How to become a morning person...

5 actionable strategies:

1. Create a Repeatable Evening Routine.

A few minutes of prep for the following morning and a simple journaling practice will work wonders. You'll be prepared to fall asleep and hit the ground running the next morning.

'Always go a little further into the water than you feel you're capable of being.

Go a little bit out of your depth.

And when you don't feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you're just about in the right place to do something exciting.'

I've spent the majority of my adult life feeling like I never get enough done.

The inability to cross everything off of my to-do list seemed like some sort of fault in my planning, my technique, or my routine.

But when I read this line from Oliver Burkeman, my mindset changed.

In the 2022 film, Hustle, Adam Sandler delivered a few choice lines that made me want to run through a brick wall.

1. 'You come all this way, have one bad day, and you're ready to back down?'

How often do we let one misstep, one thing that doesn't go our way, one disappointment

In the opening to his book Linchpin, Seth Godin wrote a few lines that have stuck with me for years:

'One day, people are going to remember what you did.'

'They might remember that you did what you were told and that you were good at being responsive to instructions.'

According to Steve Jobs, there is one single thing that 'separates the people that do things from the people that just dream about them.'

It isn't their intelligence, their work ethic, or their financial means.

It's something much more simple...

When Jobs was only 12 years old

Every single person is looking up at someone else.

Fitness, money, relationships, job status, possessions, it’s all the same.

Somehow, something other than what we have seems like it would be better.

The trick is figuring out that what you’ve already got is pretty damn good.

'We must overcome the notion that we must be regular, it robs you of the chance to be extraordinary and leads you to the mundane.'

–– Uta Hagen

There's an abundance of 'normal' in the world.

Lean into what makes you different.

Don't apologize for it, embrace it.

'Seek opportunity, not security. A boat in a harbor is safe, but in time its bottom will rot out.'

–– H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

You only get one chance at this life.

Ask the girl, change careers, travel the globe, take the chance...

Before you know it, It'll all be over.

Early in my career there's one thing I consistently got wrong: Devaluing tasks.

Every skill you learn today is setting you up for a better tomorrow.

The boring, mundane, and often rudimentary activities you take for granted, become the things people will pay you for later on.

Discipline can be boiled down to the ability to ignore the voice in your head that says: “I’ll do it tomorrow.”

Had a thought this morning during my workout...

Don't expect to get what others have spent years working for in just a few months.

Fitness, wealth, wisdom, all come with time and effort.

You can't shortcut the system for things of real value, and I'm not sure you'd want to.

“Of all sad words of mouth or pen, the saddest are these: it might have been.” ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

I am not anti-social.

But conversations with new people feel like a maze.

A maze where I've been given a map, but it's written in a language I don't quite understand.

Because of this, people think I don't like talking.

They're wrong.

I love deep conversation, it's the small

In life, there are plenty of things better left unsaid.

The trick is figuring out what they are before the words come rolling out of your mouth.

Trying my best to raise a son that's:

• Confident, yet humble.
• Respectful, but not a pushover.
• Ambitious, yet satisfied.
• Self assured, but not arrogant.
• Outgoing, yet comfortable with boredom.
• Tough, but not overbearing.
• Smart, yet desperate to learn.

Instead of, 'I'm not sure I can do this.'

Try, 'I know I can figure this out.'

Self-confidence isn't about ability, it's about intention.

When people tell you something good about yourself––believe them.

Lots of us are super-awkward when someone says something nice. We like validation but have a hard time knowing what to do with it when it comes.

Don't overthink it.

A simple 'thank you' is all that's required.

Two types of tired:

1. Out of shape, behind on tasks, stressed to the max.

2. Worked out hard, gave full effort at your job, played in the yard with your kids.

The second feels completely different than the first.