Ultimate Days Masterclass

Gratitude is an important practice, right?

You know this because you’re often told it!

But why?

Why is it important to be grateful?

This seems obvious, doesn’t it?

You “should” feel grateful for what you have.

And certainly you want to feel the best you can about your life today.

But, REALLY, why are practices like gratitude so powerful?

The mind governs your life

See, this is the heart of the GREATEST mystery I’ve discovered in life.

It’s the mystery of mysteries that the ancients talked about.

But it’s a long way from where I began this work.

Back then it was all about—

How do you get what you want?

And come on, of course that’s a GREAT topic, right?

Who doesn’t want to live your absolute best life??

The problem is what was implied in my old definition—

You need your best life to feel your best!

But some tens of thousands of hours researching these topics taught me a new definition of “best life.”

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You know something strange I’ve discovered?

It’s that we’re NEVER really seeking what we think we want.

Not saying you don’t actually want it.

I’m saying that behind that “thing” is MERELY a feeling.

That’s what you want.

The feeling.

The experience you get from this thing that you “think” you want.

You know the problem?

The feeling is fleeting.

We all know this, don’t we?

You dream of getting that house or job or partner or money or whatever…

And then you get it!

Yippee!!!

You feel this way for, how long?

Honestly??

How long do you get this BUZZ from this thing you so much wanted?

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You may have never jumped from a plane but you know the notion of terminal velocity.

This is the maximum velocity achievable by an object as it falls through fluid.

Or in the case of jumping from a plane, your maximum velocity as you punch through air hurtling toward the ground!

For this reason, I avoid the word “terminal.” 🙂

And use “Peak” velocity instead.

Peak velocity in your goals

You see this theme of velocity everywhere in my work.

Words like driving, momentum, flow, they all connote movement.

At the most fundamental level, that’s the opposite of being stuck!

When you don’t know what to do or you find yourself in the same old cycle, there’s zero momentum at all.

And what I learned early in my work is the power of getting moving.

Even if you don’t know where you’re headed, just building momentum is the crucial step to becoming that rolling stone gathering no moss as it rolls down the hill.

Peak velocity is the extreme.

It’s the maximum velocity you can build in driving forward your goals.

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How you start is often how you continue.

You certainly know the notion of waking up on the WRONG side of the bed.

And how much that can lead to the wrong side of the day.

But how much do you experiment with starting your day right?

Personally, I want methods to get my day ultimate no matter how you wake up.

And irrespective of how you wake, to use this CRUCIAL time for building incredible momentum for your day.

Many days ruined

In my last job I RUINED many days.

Waking up with someone I loved, like an actor on cue, my brain would start ruining the day.

Ugh, don’t feel like going to work today.

If only this wasn’t that.

Or whatever wasn’t whatever. 🙂

I laugh at it now because it’s just so obvious to me how I was waking up and letting that brain ruin the day.

But FACT IS, I hurt years of my life that way.

Now I see clearly, no matter what you’re doing, you’re doing it anyways, so you might as well find a way to love the one you’re with.

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On average we check email 74 times a day.

When you look at that number, what does it make you think?

Is it high to you?

About right?

Low?

Because in a 16 hour day, this means ONLY checking email every 12 minutes.

Ding, ding human…

Does the story of Ivan Pavlov ring a bell?

You might be familiar with how he conditioned his dogs to salivate at the sound of a ringing bell.

But do you know why this works so well?

And how it works exactly the same in you and me?

Of course you do!

Because you might be doing it all the time too.

Jumping to a dinging phone, responding to notifications, half the day working for your device, rather than it working for you.

It costs you a ton of time and effectiveness.

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If it’s popular culture, it’s likely wrong.

Just like this notion that you only use 10% of your brain.

It sounds all fancy.

And plenty of fiction, such as movies like Limitless and Lucy, is based on unlocking the remaining 90%.

But what does it mean?

You can trace the myth back to…

Articles suggest it comes from this vague quote by the father of modern psychology, William James—

Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake. Our fires are damped, our drafts are checked. We are making use of only a small part of our possible mental and physical resources. 

So you see, there’s apparently little to it.

Yet, directionally, it’s certainly true we only use a fraction of our potential.

Whether that’s 10% or not, who cares?

Let’s talk about what it means.

Or, at least, in my view, a valuable interpretation!

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Hi there,

How you doing?

Hope you had a great new year and are roaring for 2021!

Certainly, none of us know where this year is headed.

Who could even pretend to guess the future based on what last year taught us all?

But we all do know one thing…

Focus on what you control

From about April on last year, this was so crucial to making last year one of my best.

The same is true with every client.

All of my work comes back to focusing on what you can influence.

And last year was a powerful reminder that’s basically nothing!

Zero ability to influence the health of the world.

Zero control over the decisions that govern you.

Heck, you have zero influence on your stomach digesting food or heart beating, let alone anything in our world.

Of course last year threw you a curve ball.

And who knows, this year could be the worst or greatest of all.

But what you do know, with absolute certainty is, nearly everything that impacts your life, you have zero control.

Absolutely zero.

None.

Nothing.

Nada.

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I struggled writing this for YOU.

That’s because I kept finding myself writing about the world and my year…

What it meant to me.

Why it was so transformational.

How it was one of my best.

Where they’re taking the world, etc.

There’s lots of stuff I’d like to share with you.

But this isn’t about any of that.

This is about one thing and one thing only—>

You, and getting the most from YOUR year.

Not about the world’s year

You’d have to be pretty narrowly focused to be looking back on “your” year without any reference to the year humanity had.

Tragic.

Disastrous.

This was a hard and painful year for billions of people.

Many lost their lives and livelihoods.

Multiples more still have their backs up against it.

Freedom was surrendered by all.

You simply cannot tally the enormous cost of human suffering this year.

Yet you also can’t let that weigh down your year.

True compassion and empathy is so rare and crucial, yet that’s different to using the suffering of others to justify your own.

If you wanted to ruin your days counting human tragedy, before this year it was still everywhere there’s oxygen.

But if you’re focused on how you keep doing your best to serve yourself, family and humanity…

Well, you must focus on those things you control.

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Imagine you’re looking to get in great shape.

Seeking to do everything you can, you hire a top personal trainer who designs a comprehensive program for you.

Perhaps it has you working out 4-6 days week.

Maybe you’re doing cardio 2-3 days.

Other days strength training.

Looking at the program you say, “That’s awesome.”

But knowing full well exercise is just one side to getting in great shape you ask, “Should we also focus on how I’m eating?”

“No, it doesn’t matter,” they say, “If you like you can eat Doritos all day.”

Says no trainer!!

Not only would a trainer never say this.

But no matter how good your exercise plan, you know you’d fail this way.

It simply doesn’t matter.

If you’re working out an hour and eating junk 15 hours a day, your shape reflects it.

And of course you know where I’m headed here—

Your mind is the same.

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Like a rectal exam I avoid doing taxes.

I just sent off the K1 to a business partner.

As usual it’s only a couple of days before the filing deadline.

I hate it’s happening again this way.

Next year I’ll get out ahead of it.

See, here’s the thing, it’s super simple for me to do this.

It takes me little time to organize my stuff and get it to the accountants.

Just I put it off somewhere down the bottom of my list till it needs to be done.

Jams you up

Too many of these letters to you are JIT.

In business just in time manufacturing is extremely valuable, but it also risks jamming the production line.

Over the years I’ve drafted 675 of these letters that were never sent.

That’s all good, it’s part of the creating process; when you’ve gotta flow, you’ve gotta flow.

But I rarely go back to drafts.

I tend to keep it fresh, so I’m constantly creating and sending you new stuff.

The cost of course is time, and more specifically just in time.

Too many of these letters I’ve written you in real time, which I enjoy, but also messes with our process.

It leaves little time to get the team involved, and too often we rush proofing and getting these articles up and out.

To be sure there’s a nice flow from writing to a tight deadline.

But to keep scaling, and to optimize quality, we must be more methodical.

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