Knowledge For Men

Steve Taylor is the author of several best-selling books on psychology and spirituality and is a senior lecturer in psychology at Leeds Beckett University. For the last five years, he has been included in Mind, Body, Spirit magazine's list of the '100 most spiritually influential living people.' His books include Waking From Sleep, The Fall, Out of the Darkness, Back to Sanity, The Calm Center and his latest book The Leap: The Psychology of Spiritual Awakening. His books have been published in 19 languages, and Eckhart Tolle has described his work as 'an important contribution to the shift in consciousness which is happening on our planet at present.'

Steve has a Ph.D. in Transpersonal Psychology and teaches on ITA professional's on-line MSc in Consciousness, Spirituality and Transpersonal Psychology. His articles and essays have been published in over 40 academic journals, magazines, and newspapers. He writes the popular blog 'Out of the Darkness' for Psychology Today magazine. Steve lives in Manchester, England with his wife and three young children.

"Finally, it's clear that fulfillment isn't a place to seek but the place from which you are seeking

That wholeness isn't a distant future goal but your closest present state

And no matter how much success you accumulate or how much failure trails behind you, it's always enough just to be alive."

1. The Present is All You Have

We do not live in a society that values presence.

Everything, and I do mean everything, that is pushed on us in the modern world is designed to take us out of the present moment and transport us to some imaginary plane that doesn't truly exist.

Each and everyday big companies inundate us with desires for all sorts external garbage that does little to truly fulfill our deepest desires.

Instead of living each moment fully and savoring the sweetness of life, we are constantly in a rush to buy the latest gadget, follow some new trend, or keep up with the Joneses.

And in this rush to keep up appearances and live for future goals, we forget to enjoy what is happening right now.

Because at the end of the day, the present is truly all that you have.

If you are chasing a future goal, you are still chasing it in the present.

If you are reminiscing about the past, you are still doing so in the present.

But we rarely take the time to sit back and embrace the present moment.

We rarely notice the trees swaying in the wind, or the soft sounds of our partner sleeping next to us, or the feeling of the cold hardwood underneath our feet.

And when we ignore the present moment, we are ignoring our lives. Because the present is all that we have.

2. Get Recentered

No matter how much you focus on being present, the challenges and struggles of modern life will derail you and cause you to lose your center.

And when you find this happening, it is imperative that you take a step back and get recentered.

Go for a swim, take some time to go on a run, and pay attention to your sensations.

If it is feasible, the best way to find your center and bring more presence into your life is travel.

Whenever you travel, everything is new and exciting, it's like being a child all over again.

You don't know what to expect around the next corner, you aren't sure what each day will bring, and you are constantly living in a state of wonder and awe.

It is truly the best way to bring presence back into your life and find the balance that you have been searching for.

And it doesn't have to be a wild trip either.

Just a 2-hour drive can take you to a city or a state that you have never visited before and provide you with a plethora of opportunities to explore and rekindle that child-like wonder and amazement.

3. Focus on "Being" Instead of "Doing"

In today's society, men are conditioned from birth to be "Doers".

We are told to get sh*t done, to make things happen, to hustle, and to grind.

And all of those things are great.

But they are only one part of the puzzle.

The other piece that most men miss is to learn the art of "Being".

Learning to simply sit with yourself, your thoughts, and your current circumstances and to be ok with them regardless of how society might view them.

When you focus on being, you will begin to realize that simply drawing breath, that simply having a pulse, simply existing is enough.

Being alive is the greatest gift there is, the greatest truth that you can seek, and the greatest goal that you can achieve.

And guess what?

You've already achieved it.

4. Spiritual Awakening is Not About Bliss

All too often, mainstream culture assumes that spiritual awakening is about achieving "Nirvana" or "Bliss" where all of your problems disappear and life is just a constant flow of joy and internal peace.

But the true nature of spiritual awakening is not the absence of problems, but rather a greater understanding, acceptance, and capacity to deal with those problems.

When you open your eyes to the world of spiritual awakening, your problems will not magically disappear.

You will still have bills to pay, a family to care for, issues in your relationships, and physical ailments.

However, because you have devoted the time and energy necessary to become more awakened, you will be able to approach these problems from a different space.

Instead of being controlled by the problems, you will see them for what they really are and be able to handle them more adeptly and with more peace.

5. Spirituality is About Valuing What You Have

At the end of the day, the ultimate lesson of spirituality, presence, enlightenment or whatever else you want to call it is simple… Value what you have in this moment.

Some of the most spiritual people I know haven't meditated a day in their lives, they've never read any of the sacred texts, and terms like "enlightenment" seem foreign to them.

But they have a deep appreciation and gratitude for what they have.

Instead of focusing on what they want and what they don't have, they find peace and comfort in counting the blessings that already fill their lives.

And if you take nothing else away from this interview take that one lesson.

Valuing what you already have and being grateful for each breath you take is the ultimate form of enlightenment.

Brett McKay is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Art of Manliness, the largest independent men's lifestyle magazine on the web with over 10 million monthly page views. Brett earned a degree in Letters (with a focus on Classics) from the University of Oklahoma and graduated from the University of Tulsa College of Law. He lives with Kate, his wife and AoM's Executive Editor, and their two children in Tulsa, OK. When he's not talking or writing about manliness, Brett enjoys barbell training and spending time outdoors.

"Be useful, not important."

1. Focus on Being a Man of Value

We live in a society where everybody wants to be "Somebody."

And while there is nothing inherently wrong with ambition or a drive to become successful, in our modern, ego-driven culture, this desire for fame and recognition has begun to supersede our desire to provide real value as men.

We are more worried about our status on Facebook and the number of fans we have on Instagram than the quality of the work that we are producing on a daily basis.

And it's gotta stop.

Success is the result of doing your work and doing it with excellence. It's the result of trying to find ways to serve others, instead of constantly serving yourself.

And the sooner that we can embrace this axiomatic truth, the sooner we will be able to live richer, healthier, and more abundant lives.

It's not about you.

It's about the impact you have on others and the legacy that you leave.

2. The Worst Rarely Happens

Mark Twain is often quoted as saying

I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.

And while the quote itself might have been uttered tongue in cheek, it's relevance to our modern lives cannot be understated.

Yes, you are going to face challenges in your life, you will face difficulty, adversity, pain, and suffering.

It's an inevitability.

But the vast majority of your internal worries will never come to fruition.

As a society, we spend time locked inside of our heads, mentally plugging through the "What if's" and "Oh no's" until our blood pressure is through the roof and our anxiety levels critical.

To be an effective risk taker and leader, you must learn to discern between genuinely possible worst-case outcomes and unlikely disasters.

Yes, if you quit your job to go full time with your side hustle, it is possible that you might lose everything, go bankrupt, become homeless, and eat out of garbage cans until Elon Musk saves humanity.

But it's not very likely.

Chances are, even the worst failure would simply require you to find a new corporate job, live at home for a while, and rebuild yourself from the ground up.

There is an element of risk in everything worth pursuing. And as a man, you must learn to cull your fear and worries and realize that despite the perceived risk, the big, scary, life-altering disaster of an outcome that you fear is unlikely at the least and downright laughable at most.

3. Toughen Your "Mental Hide"

With the wide reach of the internet, it is all but impossible to do anything of worth without attracting negative criticism and denigration.

Keyboard warriors and airsoft commandos abound, each of them offering a different (and graphically detailed) opinion about why you suck and should immediately quit at your current endeavors.

It doesn't matter whether you are creating products, offering information, or detailing your journey through life… If you do anything for long enough, you are going to have to haters.

So what is a man to do?

While it might be uncomfortable and difficult, there is certainly merit in accepting and responding to constructive criticism that offers genuine value to you and your brand.

However, the vast majority of the emails, comments, and posts that you will find littering your inbox and social platforms are not constructive, they are simply the result of disgruntled individuals with an abundance of time and a lack of common sense.

In these situations, you must simply learn to toughen your mental hide.

Not everyone will like you. In fact, if you do anything well enough, some people will hate you.

And that is ok.

You must learn to ignore the haters and stay focused on your dreams and mission.

When others try and knock you off course, or make wild accusations, you should learn to take it as a sign that you are doing something right.

Because it is a rare occurrence for a man offering little value to attract much attention (positive or negative).

So build your mental resilience and learn to be ok with the haters.

4. Focus on Adaptability Not Effectiveness

One of the greatest struggles for men of a high caliber is learning to embrace adaptability over effectiveness.

Yes, you should have routines and rituals built into your daily life that allow you to create and contribute at a high level, but you must remember one simple truth…

Life happens.

Things don't always go according to plan.

People get sick, cars break down, the weather changes, you get food poisoning, and your kids get into fights at school.

When events like this happen, learning to go with the flow and adapt is paramount not only for success but also for mental well-being and stability.

You will not always be able to stick to your morning routine, you will occasionally have to sacrifice your hour of uninterrupted work time to tend to a family emergency, you won't always be able to get to the gym… And that's ok.

Learn to be like water.

Flow from one task and "tragedy" to the next without missing a beat and your quality of life will increase ten-fold.

5. Just Do Something

If you are struggling in life right now, if you are on the fence if you have been wanting to get started on a dream for years but you don't know where to start… start by doing something.

Anything!

One of the immutable laws of the universe is that a body in motion will tend to stay in motion, and once you get yourself in gear and begin taking action, you will find that the remaining pieces will begin to fall into place.

Want to get in shape but you feel lost in the sea of diets, fads, and "scientifically proven" workouts? Go for a run and do 20 pushups and figure the rest out from there.

Want to start a business but don't know how? Buy a website, write a short ebook, and start creating content and figure the rest out from there.

When you start walking, the path will be revealed.

But you must start by getting up, lacing your shoes, and taking that first step.

MJ DeMarco is the current founder of Viperion Publishing Corp., a media company focused on online and print content distribution. He also is admin/founder for The Fastlane Forum, the webs' leading destination forum for start-up, finance, and entrepreneurial business discussions.

He was the former start-up Founder/CEO of Limos.com (1997-2007), a global ground transportation aggregator and marketplace that he successfully built and grew into a profitable multimillion dollar company, all with no money, no formal training, and with just a few employees. In 2001, he sold the company and later reacquired the company via bankruptcy reorganization. He later sold the company again in 2007 to a Phoenix-based private equity company.

He has authored two best-selling books including The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for a Lifetime and UNSCRIPTED: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Entrepreneurship, his most recent work about the current landscape of life, liberty, and entrepreneurship. You can connect with him and learn more at http://www.mjdemarco.com/

"If you accept conventional wisdom from conventional people living conventional lives. Can you expect to be anything other than conventional?"

1. Wake Up and See Through the Matrix

You have been lied to.

By the government, your parents, and all of society.

I am not propagating a conspiracy theory, just sharing the facts.

From the day that you are born, you are inundated with a bullshit script that tells you to go to school, get all A's, go to college, get a safe job, sock aside 10% of your income and invest in mutual funds, skip the lattes, blah, blah, blah….

I am here to tell you… It doesn't freaking work!

How many multi-millionaire 65-year-olds do you know? How many wildly wealthy retirees have you met (who worked a dead-end job for the past 40 years)? And more importantly, if you have met any of these people how many were happy and fulfilled? How many were free?

The script that you were fed since childhood doesn't work.

So it's time to wake up and flip the script.

If you want freedom, if you want to retire, if you want to live a life that you actually enjoy, a life where you aren't giving up 5 days of your life in exchange for 2 (a pretty shitty ROI if you ask me) then the first step is simply acknowledging that there is a problem with the script you have been fed.

Wake up, see through the matrix, and be ready to take the action required to change it.

2. The Rich Don't Get Rich from the Script…

They get rich from preaching the script!

One of the biggest misconceptions about success is that the rich achieved their current success levels by following the script you see laid out for you.

They didn't.

They got rich by preaching the script.

They got rich by selling you on the idea of mutual funds (which they own) and stock market investments (which they control).

They didn't get rich investing in any of those things themselves, they got rich by selling that garbage to you.

While compiling research for his new book, MJ examined some advice being given by Forbes.com on the topic of long-term financial wealth.

The article in question was recommending a long-term mutual fund strategy starting as young as possible.

Then MJ decided to see how many Forbes cover models had actually followed that advice to get rich.

The results?

Zero, nada, zilch.

None of the world's rich and powerful had eaten their own dog food or taken the medicine they were prescribing to everyone else.

Just because you see Warren Buffet or Charlie Munger providing you with an investing strategy reliant on a long term yield of 8% doesn't mean that it's a strategy they actually leveraged to create their own wealth.

When you are cognizant of this you will be much more wary about who you take advice from and why.

3. Learn to Provide Relative Value on a Massive Scale and You Will Become Rich

Do you want to know the secret to becoming rich? Even the secret to getting rich quick?

Well, listen up… I am about to share it.

Provide relative value on a massive scale.

If you do this, you will become rich, and chances are, you will become rich a helluva lot quicker than you would have playing the "Get rich slow" game.

But how does one go about providing relative value?

It's actually a lot simpler than you might think.

The first step is to identify a problem or an inefficiency in the marketplace.

If you see a problem and you have the ability to fix it, you have found your "in".

Furthermore, if you look at an already "saturated" market and you notice that there are numerous inefficiencies in the day to day operations (customer service, fulfillment, product quality etc.) you can use this knowledge to break into an otherwise full market.

4. Happiness Comes from Autonomy Not Money

So many people assume that more money will make them happy. That going from $20,000 to $200,000 to $2,000,000 will drastically boost your happiness and levels of fulfillment.

And yes, money matters. In fact, it matters a lot.

And to a certain extent, money will make you happy.

However, if you look at the research compiled by the leading experts in the field of psychology, after about $70,000 a year ($110,000 for those of you living in more expensive cities) increasing your income will not drastically increase happiness.

Increasing your autonomy and freedom, however, will.

Your levels of happiness are directly correlated to the amount of freedom that you have in your life.

Do you have the power to choose when you wake up? Do you have the power to choose when you work and what you work on? Do you have the power to choose who you work with?

Your end goal should be to work until the answer to all of the above questions is a resounding yes.

Because if it's not, even $10,000,000 in the bank won't make you happy.

5. You Only Achieve Balance Through Imbalance

Do you want a balanced life? A life where you have the freedom to devote plenty of time to your body, your family, your wife, your kids, and your hobbies?

Great! So does everyone else.

But if you want to achieve balance, then you must first commit to several years of imbalance.

You can only achieve balance when you are willing to put in the sacrifices up front to generate the money you need to live the life you want.

It's that simple.

No one became a millionaire working 35 hours a week, spending their mornings doing hours of meditation, and having lazy afternoons with their spouse.

They became a millionaire by working 12 hours a day 7 days a week for 2-3 years and then sitting back and reaping the rewards of those few years for the rest of their lives.

So if you want balance, commit to a period of imbalance.

The people who truly love you will weather the storm and stick with you through it all.

Ryan Blair is a serial entrepreneur who established his first company at age twenty-one and has since created and actively invested in multiple start-ups. As the CEO of ViSalus, he took the company from start-up to more than $1.6 billion in cumulative sales and was named Ernst & Young's 2012 Entrepreneur of the Year. His first book, Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain, was a number one New York Times bestseller. He lives in Los Angeles.

1. The First Step to Transforming Your Life is Transforming your Environment

If you are really ready to change your life, accelerate your results, and achieve your dreams, then the first step that you must take is to radically transform your environment.

There is an old saying that environment is stronger than willpower, and I believe it to be true.

If you are constantly around low ambition individuals who spend their weekends getting hammered, stoned, and watching Netflix, then how can you really expect to rise above your environment and excel at a high level?

The first step on your journey to success is to change your environment.

If your friends are bringing you down, get new friends.

If you've never lived outside of your small town where everyone knows one another and success is frowned upon, move the hell out of there.

Change your environment as quickly as possible, put in the work, and you will find yourself achieving at levels you previously thought impossible.

2. Go Give Back to Someone Who Has it Worse than You Do

If you are reading this article right now, then you are blessed.

If you woke up this morning and didn't have to wonder where your next meal would come from, then you are blessed.

If you even have the eyesight and cognitive function to comprehend this interview, then you are blessed.

And yet, despite the abundance in our everyday lives, many of us take our blessings for granted. And as a result, we whine and moan about the most trivial things, never taking responsibility and never stepping up to the plate.

It's time to step up and step out of your own circumstances.

Go volunteer with Habitat for Humanity or some other cause that will get you around people who are less fortunate than you are. Save up for a few months and go do a volunteer trip to Haiti, then come back and complain to me about how slow your iPhone 6 is.

In our Western society, we don't suffer from a lack of resources or a lack of opportunity. We suffer from a lack of perspective.

And the only way to get a better perspective is to get out of your current environment and go serve other people who are suffering more than you are.

So I want to challenge you to find somewhere that you can volunteer this week. Go serve food at a soup kitchen, go build homes for low-income families, go serve the homeless in downtown. Go do something that will remind you just how lucky you are.

When you return to your daily life, I would bet my last dollar that you will do so with a better attitude and a sense of gratitude.

3. Base Your Goals on the Value you Want to Offer

Something that you will find on your journey to success is that the universe has an odd habit of conspiring to help those who conspire to help others.

If you find that you are constantly unable to meet your financial goals, then chances are, your focus is almost entirely on yourself.

You think "God, I want to make $100,000 so that I can enjoy a better quality of life, nicer things, and fancier dinners." And yet for the fourth year in a row, your company is stuck at $60,000.

I want to challenge you to think about your goals differently.

Instead of saying "How much money can I make?"

Ask yourself the question "How much money do I want to give away? And who do I want to help?"

I don't know what it is, but when you change your goal from "I want to earn $100,000 to so I can buy my new Jaguar F-Type" to "I want to earn $200,000 so that I can give away $70,000 to build schools in Guatemala" the universe will come to your aid and present you with opportunities that seem inexplicable.

So I want to challenge you to start focusing on others.

Begin to look at money as a flow of energy that enables you to help other people and improve their quality of life.

Yes, you should have more than enough for yourself and enjoy a great quality of life. But you should also seek to give away 10X the value of what you have earned.

Adopt this attitude for 18 months, and I can promise that your life will never be the same.

4. Constantly Level Up Your Social Circle

Jim Rohn, the father of personal development said it best "You are the average of the five people whom you associate with most."

And while this axiom of success has likely been repeated more times than any of us care to recount, so few of you reading this will actually internalize the message.

Right now, I want you to pull out a pen and paper and take stock of your current circumstances. Everything, from your health, your finances, your fulfillment, and your relationships.

Now, I want you to pull out a separate sheet of paper and write down that same list of circumstances for your five closest friends.

If I was a gambling man, I would bet that the lists look pretty similar.

Proximity is power, and if you are serious about achieving your dreams and reaching the levels of success that you desire, then you need to constantly level up your social circle and spend time around people who are smarter, better, and more successful than you.

5. Ask for Help

As men, it's easy to let our pride stand in the way of our fulfillment and growth.

It's easy to say "I'm fine" and block out the outside world.

What's difficult is to be real.

It's difficult to be honest with the important people in your life and tell them the truth. The truth that you aren't alright, that everything isn't ok, and that you are feeling pretty messed up right now

It's difficult to ask for help.

But until you are willing to hang up your ego and talk with someone else, you will never overcome the challenges standing in your way.

You must be willing to let go of your pride and speak the truth.

Because when you do, the universe will come to your aid and the people who truly care about you will help lift you up and raise you to new levels.

After amassing over 30 million views on YouTube by producing a video every day for a year, Jaret Grossman has quickly become sought after as one of the world's best life coaches and business consultants.

Jaret's world class advice is drawn from his early childhood woes and muscular transformation. As an 8th grader, Jaret was only 90 pounds, won only one wrestling match, and was constantly picked on and bullied. He progressed to become one of New York's best wrestlers and eventually became a 3x All-American at Bryant University.

After he pursued a career in law or investment banking, Jaret realized his passion lied elsewhere. While finishing up his JD degree, Jaret started up a health and fitness brand with his childhood friend Richie Allen. The two of them built the Muscle Prodigy presence to over 300,000 unique visitors per month, over 1 million social media followers, and topped the charts with several iTunes albums.

"He that gives should never remember and he that receives should never forget."

1. Absorb What is Useful Discard What is Not

In our modern society, it seems like everyone with a blog or a YouTube channel is trying to peddle the "One weird Secret to Success" or "Top Tips for Financial Freedom".

And while many of these platforms provide valuable sources of information, people often mistake general principles for universal truths.

Every person is different. We all have different goals, dreams, aspirations, and definitions of success. So you must learn to pick and choose the advice that you follow.

Absorb useful information from a variety of sources, use what works for you and discard what doesn't. Over the years, as you continually try new things, succeed, fail, and figure out what works for you, you will develop a formula for success and fulfillment that is uniquely your own.

Do not waste your time trying to pursue other people's goals and dreams.

Take the advice that is relevant to your life and goals, and ignore the rest.

2. Become a Generalized Specialist

If you want to be a successful entrepreneur (or successful in any area of life) then you must commit yourself to becoming a generalized specialist.

This means that while you should only strive for mastery in a small handful of skills, you should seek to be competent in a wide variety of disciplines.

Think of your life like mixed martial arts.

You can pick one discipline to master like Brazilian Ju Jitsu, Muay Thai, or Boxing. But you should be competent in all of the disciplines because you are only as strong as your weakest link.

Success as an entrepreneur requires competence in sales, marketing, leadership, communication, accounting, time management, and technology among many others.

And while you don't have to master every area, you must have a strong grasp and understanding of the nuances behind each one.

3. Focus On Your Life Not Other People's Lives

The greatest trap that high achievers fall into is the trap of comparison.

Once you make your first $100,000, you begin comparing yourself to people making $1,000,000. Once you make your first $1,000,000, then you begin comparing yourself to people making $10,000,000 and so on and so forth.

But when you compare yourself to others, you denigrate your own success and sabotage your potential.

There will always be someone who is doing better than you.

Someone who is richer, someone who is smarter, someone who is more athletic.

It doesn't matter how great you become, there will always be someone who is better than you at something.

That's just how the world works.

And if you fall prey to the comparison trap, you will never attain fulfillment, you will never be happy, and you will never enjoy your life because you will constantly be comparing yourself to people who are on a different path.

So focus on your life.

Focus on success as you define it.

Don't worry about other people's achievements. Focus on doing your own thing, and the rest will fall into place.

4. Get Crystal Clear Clarity on Your Goals

The first step to achieving success, whatever that means for you, is gaining crystal clear clarity on exactly what you want, when you want it, and why you want it.

You can achieve anything that you set your mind to, but you must first know exactly what it is that you want to achieve.

And when I say "Get clarity" I mean clarity.

Saying that you want to be rich isn't clarity.

Setting the goal of starting an online marketing firm that generates $84,000 a month in net profit while you only work 45 hours a week… That's clarity.

So take some time and get crystal clear on what you want in all areas of your life.

What does your ideal day look like? Who do you spend your time with? How much time do you devote to work? What is your health like? Really sit down and ask yourself what you truly want out of life.

Then once you know what you want, figure out why you want it.

There's an old saying in the personal growth community that says, "With a strong enough why, you can figure out any how." And no statement could be more true.

When you know what you want and you have a powerful list of reasons why you want it, you will figure out a way to make it happen.

5. Understand that Success is More than Money

It seems like we live in a society that values one thing and one thing only… The almighty dollar.

And don't get me wrong, money is important.

It gives you freedom, options, and the ability to live a lifestyle that will help you feel fulfilled and on fire.

But it is not the end all be all of life. Money is just a small part of the puzzle.

If you want to live a life of true joy and fulfillment, then you must take a holistic approach to success.

Jaret recommends that everyone focus on 8 pillars of life and success.

1. Mission: Why you are doing what you are doing
2. Abundance: Your finances and long term wealth
3. Family: Your relationships with the most important people in your life
4. Foundation: Your mental and physical well being
5. Control: The amount of freedom that you have to do the things you want to do
6. Connection: Your relationship with whatever higher power you believe in (even if it's just mother nature or your connection to society)
7. Wisdom: Your skill sets and ability to learn new things
8. Legacy: How you want to be remembered and the impact that you want to leave behind

When you consciously develop each of these 8 pillars, you will begin to find yourself feeling on fire and on purpose.

But if even one pillar is crumbling, the other 7 will begin to slowly deteriorate in tandem.

So take stock of where you are today and where you want to be.

Then start taking the action necessary to develop your life into a living breathing masterpiece of true success.

Julian Kaufmann is an energy expert, entrepreneur, and author. Julian helps people get more out of life by applying science and universal spiritual truths to get more done by using less energy. After his own spiritual awakening led him to discover the 4-flowgates for increasing your personal power, Julian wrote Let Go, Let It Flow – The PATH To Peace and Personal Power.

This groundbreaking work teaches us how to apply Julian's Theory of Conductivity in our life and more fully express and share our true gifts with the world. We are infused with abundant energy but unfortunately, we often waste our precious resources. As a result of our mismanagement of our life energy, our life's work often suffers. Energy is the ability to do work and our life's work is a measure of how efficiently and effectively we manage our energy.

"When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. When I let go of what I have, I receive what I need."

Julian operates his entire life, and wrote his new book around a simple but powerful concept known as "The P.A.T.H."

It is Julian's belief that in this fast paced hectic world, a world that is constantly trying to distract and derail us from what is truly important this simple, four-step framework is the key to living a truly abundant and fulfilling life.

The acronym stands for Presence, Acceptance, Thankfulness, and Helping.

1. Presence

Pick up your phone for me.

Now scroll through your applications and tell me how many notifications and messages are weighing down your device.

It's a lot, right?

This isn't an accident.

In our modern era of iPhones, instant messaging, and unavoidable advertising, the powers at be have made a very conscious effort to keep your focus distracted, your attention captured, and your mind occupied.

I'm not talking about the Illuminati or some wild conspiracy theory.

I am just talking about the facts.

Red Crown Marketing reported that the average adult will be exposed to upwards of 4,000 advertisements per day… and that's being conservative.

And this figure is just talking about paid advertising! It doesn't even take into account the seemingly endless stream of social media updates, blog posts, and "New Releases" on Netflix.

So with all of these different forces vying for your attention, is it any wonder why we live in an ADHD society whose attention span is rapidly decreasing to less than that of a goldfish?

Of course not.

And this is where we run into problems.

Depression and anxiety are at an all-time high, suicide (especially among men) is on the rise, and general dissatisfaction with life continues to soar despite our meteoric advances in technology.

And at the end of the day, I believe that the heart of the problem lies in one simple truth. Life is meant to be experienced not observed, and with this constant barrage of attention-stealing garbage, our society has lost the ability to simply sit back and be.

So I want to challenge you.

I don't want to challenge you to work harder, approach more women, or exercise more (although you can if you want). No, I want to challenge you to simply be.

Take time each and every day for the next ten days to simply enjoy being, to be present and fully alive in the moment.

Whether you meditate daily, take part in a "Flow-inducing" activity, or simply walk around in nature, give yourself the gift of being… It might just change your life.

2. Acceptance

Life is unpredictable, and as Murphy's Law states, "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong."

But guess what? It's ok.

Because at the end of the day, whether you believe that life has a purpose or that we are merely ashes and dust, what is done has been done, and all that you can do is to accept it.

And when you can learn to accept life, just as it comes, you will experience true freedom.

Despite your best efforts, things will happen, tragedy will strike, and pain becomes an inevitable part of existence.

But when you accept things as they are, when you can put your best effort forward while resigning responsibility for what you cannot control, you will experience a peace beyond what you thought possible.

This peace, however, is only attainable when you are truly willing to accept your circumstances and let go of the outcomes.

Yes, there are times where life will challenge you and require you to step up to the plate and swing for all that you are worth.

But there are also times where life will ask something even more difficult from you. It will ask you to surrender. It will ask you to accept the flow of life and let go of the outcomes you cannot control.

And this is possibly the greatest challenge of all.

But if you can master this one simple principle, you will find that, while life may not get easier, you will have the peace to move through any adversity.

3. Thankfulness

It is often said that "Laughter is the best medicine".

I must respectfully disagree.

In my life, and in the lives of thousands of my clients, I have found that the most powerful "medicine" for any ailment is thankfulness.

Because thankfulness is the antidote for fear, doubt, anxiety, depression, and worry.

When you are thankful for what you have, you become less stressed about what you need and want.

When you are thankful for what you have, no matter how trying the circumstances you are facing, you can face life with a smile knowing that you are blessed.

When you are thankful for what you have, you unlock a powerful ability to reframe adversity into opportunity.

When you are thankful for what you have and open up to life, life will open up to you and bring more peace and personal power than you ever thought possible.

So no matter what you are facing right now, be thankful.

It saved my life, and it might just save yours.

4. Helpfulness

We live in a funny world.

Despite the prevalence of our negative media, which showcases all of the pain and suffering around the world from the slums of Africa to the refugee camps of Syria, our society still manages to focus on itself and complain about "problems" like traffic and slow wifi.

And this twisted reality reminds me of an old personal growth adage, "Where focus goes energy flows."

You see, when we are constantly focused on ourselves, our own problems, and our own issues, the problems and struggles are magnified and amplified until they feel overwhelming.

But when we take the focus off of ourselves, when we refocus on those around us who are in dire need of help, we gain perspective and power over our problems.

While helping others might not cover your car payment, cure your sickness, or reunite you with your lost love, it will help you to remember your blessings and realize just how good your life really is.

It will reconnect you with others, help you step back from your own problems, and help you realize that you aren't doing this journey alone.

So I challenge you do help someone else this week.

Whether it's a simple phone conversation to encourage a struggling family member, a few hours spent at a soup kitchen, or simply buying someone's coffee in line at Starbucks, do something this week to help someone else.

You will be amazed at the transformation you will experience in your mindset and life.

Want to learn how to become "ultra spiritual"?

How to tap into your inner badass, open up ya chakras, and achieve a level of spiritual enlightenment that would make even Gandhi blush?

Then you're in the right place…sort of.

While you won't learn how to levitate or permanently eliminate all of your desires, my interview with JP Sears will help you achieve more success, fulfillment, and inner peace in every area of your life.

And it might make you cry from laughter.

JP Sears is one of the funniest and most down to earth guys I've ever had the pleasure of interviewing and I promise that you will leave this podcast feeling more inspired, excited, and "ultra spiritual".

Enjoy.

JP Sears is an emotional healing coach, YouTuber, author, international teacher, speaker, world traveler, and curious student of life. His work empowers people to live more meaningful lives. JP is the author of "How To Be Ultra Spiritual," (Sounds True Publishing, release date of March 7th, 2017).

He is very active with his online videos where he encourages healing and growth through his humorous and entertainingly informative videos, including his hit Ultra Spiritual comedy series, which has accumulated over 100 million views. You can learn more about JP Sears and his work at AwakenWithJP.com.

"Nothing is as it seems."

1. If Nothing is as It Seems, Then What Does this Mean?

While the above line might sound like something out of an esoteric spiritual text or a children's poetry book, its implications are profound.

As human beings, we are all incredibly delusional whether we want to admit it or not.

The very chair (or whatever inanimate object is currently supporting your weight) that you sit on is comprised of 99% empty space! And yet to us, it seems solid.

And when you stop to think about it, you will begin to realize that this concept of "Nothing as it seems" is applicable in all areas of life.

Take, for example, a common goal among many men… To date a "Perfect 10".

While most people would agree that this is a fine goal and that every man should seek to find a woman who is his own "10", when you dive deeper into the nuances of your motivation, you might begin to realize that reality is quite different from what you thought.

For the man desiring a perfect 10, his motivations might be rooted in an early childhood trauma or feelings of deep inadequacy. He may feel that he is a "1" or a "2" and that a perfect "10" would increase his value and worth.

If this is true, then he is faced with one of three options.

He can ignore this new information and uncomfortable way of viewing his desires and continue living his life as he was before.

He can relinquish his desires and move onto more "noble" pursuits.

Or he can do the deep internal work needed to elicit change in his own sense of worth and esteem so that his desire for that perfect woman comes from a place of love, wholeness, and a desire to share a life.

But remember, this is not a judgment, this is not a call to abandon all of your self-serving goals, it's not even a statement of absolute truth (if nothing is as it seems, then perhaps this isn't as it seems either).

Rather it is an invitation.

An invitation to go deeper in your life, your health, and your relationships. An invitation to figure out what is really driving you, to see situations for what they really are (or at least what you perceive they really are), and an invitation to go beyond your current level of consciousness.

You owe it to yourself to dive into your life and take a more objective look at who you are and what you want.

And you might be surprised by what you find.

2. Break Out of the Comparison Trap

One of the greatest single distractions in our modern world is the comparison trap.

And how couldn't it be?

Each and every day, we are bombarded with images of private jets, exotic cars, hot Instagram models, and juiced up "Natty's" who make us feel inadequate and completely overwhelmed.

Is it any wonder why most of us look at our own lives and feel incredibly unfulfilled?

You see, our society does its absolute best to keep us distracted, to stop us from looking inward, and to keep us contributing to the system by setting goals that aren't our own, buying things we don't need, living lifestyles we can't afford.

Because whenever we are focused on keeping up with our neighbors or looking like "That Guy" on Instagram, we will never realize that we don't need to spend thousands of dollars on clothes, cars, and supplements to be happy. In fact, almost all true fulfillment comes from within.

So I want to challenge you to stop wasting your time looking at others and start spending more time looking at yourself.

Cut out the social media, stop looking at other people's lives, and focus on yourself.

Spend time alone asking yourself what you really want and what would make you truly fulfilled.

Cut yourself off from the herd that mindlessly follows whatever new fad is trending on Facebook.

Build a life that is designed by you, with you, and for you.

3. The Mess Strengthens You

Whenever we are in the midst of adversity, it's easy to become disheartened and lose hope, to feel like there is no end in sight.

And once the adversity has passed, it's even easier to feel shameful about the struggle that we endured.

But your messy story is what strengthens you and brings power into your life.

Think about it this way.

If someone walked down the road and said "Hey, here's a gold 1st place Medal", would you really want it?

Maybe, but if you're anything like me, that medal would end up in a trash can by the side of the road.

Now I want you to imagine that you are preparing to compete in the Olympics. You've been training for the better part of a decade, you've lost sleep, injured yourself countless times, given up your social life, and all but devoted your entire life to becoming one of the best.

After a brutal and strenuous competition, you cross the finish line first, achieving victory and winning that gold medal.

How would you feel about that?

Would you carelessly discard it in one of the city's waste bins? I doubt it.

When you have bled and suffered for something so much, you cherish the journey, you treasure the medal, and you revel in the victory.

And this same principle is true in life.

If you aren't struggling to achieve your goals, if you don't have to bleed a little bit, if you don't have any scars, then how valuable will it really feel?

The mess that you are going through, the proverbial "River of Shit" that you must swim through, that's what makes it worthwhile, and that's what makes your story worth telling.

So learn to feed off the mess, feel strengthened by the struggle, and revel in the pain… Because these are the things that make success worth it.

4. Feel Your Freaking Feelings

As men, we are good at thinking about things.

We think about problems, we think about solutions, we think about the future, we think about the past, and, unfortunately, we think about our feelings.

But by their very nature, our feelings are meant to be felt not analyzed and thought about.

Society has spent so much time trying to drill the dogmas that "Real men don't cry" and "Tough guys don't show emotion" into our head, that, as men, we have lost touch with our feelings.

We are no longer able to just feel things without assigning judgment or coming up with some sort of action plan to remedy or enhance the feeling.

And because of this disconnection, we have also become disconnected with ourselves.

We no longer know how to feel fully, we no longer remember how to simply sit in our emotions and allow the feelings of the moment to wash over us.

In order to help you reconnect with your feelings, JP recommends that you follow what he calls the "Feel Your Fucking Feelings" meditation.

During this meditation, you simply pick one sensation in your body, whether it is positive or negative, and just feel it.

Don't think about it, don't analyze it, don't try and fix it… Just feel it.

If you sit down and immediately feel a cramp in your back, then just feel that sensation.

If you sit down and feel a build up of energy in your stomach, just feel it.

If you want to become "Ultra Spiritual" then you must reconnect with yourself and learn how to feel again.

5. Success is About Being Ok with Who You Are

Success, true success, doesn't come from the amount of money in your bank account or single digit body fat or dating a Victoria's Secret model.

True success comes from your ability to be yourself fully, completely, and unapologetically.

When you are totally comfortable with who you are, and you don't feel the need to apologize for being you, then you are a success.

But this is easier said than done.

Because we are our own worst critics, and oftentimes, the person who want to be gets in the way of the person we were born to be.

There's really no wisdom JP or myself can impart to make this journey easier.

Success is simple. It's about learning to love yourself and be ok with who you are.

Getting to that point will be hard, but I promise you that it will be worth it.

Jordan Harbinger, once referred to as "The Larry King of podcasting," is a Wall Street lawyer turned talk show host, social dynamics expert, and entrepreneur.

After hosting a top 50 iTunes podcast for over a decade that enjoyed nearly four million downloads a month at its zenith, Jordan has embarked on a new adventure: The Jordan Harbinger Show, where he deconstructs the playbooks of the most successful people on earth and shares their strategies, perspectives, and insights with the rest of us.

Jordan's business sense, extensive knowledge of the industry, and contemporary approach to teaching make him one of the best and most sought-after coaches in the world.

You can learn more about Jordan and follow his new podcast at jordanharbinger.com

Or click here to get access to Jordan's free networking course.

"Fortune favors the prepared"

1. Focus on the Right Things

Ironically, one of the most difficult tasks in any endeavor, whether it's fitness, relationships, or business is not mastering any given skill, but learning which skills to focus on in the first place.

The ability to select the skills most pertinent to your success will often be the difference between hitting your goals and being the guy who's 10-years into a business getting beaten by 20-year olds who've just launched their company.

So many people will dive into a new endeavor or new company and they will focus on skills that aren't completely relevant to their long-term success.

For example, I see lots of guys running towards the social media marketing game thinking that all they need to understand is how to run a good Facebook ad. But in reality, their time would be better spent learning the nuances of sales and marketing which are the basis for their entire business model.

Take some time to figure out exactly what skills you need in order to succeed, and once you know what you need, go out and master them

2. Pick a Craft and Commit to Mastering It

Most millennials want a quick fix. They want an easy solution. They want instant gratification.

And this is why they're failing.

Success is not easy, but it is simple. If you can find the 2-3 skills required to succeed in your niche, and then commit to mastering those skills over the course of 15-20 years, you will create tremendous levels of success for yourself.

For example, since 2006, Jordan has been laser focused on mastering the arts of research and interviewing. Before every new interview, he compiles extensive research to fully understand his new guest and unravel potential threads of conversation. On the weekends, he works with a vocal coach to ensure that he has impeccable tonality while conducting his interview. Every single day he does something to help him improve as an interviewer.

And his results don't lie.

If you want to succeed in any industry, whether it's e-commerce, marketing, podcasting, coaching, or sales, then you must commit to mastery.

Understand the commitment level required to succeed at a high level and devote the next 10-20 years of your life to totally mastering a small set of skills that will bring you massive amounts of success.

3. Most People Are Delusional

Most people think that they want to be "successful".

They think that they want to run a huge business, make millions of dollars, and live a lifestyle that will make them Instagram famous.

But in actuality, most of these people only like the idea of succeeding at such a high level.

When the rubber meets the road and they are required to wake up early, cold call hundreds of businesses, and sacrifice time with their family and children to make the business work, they collapse under the pressure and quit.

The problem is that most people don't realize what it really takes to achieve the goals that they have set. And while they will tell you that they are willing to sacrifice anything to succeed and achieve, when the time comes to actually do it, they are nowhere to be found.

Most people are running around believing the garbage that they see on Instagram and thinking that with some careful outsourcing they can magically make millions from their phone.

It's a load of bullshit and the people trying to sell it to you typically work harder than you'd ever want to do!

I don't say any of this to discourage you.

If you have a dream, know the costs, and have decided that it's worth it to you, then go and do it!

But be careful who you believe and what dream you pursue, because if you don't, failure is all but inevitable.

4. Don't Force Yourself to Make Short-Term Plays

Conventional wisdom tells you to "Burn your boats so that you can take the island", and while this philosophy does have its merits, its also has a number of holes.

Whenever you "Burn your boats" you force yourself to make short term plays because you are building your business from a point of desperation instead of inspiration.

For example, if you are currently working as a server and trying to build an online clothing store on the side, don't quit your job to pursue your business full time.

If you do, then you will be forced to compromise your long-term vision in order to make short-term plays like paying the bills and keeping your inventory stocked.

If you keep your current job, no matter how much you dislike it, you have a level of security that will allow you to design your business around your ultimate vision. When you aren't stressed about putting food on the table, you will be able to approach your business with a level head and think about the long game.

5. Balance is Bullshit

Most people who tell you that you can "Have it all" are trying to sell you something.

While plenty of gurus and thought leaders like to peddle this idea of a balanced life, in my experience, there's almost always a compromise.

Certainly, there are many people who reach a comfortable level of success financially and then refocus on their family, their health, and their community, and this is great!

There are also a number of people like Grant Cardone who have learned how to incorporate their spouse, their family, and their social life into their businesses, allowing them to create a (seemingly) balanced life.

But anyone who tells you that you can build a 7, 8, 9, or even 10-figure empire while living a "Balanced life" is trying to sell you some bullshit.

Achieving true excellence in anything requires sacrifice in many things.

If you want to build a wildly successful company, you will have to sacrifice time with your family.

If you want to build a wildly successful marriage, you will have to let go of your desire to drive the business forward the same way you did when you were single.

If you want high levels of success in anything, it will inevitably require high levels of sacrifice in something else.

Despite what the gurus told you… balance is bullshit.

Ryan Nicodemus (and his partner Joshua Fields Milburn) help over 20 million people live meaningful lives with less through their website, books, podcast, and documentary. The Minimalists have been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, Forbes, TIME, ABC, CBS, NBC, BBC, CBC, and NPR. You can connect with him and learn more at www.theminimalists.com/start/

"It's not a matter of being busy, so are the ants. The question is: What are you busy about?" ~Henry David Thoreau

"Love people and use things because the opposite never works."

1. Embrace the Drudgery

Conventional wisdom states that "If you do something you love, you will never work a day in your life". Unfortunately, as nice as the sentiment sounds, the reality is quite different.

If you want to succeed at anything in life, you are going to have to work and let me tell you, there will be times that, no matter how much you love what you do, the work will feel like endless drudgery.

I believe that a more accurate statement is, "If you love what you do, you will be able to stomach the hard work."

Ryan loves sharing his message with millions of people across the world, but he doesn't always love the daily grind of writing, marketing, and speaking.

I love empowering men all over the world to achieve their full potential, but I don't always love managing employees, testing marketing campaigns, or putting out fires.

Because we love what we do, we are able to handle the drudgery.

That doesn't make the work any more pleasant or any easier, but it does give those difficult tasks a greater sense of meaning and purpose.

This extends beyond the realm of business too. Think about dating and relationships.

Just because you are madly in love with someone doesn't mean that the relationship will not take hard work.

There will be fights, there will be disagreements, there will be times when your partner is struggling and you need to stand by and support them. And guess what? It's hard. But if you truly love that person, it's also worth it.

So embrace the drudgery, realize that you will have to work and you will have to work hard.

But remember that if you are working on something you love, the drudgery will be worth every second of pain.

2. Get Clear on the Massive Action You Need to Take

The first step to success in any endeavor is gaining clarity on what you want to achieve. The second step is gaining clarity on the actions you must take in order to manifest that dream and bring it into reality.

Knowing what you want is not enough, you must have a very clear blueprint for the specific actions you are going to take in order to achieve your end game.

Do you want to be financially independent? Great! Now, what specific actions are you willing to take in order to achieve that goal? Will you work 10-12 hours a day for the next five years? Will you devote all of your free time to your side hustle? Will you break off friendships that are dragging you down and keeping you mediocre? What are you going to do to make it happen?

Do you want to be the healthiest man possible? Great! Now, what are you going to do to bring that goal to fruition? Will you give up drinking, smoking, and drugs? Will you commit to training 5 times a week? Will you cut out sugar, gluten, and processed foods? What are you going to do to make it happen?

You see, it's great to set goals, but most people forget that every worthwhile goal requires massive action.

And before you set out to achieve a goal, you need to have a very clear picture of what it is that you are willing to sacrifice and what actions you are willing to take in order to achieve your dreams.

3. Giving is Living

While this might sound cliche and overplayed, the secret to living truly is giving.

Don't get me wrong, it's fun to live for yourself. It's fun to focus on your own happiness. It's fun to do your own thing and give a single finger salute to the world.

But how long will it fulfill you?

When you stumble home drunk for the fourth night this week, a random girl from the bar on your arm, and unlock the door to your penthouse apartment, you're having fun. But after a while, you will find that the endless cycle of living for yourself and your needs becomes tiring, and the very things that once brought you immense joy and happiness now leave you with a profound emptiness and a voice in your head asking "Is this it?"

Life isn't meant to be lived for yourself.

It's meant to be a shared journey.

And if you are struggling to find fulfillment in your current life, then I want to challenge you to refocus your intentions and desires on giving back.

It doesn't have to be a huge gesture either.

Commit to giving away $5 a day in a creative way. Do one random act of kindness a week. Volunteer at a soup kitchen a few hours each month. Do something that gets you out of your bubble and allows you to give back.

Because not only will you be contributing to the greater good, but you will also be reminding yourself of just how good your life really is. It will help you remember what is truly important and it will reframe your current struggles and put your problems into perspective.

And what's more? It will give you a profound sense of inner peace and fulfillment.

The secret to living truly is giving.

So the only question I want to ask you is this… What are you going to give?

4. You Must Know Your Values and Beliefs

In life, you will often be presented with difficult decisions.

You will find yourself at a crossroads where both paths seem appealing and you are unable to determine exactly which route to take.

During these times of decision, it is imperative that you have a deep understanding of what it is you truly value and what brings you the most fulfillment and joy.

To use a classic example, imagine that you are offered a promotion at work.

The promotion will more than double your salary but it will also take you away from your family and children and will require you to travel 3 weeks out of the month.

What should you do?

The answer depends on your values.

Do you value financial independence and leaving a legacy? If so, then the best course of action might be to take the promotion, be more intentional about the time that you get to spend with your family, and use the influx of cash to create a better quality of life (and guarantee a better future) for the people you love.

Do you value your relationships and your influence over your children's development? If so, then forget the promotion and spend your time pouring into your children and shaping their future.

There are no right or wrong answers with these types of decisions.

But every big decision is predicated on your unique value system and beliefs.

So you'd better be damn sure that you take some time to define exactly what those are before you go making life altering moves.

5. Happiness Isn't the Purpose of Life

Many people believe that happiness is the purpose of life.

But, as we alluded to in a previous point, this is far from the truth.

If happiness is all that we are here for, then 99% of the population should say "Fuck it!" and become a heroin addict.

Afterall, it'll make you happy right? I mean it will make you really happy for every waking hour of your day.

But I think you and I both know that there is more to life than just feeling good.

While I don't pretend to know what the meaning of life is, I can tell you with 100% certainty that it is not manic levels of happiness.

Life is about the journey, it's about contribution, and it's about living in accordance with your own unique values and beliefs.

And even though I cannot tell you what you should do in your own specific situation, I can tell you that you must have a much higher purpose and calling than happiness.

Because if happiness is your end game, then you should expect to live the majority of your life in an unfulfilling and unproductive way.

Tom Bilyeu is the co-founder and President of Quest Nutrition, the second fastest growing privately owned company in the United States (currently valued at over $1 billion). He is also the founder of Impact Theory, a show dedicated to helping you achieve your limitless potential.

"Do and believe that which moves you towards your goals"

Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.

1. Find That Thing That Makes You Feel Alive

We live in an age of unprecedented freedom.

Never before in the history of the human race have there been so many options available to so many members of the general populace.

In the 21st century, our options and opportunities, like our potential, are nearly limitless.

Traveling across the globe is easier than it's ever been, growing your brand and authority has never been so scalable, and the ability to build a wildly successful business is now open to anybody with access to the internet.

And yet…

Despite the tremendous number of resources and the almost limitless amount of opportunity circulating the modern economy, recent polls still indicate that nearly 70% of the American workforce is disengaged with their career!

How can this be?

In an era of unparalleled choices and opportunity more than two-thirds of the entire nation spends 40+ hours of their week doing something they hate!

While every individual is different and each circumstance is unique, I personally believe that the primary reason for this disconnect is simple.

People are scared.

They are scared that pursuing their dreams will be hard, they are scared that following their passions will be too difficult, and they are scared that they will fail.

But guess what?

Regardless of the path you choose to pursue, there will be challenges, there will obstacles, and there will be hardships. The struggle is an inevitable part of the human condition.

No matter what path you choose to pursue, you will face challenges and trials, you will fail, and you will probably want to quit more than just once. But, if you decide to pursue that thing that makes you come alive, the thing that lights a fire inside of you, the thing that you are willing to devote the rest of your life to…

Nothing will stop you.

2. Tailor Your Activities to Achieve Cognitive Optimization

Since Tom founded one of the fastest growing health and nutrition companies in the world, it should come as little surprise that one of his "Secrets to success" is methodically optimizing his cognitive performance.

No matter what goal you are pursuing, you will need to be operating at full blast in order to effectively make decisions, execute on ideas, and move the needle forward.

And the quickest way to improve your own performance is to optimize the performance of the gray matter in between your ears.

But how does one actually do this? How do you totally optimize your mind without spending thousands of dollars on supplementation, smart drugs, and crazy bio-hacking equipment?

The truth is surprisingly unsexy.

For Tom, it all starts with sleep. He is in bed every night by 9 p.m. and only wakes up whenever he feels rested and ready to attack the day. This is crucial to ensuring optimal brain performance since the majority of memory, association, and cellular repair happens while we are asleep.

After optimizing his sleep, Tom will then head to the gym every single morning, flooding his brain and body with dopamine, endorphins, and endocannabinoids and getting his mind and body into a peak state.

With his workout concluded, Tom will sit in silence to spend time "Thinkitating" which is, as Tom puts it, "Applying the afterglow of meditation to solve the greatest challenges in your life."

Basically, after concluding a short meditation session using Mark Divine's box breathing technique, he will sit back and consciously contemplate the greatest challenges he's facing in his life allowing his mind and subconscious to search for an answer to the problem.

Then, with his exercise and thinkitation done, Tom hits the books and will consciously spend an hour or more each morning filling his mind with ideas from the best and brightest individuals on the planet.

Tom attributes much of his success to this "Cognitive optimization morning routine".

It's not complicated, it doesn't require much equipment, and it can be done from anywhere in the world.

If you want a more detailed description of the Impact Theory Morning Routine, you can check out this article for more info.

3. Always Focus on Delivering More Value than Expected

Imagine for a moment that you are purchasing a product and deciding between two different companies.

For the sake of the argument (and since Tom is the founder of a fitness nutrition company) let's assume that the companies in question are selling a muscle gain supplement.

After years of research company A found a formula that helps their clients get results and they decided to follow the age-old advice "If it ain't broke don't fix it".

Company B, however, is never satisfied and they continue dumping thousands of dollars a month into sourcing higher quality ingredients, finding new ways to improve their formula, and delivering more value to the end customer.

Who do you think will win?

Even though Company A has a "good" product that provides real value to their customers, Company B is unwilling to settle for "good enough".

And let me tell you, one of the biggest traps that entrepreneurs fall into is the trap of "Good enough".

Because the second that you stop improving your product, service, or experience somebody else who is hungrier, more motivated, and more driven than you are will steal your customers and leave you in the dust.

You must constantly improve the value that you bring to the marketplace and look for new and unique ways to expand your services to help more people.

Because at the end of the day, you will be paid in direct proportion to the amount of value that you give. And if you do more than you are paid for now, you will be paid for more than you do later.

4. Email is the Greatest Thief of Productivity

While it might seem a little bit superfluous to devote an entire key point of this interview to the topic of email, I want you to consider for a moment that the average American is estimated to spend a total of 3.2 hours per day just checking work related emails (this doesn't include personal correspondence).

That's almost half of their work day devoted entirely to the largely pointless act of reaching inbox zero.

During our interview, Tom admitted to having over 6,000 unopened emails sitting in his inbox and told us that he will typically look at his emails only twice a week for a few minutes.

According to conventional wisdom, there's no way that he could effectively run a successful company spending so little time devoted to email, and yet he's the Co-founder of one of the nation's fastest growing companies.

If you want to become truly successful at the game of business, then you must learn to focus only on profit-producing activities.

Email is not one of those.

5. You Will Never Eliminate Pride, So Use It

While many philosophers and teachers preach the importance of eliminating pride, anyone with a basic understanding of the human condition knows that pride is an inherent part of our existence and will never be removed.

So if we cannot eliminate our pride, then what are we supposed to do?

The simple answer? Use it.

Pride and ego can actually be a phenomenal tool if they are focused on the right things.

Specifically, learning to develop immense pride around your focus on the processes, not your outcomes.

What do I mean by this?

Well, instead of priding yourself on how smart you are (which will likely lead to careless mistakes) develop immense pride in your commitment to your education.

Instead of priding yourself on your physique, strength, or endurance (all of which can be taken away with one injury) develop immense pride in your physical work ethic and desire to improve your body.

Learn to take pride in who you are instead of what you are and you will find that pride becomes an asset instead of a liability.