Discovering your driving emotions change just about everything (I’m thinking about writing an article about how to do this).

These emotions form the foundation of your motivation. You use your key driving emotions to create your passion. Use them to direct your goals. Use them to do everything, as much as possible. You use them every day without realizing it.

#1 – Use your key driving emotion & your goals to create a story. Tell yourself that story every day, or every hour, or every minute. Doesn’t matter how often you need to reaffirm that story, do it.

#2 – Break goals down into bite sized chunks that fulfill your key driving emotion. Make sure you can get at least one “win” every single day.

#3 – If you can’t attach your key driving emotion to a task or a goal, it’ll use extra willpower to do that task. Either stop doing it, automate it, or outsource it.

The more you can stay in your primary driving emotion, the more powerful your passion and drive will become. This is how you create a life where you are “pulled” towards being productive, taking action, and reaching for goals and dreams.

It doesn’t matter if you are struggling with procrastination, anxiety, depression, anger, etc. This works because it sets you on the fastest road to successfully fulfilling your goals.

When I’m coaching people, I help people get results fast by teaching them to ask 4 questions back to back and in order. Define the answer to each in 3-6 words. Don’t spend too much time on it. The key is the determination that you are capable and willing to pursue your goals.

Question #1: What’s My Goal?

Question #2: Why Is This Goal Important To Me?

Question #3: How Will I Cause Myself To Struggle In The Pursuit Of This Goal?

Question #4: When I Begin To Struggle, How Can I Overcome That Struggle?

Examples:

I’m going to learn spanish

It’s important so I can speak to people on the street when I visit Mexico.

I’m going to struggle with this goal because I won’t feel like putting in the practice to get good at spanish.

I can overcome that by making the initial practice sessions small, engaging, and at a consistent time every day.

If this doesn’t motivate you, then you’re facing 1 of 2 issues: Either you’re not confident in your ability OR you don’t care about your goals. So… if this doesn’t enhance your motivation, should you really be pursuing that goal?

I used to struggle quite heavily with procrastination until I really understood this concept.

When I apply this concept to any area of life, I find that progress just flows, and the journey feels almost effortless.

I realized this concept when I did a solo hike across the USA.

On that journey, I would count the mile markers until I reached 20 miles every day.

And then, one day, I got a crazy idea.

I decided instead of counting the mile markers, I would ask 1 question:

Can I take the next step?

And so long as the answer was “YES” I would keep going.

I didn’t know how far this question would take me.

I didn’t know what the limits of my potential were.

I didn’t know how long I had been going.

I didn’t know how far I had gone.

I just kept focused on that question. It’s all I focused on.

When I finally stopped, it was because my knee buckled underneath me and I literally couldn’t take another step. The “NO” didn’t come from giving up, it come from my body reaching its true potential.

Looking back, I realized I had answered that question 100,000 times. I hiked the equivalent of 2 marathons with 80 lbs of gear in a single day.

That’s when it really hit me that all great journeys, whether it’s building a business, learning a new language, or something as crazy as hiking 4600 miles, is just a series of small steps.

Your journey starts with the courage to take a single step, and continues with the courage to take another.

So, where ever you are at in your journey, ask yourself this question: Can I take the next step?

This is an excerpt from something I’m calling my “Action Journal”. It’s something I’ve been creating for myself and a few friends. It’s the process I’ve used for basically every major project or life change… Well, any that I’ve been successful with.

If I don’t go through this process, I lose motivation quickly, procrastinate, spin my wheels, and then projects eventually stagnate and fail or changes don’t stick.

This is the first section called “Define Your Starting Point”.

“Before we can change the world, we must first change ourselves” – Gandhi inspired, probably Biggie Smalls

When I began on my journey to create the change I wanted to see in the world and in my life, I was always goal focused. I looked at the outcomes I wanted. “What’s my goal?” is only useful if you already know how to determine if goals are worth pursuing.

When we begin with the goal in mind, we make assumptions about ourselves, and about the world, or worse, we use the assumptions others have made for us.

Things like “money is the most important thing”, or “I hate hard work”. This leads us to chasing dreams that aren’t really our own.

In life, where we end up is the result of small, incremental changes to our journey. Change is the only constant in our lives. We can either direct that change, or we can let the world direct it for us.

To begin to direct it, we must first know where we are, how fast we are moving, and in what direction.

If we don’t know where we’re starting, or how fast we are already traveling, and where we are already headed, we could set a goal, then miss it by a mile.

I didn’t truly find my path to fulfillment and lasting change until I stopped asking “What do I want to accomplish?” as my first question.

When ever I begin with the questions of “Who do I want to be? What qualities do I wish to embody? Who do I want in my life?”, it’s easy to decide what goals to pursue and how to do so.

These qualities will inform your journey. They will inform who you seek to come with you on your journey. They will inform what destinations you decide to journey to.

If you wish to embody peace, your goal will likely not to build a nightclub. As you progress and grow as a person, the qualities you’re focused on developing may change, and that’s all right. Change is the only constant in our lives.

So, let’s start with “What qualities do you wish to embody or develop in the next 3 months?”

Would love your feedback and to know your answers 🙂

Your physical wellbeing acts as the foundation for everything you do. Procrastination, depression, anxiety, stress… They’re all cause by, or exacerbated by physical and biological disfunction.

There’s some good “mindset” advice, but you need to integrate that with “bodyset” (is that a thing? I think I just made that up).

The greatest advice generally doesn’t make you lose your mind. These 3 habits aren’t anything exciting.

#1 – You’re A Hunter-Gatherer, Not An Office Worker

Your brain evolved to be at its best when hunting, not sitting. Moving a decent amount every hour helps put your brain into “hunter” mode.

Boss won’t let you leave your desk? Pretend you picked up a smoking habit and go for a “smoke”. Stretch, run in place, do some pushups or jumping jacks.

Personally, I try to aim to get my heart rate above 100 or 120 once every hour.

#2 – Drink Of The Sea

Water and electrolytes are two of the most important types of nutrients that your body needs.

Don’t think water’s a vital nutrient? Try living without it.

Getting enough sodium (4-6 g) with complimentary amounts of potassium (4-8 g), calcium (1-3 g) and magnesium (500-1000 mg) every day will help your brain, muscles, and heart perform at their best.

Too little is worse for your health and brain than to much. Sodium is a great example of this. If you get 2000gm (the current RDA for sodium) you’re as likely to have a heart attack as someone consuming 8000mg. 1000mg? as likely as someone consuming 16,000mg.

Take your nutrition seriously.

#3 – Clean Your Brain

Your brain didn’t evolve for 8 hours a day of stress (and learning properly is stressful as fuck… biologically speaking).

Do coherent breathing (Think of it like meditation on steroids), for 5 minutes once an hour to reduce stress build up, clear out excess norepinephrine and cortisol, while boosting serotonin and dopamine production.

Those 3 things will take you 1000x farther than any mindset advice ever will.