Everyone around you is completely overstimulated, overloaded with options. There is no guarantee that we will have jobs next month, or next year. The skills that used to guarantee a stable lifestyle are disappearing rapidly as AI becomes more and more complex.

But, at the same time, this is an age of tremendous opportunity. The people that develop a set of traits and habits are adapted to the current pace of life, will not only survive, but thrive in the years to come. So let’s talk about it.

I have never been, and never will be, a doomer. No matter where things are going, my preference is always to look at the macro-trends, observe them neutrally instead of complaining or wishing they were different, and then see how I can adapt my worldview to them without losing myself.

That’s what I’m doing now with AI. I don’t love AI, I really don’t. I feel like it has many negatives, from its potential to stunt critical thinking, to causing a drop in quality across many industries as everything merges together to be more uniform, to social isolation, and more. But I understand that staying stuck in the past will be incredibly harmful for me. Clinging on to the old way of doing things might feel self-righteous, but the world is moving on. It’s either you move with it, change your approach to be congruent with the new wave, or you get left without a paddle.

As I’ve explored this new paradigm, one thing has become abundantly clear to me: AI will benefit those who have agency, and will harm those who don’t.

People with agency see AI as an opportunity to make a better work product, because the low-level tasks get automated and the high-level creative work gets more attention. In a perfect scenario, you gain more time to focus on the work that you actually love doing, and this leads to a better product.

On the other hand, people without agency may either see AI as a threat, because they are comfortable in their current position and don’t want to change, or they do see it as an opportunity but use it in the wrong way. I’m talking about lazy AI-generated writing, content, and work products that are digressive. If you’re using AI and your work is getting done faster but it’s sh*t, then I don’t think that benefits anyone.

This leads me to my main point. As I look around today in March 2026, I see a really lethargic populace. Technology and constant overstimulation seems to have numbed the minds of the masses. People are regurgitating the same worldviews mindlessly, not questioning where they get their opinions from, and looking for any possible external source of blame. They argue online into a virtual echo chamber, trying to win a battle over another person who also has little understanding of their own mind and information sources, going absolutely nowhere but leaving them flustered and distracted. They complain about lacking deep social connection but do nothing about it, or they meet up with their friends and sit around on their phones together instead of talking. If this resonates at all, then you need to lock in my friend.

For anyone else, the path could not be clearer.

Build something meaningful that has the potential to solve a painful problem for a specific person. There’s plenty of them out there, but try to focus on health, wealth, relationships, or fulfillment. These core areas will always have high-priority problems to be solved.

Find something that fills you up with energy when you think about it. If the thought of doing the required work leaves you completely drained and lethargic, it’s not the right mission. Pivot.

Once you find the thing, dedicate an hour a day at minimum to it. If it’s important to you, you can wake up an hour earlier for it. Get up at sunrise, when the world is quiet, and start to build it. The first draft product will be terrible, but it will be yours. Embrace it as part of the process.

Use all the tools at your disposal. There is now an absolute glut of information available to you. For every single problem you have, there is probably a clear plan of action that can be delivered to you within seconds or minutes. You just need to have the agency to take that plan, adapt it to your scenario, and give it a go.

Be impatient with the actions you take, but patient with the results. It will take years, there’s no way around that. But the average person will quit long before that. One single road bump and they decide it’s not for them after all, or they try to retroactively justify why it won’t work. It won’t necessarily be the ones who have the most amazing ideas, but the ones who outlast everyone else and get the necessary reps in to master their craft and build something that stands the test of time.

If you never try, you’ll never know what you are truly capable of. And that you should scare you more than anything else.

Develop the plan, execute the plan, reflect and iterate, and STAY PERSISTENT.

Onwards-

We see a polished finished product, but it doesn’t register to us that there is an entire iceberg of hidden discipline, connections, and luck that contributed to it.

You don’t see the thousands of reps that built the foundation for that product to be successful. The frustrations that person or business had to go through. The emotional rollercoaster that nearly broke them.

When you start a career, or a side project, you are inevitably going to suck for a very long time, especially if you go it alone without mentorships or other guidance from those ahead.

I launched my podcast in 2023 and to this day I still have moments where I feel like it’s underperforming or low quality. I continue to question whether it’s all worth it.

Are people even listening? Do I have value to offer? Is all this hard work of scripting and recording and editing worth it when only 50 people press play?

I’ve been at the brink of quitting several times over, when the stress of my day job and the pressure to maintain a social media presence compound.

But I have to remind myself where it all started. With just a phone to record, no visual episodes, no editing capabilities, no high-quality camera. Ground zero.

And most importantly, it was a burning desire to share my knowledge and my story in the hopes that it inspires others to create positive change. That was the true motivation - not an exit route, not a lucrative career. Just a medium to channel my self-actualization through.

Staying connected to that “why” has helped me step away from the ledge several times.

As I’ve gone through this process, I’ve learned to develop a mental barrier between what other people are doing and how it reflects on my own work.

Study the work of others for ideas and inspiration, and then blend it all up into your own style as best as you can. Be a creative sponge on social media, instead of using it to compare results or validate yourself. Read, consume, and study in the evenings, let it marinate and meld overnight with a good night’s rest, and then create relentlessly in the morning hours. This is the path to actually iterating a better version of your project (or yourself).

Besides, there is so much motivational and inspiration AI slop out there these days that this is becoming more important than ever.

People want to hear from people.

They want to hear about your specific challenges and growth journey. They want to hear about a unique insight that you gained through lived experience.

Not the AI guru that has it all figured out and is shouting from the top of the mountain.

No, they want to join the climb with you.

So let them.

Share the inner madness of starting the business.

Share the biggest losses of your life (and how you crawled back from them).

Share the massive win with ZERO shame.

One thing that will be always be irreplaceable is a good story.

Give them something to root for.

Onwards-

From Einstein, to Steve Jobs, to Benjamin Franklin, to Leonardo DaVinci, and more.

I always had a burning curiosity about what made these people tick. Why were they able to be so productive and alter the course of history, when most everyone else just coasted through life? What was their secret sauce?

Maybe if I mimicked their mentalities and habits, I could begin to make a greater impact, just like they did.

What I’ve discovered is a couple key patterns. And no, it’s not just be born with a genius brain, or go to a prestigious university, or live in a certain time period of abundant opportunity.

Of course, those things help. But their advantage was something much more tangible and applicable to everyday life.

It’s something that has massive potential to alter the course of your future and give life much more flavor and fulfillment.

Each of these legends were purpose-driven. They had a mission that was bigger than themselves.

It was about advancing humanity, revolutionizing science or art, creating groundbreaking technology.

It was never about just making a living or surviving.

They had a higher calling that they uncovered through experimentation, natural curiosity, and deep exploration.

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do” - Steve Jobs.

Tap into this frequency and you’ll become an unstoppable force of nature.

The second you slip into thinking selfishly, about how your work benefits you and only you, you’re lost.

You’re going be passed up by someone who is on a mission.

Someone who has transcended the daily grind.

You can’t compete with someone like this.

Someone like this will do their work in their sleep, while you’re forcing yourself to get through the day with the most optimized routine possible.

They will choose to wake up early on a Saturday and get to work.

They will choose to go the extra mile, do the extra reps.

Leonardo DaVinci dissected over 30 human bodies. Why?

Not because he was told to, or because it could make him money in some way.

But because he was curious about studying the human form and integrating it into his artwork. He was following his interests naturally, going down the rabbit hole that most were afraid to explore. In turn, he was able to create paintings that were centuries ahead of their time, depicting human anatomy in a shockingly accurate way for the 1400s.

We’ve all felt a similar sense of excitement as kids. The night before a big vacation or game, you couldn’t sleep a wink. Yet you woke up the next day bursting with energy.

Some people are living this way, every single day.

Their work imbues them with purpose.

It takes over every inch of their mental real estate, driving them forward to see new opportunities and make new connections that you didn’t even know were possible.

While you force yourself to go through a five-step morning routine to get motivated to work, they wake up and jump right out of bed, ready to dive into the most important task of the day.

I can’t think of a more important pursuit in life than to find enjoyable and meaningful work.

If you start working at 25 and retire at 65, work will take up about a third of your waking hours.

Imagine if you were doing something in those hours that filled you with energy.

Life would take on new meaning, and you could finally enjoy the process rather than banking on some future dream outcome that may not even arrive.

So, if you want to pursue long-lasting, sustainable success…work first to define a mission for yourself.

Explore your interests ruthlessly.

Experiment with multiple fields, live in different cities, and remain open-minded.

Become a modern day Renaissance man or woman. Write, lift, run, paint, code, create.

Even if people think you’re crazy.

Even if it’s “unreasonable”.

Eventually an opportunity will reveal itself to you.

You will see the sign to go all in.

And when you do, don’t ignore it.

Onwards-

We’re told by personal development gurus that life is just a video game.

You can customize all your character traits at will, and reinvent yourself repeatedly.

You can choose to develop elite fitness, silky smooth charisma, savvy business acumen, and zen-like spirituality, all by flipping a switch in your mind and deciding that is your new reality.

This frame of thinking can be helpful. Empowering, for sure.

But I think it slightly downplays the actual work, time, and sacrifice required to create a radical shift in your character or habits.

I just turned 31. I’ve been intensely focused on personal growth and development over the past 8 or 9 years. I’ve read dozens of books on the subject and put myself through lots of self-examination. I’d like to think that all these years of learning, consuming, and applying knowledge has taught me a few things about the reality of the situation.

And what I learned specifically over this last year was that trying to go 110% across the board leads to about 75% of the results you want.

For reference, here is what I set myself up for in 2025:

This was a lot to sign up for…

Realistically, almost all of these bullet points probably could have been broken down into individual systems or micro goals.

Some of these I was able to devote a lot of energy to and I was stoked to make happen.

Others, not as much.

It’s kind of like I was able to give 100% to some goals and crush them, while only having a fraction of that effort left over for the others.

I’m a bit impatient and I want it all now. I think a lot of us are similar in that way. It’s hard to think in long time horizons and “play the long game”.

But I’ve come to learn that life is better divided up into seasons.

Seasons of intensity and focus on one or two BIG goals.

Instead of trying to level up all five pillars of health at the same time (i.e., mental, physical, spiritual, emotional, and financial), it’s better to ask yourself:

What is the most important goal for this current season of my life?

Is a period of intensity on this goal right for how my life is currently structured?

What do I need to sacrifice to bring myself closer to this goal?

Am I willing to make that sacrifice?

Every big goal requires sacrifice.

If you’re killing it with your fitness and your career and your diet, your financial habits might slip.

If you’re on point with your finances and career and hobbies, then your social life might suffer.

It’s a give and take.

Your energy is finite and must be balanced if you want sustainable growth.

Over this last year, I kept noticing slippages in different areas of life and had to recalibrate, over and over again.

Which is why I really believe now that setting less goals, but with greater potential for impact, is the move.

Instead of trying to become a superhero, just become super good at committing your all to one or two big things, for a set period of time.

The likelihood of you actually getting those things accomplished is going to increase.

The likelihood of burnout and guilt from not making it all happen is going to decrease.

We’re in it for the long haul.

Choose sustainable growth, over unrealistic aims.

Life will be much more enjoyable.

Onwards-

It is the tool that will determine whether it takes you 6 months, or 6 years to complete a big project or create a massive change in your life. If you can develop uninterrupted focus on one big project or lever you’re trying to pull in your life, everything changes.

See, focus is not something you’re innately born with, and you’re not doomed if you feel completely distracted these days. I used to struggle with this massively in college and in the early days of my career, until I discovered a few key things that allowed me to take back control over my time and energy.

There are certain protocols and habits that you can start to work on TODAY, to dramatically transform your focus. Improving this is going to improve every single area of your life, from your career, to your relationships, to your health, and more.

Today, we’re going to discuss a 3 step protocol that you can use to develop extreme focus. These are all entirely free, non-pharmaceutical ways for you to level up your attention and as a result, your entire life.

1. Assign Significance to Your Daily Actions

Every single thing we do gives us the chance to build our focus.

Whether it’s brushing our teeth, washing our car, our executing our life’s work. If you intently do these things with presence, they start to become more enjoyable.

You can create miniature games or challenges within each activity, like making sure your car is absolutely spotless and cleaning every single corner of it. Or making sure that your coffee to milk ratio in the morning is absolutely perfect. Treat your focus like a muscle. Although these things seem trivial, you can’t do them without focus; so inherently, you’re testing it and improving it, instead of being mindless.

Emphasize to yourself every morning that what you do today matters, this moment is all you have. How you execute today’s actions will have a ripple effect through your future outcomes.

It raises the stakes and gives a higher level of significance to the small actions you need to take to reach your big goals.

Big goals are just a series of small actions, taken repeatedly over time. If you do these with half your attention, it’s going to take twice the amount of time to reach the end goal.

If you can realize that each small action is actually significant and part of your overall life journey, then it starts to not seem so trivial after all.

2. Audit your environment

Your desk needs to be clean and free of clutter. Physical clutter leads to mental clutter. Only leave what you need on your desk for completing your work. Laptop, monitor, notepad, water, coffee, and any other essentials.

And most importantly…

Clean up your digital environment.

You need to restrict access to distractions. People think they can multitask but it’s a complete myth. On average, it takes about 23 minutes to enter back into deep work after just checking a text.

Use app blockers or timers for apps on your phone so you don’t feel the urge to keep opening them. Use the grayscale function on your phone to make it less appealing. Better yet, put your phone in a different room if it’s a problem for you.

You’re going up against a billion dollar algorithm with top neuroscientists aiming to hack your psychology to keep you distracted. To win back your focus, you need to change the playing field.

3. Develop a Focus Ritual

I recently read Unlimited Power by Tony Robbins and he talks about how you can use physical triggers to stimulate focus, in a process called anchoring. Here’s how you do it:

Each time that you plan to lock in and get some deep work done, think vividly about a time period where you were extremely focused. Close your eyes and put yourself back in that state of mind, really feel what that experience was like.

Then, create a physical or auditory cue for that state.

It could be snapping your fingers while you visualize that state of deep focus, or playing a specific song or playlist, or simply saying “it’s time to lock in”. This will anchor your mind to these actions and automatically trigger a focus response. You want a consistent anchor that you can use that communicates to your brain that it’s time for focus.

Then, you can use the Pomodoro technique to leverage what psychologists say is the optimal way to use your brain’s energy. Work for between 25 minutes on ONE task, then take a 5 minute break. Repeat this 3 times and then take a longer 15 minute break to recharge. This aligns with our natural Ultradian rhythm, a 90-minute cycle of high to low energy that we operate on throughout the day.

4. Declutter the Mind

Even if you’re treating your day like it matters, doing the focus rituals, and have a perfectly clean workspace, we all know that the mind can still run wild, overthinking, and overanalyzing to the point that it defaults to seeking entertainment or distractions.

So, use these tools in your arsenal to ensure your mind is actually primed to focus:

• Meditation: This prepares the mind for low levels of stimulation by just paying attention to the breath or another anchor. Your brain is a muscle and meditation trains it. The more you sit, the more you will feel okay with boredom.

• Writing: This purges the mind of endless trains of thought and provides order to your thought processes. Once it’s on the page, it all starts to make a lot more sense and you’re less likely to go down mental rabbit holes.

• Walking (with no phone): Slow movement, especially in the mornings, will warm up the body and mind and give you a clean slate to work with for the day. Highly encouraged to skip the podcasts, music, and the audio books during these walks. Allow your mind to process everything from the night before, and then begin anew with focus on the task at hand.

This is the holy trinity that I’ve found from personal experience to be wildly effective.

Follow these steps and you will develop razor sharp focus over time, I am sure of it.

Onwards-

We all have that version of ourselves, an ideal version that is confident and focused and ready to take ownership of our path.

You might have even seen glimpses of this person, appearing quickly to show you what is possible, before fading away again as old routines and patterns set in.

I truly believe that we’re meant to become that person. We’re not meant to live on autopilot, mindlessly consuming and floating through life, letting others dictate our future for us. We can take control of our lives, become the architect of the world we’re building, and stop moving passively. And it starts with a mindset shift that you can start to make today to bring this into fruition.

Listen guys, you are probably being victimized by your past. Your past failures, traumas, and shortcomings are bullying you around, preventing you from actualizing into the person you know you can become.

Every second that you spend dwelling on what could have been or daydreaming about the future, is wasted energy that is taking you away from seizing the moment right now.

It really is….imagine what you could have accomplished by now if, instead of living with your head in the clouds, you actually started experimenting, developing a plan, putting it into action, adapting, and iterating towards your goal? You’d probably be miles ahead.

The people that win are those that compress the amount of time from thought to action. They don’t think about what might happen or what happened last time (unless it’s a lesson learned), and we’ll get more into that. But generally they are doers and they move from idea to execution with lightning speed. You can be that person. Now let’s talk about the why and how.

The mind does not know the difference between something that is vividly imagined and something that is actually happening. So, by constantly ruminating on your past and reliving moments that have long gone, you are effectively living out that reality in your mind, over and over again. You are frozen in time, and your mental energy is leaking into nothingness.

In the same way, vividly imagining and desiring your plans to come true will place you in an expectant frame of mind. What this means is that because you are visualizing your plans in great detail, your mind starts to anticipate them to become reality.

You will start to view your entire world through the lens of these plans. Opportunities that were previously invisible will start to become obvious, staring you straight in the face and begging you to take them.

There’s a difference between visualizing a future and day dreaming, by the way. It’s important that you are visualizing a concrete plan, instead of some faraway, distant “better” outcome that is not very well defined. That leads you to the same stagnant place as if you were dwelling on the past.

Now, I want you to start to view your past like a scientist.

Your life is experimental, you tested certain hypotheses, some worked and some didn’t. Analyze past results for what you need to learn, extract the lesson, and then lay it to rest.

Some people have rituals and traditions that support this, like writing a letter to someone and then burning it to represent a sort of mental purge, or by physically changing space or changing your environment so it’s no longer linked to that past memory. This may help. But mostly, try to detach from it, view it at 30,000 feet, and see what information you can glean from it. Then apply that information to the here and now.

Every memory teaches a lesson, positive or negative. Our human experience is basically a memory bank, stored in our collective consciousness. By focusing on the memories, or learnings, that have potential to help you reach your goals, and not paying attention to the others, you are going to be dramatically better off than 99% of people.

Where your attention goes, energy flows. This can be backwards or forwards. Train your mind to quickly hit the release valve when it starts going down the rabbit hole of rumination. Regular meditation and adaptive practices like extreme physical or mental challenges will help you master this inner voice.

You always have the option to not view your current reality through the lens of the past. Every day is a fresh start, every interaction can lead you someplace new.

You are the only one holding yourself back.

And it’s time to take back control.

Onwards-

What if I told you that you could take the next six years of ‘average’ progress and compress it into a single, aggressive, six-month sprint? I’m talking about collapsing time to achieve the results you truly want.

The vast majority of the results you want in your personal or professional life will come from short bursts of concentrated energy and focus. This will look like 6 to 12 months of structured and disciplined use of your time to set yourself up for many years to come. Then, once you establish a baseline of productivity and output, you can transition to maintaining that level.

For example, to keep a certain physique, you just need to lift the same weights that you’ve been lifting. But in the beginning, it must be uncompromising, rigorous, and intense focus. You must be pushing yourself to failure, finding the limits of what your mind and body can sustain, and walking that line each and everyday. Once you reach it, then you can simply maintain what you’ve already built.

Intensity beats Duration

Tim Ferris once said “Intensity beats duration.” This is the Pareto principle in action, when the 20% of your time spent will create 80% of your results. The more intense your focus is during that period of time, the greater the results will be. You can accomplish in 6 months what many need 6 years to do. When you laser focus on something every day, the momentum compounds and turns into a snowball that barrels through your entire life.

Picture a time in your life when you were so busy that you only could find an hour or two per week to pick up the book you were reading.

Every time you did manage to squeeze in time for it, you may have felt like you lost the thread of the storyline. You may have had to go back a few pages or chapters to refresh.

This is the same concept with any project in your life. When you have intensity and commitment over short periods, your learning is accelerated and you don’t have this stop-and-start effect which slows progress.

Steve Jobs explored this during his career with his famous “reality distortion field”.

During Apple’s meteoric rise in the early 2000s, he would demand results from his engineers to ship a product with an accelerated timeline, often 6 to 8 weeks. They would balk at first, claiming that it’s physically impossible to produce in that short of a time. Steve would stand firm and simply demand them to rise to the new standard he set. Somehow, they would always find a way to do it.

Turns out, their limits were fictional.

To set myself up in my current career, I had a period of about 6 months in my last quarter of college where I worked multiple internships, took trainings, classes, and seminars to gain access to the network I needed to advance, all while working two restaurant jobs to stack enough cash to hold me over.

Was it hard work? Yes, no doubt.

But surprisingly, I look back on this period of discipline with fondness, simply because of the trajectory it put me on. I’m still benefitting from this sprint today.

The unpaid internships turned into paid, full-time positions, which opened up more time and financial freedom for me to invest time in the subjects that lit me up. This is where I originally began my explorations of personal development, mindset, psychology, and the like. It all started with a period of struggle, about 6 months of sacrifice that made the following 5-10 years much smoother.

Quick Fixes

The point of this article is to emphasize that there’s no quick fix, no 7-day framework to change your life forever. Sure, you can get started on the path in a short amount of time, like 48 hours or 7 days. But really, a life-changing shift needs about 6 to 12 months.

If you really want to create massive, radical change in your life, make the decision to lock in for 6 months.

• Set a goal for what you want to achieve over that period.

• Break the 6 months into individual months, and set microgoals within each month, narrowing down further to the level of individual days.

• Determine what small actions can you take each and every day to move the needle forward towards that goal.

It’s amazing how this compounds over time into REAL results.

Maybe most importantly, determine the identity of the person that would stay accountable to that goal for 6 months.

Good habits will follow an identity you’ve assigned yourself.

Take inspiration from the routines and methods of the high performers in your niche or just in general. For example, the physical discipline of Cristiano Ronaldo, or the relentless commitment to perfection that Kobe Bryant had. Model your routine after them.

Kobe used to show up at 5 or 6 am and get an extra solo training session in before the full team came to practice around 10am. Imagine how that added up over decades?

You can do the same in your field. One extra hour of focus and intention per day will make a lasting impact. It doesn’t have to be forever, just for a period of intensity.

Understand that this will be lonely. You will have to say no to many things. But, it’s only a season of focus. The people and things that truly matter will be around afterwards, and will understand your need to commit 100% to the cause.

Lastly, remind yourself that there’s a cost to staying the same, just like there’s a cost to progress.

Not making this effort now will likely result in a more panicked and rushed attempt at progress down the line. By that time, the same opportunities may not be present, the competition may be too strong, or your life may be affected by other obligations, such as family or illness or anything else.

Do it now. All it takes is 6 months to get the ball rolling - the rest is momentum.

Onwards-

I think everyone knows and accepts that getting paid to do your childhood hobby would be sweet. There’s no need to continue to beat that one up.

Instead, I’m going to offer a few practical, grounded suggestions based on my life experience. These have helped me develop a zeal for the boring things that I know I need to get done to raise the level of my life. You know, the things that can lead to great success but aren’t necessarily the most glamorous or aligned with natural interests. For example, writers who love to write but can’t stand marketing or promoting their work. Or, on a personal level, doing the quarterly budget review to see whether or not you’re on track with your finances. How do you develop the enthusiasm to do these things consistently and with quality?

In 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, he breaks out tasks into four quadrants by urgency and importance. The tasks I’m talking about today are typically going to be your not so urgent, but very important activities. The ones you can ignore today, but are going to negatively impact you over time if you don’t devote energy to them.

No matter whether you absolutely love what you do, or if the thought of waking up in the morning sends chills down your spine, there are small discrete actions that you can take that will make a HUGE difference if done consistently. Not everyone has the flexibility to go after a passion project full time, but you can seize control of the daily actions within your current situation. This all starts with your mentality towards them.

I discovered very early in my career, maybe when I was 23 or 24, that there was a simple perspective shift I could make to instantly make my daily life more stimulating. I could increase my motivation and energy for the tasks that have long-term life changing potential.

It had to do with assigning significance to my daily actions.

I repeatedly told myself that what I do today, matters. It matters because it’s a part of the life story that I’m writing. Even if it feels boring, or it doesn’t naturally excite me, it needs to be done because it will propel me forward. Each step taken today is a step closer towards the life that I want to be living. I wrote these ideas down repeatedly until they were branded into my daily awareness.

Certain monotonous tasks or actions, if executed with the right intention or focus, can take on a whole new form. They can become thrilling opportunities for you to peel back your consciousness, learn about yourself, conquer your past shortcomings, and create an impact.

The task no longer is “invoice reviews”. It becomes “developing financial acumen”.

The task is no longer just “serving my customers”. It becomes “positively affecting someone’s day.”

See, the one thing we are truly in control of is our response to our circumstances and our interpretation of events. If we focus on improving our internal viewpoint, we can transform the quality of our experiences.

If you combine this sense of autonomy over your experiences with an understanding of how interconnected everything in your life is, then you will truly become a force to be reckoned with.

How you do one thing is how you do everything. Including the boring tasks that you know are important, but hate to do.

Many times people view their tasks and habits in a silo. It’s either a fitness goal, or a work goal, or a personal relationship goal. There’s no concept of how they bleed into, and reinforce, each other.

By assigning significance to the daily actions, you give yourself purpose in daily life and connect the dots between all the different domains. What you do today, no matter how small, is influencing your trajectory. You may not notice it today, or tomorrow, but in several months the neglect will show. Those late invoices, the missed budget reviews, the lack of review of your goals…the results of this will all start to show up.

So understand that today matters. You don’t need to put the weight of the world on your shoulders with every step because that can lead to paralysis. But do give it significance.

Life is just a series of connected actions. Once you zoom out and realize this, then your days start to take on greater meaning and what you do becomes driven by greater purpose.

Onwards-

It’s the silence of your phone not ringing. It’s the silence of Friday nights spent alone working on your most important project while everyone else is out. Many may brand this “loneliness.” They may feel bad for you, try to fix it, or just label you a hermit. We’re taught that silence is a void that needs to be filled.

But if you’re chasing excellence, that silence isn’t a problem.

It is the cost of entry.

So, why are so many people afraid to be alone?

It has a lot to do with the uncomfortable truths it reveals to us.

By spending time alone, you will likely be forced to grapple with the darkest recesses of your mind. Doubts, insecurities, and fears will rise to the surface, no matter how confident and self-assured you are. It holds a mirror to your consciousness, and it’s often not a pretty sight.

We usually recoil from what we see and start to fill our time with cheap pleasures, quick entertainment, or fear-mongering news - anything that lets us escape from the truth. It’s like when you have a huge deadline looming but the day before all you can do is clean your house, reorganize your closet, and basically do anything and everything except the main task. This is no different.

But being alone is a price we must pay to channel our energy and focus completely on the most important levers in our lives. We must come face to face with who we are now, and how far we might be from the person we want to be. Keep in mind, there’s not a right or a wrong place to be at a specific point in life. You can always change, you have agency. You can adapt and shift your actions to align with a higher self. But it starts with undistracted silence.

The world’s highest achievers don’t run from loneliness. And on the flip side, they are not all naturally lonely people. But for periods of time they isolate themselves, choose the desk over the dinner table, and lock in on the things that they know are most important to them. It’s a theme you’ll see over and over again if you study high performers.

One of the most famous examples of this is Isaac Newton. During the great plague of the 1600s in London, Newton retreated to a family ranch house for about 18 months in isolation. During this “lonely” period, he discovered calculus, the laws of motion, and the theory of gravity. It is widely considered the most productive period for a single human mind in history. I’m not saying you should expect to rewrite our physical understanding of the entire universe, but imagine what you could accomplish within your sphere of influence with a period of intensity like that?

Excellence has a price tag, and you have two choices:

1. Pay the debt of discipline now: Reap the rewards for years to come.

2. Pay the cost of unrealized potential later: Live with hazy memories and the feeling of having followed the crowd.

You don’t need to cut the world off forever. But great results require great commitment, at least just for a chapter or season of your life. At the end of the day, you are the only one who has to live with your choices.

You have to decide which FOMO is worse: The fear of missing a few nights out on the town, or the fear of missing out on your own potential.

The choice seems clear to me.

Onwards-

You’re forced into choosing a career path at age 17 or 18, when your brain is barely developed and cannot possibly understand the consequences of the decision…

Herded through a school system that rewards rote memorization and group think….

Launched into a career that you already are in debt to, because you took out massive student loans…

Then forced to sacrifice your autonomy to potentially climb the corporate ladder, or conform to whatever organization you find yourself in….

All while you’re being made to feel inferior or “less-than” by your more successful neighbors, peers on social media, or advertisements that know your own desires better than you do.

It really does seem crazy when you break it all down, doesn’t it?

But there’s a way to start taking back some of your control in a system that is designed to concentrate power and control in the hands of just a few at the top.

It begins with a conscious decision to invest in yourself, first and foremost.

The biggest return on your investment over time is in the S&ME 500, not the S&P 500 (shout out Hormozi for that one).

This means investing in your skill development, your health, your community, and real experiences that last a lifetime, while rejecting the rest of the nonsense.

Our society is built around conditioning you to spend every spare cent that you have on the next hottest thing, the latest trend, the latest fashion, cars, etc.

Companies are constantly hacking your psychology to get you to do their bidding. Listening to your phone, tracking your searches, mining your data. It should make you sick to think about how little privacy you hold onto these days, and the amount of manipulation that goes on.

But the way that you get them to f*ck off is by not buying into the system.

You have a choice. A choice to reject this consumerist, shallow way of living. A choice to direct your focus and energy on the real, tangible parts of your life that will pay dividends for years to come. Not the shitty clothing or gadgets that you’re going to forget about by this time next year.

You can approach this from several different ways.

When you have a skill you want to develop, or a hobby you want to pursue, go deep on that one thing. For example, if you want to learn how to play guitar, buy a quality guitar, invest in a good local teacher, and maybe get some tickets to go see your favorite lead guitarist play live. These expenses are justifiable and can fulfill you on a deep level. Attempting to save money while retaining quality will usually lead to delayed progress or dissatisfaction with the experience overall. Seek out quality inputs if you want to create the highest quality output.

The same goes for your health. Your body must be treated like a well-oiled machine. It has infinite potential but most people don’t even explore 10% of their capabilities. This starts with what you put in. Would you give cheap gas to a Ferrari? Probably not. It’s worth paying for the whole foods, the organic fruits and vegetables, high-quality local dairy and meats, if you want to squeeze the absolute most out of this life. It’s worth investing in a trainer or a coach or a nice gym if it gives you that extra motivation to stay accountable and reach your fitness goals. The energy that comes from good health will make every other part of your life easier. Investing in your health is priceless.

Or on the career front, it’s worthwhile investing to find a mentor or a coach that can guide you through the early sticking points in your path. The only real shortcut in life is a good mentor. They can help you bypass the difficult growing pains that they went through, allowing you to approach your own problems with a fresh perspective and greater insight into possible solutions. The same goes for books, courses, seminars, and events that allow you to learn from those that came before you.

The last highly worthwhile investment in yourself is in experiences. Travel, amazing food, sightseeing, exploration, rest and relaxation with your loved ones, etc. These memories last a lifetime. As trite as that may sound, it’s true. You will never regret a dollar spent on exploring the beaches of southern Spain or hiking in the mountains above Yosemite while a blanket of snow coats the valley. That’s something you carry with you that no one can take away. It enriches your life in indescribable ways and provides insights that fuel your growth for years after.

All of these things are 100% worth the investment because they stimulate your growth.

They contribute to you becoming a higher version of self, and cause a positive snowball effect in every area of your life.

Almost every extra dollar I’ve been able to put aside over the years has gone to one of these categories.

Is it glamorous? Absolutely not. I’ve faced criticism many times over for driving a beat up ‘99 Toyota, wearing old unstylish clothes, and opting to not hop on the latest tech or fashion trends.

However, it’s led to pretty great results in other areas outside of the material. At age 30, I’m in the best physical shape of my life, and ran two marathons this year. I have a fulfilling career that offers me autonomy and room for growth. I’ve traveled to South America, Asia, and Europe (several times over). I’ve also cultivated a strong community that supports my endeavors, including a beautiful partnership that I cherish.

From my view, investing in my mental and physical growth is worth way more than my perception in the eyes of others. None of these results would have been possible if I was overly concerned about impressing other people through false status symbols.

If you can tilt the balance in favor of real growth over being liked or perceived highly by others, then you can also take your power back from the external influences we face everyday. You can supercharge yourself over 5 to 10 years, by repeatedly investing in good health, amazing experiences, and continuous learning.

It all starts with rejecting the label given to you as “a product” to be bought and sold.

I’m not saying you need to disappear into the mountains and be a solitary monk with no material possessions. But look to invest your earnings back into yourself first. Move that to the highest on the priority ladder.

Then, if there’s some left over, go ahead and enjoy some worldly possessions. I’ll allow it ;)

That’s it for this week. Have a great holiday gang, talk soon.

~Danny

Something that connects the dots between all the seemingly random events that make up our days. Something that gives us a guiding light and a framework to follow. Something that builds community and connects us to everyone and everything around us.

For me, I struggled for many years to determine what overall life philosophy I resonated with.

I never found it in organized religion. The way people used it throughout history (and still do) as an excuse to commit terrible acts and to absolve themselves of responsibility always left me with a bad taste. I could relate to bits and pieces of the moral frameworks of religions, but as a whole I couldn’t back it.

I wasn’t entirely an agnostic or atheist person either. Over the years I’ve developed a spiritual sense of connectedness with people and the universe that goes beyond the physical explanations offered by science. There’s an unknown that can’t be claimed with certainty to belong to religion or to science. The universe works in mysterious ways, as they say, and I’ve experienced that to be true countless times.

I was also too positive to be a nihilist. Seeing what people have accomplished in the past when they get in touch with their life’s purpose inspired me to not think that life is inherently meaningless. We aren’t just here to live and then die. Life has infinite opportunities for us to create an impact and shift the tides of history.

This led me to discover existentialism.

Existentialism is a philosophy that’s rooted in human responsibility. It says that life has no inherent meaning or purpose built into it, and that we must create that meaning for ourselves. It also stresses the importance of living authentically in alignment with values that you determine for yourself - not mindlessly following the dogma of a religion or a political system. It’s both empowering and scary at the same time.

“The struggle towards the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart”. - Albert Camus, prominent existential thinker from the mid-1900s.

Much of the material that I write and speak about is rooted in existentialist thinking. I talk a lot about “radical acceptance” and taking responsibility for every single part of your life situation, regardless of how much you feel like it is your fault. This is a core piece of existentialism - it puts the onus on you to define meaning and purpose in your life.

Personally, I feel like this is the bravest and most genuine way of living life. You are not viewing life through the filter of any guide telling you “thou shalt do XYZ”. It’s determined by you and your values.

I also resonate heavily with the concept of creating your own meaning in life. My very first episode of the podcast was called “the myth of your true calling”, which was about how there’s no one true calling in every person’s life, and how your life’s purpose can evolve and change over time. If you spend your days chasing after finding the one purpose you were put on earth for, you may never find it. However, if you work on integrating your life experience, your skillset, and your current circumstances into a meaningful existence, you can create purpose.

“Life has no meaning a priori… It is up to you to give it a meaning”. - Jean-Paul Sartre

Your current purpose may be to deliver quality service to your clients in your 9 to 5. Or it could be showing up as the best partner or parent in your family. Focusing intensely on giving 100% to that end and immersing yourself in that process can provide meaning to life in the here and now.

At the same time, this doesn’t stop you from pursuing other higher goals for yourself. You can have purpose in your career, in your hobbies, in your fitness journey. There is not one singular path for you to find, just like there’s not really “the one” waiting for you in the relationship sense.

I present this information in the hopes that it can inspire more people to be brave and take responsibility to create positive change in their lives.

Too many of us are living passively, floating through life and hoping that our purpose reveals itself to us.

It never will.

You have to shift your view of the world from passive observer to to the designer and architect of your path. It starts with acceptance of your current situation and empowering yourself to change. Then, you can start to define purpose within the bounds of your current reality.

Existentialism helps with all of this.

Onwards-

They both taught me a lot, challenged me in dozens of different ways, and forced me to grow.

This was pretty much the intention behind signing up for them in the first place. Life has a sneaky way of lulling you to sleep, even if you’re doing all the right things. It has always been my belief that we need something to snap us out of our lethargy from time to time. For me, this was the primal challenge of running very long distances, specifically signing up for a 3-4 month long process that the marathon requires.

But, this letter is not just an excuse for me to talk about myself and my accomplishments.

Rather, it’s a word of caution.

After I crossed the finish line along the Danube River in Austria on marathon #2, I was very surprised to feel the way I did.

Not physically, because of course my body was immensely grateful that the torture was over.

But emotionally. I thought that I’d feel happy, jubilant, excited, or some combination of these things.

Instead, there was nothing. I mean NOTHING. Maybe a mild sense of relief that it was over and some lingering adrenaline. But no rollercoaster of positive feelings or anything like that. And I even hit a PR!

I walked over to the merch table, picked up my medal, grabbed some electrolytes, and walked back to the train station to meet my girlfriend and head back to the Airbnb. That was it.

In the days that followed, I tried to explore this feeling a bit more. It was anticlimactic and dull, and I wanted to know why.

Was it because I had already completed this accomplishment, and the excitement had worn off?

Was it because I didn’t have a greeting party at the end?

Was I just emotionally numb to the world at this point?

The answer was actually none of the above.

It has to do with the same reasons that Scottie Scheffler cited in his wild acceptance speech after winning the 2025 Masters golf tournament:

“What is the point? Why do I want to win this … golf tournament so badly? … Because, if I win, it’s going to be awesome for two minutes. Then we’re going to get to the next week … And we’re back here again…..This is not a fulfilling life. It’s fulfilling from the sense of accomplishment, but it’s not fulfilling from a sense of the deepest places of your heart”.

Crazy. This interview shook the world when it came out. Now I was feeling a small slice of the same (although obviously not of the same caliber of achievement).

We work SO damn hard just to cross that finish line. Making sacrifices of all kinds, just so we can cross that finish line. We know that feeling will be fleeting, that it won’t last forever, yet we still put ourselves through it, over and over. Why?

What I’ve come to understand is that it’s the marathon training that I actually enjoy.

When I’m running the canyons near my house, no one around me, just me and my thoughts, the warm sun, and a good playlist or podcast.

Working through problems in my life mentally. Rehearsing, ideating, and developing mental models. Overcoming my mental barriers and that weak voice that tells me to quit.

These are the reasons why I do it. Not for the medal. Medals are a sign of external validation, something that I’ve been training myself to not need for many years now.

It’s the internal feeling that you are on the path to something bigger. That each day you’re taking strides towards that goal.

This can be explained from a neuroscience perspective. Dopamine is released in the brain as you pursue a goal and anticipate achieving it, not when you actually achieve it.

It peaks during the chase, not the catch.

This is why those days of training felt so good, while crossing the finish line left me feeling numb.

I no longer had that internal source of dopamine that was fueling me with energy and giving structure to my days. Just like that, it was gone. And I didn’t know what to do with myself.

So, I developed an intense drug habit and burned everything down in my life.

Just kidding. I didn’t do that. But to avoid sinking into a slump, I slowly began to fill in that gap with other things in my life, some “dopamine fillers” if you will. I took time to rest and enjoy traveling, refocused on my podcast, dove back into my career, and evaluated my financial goals.

These were helpful ways to deal with the void in my life that was (ironically) left by a massive accomplishment.

Take this as a fair warning if you’re trying to set and achieve big goals. Be prepared for when they actually come true.

You cannot rely on the feeling of achievement forever. Enjoy the moment, be present, of course. But biologically, we’re hardwired to immediately crave chasing something again. You can’t expect the feeling to last, nor should you expect to receive much from it. Look at the world’s most successful people, there is nothing left for them to go after, yet they still start new businesses and projects and try to expand their capacities for change.

You may also be forced to reckon with this similar drive someday.

So, take time to enjoy the time in the trenches. When you don’t know if you’ll be able to make something happen, but you’re working on it in blind faith and belief. That energy is what makes it all worthwhile in the end.

Alright, that’s all for now. Talk next week.

Onwards-

Most people run away from failure, or are programmed to become afraid of it.

An F in class is a sign that you are not as smart as everyone else.

A rejection in a job interview is a sign that you were not perceived as valuable or useful to a company.

Getting ghosted after a date means you are not attractive or cool enough to get a text back.

When, in reality, there are dozens of factors at play in each scenario, many of which are outside your control. There are your inputs (i.e., the things you can directly influence) and the intangibles (i.e., things that we have no say in, that also may determine the outcome).

Many times we associate the cause of the failure entirely with our inputs. And surely, this makes sense in some cases (for example, if you get the client’s name wrong as you’re making your final pitch, and they get offended and don’t sign with you….that one may be entirely on you).

But the key is to be able to discern when a failure is on you, and when something external may play a bigger part.

If you are the true cause of the failure, then you can decide how you view that failure.

Do you get upset and take it personal?

Do you view it as a sign of our inadequacy?

Or do you simply use it as a data point to guide us in the future?

This shift in mindset has actually changed everything for me.

Instead of seeing a video or a newsletter flopping as a symptom of my inadequacy, it is now a sign that I’m on the right track. I have one more beta test done of something that didn’t work, that didn’t resonate.

Instead of viewing my slip-up in a crucial meeting as a sign that I’m capable, it’s just a reason for me to be more self-aware and calibrated in the future.

I’m getting the failures out of the way, so that I can win in the end.

If you knew that you just had to fail 10 times to reach the success you were looking for, how quickly do you think you would try to rack up those 10 failures?

That’s the approach now. Get the failures under the belt, instead of running away from them.

To add to this, if you aren’t failing consistently, you are probably stagnating.

The only job you can do perfectly is the one you’re overqualified for.

So pay close attention to how often you push yourself into uncomfortable situations, and dance with failure.

The more you embrace it, the faster you’ll make progress, and the sooner you’ll reach the outcome you want.

Alright, that’s all for now. Talk next week.

Onwards-

And no, it’s not always a deep pool of financial resources or a mentor in a high place.

Certainly, these factors can play a part in someone’s journey.

But it does not paint the full picture, and leaves out one of the real keys to success.

Their work feels like play.

Even on their off days, the most successful founders, athletes, and creatives just want to get back to their craft.

It feels like torture to them to be pulled away from their life’s work.

Their mission is all-consuming and has a gravitational pull that starts to warp everything in their life towards continued progress.

And let me tell you, if you have to go up against one of these types in any sort of endeavor: you might be cooked.

They are likely going to outwork, outnetwork, and outlearn you in all aspects. Their progress is going to be 5x or 10x over the course of a year, while you might flounder at your current baseline.

The extra hours that you are not willing to put in, they are dying to sacrifice for.

The magic lies in their undying love of the process.

To some it may seem monotonous, to get the daily reps in of the boring actions required to grow.

To others, the daily reps give purpose to their lives. The line between work and play does not exist. They create for the sake of creating, not for an external outcome. Flow is always accessible to them, nothing feels forced.

“When you are having fun and creating something you love, it shows in the product.” — Tom Ford

So, the question remains - how do we access this state of being? How do we create this competitive advantage for ourselves?

There are two key parts to this process:

1. Continuous exploration

2. A refusal to settle

If you haven’t found that thing that keeps you up at night, that you can’t stop obsessing over…then you must keep experimenting.

Sign up for courses. Read books from all across the spectrum. Attend random networking events. Take a community college class. Travel to somewhere you’ve never been and immerse in the culture.

There are endless options for you to explore.

Each one of these is like a little lottery ticket. You take more of these actions and you increase the odds that you will find the intersection of work and passion that you’re looking for.

But one thing is guaranteed…you will not find it sitting in your room on the internet.

You need to be surrounded by people who have that burning energy radiating out from them, so it can infect you too.

This is the quickest path towards waking up excited to begin each day.

With this end in mind, you must never settle for less.

The option is there for you, it just might take years of excavating through layers of trial and error.

For me, it took over 5 years of working in the nonprofit, government, and private sectors before I found the perfect blend in my industry.

It felt hopeless at the start - I felt like a pawn on the chessboard, with zero autonomy.

Now, I can honestly say, no one is going to be able to outwork me. The projects draw me in too much. The process is too intriguing. Because of that, my level of focus is too sharp. And this has opened many doors for me, both financially and career-wise. It’s the biggest hack.

You can find it too.

Keep experimenting and don’t pigeonhole yourself. And mentally, accept that you will keep trying new things until you find what sticks.

In time, you will turn into a force of nature in whatever field you end up in.

Onwards-

How do we discover meaning and create value in our day to day lives? What are we put here to accomplish (if anything)?

Sure, we all have career ambitions, personal missions, or even grand goals like saving the Amazon rainforest or solving homelessness.

But beneath all that, I’ve found no greater calling than this: to attempt to write a beautiful story with the cards we’re dealt.

I’ve shared this metaphor before, but it’s worth repeating: you are the lead author of your life. Not your parents, not your partner, not your circumstances. Just you.

Maybe you’ve had a lucky break—a family member funding your travels or supportive parents guiding your career path. Or maybe the opposite is true—life has dealt you an unfair hand. Either way, the pen is still in your grip. Your story is personal, and no one else can write it for you.

That responsibility can feel heavy, but it’s also powerful.

Because when you look back years from now, it won’t be the handouts or the shortcuts that stick with you.

It’ll be the joy you created from scratch and the times you overcame setbacks to chart your own path.

That creates real, long-lasting fulfillment and happiness.

What comes too easy rarely satisfies us. We assign value to the level of effort and persistence required to achieve something — whether that’s in our careers, relationships, or with our personal goals.

Low effort = low value.

The same applies for your life story. If it’s curated for you like the recipe on the back of a spaghetti box, it’s probably going to taste and feel like that bland ass spaghetti.

That’s why adversity and challenge is not something to shy away from. Rather, it’s something to lean into and weave into your narrative.

Think about any good movie you’ve watched, or book you got totally sucked into.

You probably stayed for the character arc and development, the inspiring resilience that the main character showed as they navigated their path.

You didn’t stick around to see them have success after success, without any hiccups.

That’s no fun. That’s not a compelling narrative.

I was recently reading Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, a book about a Holocaust survivor’s thoughts and reflections on life’s meaning while trapped in a concentration camp.

Viktor describes three sources of meaning in our lives:

1. In work (doing something significant in our profession);

2. In love (caring for others); and

3. In courage during difficult times

He describes how even in a concentration camp in the lowest possible depths that you can be relegated as a human being…there were opportunities to re-define the situation.

Even though everything in his life was stripped from him - his titles, his family, his possessions - he still possessed the internal fortress of his own mind.

His ability to interpret his situation however he wanted was something no one could take away from him.

He observed that people who were stronger or more physically suited for the brutal work of the camp sometimes ended up worse off mentally and spiraled downwards. The hopelessness they leaned into ended up being their downfall.

Viktor Frankl is the ultimate example of someone who chose to write his own story, despite the circumstances that he faced.

If he can do it, so can you.

The level of output that you’re reaching right now is probably a small fraction of what you’re actually able to reach.

The odds are, you can 10x your results across most domains in your life.

But unfortunately, we rarely get to see what this looks like.

We tend to find ourselves in a comfortable situation, meeting our basic needs and maybe a little bit more.

We may be meeting our quotas in the workplace, paying our bills, taking care of the important people in our lives.

Life gets real comfortable as we sink into the status quo.

The proverbial “golden handcuffs” keep us attached to the comfort of recurring paychecks and health insurance (go USA).

And this really comes down to an evolutionary root.

Humans are hardwired to save energy and resources for survival.

Our ancestors did not need to intentionally go do hard things - life was hard enough.

Everyday was a struggle to survive.

Now, we intentionally go run marathons because life lacks purpose and meaning and we crave a quest like back in the day.

We have to overcome so much inertia to do this because our ancestral brain is screaming at us to just chill.

“Why are you overexerting yourself right now?! Everything you need is taken care of!” it shouts, as you choose to go for yet another long run on the weekend.

But once you understand this dynamic, you start to realize something profound about yourself, and human nature.

The limits you thought were fixed - whether that’s in your career, fitness, or relationships - are actually quite flexible.

They were probably self-imposed, or based on a past mediocre level of performance (either from you or your peers).

When you pursue the threshold of what you think you’re capable of, most of the time it turns out that you can do more than you thought. A LOT more.

Steve Jobs was famous for his “reality distortion field”, a concept from the early days of Apple when he would impose ridiculous deadlines on his engineers.

There would be a project that previously had taken the team 6 months, and he would demand it in 6 weeks.

People would balk at first, request extensions, say it’s not possible, etc.

But when it became clear that Jobs was not budging…what would happen?

They would get it done.

They somehow had a new level to tap into, a hidden vein of productive juice to draw from.

The reason it’s not available to us unless absolutely forced upon us, is because it goes against our nature.

We are hardwired to essentially do the bare minimum.

Sometimes we need a polarizing, dynamic figure like Steve Jobs to coerce it out of us.

Or it could come from a dramatic life change or circumstance that puts our back against the wall and forces us to perform.

Whatever the source is, there is enough evidence to show us that we are all capable of much more than we think.

So, try experimenting with this on occasion.

Fill up the calendar with an absurd amount of activities, work blocks, calls, or whatever it is that will move the needle forward.

Give yourself no other option than to get it done.

This really works the best when there is real-life pressure, such as an external deadline from a client, but if you are disciplined and hold yourself accountable, you can create a similar environment.

Then, start exploring the edge of your potential.

Great things are waiting on the other side.

-D

If you really have a growth mindset and are goal-oriented, you might think you can tackle it all at once.

Develop a prosperous career or business, find the most amazing partner for your life, get in the best shape you’ve ever been in, have a robust social life, join community organizations, and more….

I’m all for holistically trying to improve my life, and helping others do the same.

That’s the entire reason for why I’m here - I love that energy.

But the relentless self-improvement focus can be a hamster wheel of its own.

One that leaves you chewed up, spit out, and not much further along than you were before.

This is what happens when we try to go 110% in every area of life.

Instead of making quantum leaps in any one area, our potential progress is spread thin. Diluted between the various domains of life.

Realistically, every single area requires intense and unrelenting focus if you really want to level up.

You can have the physique you want in 5 years, or 5 months. It solely depends on how much attention and focus you put into the process.

Do you want to drag it out over many years, and potentially never even get to your dream outcome?

Or do you want to cut out the slack and dial it in, rapidly and completely?

Progress can be much faster, and more long lasting, if you dedicate seasons of your life to specific focus areas.

In my experience, I’ve only been able to max out 3 areas of my life at one time.

If my fitness is on point, my relationships are doing well, and my finances are in order, then the odds that my spiritual practice or hobbies are going to fall by the wayside.

And that’s normal - that’s a function of who we are as a species.

We don’t have unlimited energy and resources to dedicate to all the various pillars of our life.

It’s simply not possible.

Sure, some people have a different engine. They have a different level of drive that may be innate or cultivated over time, and can give them an edge.

Think multi-business owners or performers or moguls. The Elons of the world.

These people on the outside look like they have more hours in the day than the rest of us.

You might have asked yourself, how is it that these people can operate at a high level across so many different areas?

But the truth is, they were only able to get there because of periods of sharp and intense focus.

Seasons of life where they lived and breathed a few very specific goals.

Oftentimes, work and life become inseparable during these periods and progress comes at a lightning quick pace.

The lines were blurred as they obsessively hammered away to reach their objective.

It doesn’t have to be forever.

A season of relentless effort usually can’t last forever, anyways - other things will start to require your attention.

But you do have to sustain it long enough to the point where it becomes part of your core identity.

Until the habits and daily actions that reinforce your goals start moving on autopilot.

At that point, you can take your foot off the gas a bit.

You can dial back your focus on work from to about 85%, and crank the dial back up on your time focused on your spiritual practice to 95%, for example.

Rearrange your calendar to build in more time on your hobbies, and maybe less on going out on the weekends.

Through this constant balancing act, you will continuously move forward in all domains.

Not all at once, but intentionally and methodically, as the seasons change.

-D