The easiest path to success is to just do the same tiny thing every single day. If you’re willing to do that, you don’t have to make the same amount of sacrifices that the others require. 

Take a look at your desk right now. Is it messy? Personally, I’ve got two empty water bottles, one empty mug, one hard drive, one pair of sunglasses, and some dust on my desk. How does a messy workspace make you feel? How does it impact your work? 

Recently, a friend of mine said he doesn’t take any meetings in the mornings, so he can focus on his fitness and creative work. Must be nice…I thought to myself. I have morning meetings at least once a week. 

There’s something called the “action line.” If something is too hard, and motivation is too low, we don’t take action. But, if motivation is high enough, and the action is easy enough, we take action. 

I realize my best videos came naturally out of my writing. My best-selling product is a 15,000-word guide that started as a blog post. My most impactful emails came from writing sessions where I really opened up my heart on the page.

for some reason, many people have a bad habit of racing through their new year goal-setting. They jot a few things down in a half an hour on the first page of a new notebook, and call it a day. 

2024 was my most successful year for goal achievement. I did something drastically different from previous years. 

For a long time I wondered how these people I admired, who did so much, also had time for their health, for their hobbies, and seemingly so much more. Then I figured it out. 

Culture runs deep. The things I struggle to accomplish may be rooted in the culture of my upbringing.

The output goals were confusing. They included things like run a marathon, generate $50k in product sales, max out your Roth IRA, write another book. I accomplished a couple of these, but most of them I didn’t. 

The momentum you gain from doing the wrong thing can be easily transferred into the right thing. 

When I’m producing two or three projects at once, and when I have content to write and edit and post, and when pitch calls get put on my calendar, and on top of all that, when someone inevitably has a wedding, or when I have houseguests…I start to dread it all.

Work is a battle. We face distraction and demotivation on all sides. When we encounter a block, the question arises...should I stop? Should I take a little break? Should I work on something else?

Business podcasters try to convince us to spend time with people who have more money than us. But if my wife and brothers and best friend aren’t millionaires, what am I supposed to do? Stop spending time with them?

I posted more than 100 short-form videos last year. And I’ll post 365 more videos this year. How am I so confident, even though my motivation is dwindling? It’s because I don’t rely on motivation. I rely on a system.

I don’t brush my teeth every day, but once a year I spend all day brushing them to remove all the plaque at once. Do you see how ridiculous this sounds? Yet we apply this strategy to many areas of our lives.

It was fascinating to see the impact that even a 15-minute delay to his nap schedule had on his ability to cope. Small changes in his diet and dinner schedule were detrimental to his ability to stave off a meltdown. It got me thinking that we aren’t so different.

As adults, we are told bedtime stories every single night.

I injured my foot during training and I had to get an x-ray. I was tired and hungry all the time for two and a half months. My hips locked up for a year afterward, and I had to take a special stretching class to regain mobility. I got 2,519th place with a time that doesn’t impress anybody.

When we take steps to improve our lives, the people around us can feel insecure about their lives. They might isolate themselves, they might lash out, or they might stop asking you to hang out.