When it comes to staying healthy, it is really simple to do and it would be easy to do if there were no distractions, no junk food, no television to keep us up all night, and nothing to stress you out, but this is not how the world is. It's not easy to get the results you want but it is simple for the most part. 

For a budget, it's simple, just save money and don't spend more than you make but there are things that could prevent you from maintaining a budget like an unexpected trip to the hospital. If you had been actively putting money into an emergency fund on a monthly basis, then it would be an easy burden to get through but then we have friends that want to go on vacations and there are shiny objects that we want to buy. So we have to overcome these temptations and most of the time we fail if we are not prepared to handle them. So get better at overcoming the obstacles to success and just follow the simple process to get the success that you want.

Journal Prompts

1. What can happen to your life if you fail to follow the simple tasks that give you success and freedom?
2. How can you ensure that you do the things that are simple but not easy to do?

This book is filled with simple and cliche quotes and we tend to ignore this guidance because it seems too easy to follow. But why do we want to make our lives more challenging then they have to be? Most of the time a simple approach is the best approach. It might not be easy or comfortable like getting on the phone calling 50 people a day to set up appointments, but most of the time, that is required to make progress in your life. Maybe a good ratio is to spend 80% of your time doing the simple or cliche and 20% of your time focused on the next big thing. This will ensure that you're doing enough to stay in business or get that promotion but also give you an opportunity to get slingshot into a very prestigious position.

We have to do many things as a person and if we work on the few right things then we can live an easy life. To find out what are the right things to work on, just look at simple or cliche solutions and just do them.

Journal Prompts

1. What are the simple or cliche things that you should be doing more of?
2. How do you know what is the right balance between creating new things and doing things that are simple or cliche?

We don't start off as professionals and there are going to be moments of impostor syndrome. The best thing that you can do, is to keep ignoring that voice in your head that says you can't do something and keep moving forward. 

The day you become a professional is the day you start calling yourself a professional. Then you just do what professionals do. If you don't know how to do something, try experimenting with different techniques and receive feedback until you can do it. Eventually, after enough faking what you think you know, you will start to see patterns on how to create better products and services. And then you'll start making the amount that a professional makes.

There is always room to grow into a position and you have time to learn strategies and tactics to become a professional while you fake the funk for a while. The only day you become an amateur is the day you stop working on your craft. If you work on it every day and get incrementally better, you will become the person you were meant to be. 

Journal Prompts

1. How can you act like a professional in the areas that you feel inadequate in?
2. How does acting like an amateur not help you achieve your goals? Explain.

When you do something, it can be against your best interest for your future self but it feels really good in the moment. When it comes to diets and exercise, it feels good to lay on the couch all day and eat pizza but done over a long period of time can lead to an unhealthier future version of yourself. 

So we need to be reminded that our future depends on the actions that we take today. When it comes to saying no to the temptations, just to remember your why you need to be healthy. It will mean that you have more energy to spend with your family and have less joint pain in your golden year. Or that you won't have to buy larger clothes for your larger frame and have more confidence in yourself.

When it comes to avoiding desserts, say something, "I don't need sweets because I am sweet enough." We need to be reminded why we are maintaining our healthy behaviors and whatever system you use that works, keep on doing it. And keep doing it for your future self because their survival is dependent on what you do today.

Journal Prompts

1. What are some affirmations that you can tell yourself to help you protect your future self?
2. How can you think about your future self and how your actions today will affect this person?

We have to realize that the world doesn't revolve around us, we revolve around the world. The stage is already set up by the time you are born but you are the director, the producer, and the actor of that stage. How you do all three will determine the life you will have. Are you going to be a good actor or a bad actor? 

The choice is yours and we just need to realize that it will be easy if you know how to act. So take some acting lessons, learn how to be a better director and producer, and you can live the life of an A-list celebrity.

Journal Prompts

1. How can you prevent your mind from thinking that the world revolves around you?
2. What are somethings that you can do to become a better actor/actress in this world?

If you're still holding onto feelings in the past, it's going to prevent you from moving forward with your life. You can either let go of it or address it. If you address it and the other person is not going to reconcile the issue, the best thing is just to move on and be the best person you can be. With enough time and you doing things to progress your life, you will outshine the person that doesn’t want to resolve things with you. People are not going to change and you just need to move on from the situation and just make it a learning opportunity to do better in a similar situation in the future.

When you hold onto things from your past, it will weigh you down and slow you down. It's like carrying bricks in your pack for no other reason than to make your hike more difficult. And the longer you hold on, the heavier and heavier the pack will become and eventually won't be able to move. So in order to move on and grow, you gotta let go of those things in the past and start living your life in the present. You can be a lot of happier because you're being the person you need to be.

Journal Prompts

1. What is something that you need to let go of? What is causing you to hold on?
2. What is the process that you need to take to help you let go of the thing holding you back?

When you only have one of something and that thing goes missing or it breaks, now you have none. This is why if something is really important for your success, you should have two of those things. If you have important documents, make sure to have a copy somewhere. This is why you have a spare tire for your car, in case one of your four tires gets a flat.

You can either look like a fool or a hero in a situation where the main thing doesn't work. The backup doesn't need to be good as the primary thing but it needs to get the job done. If you have to give a presentation and your powerpoint isn't working, you should have handouts and be able to do the presentation without your powerpoint. This is why two is one and you'll be the one to stand out when everyone else is trying to figure things out. 

Journal Prompts

1. What happens to your life with a situation turns out that one thing turns into none?
2. What are the areas of your life where you need two of something?

If you have the discipline to workout in your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and beyond, you'll be more likely to not have any physical ailments that hold you back from having an active lifestyle. It is easy to not go workout and watch tv or do something else instead but it will restrict your freedom in the future. 

The same method of thinking could be applied to your personal finances, career, health, and relationships. The more discipline you have to do the things that will give you a healthier future, the more freedom you will have in the future.

You will have to give up some freedoms today in terms of your leisure but it is a sacrifice that has a lot of long term benefits. Taking time to improve your inner circle today, will benefit your future self and give you the freedom to do whatever you want.

Journal Prompts

1. Are your actions today giving you the freedom that you desire in the future?
2. How can you be more disciplined with your time and actions today?

In this new economy, you have to find things that you can combine to make something different but familiar. These are where real opportunities are. My company, Grow With Joe is a financial planning company that also uses development coaching. Because you can't have money to invest unless you have a good job, and you can't have a job unless you're a competent person with your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual self. 

Financial planning is becoming very commoditized with it's investment choices and people have access to more specialized information with the internet, so adding another offer like development coaching is something that few other financial advisors are doing.

So when you're thinking about your career, try to figure out how you can combine different areas into one thing that you can be the best at. We constantly need to think about new ideas because if we don't, we will become stuck with less. This is why writing down 10 ideas a day is important so you can constantly work your mind to think more creatively and see new opportunities. So start combining ideas and see what you get.

Journal Prompts

1. How can you mix new ideas together in your job? 
2. What can you do to give yourself more ideas?

Every new idea out there is not a truly original idea. They come from the combinations of old ideas to be made into something new but familiar. If you look at Star Wars, it's a western, set in space that follows the hero's journey. So when you're thinking of new ideas, don't be afraid of combining different things into one thing like Star Wars. This combination of ideas was hugely successful for George Lucas and others have adopted this same mentality when it comes to creating new ideas. 

If you worry about trying to be truly original, it's only going to slow you down and you need to think of a lot of different ideas to help you in your life. To create this book, I took the idea for my love of quotes to do a daily reflection book in the style of The Daily Stoic. This style of a daily reflection book can be applied to other things but the key thing is that ideas of a dime a dozen and it's the execution that really matters. 

It took me over 150 hours to create this book over 18 months, but I was able to create something new from old ideas. All those ideas I was exposed to help create this book that you’re reading now, and pretty much everything else you’re consuming has followed a similar path.

Journal Prompts

1. How can you ensure that being original doesn’t slow you down?
2. How can you take old ideas and source them up to fit today’s environment?