripples into all other areas of your life, eventually transforming your whole life.

Consequently, the types of foods you eat, and when you eat them, determine your ability to focus at work. Your ability to sleep well (by the way, it’s easy to sleep well when you get up early and work hard) is also essential to peak performance. Rather than managing your time, then, you should really be focused on managing your energy. Your work schedule should be scheduled around when you work best, not around social norms and expectations.

A Very Simple Technique For Building Keystone Habits

You only need one keystone habit to start. If you create one, then you’ll have built the confidence to build several more. The reason is simple: how you do anything is often how you do everything.

If you can lock in one keystone habit — particularly something that is fundamental and important like food — then you’ll have gained sufficient confidence and control in your life.

This is actually what most people don’t understand about willpower. They think willpower is about self-control when willpower is actually a matter of confidence.

If you have low willpower, it’s because you have low confidence.

You create confidence by getting small wins, which ripple into bigger wins. The more confident you are, the less willpower you need to make good choices.

So how do you build a keystone habit quick?

One answer that psychologists have hit upon is called “implementation intentions.” It’s extremely simple and easy to apply.

Basically, you create a planned response every time you’re either triggered or tempted to do something you don’t want to do.

For example, every time you get triggered to smoke a cigarette, you immediately call a friend. You can also have back-up plans.

Part of the genius of implementation intentions is simply their ability to distract you from your trigger for long enough for the trigger to subside.

I applied an implementation intention while at Disney World the other day. Instead of caving into the junk food all around me, I did a bunch of push-ups.

Every time I wanted to eat snacks, I just did 10 pushups. By the end of the day, I’d done over 100.

Habit formation is usually about replacement more than simply removal. You can’t just create a void in your life. You need to fill it with something more congruent.

Therefore, in order to build an implementation intention — you need to establish an “if-then” response to whatever you’re trying to accomplish.

Pick the goal.

Whenever an obstacle appears, use your if-then response.

Example: Your goal is to be as healthy as possible and be ripped. Obstacle: eating bad food. If-then: if I’m tempted to eat unhealthy foods in an impulsive and non-planned manner, then I will immediately drink a big glass of water and do 20 jumping-jacks.

It doesn’t really matter what you do, so long as you consistently do it.

By consistently following through, you’ll create small wins. Small wins build self-respect and confidence, thus lowering your need for willpower.

One of the reasons confidence lowers the need for willpower is because the more confident you get, the more you DESIRE better results. At the heart of willpower is not actually knowing what you want. Indeed, you may actually still desire eating bad food, for example. Thus, you’re at continually battle within yourself.

However, as you become more confident and mature as a person, your desires fundamentally change. You stop wanting stuff you used to want. You start wanting to succeed. You start loving yourself enough to win at life. You start seeing much bigger picture.

You stop having to force yourself to do the right thing. You just do it, because you love yourself and you want to be more successful and happy.

Don’t Forget to Psychologically Detach and Play

Research in several fields has found that recovery from work is a necessity for staying energetic, engaged, and healthy when facing job demands.

“Recovery” is the process of reducing or eliminating physical and psychological strain/stress caused by work.

One particular recovery strategy that is getting lots of attention in recent research is called “psychological detachment from work.” True psychological detachment occurs when you completely refrain from work-related activities and thoughts during non-work time.

Proper detachment/recovery from work is essential for physical and psychological health, in addition to engaged and productive work. Yet, few people do it. Most people are always “available” to their email and work. Millennials are the worst, often wearing the openness to work “whenever” as a badge of honor. It’s not a badge of honor.

Research has found that people who psychologically detach from work experience:

Less work-related fatigue and procrastinationFar greater engagement at work, which is defined as vigor, dedication, and absorption (i.e., “flow”)Greater work-life balance, which directly relates to quality of lifeGreater marital satisfactionGreater mental health

When you’re at work, be fully absorbed. When it’s time to call it a day, completely detach yourself from work and become absorbed in the other areas of your life.

If you don’t detach, you’ll never fully be present or engaged at work or at home. You’ll be under constant strain, even if minimally. Your sleep will suffer. Your relationships will be shallow. Your life will not be happy.

Not only that, but lots of science has found play to be extremely important for productivity and creativity. Just like your body needs a reset, which you can get through fasting, you also need to reset from work in order to do your best work. Thus, you need to step away from work and dive into other beautiful areas of your life. For me, that’s goofing off with my kids.

Stuart Brown, founder of the National Institute for Play, has studied the “Play Histories” of over six thousand people and concludes playing can radically improve everything — from personal well-being to relationships to learning to an organization’s potential to innovate. As Greg McKeown explains, “Very successful people see play as essential for creativity.”

In his TED talk, Brown said, “Play leads to brain plasticity, adaptability, and creativity… Nothing fires up the brain like play.” There is a burgeoning body of literature highlighting the extensive cognitive and social benefits of play, including:

CognitiveEnhanced memory and focusImproved language learning skillsCreative problem solvingImproved mathematics skillsIncreased ability to self-regulate, an essential component of motivation and goal achievementSocialCooperationTeam workConflict resolutionLeadership skill developmentControl of impulses and aggressive behaviorListen to Brain Music or Songs on Repeat

In her book, On Repeat: How Music Plays the Mind, psychologist Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis explains why listening to music on repeat improves focus. When you’re listening to a song on repeat, you tend to dissolve into the song, which blocks out mind wandering (let your mind wander while you’re away from work!).

Wordpress founder, Matt Mullenweg, listens to one single song on repeat to get into flow. So do authors Ryan Holiday and Tim Ferriss, and many others.

Give it a try.

You can use this website to listen to YouTube videos on repeat.

I generally listen to classical music or electronic music (like video game type music). Here are a few that have worked for me:

One Moment by Michael NymanMake Love by Daft PunkTearin’ it up by GramatikTerra’s theme from Final Fantasy 3Duel of Fates from Star WarsStop crying your heart out by OasisGive up by Eligah Bossenbroek (so beautiful)Heart by StarsThis cover of Ellie GouldingFragile by Daft PunkSon of Flynn by Daft PunkCool by AlessoSun Through the Clouds by Matthew MorganTesting by CKYBorderline by MadonnaEvery You and Every Me by PlaceboMain Titles composed by Alan Menken for The Little MermaidHalcyon On and On by OrbitalThere Goes the Fear by DovesNever Follow Suit by The Radio Dept.Ready to Upgrade?

I’ve created a cheat sheet for putting yourself into a PEAK-STATE, immediately. You follow this daily, your life will change very quickly.

Get the cheat sheet here!

This Morning Routine will Save You 20+ Hours Per Week was originally published in Thrive Global on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

If You’re Going To Do Something, See How Far You Can Go

Photo by Chris Rhoads on Unsplash

One of the funnest parts of being a parent is providing experiences that open the curiosity and imagination of your kids.

We live in such a brilliant time for opening-up our mind for what is possible. Our possibility, in large degree, is based on our context, not on our willpower.

For example, if you had lived 100 years ago, you wouldn’t have the internet or the ability to travel the world like we do today. That would greatly limit your possibilities for choice.

All choice is shaped by context. If you don’t have options, you cannot make choices.

When my wife and I became foster parents of three children from a very limiting environment, we immediately saw how we could expand their horizons.

We wanted to introduce them to all sorts of things.

From a brain perspective, you cannot really learn and internalize something if you aren’t aware of it. Becoming aware of something is essential for memory development. Becoming aware of something, and then engaging deeply in that thing is how you shape your identity and eventually, your personality.

What you focus on expands.

What you focus on shapes how you view yourself, your future, and your past.

It is key that parents not only provide learning experiences for children but also model what successful behavior looks like. Clearly, the parents want their children to chart their own path. But modeling is how people learn.

Also, the parent’s lifestyle and experiences form the internal expectation for what is “normal” or “possible” for the children — at least initially.

So if parents are pursuing their curiosity and imagination — and if they are turning their dreams into external realities, then the children come to expect that this is possible for them as well.

It is completely fascinating. Just two days ago, as a family, we drove up to Clemson, South Carolina, where I did my PhD. That is also where our three adoptive children were born.

Their biological mother died last weekend at the age of 33. Two days ago was her funeral.

We were happy to take our children there, even though the biological family had no expectation that we would be there. And in fact, expected that we wouldn’t be.

True learning occurs when you can see the same thing with new eyes. They call this a Copernican Revolution. For example, when we as a people realized the sun did not revolve around the earth, but vice-versa. That single insight shifted how we saw everything.

We were looking at the same stimulus but with a new frame.

That’s what happened this week for our kids. They went back to their old environment and were with their biological family — but with a whole host of new experiences and education — they had a new lens on the experience.

Fundamental to that lens was empathy and love, not judgment.

If your lens of the world is not updating regularly, then you are not learning enough. Your lens of the world should continually be updating through experience, learning, and relationships.

The more intensive the experience and learning, the greater shifts to the lens. The more you can see the same things from totally different angles.

One of the insights our 11-year-old had when he was informed of his biological mothers’ passing was that, had he still been living with her, he probably wouldn’t be able to read right now.

We were grateful to honor their mother and never intend on banishing that part of their history. It’s important.

But the whole experience further opened our children’s minds to the lives they wanted to live. They were in direct contact with their biological family, most of which were living fairly limiting lives from our perspective.

While driving home, our son began asking amazing questions. That, I’m finding, is one of the keys to quality parenting, mentorship, and leadership: to create experiences that spark insight and learning — which lead to genuine questions and curiosity.

When questions are genuinely asked, then learning becomes far easier. As a parent, the goal is to provide a context where interested and curious questions are asked. The parent hopefully doesn’t have all of the answers but serves as a further propellant to sources, information, and experiences to further stroke that curiosity, learning, and transformation.

If you’re going to do something, you might as well push it to the absolute limits.

None of us are given the same set of circumstances in this life.

None of us will ever fully realize our potential. Like a painting, none of us will ever be finished. At some point, we will simply end in an interesting place.

Rather than being upset about what happens, it is best to simply use this life to see how far you can go. Rather than attaching to exactly how it all turns out — you simply want to remain open, humble, engaged, excited, and always pushing the boundaries. Always investing further and further into the growth and possibility of what you’re doing.

One of our sons wants to be an aerospace engineer. He loves outer space and rockets. We have been fueling that. Yesterday, we were at the Kennedy Space Center and watched a live rocket launch. It was epic.

The more interested our son becomes — and the more personally invested — the further he can explore.

Human beings are designed to explore.

We’re designed to rise up to challenges.

Most people waste huge amounts of their life because they aren’t actively chasing a challenge that summons their greatest focus and creativity. They aren’t pursuing one or two things for years — and watching the compounding effect of long-term goals.

Dan Sullivan, the founder of Strategic Coach, teaches people how to set 25-year-plans.

When you give yourself 25 years to accomplish something big, you really can think 10X or 100X bigger than the normal person. You’ve given yourself enough runway to actually build something big and meaningful. You then leverage productivity strategies and short-term goals to ensure you’re making powerful progress and continually updating and refining your definition of success and priorities.

You only have one life to live. Richard Branson once said — why not go straight to the top? Why not go big at what you do? Why not be focused?

Why not dedicate yourself to something that will completely transform you through doing it?

Why not see how far you can do something?

Why not continually stroke the fire of your imagination, and then relentlessly chase that imagination?

Never over-identify with what you’ve done. Never get stuck in your past, whether failure or achievement. Take the past for what it is: information. It is information which is constantly adapting and changing based on what you’re currently pursuing and focusing on.

If you’re going to do something — do it great. As Abraham Lincoln said, “Whatever you are, try to be a good one.”

Truly live your life.

Push boundaries — your own, but also your industry’s. Push the boundaries and take on huge challenges.

See how far you can go.

Create experiences that become Copernican Revolutions.

As you have new experiences and grow in maturity, your priorities will continually enhance. What may have been interesting 1–2 years ago will no longer be interesting. What may have been a brilliant opportunity last month is no longer worth your time.

Essentialism.

Focusing on the essential.

Focusing on what absolutely matters to you.

Raising your standards for the type of work you do, the people you spend time with, and how you spend your time.

Your life can be designed as the ultimate “forcing function” — a system designed to keep you focusing solely on the things that truly matter to you.

As you increase in success, your opportunities will also increase, as will your distractions. At some point, most people plateau and stop progressing on their initial journey. They became satisfied with a particular status they’ve developed, and shift their motivation from approaching the next evolution to merely maintaining the success or station they’ve attained.

If you’re not growing, then your best work is not being produced.

The best work generally comes in response to taking on something that has a high probability of failure. While chasing something big, your best work emerges.

Are you going to invest your time on this beautiful planet continually expanding, learning, and designing? Or will you live day-to-day, never realizing the power of imagination and creation?

Ready to Upgrade?

I’ve created a cheat sheet for putting yourself into a PEAK-STATE, immediately. You follow this daily, your life will change very quickly.

Get the cheat sheet here!

I Spent 60 Minutes With A Billionaire Yesterday, Here’s What I Learned

Weston

Yesterday, I sat down with Graham Weston, the co-founder of Rackspace, a company which recently went public in 2008, and in 2016 was purchased and taken private by Apollo Global Management LLC. I was introduced to Weston by super-connector, Joe Polish, who is the founder of Genius Network.

Selling Rackspace made Weston a billionaire.

Since stepping away from Rackspace a few years ago, Weston has focused his energy and attention on the city of San Antonio, where he lives.

He’s created a start-up incubator called Geekdom, where people pay $50/month to have access to the co-working space and community. Weston has personally invested hundreds of millions of dollars into San Antonio to re-energize the city and make it more of an innovation and technology-driven city.

San Antonio IS Weston’s start-up now.

While other people are trying to start a company, Weston is trying to scale the entire city of San Antonio.

This is a different level of thinking.

So how did he do this?

Belonging

First, he understands that human beings have an innate need to belong. Maslow put belonging as essential on his hierarchy of needs.

But people don’t simply want to belong anywhere.

Yes, they need to belong. They need to feel needed and valued.

But ultimately, people want to belong to a “winning” team. If you feel that the “team” you’re on isn’t moving forward, then that has a negative impact on your entire identity and perspective.

From Weston’s perspective, the purpose of work and the best way to energize a group of people is:

help them feel like a VALUED MEMBERof a WINNING TEAMon an INSPIRING MISSION

Weston is, for sure, a capitalist. But he’s not motivated by money. He’s motivated by purpose. Hence, the “inspiring mission.”

“You can get people really excited to work when they feel they’re a part of something important and inspiring,” Weston said.

The Power of 2

Weston loves a particular book — Powers of Two. The book is about the innovative pair of working in two’s. Consider the examples of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, or Marie and Pierre Curie, or Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

Working in two’s is more powerful than working solo — no matter how “introverted” or “creative” you are.

The best creative work is collaborative. Even people you think work solo have scores of advisors and people who help them make their work happen.

Weston applies this principle to EVERY area of his life. He has “advisors” or collaborators in everything he does.

Billionaires think in terms of WHO, rather than HOW.

Rather than trying to do everything themselves, billionaires find experts and specialists who are brilliant at what they do and get immediate help.

This is a very different mindset than we’re taught in public school and in society in general. People are generally taught to “figure things out,” rather than collaborate and innovate.

An Upgraded Mindset

The human brain is highly adaptive and always changing. When you change your behavior, you change your personality. Over time, your brain develops new neural connections and networks, and you have a new brain. You also have new memories of the past, since your past is always reconstructed based on your present circumstances and brain and perspective.

When you begin surrounding yourself with billionaires, and people who think much bigger than the typical person — you start to have many of your core assumptions of life and possibility peeled-away like layers of an onion.

Your subconscious doesn’t really know how to handle what it’s grappling with, because what you’re learning is forcing you to un-learn everything you’ve been conditioned to think and do.

People who grow in success often become highly skilled thinkers and strategists — as well as visionaries and leaders who can inspire and motivate others to build. This doesn’t mean they don’t have brilliant technical ability.

In fact, they likely have a higher degree of technical ability than their counterparts, the experts and specialists they begin hiring and partnering with.

However, they literally have a new and different brain — one wherein they have a much harder time getting caught in the weeds of technical creation. They think much differently, broadly, and at scale.

They have the eye and ability to do the technical work, which allows them to determine if the work being done is good.

But they stop doing it themselves.

Their time is worth 100 or 1,000X if they don’t do the technical work anymore. As a result, they build several partnerships — small teams of two or so in several different areas of their life.

This allows them to get their brilliance — their ideas and thinking — into a collaborative synergy and their partner creates it. Over time they get good at creating the right partnerships with true experts who are the best in the world at what they do. They can make a much bigger impact and do far more by partnering, over and over.

The Fear

The thing is — most people don’t have this skill nor do they have this confidence.

Who are you to get other people to do your work for you?

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Again, people want to be valued members of winning teams on inspiring missions. You shouldn’t assume that people hold the same values as you. As long as people are doing work they personally love where they have freedom and autonomy, as well as a high degree of responsibility — they will love what they are doing.

In fact, they’ll feel stoked and honored to be a part of the project.

We live in the “GIG” -economy. Jobs shouldn’t be viewed as jobs, but projects. Even Weston, who is spending hundreds of millions and decades re-building and transforming the city of San Antonio views it as a project, not a job. And there are several different projects within the project.

There are tons of different projects.

How are you doing at building partnerships?

Are you maximizing your strengths and superpowers, or burning yourself out trying to do everything?

Conclusion

Without question, billionaires think differently than the masses. Weston and others are literally trying to improve cities.

They think in terms of partnerships.

They understand what makes people tick — and it’s clearly not carrots and sticks. It’s being a valued member of a winning team on an inspiring mission.

This is the essence of “transformational leadership” — inspiring individuals to buy-into a powerful future and feeling valued and supported and excited to be involved.

Ready to Upgrade?

I’ve created a cheat sheet for putting yourself into a PEAK-STATE, immediately. You follow this daily, your life will change very quickly.

Get the cheat sheet here!

This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by +424,678 people.Subscribe to receive our top stories here.

I Spent 60 Minutes With A Billionaire Yesterday, Here’s What I Learned was originally published in The Startup on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

30 Behaviors That Will Make You Unstoppable

Link

A lot of people are good at what they do. Some are even elite. A select few are completely unstoppable.

Those who are unstoppable are in their own world. They don’t compete with anyone but themselves. You never know what they will do — only that you will be forced to respond. Even though they don’t compete with you, they make you compete with them.

Are you unstoppable? By the end of this blog you will be.

Let’s get started:

1. Don’t think — know and act.

“Don’t think. You already know what you have to do, and you know how to do it. What’s stopping you?” — Tim Grover

Rather than analyzing and thinking, act. Attuned to your senses, and with complete trust in yourself, do what you instinctively feel you should. As Oprah has said, “Every right decision I have ever made has come from my gut. Every wrong decision I’ve made was the result of me not listening to the greater voice of myself.”

The moment you start thinking, you’ve already lost. Thinking swiftly pulls you out of the zone.

2. Always be prepared so you have the freedom to act on instinct.

“Just as the yin-yang symbol possesses a kernel of light in the dark, and of dark in the light, creative leaps are grounded in a technical foundation.” — Josh Waitzkin

Become a master of your craft. While everyone else is relaxing, you’re practicing and perfecting. Learn the left-brained rules in and out so your right brain can have limitless freedom to break the rules and create.

With enhanced consciousness, time will slow down for you. You’ll see things in several more frames than others. While they’re trying to react to the situation, you’ll be able to manipulate and tweak the situation to your liking.

3. Don’t forget your WHY on the path of success.

While pursuing big dreams, it’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day weeds. If you don’t continually remind yourself WHY you’re doing this, and WHY it’s important to you and other people, then you’ll get lost.

Additionally, as you become successful, don’t forget WHY you’re really doing this. Having nice things is, well, nice. But for you, it’s never been about the money, prestige or anything else outside of you. Take these things away and nothing changes for you. You’re still going to be pushing your personal limits and giving it your all. Give these things to you and they won’t destroy you like they do most people.

4. Never be satisfied.

“The way to enjoy life best is to wrap up one goal and start right on the next one. Don’t linger too long at the table of success, the only way to enjoy another meal is to get hungry.” — Jim Rohn

Even after you achieve a goal, you’re not content. For you, it’s not even about the goal. It’s about the climb to see how far you can push yourself.

Does this make you ungrateful? Absolutely not. You’re entirely humbled and grateful for everything in your life. Which is why you will never get complacent or lazy.

5. Always be in control.

“Addictions embody repetition without progress. They produce incapacity as a payoff.” — Steven Pressfield

Unlike most people, who are dependent on substances or other external factors, you are in control of what you put in your body, how you spend your time and how long you stay in the zone.

Act based on instinct, not impulse. Just because you could doesn’t mean you do. And when you do, it’s because you want to, not because you have to.

6. Be true to yourself.

Although 70 percent of US employees hate their jobs and only one in three Americans report being happy, relentless and unstoppable people purge everything from their life they hate.

Have the self-respect and confidence to live life on your terms. When something isn’t right in your life, change it. Immediately.

7. Never let off the pressure.

“Pressure can bust pipes, but it also can make diamonds.” — Robert Horry

Most people can handle pressure in small doses. But when left to their own devices, they let off the pressure and relax.

Not you. You never take the pressure off yourself. Instead, you continuously turn-up the pressure. It’s what keeps you alert and active.

8. Don’t be afraid of the consequences of failure.

“The idea of trying and still failing — of leaving yourself without excuses — is the worst fear within the fixed mindset.” — Dr. Carol Dweck

Most people stay close to the ground, where it’s safe. If they fall, it won’t hurt that bad. But when you choose to fly high, the fall may kill you. And you’re OK with that. To you, there is no ceiling and there is no floor. It’s all in your head. If something goes wrong — if you “fail” — you adjust and keep going.

9. Don’t compete with others. Make them compete with you.

Most people are competing with other people. They continuously check-in to see what others in their space (their “competition”) are doing. As a result, they mimic and copy what’s “working.”

Conversely, you’ve left all competition behind. Competing with others makes absolutely zero sense to you. It pulls you from your authentic zone. So you zone out all the external noise and instead zone into your internal pressure to produce.

10. Never stop learning.

“Anyone who isn’t embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn’t learning enough.” — Alain de Botton

Ordinary people seek entertainment. Extraordinary people seek education and learning. If you’re pursuing a bigger future, then you’ll be failing a lot. If you’re failing a lot, then you’re learning and transforming and reshaping your brain.

When you look back every 90 days at your progress — by measuring THE GAIN rather than THE GAP — you’ll be stunned at all you’ve learned and accomplished. You’ll look back and be blown away by where you were and who you were. And how far you’ve come. This will bolster your confidence to continue stretching forward with greater imaginative leaps.

11. Success isn’t enough — it only increases the pressure.

“I firmly believe you never should spend your time being the former anything.” — Condoleezza Rice

For most people, becoming “successful” is enough. At some point or another, they stop focusing on the future and become content with a particular “status” they’ve acquired. The status, it turns out, was what they were really after.

However, when you’re relentless, success only increases the pressure to do more. Immediately following the achievement of a goal, you’re focused on your next challenge. Rather than a status, you’re interested in continuous growth, which always requires you to detach from your prior status and identity.

12. Don’t get crushed by success.

“Success can become a catalyst for failure.” — Greg McKeown

Most people can’t handle success, authority or privilege. It destroys them. It makes them lazy. When they get what they want, they stop doing the very things that got them there. The external noise becomes too intense.

But for you, no external noise can push harder than your own internal pressure. It’s not about this achievement, but the one after, and the one after that. There is no destination. Only when you’re finished.

13. Completely own it when you screw up.

“Implementing extreme ownership requires checking your ego and operating with a high degree of humility. Admitting mistakes, taking ownership anddeveloping a plan to overcome challenges are integral to any successful team.”―Jocko Willink

No blame. No deception or illusion. Just the cold hard truth. When you mess up, you own it. And as the leader, you own it when your team fails. Only with extreme ownership can you have complete freedom and control.

14. Let your work speak for itself.

“Well done, is well said.” — Anthony Liccione

Cal Newport’s recent book, Deep Work, distinguishes “deep work” from “shallow work.” Here’s the difference:

Deep work is:

RareHigh valueAnd non-replicable (i.e., not easy to copy/outsource)

Shallow work is:

CommonLow valueReplicable (i.e., anyone can do it)

Talking is shallow. Anyone can do it. It’s easily replicated. It’s low value. Conversely, deep work is rare. It’s done by people who are focused and working while everyone else is talking. Deep work is so good it can’t be ignored. It doesn’t need words. It speaks for itself.

15. Always work on your mental strength.

“Mental resilience is arguably the most critical trait of a world-class performer, and it should be nurtured continuously. Left to my own devices, I am always looking for ways to become more and more psychologically impregnable. When uncomfortable, my instinct is not to avoid the discomfort but to become at peace with it. My instinct is always to seek out challenges as opposed to avoiding them.” — Josh Waitzkin

The better you can be under pressure, the further you’ll go than anyone else. Because they’ll crumble under pressure.

The best training you will ever do is mental training. Wherever your mind goes, your body follows. Wherever your thoughts go, your life follows.

16. Confidence is your greatest asset.

A recent meta-analysis shows that most people misunderstand confidence. Confidence doesn’t lead to high performance. Rather, confidence is a by-product of previous performance.

Confidence and imagination go hand-in-hand. The more confidence you have, based on small/large wins from your past, the more imaginative you can be with your future.

Hence, your confidence determines:

The size of challenges/goals you undertake (imagination)How likely you will achieve those goals (commitment)How well you bounce back from failures (flexibility)17. Surround yourself with people who remind you of the future, not the past.

When you surround yourself with people who remind you of your past, you’ll have a hard time progressing. This is why we get stuck in certain roles, which we can’t break free from (e.g., the fat kid or shy girl).

Surrounding yourself with people who you want to be like allows you a fresh slate. You’re no longer defined by your past, only the future you are creating.

18. Let things go, learn your lessons.

“You can have a great deal of experience and be no smarter for all the things you’ve done, seen, and heard. Experience alone is no guarantee of lifetime growth. But if you regularly transform your experiences into new lessons, you will make each day of your life a source of growth. The smartest people are those who can transform even the smallest events or situations into breakthroughs in thinking and action.” — Dan Sullivan and Catherine Nomura

Being unstoppable requires carrying no unnecessary mental or emotional baggage. Consequently, you’ll need to immediately and completely forgive anyone who has wronged you. However, forgiveness doesn’t mean you forget. Instead, it means you integrate your new experiences into your daily approach so that you learn from your experiences and don’t repeat them.

19. Have clear goals.

“While a fixation on results is certainly unhealthy, short-term goals can be useful developmental tools if they are balanced within a nurturing long-term philosophy.” — Josh Waitzkin

According to loads of psychology research, the most motivating goals are clearly defined and time-bound.

Your goals can either be focused on your process/behaviors (e.g., I’m going to exercise 5 days per week) or on the outcomes you’re seeking (e.g., I’m going to have 10 percent body fat by October 2019).

For most people, behaviorally-focused goals are the better and more motivating option. But when you crave the results so much that the work is irrelevant, your aim should be directed straight at the outcomes you want.

Without question, the human brain appreciates tangible things to focus on. Numbers and events, according to Dan Sullivan, are candy for the brain. I agree. Goals framed as numbers and events are more powerful.

Numbers can be both process-oriented and results-oriented:

I will workout 60 minutes 4 times per week (and at least 150 times per year)I will be able to run 10 miles in under 90 minutes by October 2019

The first bullet above is process-oriented, the second bullet is results-oriented.

You can actually turn the second bullet above into a tangible event, which can create anticipation and excitement.

By October 2019, I will have run 10 miles in under 90 minutes on the beach and afterward, eat at my favorite restaurant

Events can cause transformational experiences that upgrade your subconscious mindset. Events can be immersive and deeply memorable — and by creating deep memories, you shutter your former belief system.

As an example, my wife and I are currently trying to improve our marriage and connection. We are attending therapy and setting goals.

One of the EVENTS I want to create an experience with Lauren this year is to fly to Chicago and eat dinner at Alinea, a famous restaurant in Chicago we’ve both been wanting to go to. Given that we now have five kids and are super busy, it would be very easy to push that desired experience off.

But when you’re truly living your life, you don’t push stuff like that off. In other words, you don’t build your dreams around your life. Your build your life around your dreams. You don’t hesitate.

So, we’ll schedule it, buy our plane tickets, and then figure out how to make it real. If you don’t initiate action first, then you’ll always be left waiting for the perfect moment. It’s best to put yourself in a position where you must act. In my book, Willpower Doesn’t Work, I called these types of initiations that compel forward progress, “forcing functions.”

20. Respond immediately, rather than analyzing or stalling.

“He who hesitates is lost.” — Cato

The anticipation of an event is always more extreme than the event itself — both for positive and negative events.

Just do it. Train yourself to respond immediately when you feel you should do something. Stop questioning yourself. Don’t analyze it. Don’t question if it came from God or from yourself. Just act.

You’ll figure out what to do after you’ve taken action. Until you take action, it will all be hypothetical. But once you act, it becomes practical.

21. Choose simplicity over complication.

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” — Albert Einstein

It’s easy to be complicated. Most of the research and jargon in academia and business is over-complicated.

Cutting to the core and hitting the truth is hard because it’s simple. As Leonardo da Vinci has said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

Very few people will give you the truth. When you ask them a question, it gets mighty complicated. “There are so many variables” or “It depends,” they say.

T. S. Eliot said it best, “Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”

Wisdom is timeless and simple. Learn wisdom and choose it.

22. Never be jealous or envious of someone else’s accomplishments.

Being unstoppable means you genuinely want what’s best for everyone — even those you would consider your competitors. Jealousy and envy are the ego — which operates out of fear.

The reason you are happy for other people’s success is because their success has nothing to do with you.

You are in control of you. And you are different from every other person. There is no one who can do exactly what you can do. You have your own superpower with your own unique ability to contribute. And that’s what you’re going to do.

23. Take the shot every time.

“If I fail more than you, I win.” — Seth Godin

You miss every shot you don’t take. And most people don’t want to take the shot. Fear of failure paralyzes them.

The only way you can become unstoppable is if you stop thinking about it. Just take the shot. Don’t do it only when it’s convenient or when you feel ready. Just go and make whatever adjustments you need after the fact.

Here’s what’s crazy — you don’t actually know which shots will go in. I’ve found this over and over. By being consistent, for example, at posting blogs, I’ve been shocked at which ones have gone viral. Almost always, it’s not the one you’d expect. But it would never happen if I wasn’t just taking shots.

Are you taking shots every day?

Are you trying stuff that could potentially fail?

At some point or another, life does kind of just become a numbers game. You have to be great at what you do. But you also have to stack the odds in your favor.

24. Seek results, but don’t get caught up in them. This will keep you stuck living in the past.

“Knowledge comes from the past, so it’s safe. It is also out of date. It’s the opposite of originality. Experience is built from solutions to old situations and problems.This is lazy. Experience is the opposite of being creative. If you can prove you’re right you’re set in concrete. You cannot move with the times or with other people.Your mind is closed. You are not open to new ideas.” — Paul Arden

When you start doing noteworthy stuff, there are benefits that can become distractions. It can get easy to “ride the wave” of your previous work. Keep practicing. Perfect your craft. Never forget what got you here. Results are based in the past. Don’t get stuck in a “status.”

25. Think and act 10X.

“When 10X is your measuring stick, you immediately see how you can bypass what everyone else is doing.” — Dan Sullivan

Most people — even those you deem to be “world class” — are not operating at 10X. In truth, you could surpass anyone if you radically stretch your thinking and belief system.

Going 10X changes everything. As Dan Sullivan has said, “10X thinking automatically takes you ‘outside the box’ of your present obstacles and limitations.” It pulls you out of the problems most people are dealing with and opens you to an entirely new field of possibilities.

When you take your goal of earning $100,000 this year and change it to $1,000,000, you’re forced to operate at a different level. The logical and traditional approach doesn’t work with 10X. As Shane Snow, author ofSmartcuts: How Hackers, Innovators, and Icons Accelerate Success, has said, “10x progress is built on bravery and creativity instead. Working smarter.”

The question is: Are you willing to go there? Not just entertain the thought for a second or two and then revert back to common thinking. No. Are you willing to sit with 10X thinking? Are you willing to question your own thought processes and open yourself to believing an entirely different set of possibilities?

Could you convince yourself to believe in your 10X potential? Are you willing to undertake goals that seem lunacy, to you and everyone else? Are you willing to take the mental leap, trusting “the universe will conspire to make it happen”?

26. Set goals that far exceed your current capabilities.

“You need to aim beyond what you are capable of. You need to develop a complete disregard for where your abilities end. If you think you’re unable to work for the best company in its sphere, make that your aim. If you think you’re unable to be on the cover of TIME magazine, make it your business to be there. Make your vision of where you want to be a reality. Nothing is impossible.” — Paul Arden

If your goals are logical, they won’t force you to create luck. Being unstoppable means your goals challenge you to be someone more than you currently are. As Jim Rohn has said, “Don’t wish it was easier, wish you were better.”

27. Make time for recovery and rejuvenation.

“Wherever you are, make sure you’re there.” — Dan Sullivan

When you focus on results, rather than being busy, you’re 100 percent on when you’re working and 100 percent off when you’re not. This not only allows you to be present in the moment, but it allows you the needed time to rest and recover.

Your ability to work at a high level is like fitness. If you never take a break between sets, you won’t be able to build strength, stamina, and endurance. However, not all “rest” produces recovery. Certain things are more soothing than others.

Recovering from my work generally consists of writing in my journal, listening to music, spending time with my wife and kids, preparing and eating delicious food, or serving other people. These things rejuvenate me. They make my work possible, but also meaningful.

28. Start before you’re ready.

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” — Chinese Proverb

Most people wait. They believe they can start after they have enough time, money, connections and credentials. They wait until they feel “secure.” Not people who are unstoppable.

Unstoppable people started last year. They started five years ago before they even knew what they were doing. They started before they had any money. They started before they had all the answers. They started when no one else believed in them. The only permission they needed was the voice inside them prompting them to move forward. And they moved.

29. If you need permission, you probably shouldn’t do it.

A mentor of mine is a highly successful real estate investor. Throughout his career, he’s had hundreds of people ask him if they should “go into real-estate.”

He tells every one of them the same thing: that they shouldn’t do it. In fact, he actually tries talking most of them out of it. And in most cases, he succeeds.

Why would he do that? “Those who are going to succeed will do so regardless of what I say,” he told me.

I know so many people who chase whatever worked for other people. They never truly decide what they want to do, and end up jumping from one thing to the next — trying to strike quick gold. And repetitively, they stop digging just a few feet from the gold after resigning the spot is barren.

No one will ever give you permission to live your dreams.

30. Don’t make exceptions.

Zig Ziglar used to tell a story of traveling one day and not getting in bed until 4 a.m. An hour and a half later (5:30), his alarm went off. He said, “Every fiber of my being was telling me to stay in bed.” But he had made a commitment, so he got up anyway. Admittedly, he had a horrible day and wasn’t productive at all.

Yet, he says that decision changed his life. As he explains:

“Had I bowed to my human, physical, emotional and mental desire to sleep in, I would have made that exception. A week later, I might have made an exception if I only got four hours of sleep. A week later, maybe I only got seven hours of sleep.The exception so many times becomes the rule. Had I slept in, I would’ve faced that danger. Watch those exceptions!”

Hence, Zig was unstoppable.

Conclusion

When you’re unstoppable, you will make sure to get what you want. Everything you need to know is already within you. All you need to do is trust yourself and act.

Are you unstoppable?

Ready to Upgrade?

I’ve created a cheat sheet for putting yourself into a PEAK-STATE, immediately. You follow this daily, your life will change very quickly.

Get the cheat sheet here!

30 Behaviors That Will Make You Unstoppable was originally published in Thrive Global on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

One Behavior Separates The Successful From The Average

Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash

A certain farmer had become old and ready to pass his farm down to one of his two sons. When he brought his sons together to speak about it, he told them: The farm will go to the younger son.

The older son was furious! “What are you talking about?!” he fumed.

The father sat patiently, thinking.

“Okay,” the father said, “I need you to do something for me. We need more stocks. Will you go to Cibi’s farm and see if he has any cows for sale?”

The older son shortly returned and reported, “Father, Cibi has 6 cows for sale.”

The father graciously thanked the older son for his work. He then turned to the younger son and said, “I need you to do something for me. We need more stocks. Will you go to Cibi’s farm and see if he has any cows for sale?”

The younger son did as he was asked. A short while later, he returned and reported, “Father, Cibi has 6 cows for sale. Each cow will cost 2,000 rupees. If we are thinking about buying more than 6 cows, Cibi said he would be willing to reduce the price 100 rupees. Cibi also said they are getting special jersey cows next week if we aren’t in a hurry, it may be good to wait. However, if we need the cows urgently, Cibi said he could deliver the cows tomorrow.”

The father graciously thanked the younger son for his work. He then turned to the older son and said, “That’s why your younger brother is getting the farm.”

Successful People Initiate

Most people only do what they are asked, doing only the minimum requirement. They need specific instructions on most things they do.

Conversely, those who become successful are anxiously engaged in a good cause. They don’t need to be managed in all things. They don’t just do the job, they do it right and complete. They also influence the direction for how certain ideas and projects go.

Most importantly, those who become successful initiate. They reach out to people, ask questions, make recommendations, offer to help, and pitch their ideas.

Being successful requires being proactive and not waiting for life to come to you. It means you’re on offense, not defense. You’re active, not passive.

In every organization, there are a select few employees who would be difficult to replace. For the most part, most people are like the older son in the story.Most people could be easily replaced. Most people are passive and reactive.They require specific instructions. They need to be governed and managed in all things.

Initiation always involves some degree of risk. You’re putting yourself out there and there is a chance you could fail.

Conversely, doing only what you’re told entails no risk and carries no responsibility. It’s playing safe.

Conclusion

Are you an initiator? You absolutely can be.

But if not, one thing is for certain: Life isn’t going to wait for you.

Ready to Upgrade?

I’ve created a cheat sheet for putting yourself into a PEAK-STATE, immediately. You follow this daily, your life will change very quickly.

Get the cheat sheet here!

One Behavior Separates The Successful From The Average was originally published in Thrive Global on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This 10-Minute Morning Routine Will Make You A Better Parent, Entrepreneur, and Person

When you wake up in a hurry, you miss the mark.

This morning, I got up at 5AM and was going to immediately start working on a project. As an entrepreneur, writer, and father of five — I have far more to do than time in my day.

But instead of jumping immediately into one of my many projects, I decided to give myself some space.

There are certain high-performance habits that ensure you’ll operate at a 10x higher level than if you simply just get to work.

Success is not about how many hours you put it, but the quality of those hours.

In the book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey explains the importance of “sharpening the saw.”

Most people go throughout their days as a dull saw, putting more and more time in but getting little back from that time.

It’s really not about how much you work.

It’s not about how much effort you put it in.

It’s about the quality and precision of your efforts.

For example, there are millions of blog posts written every single day. But 99.99% of those blog posts will be read by less than 10 people. On the flip-side, some blog posts are read by millions of people.

Most people operate throughout their day putting lots of time and energy in. But they aren’t actually getting better at what they do.

In the book, Turning Pro, Steven Pressfield said something brilliant. He said, “Addictions embody repetition without progress. They produce incapacity as a payoff.”

Most people’s days embody repetition without progress.

Every day they live, but they aren’t actually getting better. Their future is a repetitious reinforcement of the past.

But there’s another problem in most people’s days beyond repetition without progress, and that is that most people’s days are quite aimless.

They aren’t being guided by a higher power — or by the highest power within themselves — to do the right things in a powerful way with their time.

In other words, most people reactively respond to the demands of their day. The urgency of everything takes over and it’s not apparent that their daily efforts really moved the needle. It’s not apparent that their efforts really made a difference.

10-Minute Morning Routine

There are many applications to morning routines. However, there is one thing that is essential to a morning routine to ensure you spend your time on the best things, and that your efforts are impactful on those best things.

Said again — your morning routine should ensure you’re spending your limited time on the right things. But also, your morning routine should be a process of putting yourself in the right frame of mind to execute at your highest level.

Actually, if you tap into the spiritual and subconscious, you can put yourself into a position where you are executing beyond your highest level on a daily basis. Where your efforts are expanded by a higher power.

It’s really simple.

Before you jump into anything else, give yourself some space. Your compulsion will be to get moving on the urgent.

Don’t do this.

Give yourself space for the important.

The 80/20 rule is a productivity principle explaining that most of the things you spend your time doing aren’t really making an impact.

80% or more of your results come from 20% or less of what you do.

Yet, you continue spending 80% or more of your time on the stuff that doesn’t really matter.

Giving yourself space — even 10 minutes — allows you to think clearly about your goals. To think clearly about your priorities. To think clearly about what matters most to you. And to think clearly about where and what you should be putting your energy into that day.

If you have kids or a morning job — then you should wake up before your kids wake up. I have 5 kids. I know what it feels like to be woken up to my kids being awake.

In those instances, I don’t have 10 minutes to get my head and heart in the right place. I just have to get up and get moving. And when I do this, I’m operating like the millions of blog posts that won’t get any reads.

I’m going to be working but ineffectively.

My kids deserve better.

I deserve better.

You deserve better.

Your kids deserve better.

The purpose of life is to advance forward every single day.

In the book, The Laws of Lifetime Growth, Dan Sullivan and Catherine Nomura have 10 amazing laws.

One of those laws is to always make your learning greater than your experience. Here’s specifically what they way about that:

“You can have a great deal of experience and be no smarter for all the things you’ve done, seen, and heard. Experience alone is no guarantee of lifetime growth. But if you regularly transform your experiences into new lessons, you will make each day of your life a source of growth. The smartest people are those who can transform even the smallest events or situations into breakthroughs in thinking and action.”

Every day, your life should be improving.

Your decision-making should be improving.

Your skills and intelligence should be improving.

Your ability to prioritize and focus your time on those things which truly matter — there and then — should be improving.

But in order to improve, you need a process for putting yourself in the right place.

How you start something usually determines the direction and quality it will go.

Take 10 minutes before anything else to get yourself in the right place, and to ensure you focus on the right things that day.

Here’s a simple outline of how you can do it. But I recommend you develop your own system over time.

Wake upDrink some water (your brain will thank you)Go to a quiet or peaceful placeSay a prayer or do some form of positive meditationIf you decide to pray, ask God (or whatever you call the higher power) to inspire you with clarity, discernment, and direction for what you should be focusing on that dayAfter your prayer and meditation, pull out your journal and answer a question — Sean Stephensen, the famed speaker and therapist explains that journaling is often more effective when answering a questionYour journal entry, then, could be you free-writing to the question: What should I be focused on today?Here are some other questions you could answer as journal-prompts: Who do I need to show up for today? How can I be most helpful? What needs my attention most? What is currently on my schedule today that I should uncommit to?

Answering these types of questions gives you a little space to open your mind to clarity.

You really don’t need that much time.

You can get life-changing and SIMPLE clarity in a few seconds.

The problem is, most people don’t give themselves those seconds. They rush forward.

Those few seconds will come consistently and daily if you make time for them. But you need to create an environment and a mindSET — your “set” and “setting” — that can create powerful insights.

Once you’ve nailed down what you should be focused on, the second half of the journaling session and morning routine is about COMMITMENT.

You want to commit to yourself that you will execute. That you will follow-through. That you’ll operate at the highest level.

You need to make a definitive decision about how the day will go. When you make a decision the universe conspires to make it happen.

Therefore, your morning routine is about getting clarity for the decisions you should be making, and then truly committing to making those decisions real.

Ready to Upgrade?

I’ve created a cheat sheet for putting yourself into a PEAK-STATE, immediately. You follow this daily, your life will change very quickly.

Get the cheat sheet here!

This 10-Minute Morning Routine Will Make You A Better Parent, Entrepreneur, and Person was originally published in Thrive Global on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This 10-Minute Morning Routine Ensures Consistently Productive Days

When you wake up in a hurry, you miss the mark.

This morning, I got up at 5AM and was going to immediately start working on a project. As an entrepreneur, writer, and father of five — I have far more to do than time in my day.

But instead of jumping immediately into one of my many projects, I decided to give myself some space.

There are certain high-performance habits that ensure you’ll operate at a 10x higher level than if you simply just get to work.

Success is not about how many hours you put it, but the quality of those hours.

In the book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey explains the importance of “sharpening the saw.”

Most people go throughout their days as a dull saw, putting more and more time in but getting little back from that time.

It’s really not about how much you work.

It’s not about how much effort you put it in.

It’s about the quality and precision of your efforts.

For example, there are millions of blog posts written every single day. But 99.99% of those blog posts will be read by less than 10 people. On the flip-side, some blog posts are read by millions of people.

Most people operate throughout their day putting lots of time and energy in. But they aren’t actually getting better at what they do.

In the book, Turning Pro, Steven Pressfield said something brilliant. He said, “Addictions embody repetition without progress. They produce incapacity as a payoff.”

Most people’s days embody repetition without progress.

Every day they live, but they aren’t actually getting better. Their future is a repetitious reinforcement of the past.

But there’s another problem in most people’s days beyond repetition without progress, and that is that most people’s days are quite aimless.

They aren’t being guided by a higher power — or by the highest power within themselves — to do the right things in a powerful way with their time.

In other words, most people reactively respond to the demands of their day. The urgency of everything takes over and it’s not apparent that their daily efforts really moved the needle. It’s not apparent that their efforts really made a difference.

10-Minute Morning Routine

There are many applications to morning routines. However, there is one thing that is essential to a morning routine to ensure you spend your time on the best things, and that your efforts are impactful on those best things.

Said again — your morning routine should ensure you’re spending your limited time on the right things. But also, your morning routine should be a process of putting yourself in the right frame of mind to execute at your highest level.

Actually, if you tap into the spiritual and subconscious, you can put yourself into a position where you are executing beyond your highest level on a daily basis. Where your efforts are expanded by a higher power.

It’s really simple.

Before you jump into anything else, give yourself some space. Your compulsion will be to get moving on the urgent.

Don’t do this.

Give yourself space for the important.

The 80/20 rule is a productivity principle explaining that most of the things you spend your time doing aren’t really making an impact.

80% or more of your results come from 20% or less of what you do.

Yet, you continue spending 80% or more of your time on the stuff that doesn’t really matter.

Giving yourself space — even 10 minutes — allows you to think clearly about your goals. To think clearly about your priorities. To think clearly about what matters most to you. And to think clearly about where and what you should be putting your energy into that day.

If you have kids or a morning job — then you should wake up before your kids wake up. I have 5 kids. I know what it feels like to be woken up to my kids being awake.

In those instances, I don’t have 10 minutes to get my head and heart in the right place. I just have to get up and get moving. And when I do this, I’m operating like the millions of blog posts that won’t get any reads.

I’m going to be working but ineffectively.

My kids deserve better.

I deserve better.

You deserve better.

Your kids deserve better.

The purpose of life is to advance forward every single day.

In the book, The Laws of Lifetime Growth, Dan Sullivan and Catherine Nomura have 10 amazing laws.

One of those laws is to always make your learning greater than your experience. Here’s specifically what they way about that:

“You can have a great deal of experience and be no smarter for all the things you’ve done, seen, and heard. Experience alone is no guarantee of lifetime growth. But if you regularly transform your experiences into new lessons, you will make each day of your life a source of growth. The smartest people are those who can transform even the smallest events or situations into breakthroughs in thinking and action.”

Every day, your life should be improving.

Your decision-making should be improving.

Your skills and intelligence should be improving.

Your ability to prioritize and focus your time on those things which truly matter — there and then — should be improving.

But in order to improve, you need a process for putting yourself in the right place.

How you start something usually determines the direction and quality it will go.

Take 10 minutes before anything else to get yourself in the right place, and to ensure you focus on the right things that day.

Here’s a simple outline of how you can do it. But I recommend you develop your own system over time.

Wake upDrink some water (your brain will thank you)Go to a quiet or peaceful placeSay a prayer or do some form of positive meditationIf you decide to pray, ask God (or whatever you call the higher power) to inspire you with clarity, discernment, and direction for what you should be focusing on that dayAfter your prayer and meditation, pull out your journal and answer a question — Sean Stephensen, the famed speaker and therapist explains that journaling is often more effective when answering a questionYour journal entry, then, could be you free-writing to the question: What should I be focused on today?Here are some other questions you could answer as journal-prompts: Who do I need to show up for today? How can I be most helpful? What needs my attention most? What is currently on my schedule today that I should uncommit to?

Answering these types of questions gives you a little space to open your mind to clarity.

You really don’t need that much time.

You can get life-changing and SIMPLE clarity in a few seconds.

The problem is, most people don’t give themselves those seconds. They rush forward.

Those few seconds will come consistently and daily if you make time for them. But you need to create an environment and a mindSET — your “set” and “setting” — that can create powerful insights.

Once you’ve nailed down what you should be focused on, the second half of the journaling session and morning routine is about COMMITMENT.

You want to commit to yourself that you will execute. That you will follow-through. That you’ll operate at the highest level.

You need to make a definitive decision about how the day will go. When you make a decision the universe conspires to make it happen.

Therefore, your morning routine is about getting clarity for the decisions you should be making, and then truly committing to making those decisions real.

Ready to Upgrade?

I’ve created a cheat sheet for putting yourself into a PEAK-STATE, immediately. You follow this daily, your life will change very quickly.

Get the cheat sheet here!

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This 1 Question Made 1 Man $100 Million

Photo by Billy Huynh on Unsplash

David Osborn is an aggressive entrepreneur who owns over a dozen Keller Williams franchises, has dozens of other companies he’s started. He is worth $100 million dollars — and as it turns out, is actually a very humble and down-to-earth guy.

He has a very powerful and insightful question he invites people to consider.

It’s a question he’s asked himself over and over at all stages of his journey and life.

“WHY NOT ME?”

“There are people who are billionaires out there. Therefore it is a possibility. ‘Why not you?’” he recently stated.

This question can be applied to all areas of life.

Money doesn’t have to be your goal.

Being happy.

“Why not me?”

Being healthy.

“Why not me?”

Having the life of your choice.

“Why not me?”

Living your dreams.

“Why not me?”

The more specific your visualization and imagination — the more emotional and beautiful becomes the question.

Why Not You?

When you see a huge opportunity and sense that you can actually maximize on that opportunity — motivation and excitement become your organic state.

Napoleon Hill stated, “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe the mind can achieve.”

Obsorn’s single question helps open that emotional door — where you can begin to believe.

Why not you?

Ready to Upgrade?

I’ve created a cheat sheet for putting yourself into a PEAK-STATE, immediately. You follow this daily, your life will change very quickly.

Get the cheat sheet here!

This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by +420,678 people.Subscribe to receive our top stories here.

This 1 Question Made 1 Man $100 Million was originally published in The Startup on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.