Category Archives: LIFESTYLE

Discipline Ripples

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A nice side effect of my daily blogging challenge is that it’s helping me become more disciplined in other areas of life. This in turn increases my capacity to get more done because I can trust that I’ll have abundant discipline to flow through more tasks and projects.

I expected that there would be some discipline ripples, but I’m pleased that they’re better than I anticipated.

Staying caffeine free feels easier than ever. I’m also easily avoiding other stimulants like any forms of chocolate, caffeinated tea, etc. It feels like the part of my brain that recognizes and wants to avoid addictive patterns has been strengthened.

Maintaining my early riser habit feels easier than ever, and I’m often getting up earlier than my usual 5am alarm. This morning I got up at 4:30, which is happening more often. I’ve noticed that I feel less inclined to linger in bed even if I could justify that it’s not time to get up yet. When my body feels awake, it wants to get up and move, not stay in bed longer than it needs to.

On average I’m running for about an hour each morning. This morning’s run was 70 minutes. That used to feel like a long run; now it feels like a normal everyday type of run. The minimum I run is 45 minutes since anything less feels like it’s too little.

With the increased running, I’m flowing through many more nonfiction audiobooks, finishing 2-3 per week, so that will add up to 100-150 audiobooks per year at this rate. I just finished League of Denial yesterday, and this morning I started Big Magic. I’ll finish Big Magic tomorrow and start another audiobook on Sunday.

Work projects are flowing very nicely. I’m doing a better job of staying organized and completing projects in an intelligent order. I’m not perfect at this, but I notice that instead of feeling driven to choose the work for each day based on intuition or emotional impulses, I’m more easily flowing into the most rational project to work on next. And when I sit down to work on it, the discipline is there to stick with it for hours.

I’ve already written more blog articles this year than I did in 2019, 2018, and 2017 combined. By the end of June, you’ll be able to add 2016 to that as well. So that will be like doing four years of blogging in six months.

The interesting thing about 365-day challenges is that initially they’re hard, but eventually they become easy. I’d say that happens somewhere around day 45 to 75. After 6-9 weeks into such a challenge, the resistance crumbles, and the training effect begins to take hold. By enduring that long and not missing a single day, you’ve grown stronger. And it’s easier to keep going because now you get to do the rest of the challenge with a stronger, more aligned, less resistant mind.

It’s hard to stretch ourselves to tackle discipline-building challenges, but note that it does get easier as your mind grows stronger.

The mind that whines about getting up early isn’t the same as the mind that’s already gotten up before dawn for many weeks in a row. The new mind thinks the old mind is a wimp for whining about such an easily maintainable and personally beneficial habit.

The mind that whines about giving up chocolate isn’t the same as the mind that’s free of that addiction and recognizes it as an unnecessary weakness.

The mind that would whine about running for an hour each day isn’t the same as the mind that’s been doing it for weeks, thinks it’s normal, and suspects that 75-minute daily runs would probably be no big deal either.

You’ve gotten used to your current level of self-discipline, but you could train yourself to go beyond that and create a new normal for yourself. Your new normal may yield much better results than your old normal. The transition may be difficult, but once you’ve locked in your new normal, it’s really no more difficult than your old normal. Raising your standards is hard. Keeping them raised is much easier.

When you train up your discipline and then apply it to your life, you don’t suffer every day because the rewards of discipline are greater than the temporary pleasures of an undisciplined life. Life without chocolate isn’t a sad life. It’s a more focused and mentally stable life since the body no longer has to deal with the ups and downs of the stimulant effect.

The sad life is that of the stimulant addict who’s in denial about their addiction. The sad life is a life without daily exercise and its many neurological benefits. The sad life is that of the person who has to suffer with the results of undisciplined habits taking their toll year after year.

Training up your discipline is hard – yes. But not training up your discipline is way, way, way harder.

Imagine what more you could experience and enjoy with more discipline – the ability to get yourself to take rational actions that create desirable results again and again. That’s worth some challenging training, so you can access those long-term benefits.

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Let’s Just Admit That A Zoom Party Isn’t Really A Party

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Herd Stupidity

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I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of evidence of herd stupidity recently. One recent example is that when Wisconsin’s Supreme Court abruptly overturned their state’s lockdown, people began flocking to bars and snuggling up nice and close to each other with no protection. Such behavior will just make the virus hornier.

Similar behavior has been happening in Vegas too, now that restaurants and most retail businesses are cleared to reopen. While some stores are strict about maintaining decent precautions like requiring all patrons to don masks and limiting store capacity, other places seem to let people do whatever they want. So unfortunately herd stupidity is abundant. If this continues I think we’ll see the infections and deaths ramping up again, as many experts are predicting.

This isn’t a situation where you should look to the masses for guidance. When you see idiotic behavior, don’t let the fact that everyone else seems fine with it persuade you that it’s probably okay. Stupid behavior that’s popular is still stupid. A bar full of idiots taking reassuring cues from each other is still a bar full of idiots.

People are strongly influenced by social cues. Sometimes those cues are good. When I go running in my neighborhood early in the morning, I most often see people practicing good social distancing. When people approach each other on the sidewalk, one will step into the street to avoid getting too close to the other person. People in the neighborhood wave at me as I pass by them. Oddly even with the social distancing practices in place, the neighborhood feels friendlier because of all the waving. So in this case the social cues are working in our favor.

When the most common behaviors are intelligent, we can trust social cues. Those cues nudge us to behave appropriately and steer us away from problematic behaviors.

But when behaviors are unintelligent, we have to resist social cues that could lead us astray. That isn’t easy because we’re social creatures. But taking cues from other people isn’t always rational.

Leaving behind a goofy religion is another example. When your intellect wakes up and realizes that what you’ve been taught is nonsense, it’s still tough to transition out if you’re surrounded by social cues telling you that everything is fine. You have to shun the social cues and think for yourself, which isn’t easy when you’re under social pressure to turn your back on your own intellect.

In the next several months, I caution you to keep your guard up for incidents of herd stupidity. There’s likely to be a lot of it. Be careful not to fall into the trap of over-relying on social cues when they run contrary to your own best judgment. Don’t participate in the irrational herd behavior that will only cause people more pain and suffering.

More broadly, you could see this situation as an invitation to deepen your ability to trust your own rational thinking, regardless of social cues. Where else in your life could you apply this idea? Where else have you felt pressured by herd stupidity?

You’re smarter than the herd. Stand up to it.

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Twitter Tells Staff They Can Work From Home Forever, But Would You Want To?

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Strengthening Your Future Self

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I often think about how to create a better life for my future self. What can I do now that will make his life better?

Everything I do today affects my future self in some way. I can make decisions that will cause him stress, or I can make decisions and take action that will make his life better.

For the first four months of this year, I worked very hard, and I expected to do this going into the year because I wanted the results. Working extra hard for those first four months laid the foundation for a strong year, including the creation of a new character sculpting course, the annual opening of Conscious Growth Club, two six-figure launches, daily blogging, and many smaller projects. Work-wise it’s been an incredible year so far.

In a way this was my past self’s gift to my present self. I accepted back in December that if I put in a lot of work during the first four months of 2020, it would be a challenge, but I also saw that it would be a nice gift to my future self. I figured that sometime in May, I’d be able to work at a more modest pace if I wanted to, and I’d have some really nice results to appreciate from those first four months of 2020. I’d also have more space for interesting personal projects and travel afterwards.

It’s the opposite of procrastination. Work harder than usual to achieve some goals that your future self will surely appreciate. Caring about your future self is good motivation for putting in some extra hours. Feeling that connection across time really helps.

When you procrastinate, you do the opposite. You slack off and thereby sentence your future self to play catch up, which could include extra stress. You’re basically being a jerk to your future self. This is hard to do when you tune in to the energy of your future self and consider the impact. It’s easier to be cruel to your future self when you sever the connection.

Consider that you have a relationship with your future selves and your past selves. Consider how your decisions and actions affect those relationships. What will it do to you as a person if you strengthen those relationships by making good decisions and taking aligned actions? What effect will it have if you ignore those relationships or pretend they don’t exist?

When I reflect back on all the effort and experimentation that my past self invested in personal growth, I feel grateful. His decisions gifted me with some fabulous knowledge and skills that I very much appreciate. I feel blessed and lucky to live the life I get to live, but I also know how many times that could have been derailed if I’d made different past decisions.

I feel delighted that my past self worked extra hard this year to put me in a better position today. I appreciate him for doing that. His choice was beneficial for our relationship. He made some modest sacrifices to send me this gift, and I send him lots of appreciation back in time. And I know that he knew that I’d appreciate this gift.

What if the energy you transmit through time actually gets picked up by your other selves somehow? What kind of energy do you send to your past selves? What kind of energy do you imagine your future selves might be sending back to you today? What could you do differently today to make these transmissions feel more aligned and empowering?

Are these energy transmission across time really happening? Who knows? But I find that this is an empowering model to lean into. Considering how my decisions and actions could impact these transmissions (whether imaginary or real) helps me make better decisions today.

Lately I’ve been amping up my exercise routine too, and I feel that it’s creating a better relationship with my other selves across time. I love the energy boost, and feeling more flexible in my body is nice too. Now I’m thinking about pushing myself even more next week to gift my future self with even more energy and flexibility. I know that he’ll appreciate it, and I sense that he already does appreciate it, like I can perceive his gratitude flowing back through time.

What kind of gift do you think your future self would most appreciate?

I think it’s limiting to think about making my future self’s life easier. I don’t necessarily wish for him to have an easier life. When my past self tried to give me an easier life, I didn’t appreciate as much as he thought I would. Some ease is nice, but I wouldn’t want to stay there.

What I do appreciate is when my past self makes me stronger. I like when he trains up and gains new knowledge and skills. I like when he creates interesting memories. What I want from my past self isn’t an easier life – I don’t need that because I like challenges. Instead I want my past self to put me in a position of being able to access more, better, and different types of challenges. I want him to help me gain access to new growth experiences that currently seem out of reach.

How’s your relationship with your past self? Your future self? Do you send appreciation to your past self? Or scorn, regret, or disappointment instead? Are you kind and loving towards your past self?

How’s your relationship with your future self? Do you care enough to make your future self stronger? Do you tune into the flow of appreciation from your future self? Do you commit that when you do something nice for your future self, you will remember to pause and send some genuine appreciation back through time?

How could you improve these relationships? What would it do for you to feel an empowering sense of connection to your other selves across time?

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More, Better, Different, Purpose

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In his book Road to Purpose, Kenneth Behring shared how his life went through four phases.

The first phase was more – more money, more success, more friends, etc.

The second phase was better – a better home, better possessions, better vacations, etc.

The third phase was different – new experiences, new possessions, etc.

And the final phase was purpose – meaning, fulfillment, contribution, and making a difference in other people’s lives.

Behring claimed to have moved through these phases in linear order, but you have more flexible options here. You can shift among these four different types of growth throughout your life. You could be living a very purposeful life and still want to explore more, better, and different, for instance.

If you think about which type of growth most appeals to you now, which of these four would you pick? What feels most important to you? Where do you sense the greatest need or desire?

For me it would depend on when you ask me. This year I’m mainly focused on better. Lately I’ve been investing in creating better habits, developing better systems, and especially making Conscious Growth Club even better. My wife Rachelle has a similar focus. Afterwards we both agree that it would be nice to explore some different, especially when traveling becomes viable again.

When you have a primary desire or focus, do your best to avoid opportunity blindness to the other three modes of growth. Realize that different could lead to better. Purpose could lead to more. And so on.

If you get stuck trying to make progress with your preferred mode of self-development, try broadening your perspective, and consider the other three modes. One of them may hold the key to releasing that stuckness.

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Before 7am

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I love the morning magical time. It’s my favorite time of day – before dawn when most of the city is still snug in bed.

This morning I hopped out of bed at 4:45am, feeling happy to start another adventurous day. By 7am this morning, I had done the following:

  • Ran 5 miles / 8 kilometers
  • Did 12,000 steps
  • Listened to 4 hours of The Art of Possibility audiobook (100 minutes x 2.5 speed)
  • Did 15 minutes of yoga with a little meditation at the end
  • Made a green smoothie (1 banana, 6 mandarin oranges, spinach, celery, blueberries, maca, dehydrated barley grass juice, chia seeds, hemp seeds, water)
  • Mopped the kitchen floor (well… assigned a robot to do it)
  • Started some steel cut oats cooking (I love the InstantPot!)
  • Dreamed up an idea for a new course / launch

Afterwards I reviewed my goals, and now I’m sipping the smoothie and writing this blog post while the oatmeal is cooking and the robot is diligently cleaning the kitchen floor.

Caffeine isn’t part of my day by the way, nor is chocolate, caffeinated teas, or other stimulants. That would just slow me down.

When I was 20 years old, this is what my morning would have looked like this (sometimes all the way to noon and beyond):

  • Zzzzzzzz
  • Yawn
  • Zzzzzzzz

Then I’d drag myself out of bed and start my day very sluggishly. It would take me at least an hour or two just to feel awake enough to function much at all. Then the rest of the day would be a blur, with the main decisions being figuring out what to eat. My biggest accomplishment of the day would be going for a long walk. At least I liked to walk.

What made the difference? Really it came down to a decision. I decided I didn’t want to live like that first person anymore. I didn’t want his life or his results – because they sucked! It was a boring, low energy, depressing way to live. And I decided that I could change that.

When I would read about highly productive people and their morning routines, I was envious at first, but their routines also seemed unreachable for me. Still, I felt attracted to having an empowering morning routine and starting my day with high energy. It took a long time to figure out what works best for me. I experimented a lot.

A solid cardio workout is such an essential part of my routine because of the benefits it produces. What many people don’t realize is that cardio exercises the brain, not just the body. It makes your brain and your mind stronger. See the Mental Benefits of Cardio video for more details on that. A good minimum is 45 minutes per day.

Running 5 miles (8K) to start my day is a stretch for me. I’m used to running closer to 3 miles (5K) on a normal basis. But it feels so much better to stretch myself. The feeling isn’t 60-70% better, relative to the mileage increase. It’s more like 3x better. Running farther than usual creates a disproportionate boost in mood and energy above the baseline.

Nailing an empowering morning routine sets you up for a strong day. It’s wonderful to know that you’ve accomplished something meaningful during those first couple of hours.

I’m not in competition with anyone here. I compare my results to where I’ve been. My past self is the baseline, and as I generate new past selves, I develop new baselines. Presently I’m pushing myself to surpass my old baseline from earlier this year.

I especially like the combo of audiobooks and running. It’s nice to go through an audiobook every few days without having to take any extra time. Maybe you won’t retain every idea as well this way, but it still helps.

That app in the lower left of my Apple Watch screen (with the number 3 in the middle of a circle) is Nozbe. If I get a cool idea while running, I can tap that app and record a quick voice message that will go into my capture system as text. So if I do catch a cool idea from an audiobook while running, I send it into my system while on the road, and then I can decide if I want to turn it into something actionable later that day.

What’s the best morning routine you’ve ever had in your life? Are you at least using that as your baseline today? Now what are you doing to surpass it? Just because it’s good doesn’t mean you should settle. How could you make it even more kickass?

My morning routine works well for me. It’s energizing and mood-boosting. But it could be better, so I’ll keep tinkering with it and improving it over time. There is no reason to settle for good enough.

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You Can’t Do That

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This morning while running, I started listening to The Art of Possibility audiobook, which is about stepping outside of our mental boxes.

The first tool in the book is to acknowledge that whatever story you tell yourself is all an invention anyway, so you may as well create your own story. If your old story is keeping you stuck, change it.

Sometimes it’s hard to see what your old story actually is. I’ve found that a good way to see the limitations of my old story is to consider a stretch goal and then pay attention to my objections. Why do I see that goal as being a stretch? Why do I think it would be difficult to achieve?

When I learned that Bruce Lee used to run 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) per day, I thought, Wow… that’s a lot of running. Then I wondered if I could do that too someday and what it would be like to run that much every single day.

I immediately started thinking of the obstacles, like the fact that I live in a very hilly neighborhood, and running 10K of these hills is a lot harder than running on a flat route. I could drive to a flatter area in less than 10 minutes, but then that would add some driving time for every run. Or I could go to a closer but fairly short semi-flat stretch and just run back and forth, which would be pretty boring to do every day.

I’ve done a lot of distance running, mostly in my 20s, including running a marathon. But running 10K per day seems like a lot to maintain as an ongoing habit.

I can easily run 5K of hills every day. That would be in my comfort zone. But 10K feels like it’s across some imaginary boundary line. What makes it a lot though? There are people who wouldn’t consider 10K per day a big deal, but my mindset frames it as being a big deal, which makes it seem harder than it has to be.

I’ve surely crossed into areas that other people would see as being beyond their own imaginary lines. Going 40 days without food might be one example. Being vegan for 23+ years could be another.

For some people making a living without a job would be a big deal to them. To me it’s just normal life. Why would I ever need a job? Making someone the boss of me seems silly and unnecessary. I’d rather choose my own projects.

Our stories define our boundaries. When we make something a big deal, we push it away. By defining 10K per day as a big deal, I push it away.

Could I actually do it though? Physically yes. I ran more than 10K on Sunday, then 7K yesterday and 7K this morning. So I’m in the vicinity. The barrier isn’t physical because I can physically run 10K no problem – all hills too. The barrier to doing it daily is mental. The mind gets in the way.

Is 10K per day a super important goal for me? Not really. But I’d like to keep leaning in that direction for a while and push through that mental barrier to see what it’s like on the other side. I’m used to 5K runs, so bumping to 7K daily runs already feels like a bit of a stretch. Eventually 7K will start to feel normal. I want to reach the point where after running 7K of hills each morning, it doesn’t feel like I did a long run; it just feels like I did a run. Then I can work up to 8K, 9K, and see if I can hold at 10K for a while, like for at least a month.

When my mind says, “You can’t do that. That’s too far, too much, too excessive,” another part of my mind wants to prove it wrong. It wants to push through that limited mindset to make sure it doesn’t define me.

What matters most is the ongoing practice of identifying personal limitations and busting them up, so they can’t hold you back. It’s not that any one limitation is that big of a deal, but what is a big deal is letting those limitations box you in you when you might want something more from life.

What personal limitation would you like to demolish? Is it financial? Physical? Social? Creative?

Realize that it’s all mental. Financially it’s possible. Physically it’s possible. Socially it’s possible. Creatively it’s possible. The invitation is to bust up the mental patterns that make it seem impossible. And to do that you must cross some of those lines that you’re framing as uncrossable.

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Pushing Yourself

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This morning I went for my usual run, starting before dawn. Lately I’ve been going for 45-50 minutes. This time, however, I was listening to the audiobook Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins. After hearing the part about his 100-mile run and how he had to push himself to get through it, I felt like I should push myself more as well. So I kept running for an hour, then 75 minutes, and finally decided to stop at 93 minutes.

This was hill running since my neighborhood is very hilly, so almost all the running I do nearby is either uphill or downhill.

Normally after a morning run, I feel pretty good. It gives me a sense of accomplishment early in the day and gets me off to a good start. I see a strong link between focus and productivity and cardio exercise. No matter how much I’ve experimented with other types of exercise, nothing takes the place of cardio in terms of the mental and emotional benefits.

This morning instead of feeling a modest sense of accomplishment, it felt way better to run twice as far as I normally would. I’ve done many 90-minute runs before, but not lately and not this year. It felt so nice to stretch beyond what I’m used to. It wasn’t physically difficult, but I had to nudge myself mentally to go beyond what feels normal to me now. Running for 45 minutes feels pretty routine. Running 90 minutes feels different though, somehow beyond normal. It makes the whole day feel special.

There’s something magical about pushing beyond normal, going outside of the usual zone of comfort. The barrier is usually mental or emotional. Even if it’s a physical challenge, the mind wants to stop before the body needs to.

This got me thinking about other areas of life where I’ve had to stretch myself mentally in order to improve my results. I remember when making an extra $1K seemed like a big deal. Then I eventually reached the point where $1K seemed easy, and I projected those earlier limitations onto $10K. Then I stretched that limit to $50K, and eventually $50K felt easy to earn, like in a week or a month. Now $100K feels easy and seems like a modest amount. And $250K is starting to feel like it’s probably not that hard to earn in one chunk. I just need to be a bit more creative. Earning $500K in a week or so is starting to look like it might be even more fun. It seems within the realm of reach, not inaccessible but a bit more of a stretch to get there.

What I like about financial stretching, as I shared in yesterday’s post on overcoming financial pressure, is that it’s very measurable, and the mind has different associations to different amounts of money. The way you feel about $10K won’t be the same as you feel about $100K or $1M. Some amounts will seem small. Others will seem big. But those judgments have nothing to do with the actual sums; they just expose the limitations and blocks of the mind.

The fun part that leads to breakthroughs starts with deciding to do something financially that’s on the other side of a mental block. Take a clear goal like earning $100K in a week. How does your mind classify that? Is it accessible and doable for you? Is it trivially easy for you? Or is it on the other side of a mental barrier that says it’s inaccessible, out of reach, or unrealistic to even think about?

If you don’t push through your mental barriers and challenge them, they become real for you. Your life becomes boxed in because you don’t push beyond the walls of the box.

To keep progressing in any area of life, we have to stretch the mind first. We have to decide to do something that seems like it’s too much, too far, or too out of reach. The mind will initially resist, but the resistance can be overcome.

Many aspects of my life that feel normal used to feel out of reach. Getting up at 5am daily was one of those. I struggled with that habit for a long time, but the main barrier was mindset. Initially I framed it as something hard to do, something barely accessible for me. But when I just decided to absolutely do it no matter what, the resistance crumbled. Now it’s easy. If the decision is made to get up at 5am daily, it’s a done deal. A long time ago, I broke the part of my mind that said I couldn’t become an early riser by proving it wrong till it finally surrendered.

I used a similar approach to figure out how to make a living without getting a job. The key was to decide not to get one and to figure out some other path. One the decision was made, there was no looking back and no second-guessing. Now I’ve gone almost three decades without a job. And the 2006 article 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job has inspired countless other people to discover that they too can do just fine without ever having to get a job (unless they really want one).

I feel like I enter a different zone of being when I push myself. Doing what’s expected and satisfying my own expectations feels good, but it’s nowhere near as satisfying as going beyond my comfort zone and stretching.

What limits are holding you back right now? What would you like to experience or achieve, but your mind tells you that’s out of reach? Prove your mind wrong. Go pursue the goal that’s out of reach. Decide that you’ll find a way.

Here’s a personal challenge for you: Do something within the next 24 hours that breaks one of your mental barriers. Find a way to push yourself, and notice how satisfying that feels.

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How to Overcome Financial Pressure

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We just wrapped up the 2020 launch of Conscious Growth Club, and our next opening will be in April 2021. The launch did very well. We have 87 members enrolled in our next CGC year together. Financially this was our second six-figure launch of the year, the previous one being for the Stature course in January.

I received some feedback from people who really wanted to join CGC this year (some of them waiting months to sign up) but couldn’t do it because of financial challenges, especially related to the virus. Some had been recently laid off. Others have been reporting a business slowdown. Others are uncertain about the economy and want to conserve cash. All of this is totally understandable, and I’d never pressure anyone to join CGC if it would mean overextending themselves financially.

I spent most of my 20s broke and in debt and went through a bankruptcy in 1999. Financial stress was a big issue for me back then. So let me share some insights on how to reframe financial pressure, so it doesn’t keep haunting you and stressing you out for the rest of your days.

Framing Financial Pressure

How do you frame the presence of financial pressure, such as bills or expenses you’re not sure you can cover?

One way is to see such pressure as an annoyance. Maybe it’s something that pushes your buttons emotionally. But if you see it as something that irritates or bothers you, you’ll probably try to avoid dealing with it. Since this framing doesn’t help you resolve the source of the pressure, the pressure just continues.

The annoyance framing often leads to escapism. Many people try to retreat into using the law of attraction to fix their money problems, but that doesn’t usually work when the underlying relationship with financial pressure is rooted in annoyance.

Another option is to escalate it into a threat. Sometimes this will happen as an extension of framing financial pressure as an annoyance. If you avoid dealing with financial problems, they can multiply, and eventually the pressure becomes great enough that some part of your livelihood feels like it’s under threat. Maybe you’re at risk of losing your home, for instance.

Beyond that, you could try surrendering, which can grant some temporary relief emotionally, but by itself this doesn’t resolve the financial pressure either. You may feel a bit better, but you could still lose your home.

There’s also the obligation framing. I think this is mostly the annoyance framing in disguise. You may see financial pressure as a part of life where you just have to suck it up and deal with what arises. It’s not pretty, so just grit your teeth and handle it. But this framing tends to result in punting the problems to the future. You’ll do the minimum necessary to handle the immediate pressure, but it will just keep coming back for another round.

A Framing That Works

A framing that worked very well for me was to see financial pressure as an invitation. I imagine that reality is trying to help me train up my character in a positive way. The existence of financial pressure is an important part of the character training.

Imagine hiring a personal trainer to help you improve your fitness, and then framing your workouts as annoying, threatening, or obligatory. Are these really the best frames to use? How would your trainer feel about that?

It would make more sense to reconnect with the purpose for hiring the trainer and then connect with that purpose-driven frame as the reason for doing your workouts. This would establish a better relationship with your trainer as well, one based on mutual respect.

Do you respect the trainer that is financial pressure? Do you frame its presence as purposeful? Or do you treat it disrespectfully, like it’s some kind of scourge?

Having a strong purpose is a good motivator. Seeing the greater purpose behind a challenge makes the challenge feel more engaging and less stressful.

Be Trainable

When I was in my 20s, I wasn’t very trainable. I was most uncooperative when financial pressure made its presence known. I rejected its offer again and again, repeatedly slamming the door in its face. I kept trying to run from it and find respite. If only I could somehow make enough money, then it would stop chasing me.

Because of my framing, I believed that the solution to my problems was to make more money. But this is like saying that the best way to avoid doing difficult workouts is more fitness. If only you could become fit enough, then you wouldn’t have to workout anymore, and you’d no longer have to deal with that annoying personal trainer. So forget the trainer and just become more fit. Then you can ditch the trainer. Yeah, that makes sense. 😕

That sounds pretty silly when we look at it this way, right? Can you also recognize just equally silly it is to imagine that more money is the solution to financial pressure?

Embracing your financial pressure and respecting its purpose in your life is the solution. Say yes to the training invitation.

Do Your Financial Workouts

Just as I learned to accept and embrace the importance of physical exercise, I learned to embrace the importance of doing financial workouts too.

And just as it’s helpful to find exercise that you’ll like, it’s also helpful to discover the financial workouts you like. You have many options.

A financial workout could mean getting all of your accounting in good order. That’s pretty basic, but if that’s all you do, it will probably get a bit boring. There are people, however, who like this kind of financial workout, including updating their accounts daily. I’m happy to do these kinds of workouts monthly or quarterly though.

The financial workouts I enjoy most include exploring and testing creative and purposeful ways to generate income while serving others and enjoying the process. So they’re compound workouts that hit a lot of muscle groups.

I started small and worked my way into bigger workouts, just like you might do with physical training.

In the mid-1990s, I started learning how to generate income without having a job – badly at first and eventually with some modest degree of competence. I remember launching a computer game in 1999 that sold 50 copies at $10 each in its first month, so $500. The next month it did $1000… and $1500 the month after that. That was an exciting experience. But the real workout was to stretch my creative skills to design and code a game that could generate that result. Then I had to stretch myself to promote it widely.

I didn’t really frame it quite like this at the time, but looking back I realize that I kept giving myself interesting progressive training challenges with respect to money. I kept doing financial workouts of one kind or another. And the more I did that, the more my finances improved.

If you want to survive in business, then of course you have to find ways to generate income. But I think it’s especially helpful to frame these activities as financial workouts.

Doing your financial workouts is an intelligent way to deal with financial pressure. Build up your financial skills, so you can face that pressure from strength. And don’t get complacent.

Slacking Off

Just as we can slack off of exercise, we can also slack off from doing our financial workouts. I fell into that trap too. I could say I was focused on other parts of life, which was true, but I also let myself stagnate in the area of finances for some years. I kept doing token financial workouts (like affiliate deals) that were easy for me, but I wasn’t progressing.

What got me back in the game was to discover financial workouts that looked fun and engaging again. Just trying to make more money doesn’t cut it for me. I find that rather boring.

But if the constraints for a financial workout are just right, then it appeals to me, perhaps even excites me. If the workout looks fun and rewarding, then I’m much more drawn to do it. But if I only see boring workouts being accessible, then I’ll slack off.

And of course where do we find those interesting workouts? We find them outside of our comfort zones. We find them where we don’t dare to look.

Embrace the Training

Training is challenging, whether physical or financial. Don’t expect it to be otherwise if you’re doing it right.

Good training takes us outside of our comfort zones. When we become too comfortable, that’s when we need to mix things up and reintroduce novel forms of challenge.

Daily blogging is a form of training for me. I’ve never blogged every single day for a year, but I’m doing it this year. It’s not always easy, but I like what it’s doing for my character. It’s helping me become more focused, disciplined, and organized. My life and work have much better structure this year than last year.

For my financial workouts, I like doing creative launches. I love to use my creativity, resourcefulness, playfulness, and personal growth experience to create value for people. Then I like to combine that with making honest and ethical offers. This combo is challenging. It stretches me to train in areas that are weaknesses for me, such as advertising. But I like seeing myself continuing to get stronger. This last launch went very smoothly, and I’m seeing the benefits of my skills improving from doing the training – while also spotting more areas where I’d like to train harder.

The money isn’t the reward. That’s like saying that the reward is being able to lift a certain amount of weight. Money is just a number, and the weight is just a hunk of metal. Making more money isn’t the point at all.

The point is to train up your character to grow stronger.

When you use this framing, you won’t have to see financial pressure as your enemy. Allow it to be your friend instead. It’s an invitation to grow stronger.

You have many options for how you train. It matters more that you exercise than what kind of exercise you do, as long as you’re challenged and you’re growing and improving from the training effect.

If, however, you disrespect this invitation, reality isn’t going to reward you for that. The financial pressure will just keep haunting you year after year until you respect and accept its invitation.

Believe it or not, I actually like financial pressure these days. It’s fun. It’s like the invitation to lace up my running shoes and hit the road for a delightful pre-dawn run of a few miles. I used to majorly dislike financial pressure, but since that mindset didn’t work, I opted to befriend the pressure instead. That does work – very well in fact.

Just as there’s such as thing as runner’s high, it’s also fun to experience a high from financial workouts. Having a six-figure week is fun and stimulating. It’s so not about the money though, just as weight training isn’t about the weights. It’s about the experience and the training effect. It’s about being present to the challenge.

Financial pressure is not a demon, so don’t demonize it. If you do that, you’ll just stress yourself out. The trainer isn’t your enemy. Make the trainer of financial pressure your friend instead. Accept the invitation to push yourself. Find the financial workouts that appeal to you, and do them. Keep upping the challenge, so you don’t remain stuck in your comfort zone.

Most importantly, don’t train with the goal of making more money. Train with the goal of strengthening your character. Choose financial workouts that with this in mind, and you’ll make better choices. Otherwise you may try to find shortcuts to circumvent the training, equivalent to lifting heavier weights by using a forklift, which would defeat the purpose.

I chose to develop and launch courses as well as CGC not because these were convenient shortcuts to greater financial abundance but because they’re hard workouts. These projects challenge me deeply. They cause me to spend a lot of time training outside of my comfort zone. And I like the results of that. They’re great workouts for my character.

Making more money isn’t the real progression here. The progression is to transform yourself from a person who tries in vain to stay in your comfort zone into a person who embraces the growth benefits of uncomfortable challenges.

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