Thought Experiment: How would I have to live my life in order to be remembered for thousands of years?

1. I would have to not settle for the expectations of others as a way to gage success in my life. I must go far beyond what I or anybody else thinks is possible.
2. I must respect the body’s need for relaxation while drastically increasing the intensity of my ‘on’ time.
3. I MUST have butterflies every single day for what I have to do. Every single day, I must confront internal resistances that say I should vedge out, stay safe doing what is comfortable, etc.
4. I MUST use every single moment to make the best decision. Every SINGLE decision is huge.
5. I MUST not harbor any judgments of others…

As I’m writing this, I just realized that the individual list items are NOT most important.

Here’s what I see very clearly now…

Looking at the list above, I see that I’m using the word MUST repeatedly and capitalizing it repeatedly. That’s just it. Everything that I know is important is now a MUST.

There is no thinking about it. There is only doing.

E-Myth Mastery

I started listening to the first two hours of E-Myth Mastery. I think Michael Gerber is an honest author who is able to explore the core passion that makes entrepreneurs so successful.

He admits that his life’s work of helping people build systems for their companies doesn’t solve the core need for entrepreneurs to have a passion for what they do.

Passion and dreaming are fluffy words, and they shouldn’t be. Their results are real and tangible.

They lie at the heart of what inspires people to rise above their circumstances to realize a vision that is bigger than them.

It doesn’t matter how skilled of an entrepreneur you are. The second you lose that fire is the second that your business slowly or quickly starts extinguishing unless you reignite it.

My fire is living every moment to its fullest and being able to authentically share my experience with others. This is why I speak. This is why I write. This is why I build.

How can we build a system so that no matter what we’re doing or how we feel our fire is always lit? That’s the ultimate system.

What I Think in an Argument

I am afraid of being called out and admitting to ‘it’.

I know I was wrong.

I just can’t admit to it, because I will cry.

I don’t want to cry, because it’s embarrassing and shameful.

Am I just a bad person who can’t do anything right?

So, sure, yes I could have been better, but you could have too. What about when you did abc? What about when you did xyz?

We’re both not perfect, so don’t call me on this. We’re both trying our best.

Unconscious feeling: I want you to feel how I feel. I want you to be at my level, because I will feel better about myself. As soon as I see that I’m getting to you, I will feel better. I will say whatever I need to say directly or passive aggressively until I get that result. I’d rather be right than take 100% responsibility.

—————–

If I’m being honest with myself, this is the process I go through internally to the best of my awareness. I’m not proud of it. I don’t know exactly how it became that way, but it is. I take responsibility for it, and I commit to grow.

I appreciate the institution of marriage. A commitment to the right marriage is a commitment to face those feelings we’re able to hide from every single other person in the world.

I am inspired by someone like Will Smith who says he will die before he gets divorced again.

Even though, I resist it in the moment like a mad man, I appreciate being held accountable.

I appreciate being forced to take 100% responsibility, because I certainly wouldn’t otherwise.

No matter how little sleep we have had, how stressed we feel, or how [insert other excuse]; we must take responsibility for our experience.

Every time our hurt shows itself is an opportunity to create a new pattern.

No excuses. One life.

Living a Legacy – Journal

The only way to truly live a legacy is now.

A legacy re-contextualizes how one relates to now.

This week was an interesting week in that regard.

I’ve had more energy and inspiration than I’ve had in a number of years.

Wanting to express this inspiration to myself, I’ve stayed up late journaling, working, planning and visioning.

Waking up for my 6:15 hype-up calls with Arel Moodie and Doug Fath on three hours of sleep was not easy.

Literally, the first thought that came to my head when I was thinking about going back to bed was, “Did I just identify my legacy for the hell of it? Am I going to ignore doing exactly what I need to be doing to be living a purposeful and meaningful life for me?”

Public commitment has power.

There is a very strong sense of fulfillment that comes from following through on difficult commitments made to one’s self. This follow through creates momentum and the feeling that one can do anything simply by committing to it.

When I think about my life, and what I stand for in every moment, here’s what I think.

I forgive myself for what I’m not aware of.

I hold myself accountable to what I’m aware of and I know I have the ability to do. Period.

I know that I’m capable of being in a peak state throughout the entire day or being in a resting mode when I need to be.

I am capable of eating only the most healthy foods in the most healthy ways.

I am capable of not taking out negative emotions (stress, hurt, anger) on other people directly or passive agressively, ever.

I don’t believe in balance in the sense that most people mean it.

I don’t believe in eating unhealthy foods to balance out the good foods.

I don’t believe in watching TV to balance out the stress from work.

To me, it is most balanced to maximize what is the most healthy for your life and minimize and eliminate what is not healthy.

I am not against enjoying life. There are just so many healthy AND enjoyable things. There is no need to choose things that are enjoyable in the short-term and detrimental in the long-term. As one of my friends likes to say, “Nothing tastes as good as healthy feels.”

My biggest personal obstacle to growth is taking 100% responsibility for every emotion I have and not projecting my pain on to those closest to me so that I can feel better about myself. I do not have a solution that consistently produces the results I want in the heat of the moment. I have been humbled over and over and over and over and over (and over) again and again and again in this area!!! I sense that the solution is probably a simple one that I’m choosing not to be conscious of for some reason.

I pray for the resolve and clarity to take 100% responsibility for my experience of life always.

I want to know what I’m capable of. I want to know what it feels like to hit the edges and then breakthrough.

Time Management in School vs. Entrepreneurship

The difference between ‘school’ and ‘entrepreneurship’ time management is the difference between night and day.

The core of the difference comes down to prioritizing.

In school, your professors determine what you do via homework.

In entrepreneurship, especially in the beginning, you start with nothing except your business idea, and you must decide what to do.

In school, you’re graded by how well you do the homework.

In entrepreneurship, you are graded on WHAT you do just as much as HOW you do it.

How do you prioritize your time as an entrepreneur?

Here’s to Our Legacy

More than anything else in this world, I am inspired by the ideal of being one of the leading examples of human potential that history has ever known.

I am immensely inspired by learning about history’s heroes – people that lived hundreds of years ago who still inspire people today.

I am crazy enough to believe that I can lead a life that will inspire individuals many generations past when I die. I believe we all can if we choose to.

For the past ten years, I’ve been working toward this vision without sharing it with more than a handful of people. I think it is now necessary to live my vision out in public.

It is necessary, because what was stopping me was other people’s imagined judgments like, “Seriously? Who are you to say that? What have you done? You slipped up and did XYZ today. How does that fit into your legacy?”

I’m not going to say that I’m at a level where people’s judgments don’t impact me. What I will say is that I’m at a level where I am not going to let these fears stop me.

Ultimately, to be a person of legacy, I need to expect more of myself than anyone else ever could.

I need to be ruthless in letting go of what doesn’t work and adopting what does. No excuses.

I can’t judge myself by results alone. I need to judge myself by who I am in every moment when no one else can see me.

I know I am willing to do whatever it takes.

I think if we all lived close to our full potential, society’s “largest problems” would become irrelevant because they would no longer exist, because we’d solve them so quickly.

We are not even close to our potential. So, we have our work cut out.

Carpe Diem.

My Greatest Gift To This World Is Inspiration

My greatest gift to this world is inspiration.

My greatest gift from the world is that I experience it.

Inspiration is proudly ignorant. It is ignorant to the world of reality, science, and past experience.

One pure moment of inspiration can make all of our past experiences irrelevant.

Inspiration makes me believe anything is possible. When I was a child, I believed I could fly. I wanted to fly. Then it was to be #1 in the world in tennis. Then it was to be a billionaire entrepreneur making a huge impact on the world. Now, it is personal growth taken to enlightenment.

Regardless of changing targets, inspiration has and always will be the source of the journey. The same exact feeling of inspiration I had when I was a child is the same exact feeling I have now.

I may not know where to go or how to get there in life, but I know in my bones, in my heart, that inspiration is my core. I trust it. It feels more real than my senses.

Although I may not experience inspiration in every moment, the comparatively few moments that has visited me in this life, have given me the faith to move forward, to keep the dream alive, always.

Build a Lab, Not an Experiment

I Am Inspired! Here’s What I Think in That State!

There is no such thing as good or bad ‘events’, beyond our labels of them.

In fact, personal growth and business opportunities directly come from what other people label as problems.

The experience of spiritual/emotional/mental pain is the most prevalent and BEST teacher in the world.

For it to be your teacher rather than your enemy, you must:

1. Accept EVERY moment as it happens.
2. If you don’t see something you appreciate or can learn from, then, on FAITH, say THANK YOU and pray for the clarity to see what you are missing.
3. Be able to physically sit with your pain and just let go rather than immediately reacting and doing whatever comes to your mind. Reactions based on pain are generally not logical or productive. The longer you’re able to sit, the more you’ll:
   • Understand the core of what was causing you the pain.
   • Realize that pain, itself, is transitory and goes away on its own when you don’t resist it.
4. Accept that learning to follow the steps above is a self-rewarding process that takes a life-time, because our body already has millions of automatic / unconscious programs running after years of training. Therefore, when off the path, forgive and recommit yourself immediately.

Everyone has equal access to this incredible teacher and can reap the rewards of its lessons.

Appreciation is independent of ‘outside events’ and leads to many of the outcomes that many people search for as THE solution (money, incredible relationships, etc.). Appreciation attracts others who are like-minded, thus reinforcing and amplifying it. Also, people who are happy are more productive and healthy, which leads to money.

What we perceive to happen in the moment is irrelevant. Everything springs from how we react to each moment.

One-Pointedness of Mind

Every action reinforces itself and sows the seeds for a new habit.

Therefore, little things (decisions, thoughts, moments when no on is looking) matter immensely, because they are what lead to big things.

The best way to build one-pointedness of mind is to focus on doing all the little things in the direction you want on the straightest path you see in the moment.

The benefit of one-pointedness of mind is more speedy realization of what you focus on.

If we are focusing on the wrong things, we’ll learn that it’s wrong sooner and change course.

If we are focusing on the right things, our actions will be self-rewarding.