One of the most influential features to your life and success is your environment. In the subtlest of ways, your environment is always pushing you to take make certain choices and take certain actions. 

It’s the difference between hanging around friends who want to meet up for a workout in the morning instead of out at night for drinks. It’s the difference between having easy-access to healthy food in your pantry rather than grabbing for junk food. It’s the difference between having a good book on your nightstand over having your phone in arms reach, fully-loaded with social media posts that make you feel inadequate. 

Environment is so powerful because it influences what happens without your awareness. Of course we can easily refuse drinks, reject the junk food, or turn off our phone, but that requires us to act with consciousness. The problem is - the majority to the time we’re acting unconsciously and automatically.

Here’s a metaphor I like to use that demonstrates the power of environment. Think of the potential of a seed.

A seed has everything it needs to grow into a tall mighty tree. A seed is fully-capable yet most of the time, it doesn’t even sprout. Why? Because it’s dependent on the soil. The seed requires a certain environment to thrive.

The same seed planted in two different places can lead to two very different outcomes. When it’s in fertile soil, it grows tall and strong. When it’s planted in sand, it doesn’t even have a chance. And that’s not because there’s anything wrong with the seed. It’s just in the wrong environment.

As humans we experience the same thing. There are environmental conditions that bring out our best. The right people, opportunities, circumstances, and spaces set us up for success. But there are also environments that bring out our ‘not so best’, causing us to make choices that don’t serve us and limit our potential.

Unlike a seed, however, we can control our environment. We can choose our surroundings and therefore, shape the influence it has on us. We can plant ourselves in fertile soil and when we do, that’s when we are maximizing our growth and potential! 

If you're falling short of the level of consistency, productivity, good health habits, and impact that you know you’re capable of, it's probably because you're in the wrong soil. Choose to put yourself in a place where you can thrive and watch the results pour in! Especially if your New Year hasn’t started out how you wanted it to, get ready to thrive!

👉 Want to plant yourself in a better soil? Click here!

In personal development, I have quite a contrarian approach. There’s a lot of talk about having good habits and I think many people miss the mark because of it. Yes, absolutely it’s critical to have good habits if you want to maximize your potential, but you don’t get good habits by building good habits…

You get good habits by building good systems.

And the thing that many people don’t realize is that everything has a system whether you realize it or not. Things don’t just happen on their own. There’s a relationship called ‘cause and effect’ that takes the inputs and converts them into the tangible outputs of choices, actions, and results. And they’re embedded in everything we do.

The most basic system we have for doing anything is trying to remember to do something.  Our system for brushing our teeth is remembering to do it before we go to bed. Our system for keeping in touch with our parents our siblings is calling them spontaneously on the days and times that we think. Our system for eating healthy is trying to remember to choose the healthy option in the moment. Our system for running an errand is trying to remember to do it.

As you can imagine, a low-quality, unreliable system like that leads to low-quality, unreliable choices, actions and results. So if you want to treat the important areas of your life with more intention you need to build the underlying system that helps you make more intentional choices.

Instead of just trying to remember to call your loved ones, you could have a system where you’ve coordinated to call them every Friday during lunch. Or instead of trying to remember to eat healthy, you have a system for putting healthy foods on your grocery list that you refer to when you go to the market on Mondays after your workout. Instead of trying to remember to do an errand you can write it down, or better yet schedule an efficient time to do it that fits well into your plans for the day.

The more you design the system, the more you control how ‘cause and effect’ works and the more you shape the choices or actions that come next. Yet, too often people who want to build the habit of exercising more, getting to bed on time, or being in better touch with loved ones don’t update their underlying systems and therefore, are fully reliant on will-power and memory to bring positive change to their life.

If you feel like you’ve had a hard time getting consistent with good habits, or like you can’t stay focused or be as productive as you’d like to be, it’s more a matter of your systems than your habits. And in the 21 Day Challenge I lead, I help you install the single underlying life-operating system that I call the Super Habits System and it changes everything.

When most people think about finding purpose in their life, they think of it through the lens of the difference they want to make in the world. Their purpose is the people, causes, and initiatives they feel called to support and contribute to. As the founder of a nonprofit called the For Purpose Foundation, I think a lot about purpose and think it actually needs a bit of rebrand because “making a difference” is only half of the equation.

Abraham Maslow is known for describing ‘purpose’ as the combination of two things: Using your gifts and talents in service of the world, and becoming all that you can be. Maslow popularized his “Hierarchy Of Needs” where at the very top you achieve ‘self-actualization’. The idea is that when you’re self-actualized, you’ve reached your fullest potential and are maximizing your ability to contribute to the world.

The point I’m making is that you cannot live out your life’s purpose without self-actualizing, and you cannot self-actualize without directing your efforts tin ways that make a difference. The two are interwoven and require each other. In other words, it’s critical to find ways to continuously self-improve in order to live out your purpose.

As an extension of this, Maslow disagrees with the idea of ‘finding’ your purpose. He believes that we all have the same purpose: To use our gifts and talents in service of the world and to become all that we can be. He argues that our purpose doesn’t need to be discovered because it’s something universal that we all share.

However, the way our purpose is expressed is varied, not only between people but also within the same person in different phases of life. To live out our purpose we each are charged to find the unique ways we feel called to use our gifts and talents to better the world. And the beautiful part about it is, that thing can change! We have different expressions of how we make a difference that we  encounter as we live out different seasons of life.

This means that the greatest contribution you can make, the best way to use your gifts and talents in service of the world can be all of these things: Raising a child, starting a nonprofit, mentoring someone younger in your work, writing a book to share your life lessons, and sharing kindness.

So rather than putting pressure on finding what your one purpose is in the world, embrace that your life has different missions - different momentary expressions of your purpose that most represent how you can make a difference right now in the present moment.

And I believe that it’s by by continuing to evolve how you’re contributing, and evolve as a person, that you tap into what we’re all after in life - A deep sense of meaning and fulfillment.

Wanted to share something that my wife and I do for our relationship to stay on the same page. We call it our Sunday Sync. Basically, every Sunday we have time on the calendar to connect and plan for the week ahead. 

We start it off with a line of gratitude for the other person. This helps us approach the conversation through a lens of being appreciative of each other and that above all else, we’re on the same team. It sets the positive tone we want to carry into the conversation.

From there we check in with how the other person is doing overall. We share our stress levels so that we have a sense for each other’s mental health and emotional state. When one of us is more stressed or down, it’s a good flag for the other person to be mindful of that and make an extra effort to support them. It’s also a good practice for us personally to check in on how we’re doing.

After that we talk about things that are on our mind. Most things are just general questions, clarifications, and updates, but also it’s a space to talk about any disagreements, miscommunications, or things that made us upset. What’s really special about this setting is that when these topics are brought up, neither of us are caught off guard or defensive about it. And what this does is it creates a really constructive environment for us to be honest with each other and find resolutions and action plans that we both agree on. 

And then finally, after that  we coordinate schedules and align on our plans for the week. We’ve found this has been really helpful to make sure logistically things go smoothly and that we understand each other’s availability. We plan our date night, and know the other has plans so that we can make plans ourselves if we want to.

Overall, these Sunday syncs have been really helpful for us as we build a strong relationship, and if any of it stood out to you, I encourage you to give it a try with your partner!

The central point to Ryan Holliday’s marquee book “The Obstacle Is The Way” is that the only path forward is through. He shares that in life, we’re going to face obstacles, roadblocks, challenges, resistance, and setbacks. We’re going to experience hardship on the way to our goals. He argues that those who are most willing to take action through the resistance achieve at the highest level, and that those willing to face off with hard things get stronger in the process.

This is a core theme in Nassim Taleb’s work on antifragility which gives something the property of getting stronger the more it’s tested. It’s like a glass cup that becomes more resistant to shattering the more you drop it.

Let’s take this concept that rings true in the outside world and bring it into our minds. Similarly we face obstacles and challenges that keep us from taking action toward our goals, but the difference here is they’re of our own making. They’re figments of the mind creating unnecessary resistance and keeping us in self-sabotaging patterns of discouragement, doubt, delay, distraction, and delusion. 

But why would the mind redirect us away from things we know we want to do? It’s because unconsciously there’s something we want even more that we're not aware of, and our mind is adamant that we get it. And that thing is safety.

The mind is resistant to doing anything new because new is uncertain... What’s uncertain is less predictable... And unpredictable is a potential threat. So our minds work very hard to keep things how they are to minimize uncertainty and keep us safe.

But as you know, if you keep doing the same things you keep getting the same results. Innovation and improvement require that you do new things, so constantly we’re fighting our mind’s bias to keep us safe as we do our best to create better results in our life. 

The silver lining is - As strong as our minds' self-sabotage might be, we are always stronger than it. We are always capable of taking action despite feelings of discouragement, doubt, delay, delusion, and distraction. We can persevere through the conditions our minds impose on us and do what’s required to take next level action.

For that very reason, that’s why I say: “We must overcome self-sabotage in order to become the best version of ourselves.” 

The obstacle is the way. The only path forward is through. And the more disciplined we can be about taking action toward our goals, the more we step into the next version of ourselves and the more unstoppable we become!

👉 If you want to learn more about self-sabotage, I’ve got a video about it here!

Ever had moments of self-doubt or low self-confidence, or questioned if you have what it takes to accomplish your goals? I’m pretty sure we all have. Unconsciously and emotionally, self doubt is gripping and keeps us stuck in inaction. But consciously we know that the successes we want are on the other side of doing things that we don’t feel ready for.

It’s in these moments that it helps to cultivate a sense of hope. It reminds us of all the possibility in the world, that if someone created a certain reality for themself we are capable of achieving it too, and it gives us a reason to try.

And what you can do is interrupt the unconscious, hopeless pattern being driven by self doubt and replace with with a hopeful, encouraging thought pattern that gets you into action. Consider this to be your new mantra that you can use any time you sense yourself hesitating or holding yourself back from what you are struggling to find the courage to do.

It goes like this: If I can… (Recite List Of 3 Big Wins), then I can definitely… (State Whatever You Want To Courageously Pursue Next).

Here’s a personal example: If I can go 31 miles at Runningman when I only planned to go 13, if I can do 50 pushups just about every night for 20 years, if I can complete a Spartan Race, then I can definitely train for and complete a sub 4 hour marathon in 2025.

You see what happened there? You stack so much evidence upfront that the thing you feel scared to do becomes way more doable. It takes the sting of impossibility out of it and makes it seem actually achievable. Without minimizing how hard it might be, it encourages you that you can. It creates hope.

As Heroic puts it, hope requires 3 conditions: An inspiring goal, agency, and pathways. This mantra supports the “agency” piece, showing you that you are capable of what you’ve set your sights on! And again, it’s a simple reframe that gives you the willingness to try.

So as a takeaway, I’d encourage you to think about that one thing you really want to happen, but might be scared to pursue. Then identify 3 massive wins that are relevant to that pursuit, codify them, and have them ready to go the next time you need them.

This topic is top of mind because it’s happening to me right now. I was with a big group in Mexico this weekend leading a housebild project and I got sick. It has taken a lot out of me the last two days but even so I’m choosing to show up to the core commitments I’ve made.

People underestimate the value of showing up in some capacity. It doesn’t need to be to the same extent as you usually do, or with the same amount of force, but putting small reps in goes a long way. That’s because showing up leverages the true physics of consistency and momentum.

One of my favorite stories of all time is featured in Darren Hardy’s book “The Compound Effect”, and it's the story about the pump well. Without retelling the whole thing, it basically uses the metaphor of drawing water from the bottom of a well and likens it to the power of consistency. Once you’ve worked hard pumping the lever to no avail, eventually you pressurize the whole system and get a full flow of water coming out of the spout with minimal effort. Consistency works the same way where you get outsized return from little investment.

What I’m proposing is to not underestimate the power of a small pump. If you skip a day, then the well depressurizes a fair amount. But if you put a small pump in you maintain the pressure gradient and offset the progress that would have been undone had you done nothing. 

So for example, today as I’m not feeling well I chose not to skip my exercise, and instead I incorporated a light bodyweight and stretching routine. While feeling poorly caused me to spend more time than usual on my phone, it wasn’t to the point that it totally dominated my day because I caught myself. 

While it’s true that I didn’t live up to the high standards I have for myself in certain areas today, I also didn’t completely blow them off entirely. And it’s these small positive choices that are in alignment with the habits and standards I’ve cultivated that keep me from losing momentum.

Show up in the ways that the moments you’re facing require and you’ll be able to maintain that higher level of performance more easily, and for longer.

My personal mission statement is to help turn human intention into action. I believe that if people were to live out their best intentions more often - to get healthier, be more focused in their work, value their relationships more, give back to their local community - then their life would change and the world would be a better place.

There are many things that get in the way of us living out our best intentions, but the one that is most overlooked is time.

There’s something called ‘The Law Of Diminishing Intent’ which basically suggests that the longer we wait to take action on our intentions, the less likely it is that we will. In other words, if we want our dream life and lifestyle to be a reality, to get the results we know we deserve, then we need to make bigger, faster, bolder decisions before the opportunity is lost.

For example: A guy who finds a girl attractive is most likely to strike up a conversation with her if he acts on it quickly, and is more likely to miss out on it as time passes. Someone who’s ready to make a radical change to their lifestyle is more likely to follow through on it if they take decisive action immediately rather than wait to figure out all of the details.

Time is an intention killer because as we wait, we give our mind the chance to talk us out of it. We rationalize, justify, and delay until eventually the moment has gone. And unfortunately, when that happens we don’t get what we want deep down and our good intentions don’t materialize. 

So if there’s something you know you want, find a way to take action on it sooner than you’re ready. Capitalize on the good intentions and conviction you have in a moment to shape your environment in such a way that it attracts success. 

Whether it’s getting started with a program, telling someone how you feel, reimagining what you want in your career, or reaching out to plug into an impact initiative… If you really want it to happen, then you need to take action on it. Otherwise it’s just a fantasy, a vision for how you know life could be, but it doesn’t change your everyday reality.