Maximus here, and today is the day you and I put pen to paper and take dreams from the Sleep realm, to where they belong: into reality!

As promised, last week I told you I'd share with you some questions you can ask yourself to get into the mindset of achieving more. I recommend you 

Maximus’ Questionnaire

Download a PDF version here to print out.

These sorts of questions are meant to drive creative thought, get you thinking about your blind spots and shortcomings, and show you a path to overcome them.

Putting pen to paper is how you’ll get something out of this exercise.  Simply answering the questions in your head doesn’t have nearly the same level of psychological effect.

In closing, I'll leave you with an idea I got from Steve Chandler who, along with many other books, wrote, “The Prosperous Coach”. While it's written to a coach audience, this quote applies to athletes and weightlifters and humans in general. 

Think on this:

The struggling *person* has huge dreams that overwhelm them. The professional *person* has huge dreams and takes tiny steps every day.”

(I substituted “person” for “coach”)

May you be inspired to take action today like never before!

Wanna get more shit done?

I do.

Want 3 powerful strategies to “create” time and get shit done (GSD) in your day?

Okay, but before I do...this is how I think about productivity:

Working on tasks is USELESS, Completing tasks is EVERYTHING.

That idea speaks to my enduring disdain for “Being Busy.” You probably know plenty of people who are “always busy” and never getting anything COMPLETED. 

If you see yourself in that statement, here are those three tactics to end “the busy,” and get MORE done...

1) STOP TRYING

What does “try” even mean? Trying is not the same as doing. What is the difference? Remember that feelings drive actions. “I will TRY to do that” is not the same as “I WILL do that”. Think about how each of those different sentences drive different feelings and emotions, which will likely yield different results.

2) STOP DISTRACTIONS

 A distraction is an agitation of your mind. A distraction is stopping what you're doing to do something else and not get what you were doing, done. Distractions pull us away from progress and since our minds are all naturally lazy they would much rather rest. It takes a conscious effort to ignore distractions and keep our brains working.

One of the easiest ways to minimize distractions is to make them harder.

I’ll give you one real life example for me.  When we started REALLY growing on Amazon, I developed a habit of checking my phone every 15-20 minutes to check for new orders.

By simply putting my phone on the other side of my office, I didn’t have easy access to it so that habit was broken after a couple weeks.

3) STOP MULTITASKING

There is no such thing as multitasking.

Accept this reality right now.

Trying to do more than one thing at a time means getting less done because it takes time to shift from one task to another. Getting closure in one task before moving on to the next typically yields much MUCH better results in the long term because you generate momentum, which frankly is the secret to productivity.

There you have it! Three of my most effective tactics for getting shit done. 

Hopefully one or more of those resonate with you, and you will take Massive Action today to implement the ideas into your routine and get better results than ever before! 

Have a GSD-filled day!

Today I’d like to address some very common thinking you might relate to, what I call “past-thinking.”

“It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up.” – Vince Lombardi

I think this is also mentioned once or twice in one of the Rocky movies.

Many well-intentioned people say to our customer service team: 

“I’d like to get back to my high school weight,” or 

“I’d like to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight.”

Today I suggest to you this is counter-productive. See, the problem with wanting to go back is that many of us have been trying to attain those goals, and have been met with failure. 

When we define our goals by some point in our past, I think many humans include the failure, regret and frustration not attaining those goals represents.

It can be easy to become discouraged and feel hopeless about our current goals. 

What I recommend instead is to accept my past exactly as it should have been.

Perfect, even. 

From here, I choose to move forward, toward the future, applying my energy into the NOW and what I might become. 

It’s much more productive for me this way.

After all, the past is gone. There is no going back! The good news is, you and I can OWN our future. We can, starting right now, create a future that’s better than our past. We do not have to be defined by who we used to be!

If you ever find yourself saying things like:

“That’s the way I’ve always been.”

“That’s how I’ve always done it.”

Those are clear signs that you’re being defined by your PAST. Your past does not have any more control over you than you give it!

--->Right now, and every moment, you have a choice to refuse to be controlled by your past!

--->Right now, you can take charge of your NOW and create a future based on what you want, rather than what you’ve done.

It’s time to look to the road ahead, to create the future you want. Your past set you up to be the person you are today, and right now it’s time to get excited about the future.

You got this!

In 1989, the overall #1 pick in the NFL draft was a young player from UCLA.

His 12 seasons as the starting quarterback for a team in Texas was a star-studded career...

This man was Troy Aikman.

During Troy’s career, the Dallas Cowboys were so feared, most teams went to the stadium with the expectation of LOSING!

Why?

I would argue those teams were way too deferential. They feared their own inferiority. 

Or both...

Fear is unhealthy and one of the worst things you can fall into. 

Fearing your opponents, who or whatever they might be, automatically makes those things seem bigger, faster and smarter than they really are.

Thus, there is a great advantage to be found in being UNIMPRESSED.

Take a look at current presidents, kings, so-called titans of industry, celebrities and billionaires; you can easily find plenty of reasons to be completely unimpressed. 

Don’t fall into the intimidation trap.

Be unimpressed. Notice this in the DNA of every underdog story… you too can cultivate the fine art of being unimpressed. 

Remember, courage isn’t the absence of fear--it’s the ability to ACT, despite the presence of fear.

Try this out, and let me know if you don’t find yourself winning more than ever.

Be brave!

I don’t hang out in bars, but I was having a drink with a good friend while I was on a business trip and I literally heard two groups of people more or less say the same thing.

Let me paraphrase it.

What I processed was this:

“I’ve been flat broke, but the second I got some money in my checking account, I found a way to spend it here today.”

I see this EVERYWHERE and frankly, whenever someone asks me how to become an entrepreneur, I say this to them...

Say you wake up tomorrow with $10,000,000 wired into your bank account...paint me a picture of what your entire day would look like.

If at ANY point, they mention something about buying something beyond their means, I will literally stop them in their tracks and say they’re not mentally ready.

You might be wondering now...

What’s that got to do with lifting big ass dumbbells at the gym? 

Stick with me for a sec….

What’s the number one stressor most Americans worry, lose sleep and divorce over?

That’s right.

Your financial security, by this logic, has a considerable impact on how relaxed and stress-free your gym workouts can be.

Now, I’m no dummy--I know talking about money is taboo. And I wouldn’t bring it up, if the statistics weren’t so troubling.

According to a Careerbuilder study, 78 percent of American workers report they are living paycheck to paycheck. 

40% of Americans, according to CBS can’t cover a $400 emergency out of pocket.

I truly hope you’re not one of them.

If you are one of the 4 in 5 who’s worried, here are NINE tips I developed when I was $65,000 in debt, had 4 credit cards maxed out with only $92 in my bank account that you can use today, to ease the burden:

1. Make More Money - If you work for someone...pick up a copy of Seth Godin’s book “Linchpin” and become a freakin’ monster at your job to the point where they can’t afford to lose you.

2. Snowball your way out of it-- List out all of the debts you owe from smallest to biggest. Focus on knocking out the smallest debts with ALL of your excess money first while making the minimum payments on everything else.

3. Sell crap you don’t need-Have a garage sale or list them on Craigslist.

4. Negotiate with your bill providers-there’s services like BillCutterz who will hound service providers you’re using to negotiate lower rates.

5. Stop shopping at convenience stores-- It's the little things that add up to the big things.

6. Eliminate subscriptions-- Get rid of your cable subscription and go to the library; drop your Amazon Prime membership and build patience with 3-day shipping instead of 2.

7. If you’re going to shop online, be smart about it- Use apps like Honey to scour the internet for discounts.

8. Commit to saving- Be intentional, set a goal and save. 

9. Stop trying to keep up with the Joneses-- This lies at the root of most people’s money problems.

Here’s the crazy part.

I STILL DO MOST OF THESE THINGS!!!!

As hard or as crazy as this might sound, making money isn’t the hard part.  Holding onto it is!

Here’s to your financial health--and less stressful workouts, moving forward.

Have you ever heard someone talking about “making really good money?”

Do you make “good money?” I always crack up when I hear that phrase, because of how subjective this is.

$15 an hour is “good money” (a lot) for some, and $150 an hour is “bad money” (not enough), for others.

But the hard numbers leave out what I see as the crucial metric:

Do you ENJOY what you DO for money?

Beyond the dollar amount you earn, what’s really at stake here is the life you’re creating through the actions you take each day. 

Now, I don’t know what you do personally, or if you’re happy doing it. What I hope to give you in the next 2 minutes are a couple things to think about, which absolutely changed my working life. 

--->First, (predictably) a story. This one comes from a book called “Delivering Happiness,” A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose.

(It’s by Tony Hsieh, founder of Zappos, the giant online shoe company.) I highly recommend the book, for reasons which will be obvious in a moment…

First, the story:

A Zappos employee’s husband passed away in tragic style, back in 2007. The wife’s first call was to her manager at Zappos. 

The manager, hearing the devastating news, “showed great compassion and gave me sound advice to calm me. She assured that I shouldn’t be concerned with anything else but to take care of myself and family, and that--day or night--I should call her if I needed anything. After she gave me every single one of her phone numbers, I knew she meant it.”

Further the manager reassured her she shouldn’t feel pressure to return to work, and offered to cater the funeral. Robin’s visiting family heard about this stuff and couldn’t believe these kind of gestures were given by a workplace. 

Robin said, “Wonderful. That’s what Zappos is.”

Wrapping up, Robin talked about her “extended family” at Zappos who supported and showed friendship, was her “refuge and healing place that gave me everything I needed to continue with my life.”

(paperback, pp. 178-9)

Wow.

You might be thinking, my job’s nothing like that…

Or, I wish I had a boss like that…

--->Well, I’m here to express the idea that you can experience something like Zappos, if you’re willing to put the work in, first. 

While most people complain about their jobs, their co-workers, their clients and customers (not to mention their bosses), you can be Crazy. You can be different, and I guarantee you, your results will be that much better.

Today’s email is meant to inspire you. To motivate you. To supercharge your creative juices and enable you to find, or make your workplace into the best it possibly can be.

Remember, you don’t have to accept things the way they are. Here at Crazy Muscle, for instance, we talk about each other as if we’re a big family. Because look... that’s what we are.

From each team member, to our partners and our customers… we’re simply a dysfunctional family who wants nothing but the best for one another.

And sometimes it can be bumpy (soooo like a family) and challenging. But we stick together, because we have a clear mission…

To support you in achieving your biggest, crazy goals--and making *truly* good money while you’re at it!

Here’s the thing…

If you EVER need anything, I along with my entire team are here for you...SERIOUSLY!

All you need to do is ASK!

Last week’s email was all about how to get better sleep. And a lot of you said you loved the tips… but this week, it hit me:

I left something really important out!

I purposely didn’t give you one GIANT piece of the puzzle... something that transcends the little tactics--it’s an overarching strategy that counterintuitively impacts the whole process.

Before I dive into the secret, let me tell you a quick story about a man named Ivy Lee.

He was a productivity consultant who helped Charles Schwab’s executive team massively improve their productivity in 1918.

Requesting a 15-minute interview with each of the executives, he went over a dead-simple process with them that many of them probably scratched their heads thinking “...then what’s next?”

I’ve adopted the “Ivy Lee method” and it’s critical to my day. I know, a planning process doesn't sound sexy, or even like it has much (if anything) to do with sleep, but if you’ve ever gotten in bed and realized you were thinking about something you had to do the next day, there’s a great chance it impacted your sleep.

And not in a good way.

So here’s my decidedly UN-sexy daily planning process which, if you’re not already using some version of, will absolutely help you in your quest for great sleep.

Step 1: Write down no more than 6 things you need to get done tomorrow

Step 2: Rank these 6 tasks and their numerical level of importance

Step 3: Know that when you wake up, do your morning routine and get to work, you know exactly what you’ll be doing

By having tomorrow planned to the hour (some might prefer even more scrupulous time segments), I find that I am able to drift off to sleep much more peacefully since I know exactly what I’ll be doing when I wake up in the morning. 

I’ve gotten everything I need to do, off my mind, and am able to easily, quickly slip into dreamland. 

SUCCESS!

Another day starts with bountiful energy and a clear plan. Try it for a week and email me your results!

To your best night’s sleep AND your most productive day!

One of the best, yet least-commonly heard pieces of advice I know is this...

“If you want to experience a terrific quality of life, remember: you’ll spend almost your entire life in two places:

So don’t bargain shop on either of those items!”

One of the most common pitfalls that high achievers make is with their sleep. 

Are you doing everything you can, to ensure the very best sleep possible?

Many are not...

In fact, we as a group tend to push a little too hard, for too long. 

Among the Hustlers of the World, burnout is insanely common.  I’ve experienced it more times than I care to admit so I did something about it. 

I hired a performance coach who taught me things I honestly didn’t believe at first.... But because of what I learned (and experienced), I’ll never handicap myself with a bad night of sleep ever again.

Here’s the crazy part.

You might even be able to fix the problem simply by adjusting WHEN you workout:

 The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research did a study which showed definitively that lifting weights in the morning helped subjects fall asleep about 45 minutes faster, while lifting in the evening improved the quality of sleep.

So, if you’re finding yourself short on time to rest, consider working out in the evening. 

If you’re tossing and turning after lights out, stick with the morning workouts.

And hey, if you need both, faster and better sleep--and aren’t into two-a-days--another study suggests adding some walking, or medium-intensive cardio to your daily routine.

Walking has been tied to achieving both, falling asleep faster and better quality sleep.

While there are about 2.6 billion (seriously) articles online about getting better sleep, here are a few I’ve personally adopted into my own routine:

And here are two strategies to get started if you’ve never been intentional with your sleep:

While writing about sleep is incredibly subjective and you might NOT benefit from any of these, it’s my opinion that springing for a quality mattress, some really nice sheets and pillows will make a difference that’s a terrific multiple of the investment.

In closing, remember that your longevity has been clearly linked with regular sleep patterns, so if at all possible, try to use these tips and establish a consistent daily schedule.

Are you one of those perfect people who never hits the snooze button, never has a bad attitude or never misses a workout?

Really? No complacency? Never been in a rut?

If so, you can skip this message…

Obviously, nobody is going  to skip this message so read on because this email is for you (and especially me)!

Since you’re still reading, I’m assuming you’re like the rest of us humans, and subject to distraction, fatigue and stale routines. We’ve all been there, and even the best of us occasionally need a change of pace or a new twist to an old routine.

That’s why, in today’s message I’d like to gift you with 10 strategies I use to break out of the funk and get reinvigorated for my next workout.

What's getting you going?

Do you know anyone who doesn’t act their age?

Most of us do, and usually it’s a bad thing… not so, with Josephina Monestario, who started bodybuilding at age 59.

Instead of following the herd, and letting gravity and time take their toll, Josephina has spent the past 12 years taking care of her body at a level most of us won’t achieve, at any age.

How’d she achieve such incredible results? Here is Josephine’s “recipe”:

Notice the emphasis on spirituality and being outdoors preceeds the screen activity and indoor gym activity.

The afternoon portion of her “recipe” includes:

Every day.

“My workout is sacred… I keep a very tight schedule so I don’t lose track of time, Josephina says.

What I like most about her approach isn’t the workouts--which are amazing--rather, it’s the little things she refuses, which, in my mind, are what really gives her the ability to separate herself from the typical senior.

For instance…

Josephina won’t take the senior discount in stores. “If I concede, then it means I believe in the system… I pay my full amount, and continue to live the way I want to, regardless of my age.”

Continuing, Josephina said:

“One of the things I’ve been thinking … is that we should never give up on ourselves… Give yourself the opportunity to fail. Don’t let fear be stronger than the excitement of being yourself and winning!”

Amen to that!

It’s no fun playing small in life--or accepting what life throws at us! We’ve got to expect things to go wrong, and it’s OK. 

Look, nobody will live a perfect life.  Everybody falls at some point, but the ones who succeed are the ones who try to understand how to not repeat the mistake and get up at least one more time than they get knocked down.

I hate how movies and the media portray entrepreneurs as being in their 20’s and having huge $100 million dollar exits driving around Lamborghini’s and living in high-rise penthouses.

It’s EXTREMELY rare when first-time entrepreneurs knock it out of the park with their first business.

The average age of an entrepreneur who makes a big exit is 47.

I’ve never met an entrepreneur or someone who is in crazy good shape who doesn’t have a treasure chest of battle scars and failure stories.

I’m telling you right now… you’re going to fall, maybe multiple times but we’re here every step of the way to pick you up and help you figure out your next step.