DESIGNING A LIFE YOU DON'T NEED TO VACATION FROM

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"Designing a Life You Don't Need to Vacation From"

In this session, we explore the concept of designing a life so fulfilling that you don't feel the need to escape from it. The discussion includes practical life hacks such as the 90-second rule for emotions, the Morning Reset trick, and the energy booster hack. We also dive into the science of gratitude, novelty, and the power of a smile. Topics like setting personal mission statements, balancing hustle with happiness, and protecting personal joy through scheduling and boundaries are thoroughly examined. This session aims to provide actionable steps and insights to help you craft a life that's rich in daily joy and fulfillment.

00:00 Introduction: Designing a Life You Don't Need to Vacation From
00:05 Life Hacks: The 90-Second Rule for Emotions
01:12 Morning Reset Trick: Start Your Day with a Win
02:06 Energy Booster Hack: Hydrate Before Caffeine
03:57 The Power of Gratitude: Rewiring Your Brain
06:01 Embrace Novelty: Boost Brain Function and Mood
08:11 The Importance of Smiling: Trick Your Brain to Improve Mood
09:12 Community Shoutouts and More Shares
09:40 Refine Your Mission Statement: Define Your Core Values
16:05 Reinforcing Positive Habits: The Law of Conditioning
21:32 Parenting Tips: Encouraging Outdoor Play
23:57 Designing a Life You Don't Need to Vacation From: Main Topic
48:59 Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle
51:46 The Leaf of Life: Four Emotions to Experience Daily
57:37 Integrating Value into Daily Life
01:00:26 Designing Your Ideal Daily Routine
01:05:03 Building a Values-First Career
01:10:16 Protecting Personal Joy
01:14:21 Common Mistakes in Pursuing Success
01:21:52 Actionable Steps for a Balanced Life
01:27:00 Final Thoughts and Encouragement

Transcript

0:00

Today's topic is designing a life you don't need to vacation from. Okay, so now, uh, to get us kick started here, we have life hacks for you all and the very first life hack that we have is the a 92nd rule for emotions. So, a 92nd rule for emotions and the way the 92nd rule for emotions work is, um, basically the most, the most emotions physically. Only last in your body for about 90 seconds, for about 90 seconds. And how many of us can definitely relate to, let's just say, uh, going through, uh, uh, an emotional flare up throughout the course of the day. And, uh, sometimes just taking, taking a little bit of time to, to uh, breathe. We tend to react when we get, uh, all caught up in our emotions. And it is super valuable to just take some time to, to breathe, to catch yourself because it most certainly helps, uh, so that you're not saying anything that you're gonna regret, right? Or doing anything that you're gonna regret. So give your body some time to really process what it is that you're going through. Next life hack we have is the morning reset trick. So the way the Morning Reset trick works is to start your day with one small win, like making your bed, and it gives your brain a hit of dopamine that boosts momentum for hours. So really great life hack and, uh, something that I actually implement. I, I believe that the first win of the day could actually be, uh, you essentially waking up without hitting the snooze button. So taking some time to wake up without hitting the snooze button can go a very, very long way. And I always recommend getting that first win in by not, uh, not snoozing. So the second wing could of course be you just spreading your bed, or you even drinking a bottle of water to get yourself hydrated before the day starts. So really great life hack there. Next we have the energy booster hack, the energy booster hack, feeling tired, drink a glass of water before reaching for caffeine. Dehydration often feels like fatigue. So this is a really great hack. I actually have been looking up a bunch of studies on just the best way to go about drinking coffee and what I've discovered across many conversations, podcasts, things like that is the best way you should drink coffee is definitely hydrating yourself before you start drinking coffee. And if you can give yourself over half an hour, like give your, give your mind some time to. Process everything as soon as it's waking up. Uh, instead of going straight to the coffee pot, if you can give a, a, a solid 45 minutes to kind of get all of that, that fogginess out of your system, uh, you'll find that the coffee actually works a lot better. You find yourself having even more energy if you can just give that buffer of time. So even on the Breakfast Club, for example, this morning, I did my, my prayer meditation, uh, before drinking coffee. I used to do it after drinking coffee'cause I like to be kind of wired up. But I, I, I now, you know, realize that coffee actually works really well if I just give that, that block of time, uh, to, to get my, get my brain basically acclimated to the day, uh, before jumping into it. So, all right, next we have, let's see here. Oh. Also, just make sure you drink a bunch of water, especially for those of you who are coffee drinkers. Drink water. Don't go start drinking coffee before you start drinking water. That should be a rule of thumb, uh, for anybody who's a consistent coffee drinker like myself. All right. Fun facts. We have. Gratitude rewires your brain. Scientists found that practicing gratitude daily actually reprograms the brain to notice more positives than negatives over time. And this is super valuable because our brain, when you think about it, our brain is hardwired to think about the negative. The, the brain isn't wired for happiness. The brain is wired for survival. So the predominant role of the brain is essentially to, uh, keep your bro your body alive, keep yourself alive, and the brain works with the body, but it's not necessarily designed to keep you living in a state of blissfulness. So it is very, very important to always ensure that whenever you are, uh, let's just say. Um, whenever you're, you're, you're going about your life, you have to count your blessings every single day. Start your day with gratitude, end it with gratitude, and it'll be one of the best things that you could possibly do because you need to reprogram your mind to always look for the positive, look for it, the, the upsides of things. If there's anything that I would say that has been one of the greatest contributors to my personal development over the years, it simply has been always looking for the good in every scenario. No matter what you, you go through, imagine if every single day, no matter what you're going through, you always look for the good in every single scenario. You always make the most of it because most of, most people are just focused on what's not right, what's what's lacking, right? You fall into this victim hood mentality, a scarcity mentality, and I. You essentially don't have a mindset that's conducive for productivity because what you focus on the longest grows the strongest in your life, which you focus on ultimately expands. So you have to put your focus on things that you're grateful for the good, because if you're focusing on the good, you're essentially going to attract a lot more good in your life. Next, your brain loves novelty. Even small changes like taking a new route, home, boost, brain function and mood. Your brain loves first time experiences. And I, I can tell you this, most certainly works. Like, for example, for those of you who work out a lot and maybe you find yourself kind of dreading having to, to get a workout in or you don't feel like working out, my recommendation would be do something different with your workout. Spice it up a little bit. Do do, let's say it for example, uh, if you've never done Zumba, right, and you're probably used to doing fitness bootcamps or, or traditional weight training, then do some Zumba, go swimming, switch it up, do some yoga, whatever it is that you have to do to really switch things up when it comes to your overall fitness. And that novelty goes a long way. Also, for my morning walks, for example. Because I'm, I'm very aware of the fact that my brain loves novelty. I always take different patterns and routes that I take on my, on my walk, and I average anywhere from like two to three miles a day of walking. So I always am intentional with taking different paths, different routes, and this definitely helps for sure. So, um, that can be with essentially anything. So I love this productive app that I have on my phone, and I don't, I don't consistently use it over, I haven't been consistently using it over a long stretch of time, but one thing that I do know is whenever I wanna switch it up, I just go and start utilizing it again. Because again, the brain loves novelty. So how can you get some variety? In short, it really is the fact that we love variety. Our brain is hardwired, variety is an essential basic human need. And sometimes we get a little bit bored of the mundane, the monotony that we have throughout the course of the day. So how can you add some variety to your work life, to your private life, right, to your love life, your family life, all of that stuff. How can you do something a little bit different to have some more enjoyment in the process? Next up, smiling tricks Your brain, even a fake smile can improve your mood because the act of smiling releases feel good. Chemicals like serotonin. So I always mention the power of smiling. I actually had brought it up I think a week or two ago on there. There's been studies that show that people who smile a lot more tend to be a lot happier. So do your best to wear a smile on your face. It's funny, every now and then I'll, I'll be mentoring people and. I'll let them know that like, you know, put a smile on their face because they look miserable and they're like, I'm not miserable. Well, tell your face that you're not miserable. You may not feel like you're not miserable, but your face says something different. So it is super important to wear a smile. Plus it goes a long way, especially for relationship building and all that good stuff. So, all right. But, uh, we have a few more shares before we jump into today's main topic. And shout out to everybody tuning in from all over the world. Let's say we have people tuning in from New York City. We got people tuning in from Florida, from The Bahamas, Jamaica. Shout out to our, our Caribbean tribe. We have people tuning in from Texas, from Maryland. Welcome, welcome, welcome from Georgia. Awesome. Happy to have you guys here. Of course. All right, so let's jump into some more shares before we jump into this main topic. So. The next share is refine your mission statement, refine your mission statement, write or revise your personal mission statement, and check that it is based on principles, clarifies what is important to you. Provides direction and purpose represents the best in you. Really, really great. Now, how many of us have thought honestly to create a vision statement or a personal mission statement? I mean, it's not something that we, we typically do, but I, I had learned in the world of personal development years and years ago that having a personal, i I, you can call it a vision statement, a personal mission statement, it's, IM, it's important because you always have that reminder of your core values. So I remember, I, I have, I had a list, and I still go back to the list from time to time, but I, I would start my day by reading a list of my core values. I had like some fundamental core values of values and principles that I wanted to live by. Now, was I perfect in terms of living by those principles every single week? Absolutely not. But it was sort of like my North Star and I had this vision statement on there as well that I would read, and it was essentially a vision statement that would. Uh, summarize what my life is about, what I'm about as a man, and it, it most certainly does help. It, it helps get you back on track. Track. It helps you keep track of the main things because sometimes we do get caught up and in, in majoring in the minors, if that makes sense. So always having that clear vision for your North Star and your North Star could essentially be who you want to be and how you want to essentially live. So yeah, really, really great exercise for you all and I would encourage you all to come up with some type of a vision statement. And that may be again, how, what character you want to embody, what you do for a living, all of these different things, your impact on the world and so much more. So ask yourself, what is my compelling vision of my future? Your mission statement defines your highest values and priorities. It's the end in mind for your life. It enables you to shape your future instead of letting it be shaped by other people or circumstances. Really, really great. And here's a awesome quote by Stephen Covey. The mission statement gives you a changeless sense of who you are. So if you're ever looking to do, let's just say a workshop or some type of personal development exercise, that could really be a great one. And I would encourage you have your own personal vision statement. I actually have a, a voyage plan that I have on my phone and I, I used to call it my, my Life Blueprint. And then I eventually went to Voyage Plan because I'm a sailor. And this Voyage plan was just a sort of like a one page document on. On, uh, you know, my, my entire life, my core values, all of these different things. Now I, I'll share with you a quick vision statement that I had, uh, for my life and I've sort of tweaked it over the years, and I think that you guys will get a lot of value from this and maybe it'll give you some inspiration to create your very own, and I definitely have to update it. But this was one that I had crafted for myself years ago, and I'll share it with you guys. Who am I? I'm a guiding light billionaire, serial entrepreneur slash investor. I was way more in my entrepreneurial phase by then. Um, worlds leading holistic life coach, humanitarian, the mentor of mentors, super dad slash husband, adventurer seeker, international speaker, New York Times bestselling author, teacher, and global thought leader. I live for adventure and peak life experiences. My purpose is to inspire lead, motivate, teach and serve people. I use my experiences and knowledge to help and teach people how to live to their fullest potential and contribute to the betterment of humanity. I love people and connecting with them. I am passionate, enthusiastic, caring, courageous, and generous. I live to serve God and to fulfill his purpose for my life. I dedicate my life to advancing humanity while bringing enjoyment and fulfillment into other people's lives and making life worth living for as many people as I possibly can. I am a living example of how life should be lived. I am the one, so really quick vision statement that I have there that I, I used to read this to myself pretty much every single day, and as you can see, a lot of my life reflects this very vision statement. You guys could probably see a lot of the parallels in terms of what I do today. And I've, I've sort of tweaked it over the years as your life starts to evolve and you start to just maybe change your, your path or maybe you start to get involved in something that you didn't expect to get involved in, but you're, you're finding a passion for it. You could always tweak it, but have something that could essentially be sort of like a guiding light. I even have core values directly after that. So I have my core values listed here, and I'll share some of you them with you. I keep God first in my life. I'm extremely committed to life mastery. I amplify love in every moment. I pour my love into the world. I always seek of ways to serve. I always practice kaizen, and Kaizen is essentially the Japanese word for like the philosophy for personal development, right? It's it's a way of life where you're always growing yourself. I always show gratitude. I maintain a healthy lifestyle. I always seek adventure. I embrace my inner child that surround myself around like-minded people. I always have fun and enjoy the journey. I control my emotions. I always do my best. I'm impeccable with my word, all of these different things. So I have a list of tons and tons of core values, and I would definitely recommend taking that approach as well. It most certainly helps just get yourself back grounded, back on track with what you represent as a person. So really, really great. Okay, now I have a few more shares. A fundamental law of conditioning is that any pattern that is continually reinforced will become an automatic and conditioned response. Anything we fail to reinforce will eventually dissipate. What rewards, mental, emotional, physical, could you give yourself to create the new positive habits you desire? So whatever the positive habits you, uh, desire. So really, really great share here. So, going back again, I'll read it again for those of you in the back, A fundamental law of conditioning is that any pattern that is continually reinforced will become an automatic and condition response. So this is the idea of unconscious competence, if you will, where you no longer have to think about the positive habits that you wanna reinforce in your life. It's like driving, for example, when you first start driving, you have to think about the every single turn. You have to think of the signal, you have to think of looking over your shoulder. But eventually. Driving becomes just like second nature to you. You, you, you ever drive in a car and don't even realize how you got to where you were going or you ever drive and going go in a direction that you didn't even want to go in. But it's, it's such muscle memory going in the same direction that you naturally went there, even though you were supposed to go somewhere else. It happens all the time. So basically what this snippet is sharing right here is the fact that whatever habits you wanna reinforce, you have to sort of integrate it and assimilate it and, and have it become unconscious competence. And there's so many ways to sort of reinforce these new positive habits that you desire. So, for example, working out, I, I stack working out after walking. So I love walking, just like I love drinking coffee and. For me, walking is a great time to get my mind right and, and it just always feels good walking, more personal development. And imagine if you can stack that with something else that's a positive habit. So for example, you may have to do content creation for your line of work, right? Maybe you're building your brand and you know that you have to do your content creation for the day. Well, why not stack that content creation with walking and reinforce that habit that you desire to have? It can be pretty much with anything. So my, my Family Day, for example, on Sundays, we shut it down. There's no work that that is done on Sundays in my household unless. We take off another day because of scheduling or whatever the case may be. But on, on Sundays, it's just a great time to unwind. It's a great time to, uh, be able to catch up on some shows if we want, uh, just to be able to do nothing. And we really, really enjoy our Sundays. And it's not something that we dread, like, man, we'd love to be productive on Sundays, or we'd love to take advantage. We make it as fun as possible, and it can be with just about anything. So even for my work, for example, um, I know that I have to put myself in a winner's world if I'm going to be productive and I wanna make my work as enjoyable as possible. So I always find environments that are the most conducive for productivity. So for example, yesterday I was, uh, shooting a TV segment. At a, at a TV station and they have a really amazing coffee shop right across the street. And I just went directly to the coffee shop and got work done for a couple of hours. And that's the idea. It's, it's sort of pleasure stacking, it's the idea of pleasure stacking. And I'm really excited to jump into that concept specifically because today's topic is all going to be on designing a life you don't need a vacation from. So how do you go about, let's just say, making the things that you know you need to do, making them more enjoyable, making them more worthwhile, making it not so daunting, if that makes sense. And I have some really, really great shares that we're gonna be covering when it comes to that. So I'll share one last personal development share before we go into today's main topic. Can you teach a chicken to dance? Amazingly, yes, becau, because all animals and humans have variable behavior, the trainer's secret is to watch the chicken closely. Whenever it naturally moves in the direction they want, they immediately reinforce it with a bit of food. At this point, the chicken doesn't know why it's been fed, but each time it moves in the direction the trainers want, they reward and reinforce it. Eventually, the chicken learns to turn in the desired directions and a sequence of these form a dance. Obviously, people are more complex than chickens yet. Have you been trained to behave a certain way at work or in school? How can you use this training principle to help yourself, your employees, or your children create successful habits? So really, really great. And it's interesting because. One of the habits that we pretty much have our, our children now doing is the habit of going outside. We, we have a joke. It's like, go outside and touch some grass, right? And it's to get off the games, get off just screens and, and the internet and all this stuff, and actually go out in nature. And now our children have a, a habit routine that every single day, late afternoon, they go out outside and they just run around our courtyard and they just play. And it's, it's beautiful because yesterday I was looking through the window and I could see them like chasing each other with, with tree branches and twigs and playing with rocks and dirt. And, you know, we got this beautiful fountain directly in front of our home. And just playing around the fountain. And it's just nice to see children actually outside and engaged and interacting in nature. And that was essentially a habit that we had to reinforce with them. And the way we did it is, uh, we basically broke up their, their, their gaming. So if they, if they were playing video games for, let's just say two hours for the day, then our agreement was essentially them, uh, you know, playing their games, but they had to take a break in between and go outside. So that was our agreement. If they wanna play the second half of their, their, their day with games, then they have to go outside for at least an hour. And this has been definitely one of the best things that we've ever done when it comes to our parenting. So, uh, you can do this with all kinds of stuff and now we're doing it with them. With, uh, cleaning, for example, or they love me reading bedtime stories. So, um, I, I typically, I read this, uh, children's animated Bible and it's really cool because, you know, I learned a lot, even just going through it. But they love bedtime stories and, um, one of our agreements is they need to be in bed on time if they want me to read the bedtime stories, right? Because I know I need to be in bed, um, on time. So again, it's reinforcing these good habits, right? And how many habits in your life have been reinforced, but they're not necessarily so good. And there's so many things that you can do, uh, in your life to really change everything. And today I wanna cover a lot of that because if you're gonna design a life you don't need to vacation from, you're going to have to find a way to. To make the things that you don't feel like doing more pleasurable, make them enjoyable and learn how to love being disciplined, learn how to love being productive. And it is possible. I'm like hardwired for productivity. It's crazy because my family came to visit from New York last week and I was playing, you know, host and there was a part of me that the entire time I'm playing host, I'm like, man, I just like, I wanted to be working because I'm so wired for productivity at this point in my life. And imagine if you can go about your life in such a way where you actually enjoy work. And I was explaining this to my family that for me, I, I really, really do enjoy work. It's, it's one of my favorite things to do every single day. So it is possible, but you have to essentially design a lifestyle that is conducive for the enjoyment of doing these things. So let's jump right into it. If you guys have been getting value so far, I just wanna make sure I'm still with everyone. Drop a v in the comments for value. See, we got some people tuning in from Tennessee. We got some people, uh, tuning in all over. Okay. Shout out to everybody tuning in from cities all around the world. Drop a V for value and I'm going to get ready to jump into today's meat and potatoes. By the way, I'm going to share my Calendly. I've been getting a lot of questions about. Uh, I, I recently launched a masterclass on how to build a successful coaching and speaking career, and a lot of people didn't get a chance to watch it live. If you would like to get access to that free masterclass, just dm me the word coach, and I'll be more than happy to send it over to you. Um, I, I can send you the masterclass and also I've been having a lot of people just hit me up with different questions about, Hey, Josh, how can I get into podcasting? What's the route that you took? How can I integrate building my brand with what I currently do with my business or my job? And all of that? And as you guys know today, your brand, your, your digital blueprint across the internet is your modern day resume. Do not get left behind. You may feel like, oh, well, content creation, social media's not really my thing. Listen, if you want to be competitive in the marketplace, especially for those of you who are aspiring entrepreneurs, maybe you currently have a business or uh, maybe you even have a job and you're looking to excel with your job, but you haven't really gotten a grip on personal branding and all of that, your personal brand is a part of your net worth. I cannot stress this enough. Your net worth is your assets minus your liabilities, and many people do not realize that. Your brand can very well be an asset in your life. Your brand can help you monetize your, your, your life throughout your entire life. Imagine if you can get paid for your expertise. You can get paid for your knowledge, for your wisdom, for your insight. You should be compensated. Whatever you do for a living, it makes no difference. Whatever job you're in, whatever business you're in, you can very well get paid for your expertise. But if you don't have the right guidance, then you're going to be taking the marathon approach. You may want to, um, 100% find people. Who have done this like myself. So you guys know I do coaching, speaking, all of that stuff for a living. And I teach a lot of people how to do it, how to build a brand, how to make themselves more marketable, uh, and how to pretty much put together a content strategy so that they are more visible online. So if you just have questions about that, I'll be more than happy, uh, to jump on a coaching session. My coach, my schedule gets jam packed every single week, so some of you have probably tried to book one and you don't see any availability. Just DM me and I'll be more than happy. Uh, send me a direct message. I'll be more than happy to guide you in the right direction, okay? Even if it's just answering questions, I can definitely get some questions to answer for you. Okay, so let's jump into today's meat and potatoes. We got some food for thought. Really, really great topic here. And I'm, I'm excited because I'm all about lifestyle design. I've dedicated my life. To beautifying the human experience for myself and for a lot of people. So many of you know, I, I have been a world traveler for many years. I've helped thousands and thousands of people travel to some really incredible places over the years. I come from the travel and lifestyle industry, and I'm an entrepreneur. So I believe in this, this life of, of lifestyle by design I believe in, you know, even if you don't have a hundred percent freedom in terms of your, your work life, it makes no difference. You can still live a very incredible life if you work a nine to five. So don't feel as if you have to be retired from the workforce, because I can assure you there, there was a really great quote that I came across. I actually put it up on my threads and it said that, uh, entrepreneurship is working 80 hours a week for yourself, so you don't have to work 40 hours for someone else. And one thing that I can let you know right now that I feel is an incontrovertible fact is that. Oftentimes you'll find yourself working harder on a business than you did on a traditional job. So don't feel as if it's all glorified and people are entrepreneurs chilling on the yacht in Monaco and it popping champagne. It, it doesn't actually look like that, that that's, that's marketing for people who are on the internet, selling whatever it is that they're selling on the internet. But real entrepreneurship, it is many times high level stress. It is risk involved. Uh, you know, there, there are risk involved. There's so many aspects that are very overwhelming, and that's the reality of entrepreneurship. So you can very well still live an incredible lifestyle with your nine to five. It doesn't have to be a life where it, you have to be an entrepreneur in order to live the good life. So let's jump right into it, guys. Okay, here we go. Um, let's see here. Think about this. When was the last time you woke up excited about your actual life, not just your next vacation? Think about that for a second. When was the last time you woke up in the morning genuinely excited about your day, genuinely excited about your life? I know most people like, what I love about vacations is I always say vacations. It's the gift that keeps on giving travel's the gift that keeps on giving, because leading into a vacation, you have the anticipation of the vacation. So a lot of people are excited. They're like, man, the the countdown begins 30 days for my vacation, and they're super, super excited. And then they have the actual vacation and they're there chilling, drinking, hanging out, living that life of freedom. And then you have the residual joy after the vacation rubbing it into all of your family and friends and talking about how incredible your, your trip was. But you have a lot of value that stacks from a vacation. But imagine if you can live with that same level of excitement about your life every single day. So this is very, very important. So one thing that I can tell you is, for example, I worked as a maritime captain. So I piloted cargo all around the United States and I would spend about 70% of my life working on the water. And I remember just thinking to myself like, man, this, this is cool and all, but. It's just, it didn't feel like freedom because if I was to be really be honest with myself, I, I would have rather not been doing that. I would have rather, like I would be on the internet seeing all of my friends, my successful friends who were out living their best life, traveling around the world, having freedom. And that was a big motivating factor for me. I wanted my freedom and I was just tired of working to build other people's dreams. And that was a big thing that motivated me throughout the course of my life. So my recommendation, honestly, is for those of you who. You know, really are, are drawn to the idea of freedom. Let that be a huge motivating factor because one thing that I can tell you is, although entrepreneurship comes with its stress, although entrepreneurship can sometimes be very uncertain, the thing about it is that when it's all said and done, you may be working harder on your business than you did at your job, but you work out of your own personal choice. It is a personal choice, and if you want to take off, you just take off. You don't have to ask a boss for permission. You do not have to put in your, your, you know, paid leave time or whatever that's called, what, you know, you don't have to submit a request for when you can take off of work, if that makes sense. So what has driven me in in recent years is. The idea that when it's all said and done, I can take off as many days as I want and I can choose whether or not I actually want to show up for work every single day. It is a choice. I don't feel obligated. And of course you don't have to show up to your job technically, but you're probably not gonna have a job if you don't just show up. Right? So with business, yeah, it's kind of the same. After a while of doing that, you're probably not gonna have a business, but at least at any point in time you don't have to ask for permission. And that for me was the most valuable thing when it came to entrepreneurship. Even with all the stress and anxiety that comes from time to time, it's still liberating knowing that you have the autonomy to choose your own hours and go about your day, however you please. Okay. So today I'm gonna share with you how you can design a life that feels so good. You don't need to run away from it. How amazing does that sound? All right, so let's jump right into it. First and foremost, you have to define the problem. Define the problem. Most people build lives around obligations, not desires. So it feels almost as if you have to not like you. Get to think about that for a sec. Most people build lives around obligations, not desires. So what if you can build a life where you're doing things that you actually desire to do, whether that is, let's just say you wanna do some yoga for the day, and that's something, or Zumba, you wanna do a Zumba class, or you want to be able to go walking with your significant other or be able to sit down and have coffee with and, and be able to enjoy your time with your kids before they go off to school. You, you have to be intentional. About integrating things that you actually desire throughout the course of the day. Now, most people have the vacation mindset trap where you work hard, you burn out, and then you escape, and then you repeat. Think about that. That's how most people go about their lives. It's the vacation mindset trap. You work hard, you burn out, you escape, and then you repeat the process. Who the hell wants to live like that for the next 20, 30, 40 years? I mean, let's be real, but the reality, the sad realities that most people do live like that, they're working 40, 50, 60 plus hours, and then eventually they're like, I need a vacation. And then they finally get the vacation, and that vacation may only last less than a week, and then it's back to the grind for the next 50 plus weeks. That is not living, that is not living. So you have to understand that this leads to chronic dissatisfaction. Even if you are financially successful, you may be financially successful, but you're not fulfilled, you're not completely satisfied. And I remember learning from my mentor early on that success without fulfillment is the ultimate failure. The master in the Art of Living makes little distinction between his work and his play to him. He is always doing both work and play become one. That's really the ultimate goal is how can you get to a place where your work and your play become one work, like a captain party, like a pirate. That's my philosophy. So, um, nothing wrong with working hard. If you wanna do anything great with your life, yeah, it's gonna require a lot of hard work. But don't get caught up in this idea that it just has to be hard work and no play. You can very well customize your life and design your life so that it, it integrates both. Okay? So here's the key point. If the best part of your life is the two weeks, you escape from it, it's time to redesign it. How many of you can relate to that? Like if the best part of your year or just your life is the two weeks, you get to escape from it. Isn't it crazy how people actually live like that? It's like their whole life, and you're telling me that. You get this one precious opportunity on this earth. God loved you so much that he allowed you to be born during the time of the internet, during a time where we don't have to be hunter-gatherers and you don't have to go out for 12 hours a day to look for your next meal. Thank God we don't live in such a time where we have neighboring tribes trying to invade us and take over our tribe, like we don't live in those times. Thank God like God loved us so much that this is the time that we were born in probably one of the most peaceful times in all of humanity. Despite the wars and all the craziness going on around the world, I can assure you that if you compare it to just 200 years ago, not even 200 years ago, just 60 years ago, I mean, think about it, we live in relatively peaceful times compared to any other time in history. You look at just, even, even wars and, and all and global genocide, all of these things are, are far less than they ever were. So why would you squander this life? You, you've got this amazing opportunity to live. You know, your, I mean, hopefully you can get a good solid century out of this life. I mean, it'll be nice to get a good solid a hundred years, but let's just say even if it's, let's say the average life expectancy of your seventies and you, I mean, a good solid 70 to 80 years, why would you squander it for just two weeks out of the year? So it's so important to make sure that you are intentional about this, because I'm telling you, life goes by so quick. I'm looking at my son who's about to be 10 this year, and it's just like, man, where did the time go? Where did the time go? And I, we've, we've had incredible experiences with him. Like I can SI was looking at pictures today, riding a camel with him alongside the pyramids of Giza. You know, he is been to Dubai and even when my wife was pregnant with him, she was climbing the Great Wall of China. And that's why he has a Chinese name. Uh, my son's name is Z. And um, you know, it's, it's interesting because we've done a lot with him, but even with all of those incredible things we've done with my firstborn, it's like he had more stamps in his passport, his first year of living than I had my first 20 years of living. But it still feels like, man, where has the time gone? Like, I've got eight summers left with him before. He's an adult. An adult. For those of you, if you have a 13-year-old, you have five summers left with your 13-year-old before they're an adult. Do not squander it. Do not live your life where it's just for your one to two weeks of vacation. Okay, so define the problem now, why this leads to chronic dissatisfaction, even if you're successful because your, your, your whole life like and success. You have to also redefine what success even means because you can be financially successful, but your relationships are failing. You can be financially successful, but your health is failing. That's why I'm so big on holistic living, holistic wellness, the wellbeing of your whole being, because what's the point of gaining the whole world if you lose your soul in the process? So it's, it's, it's body, mind, and soul. It's your emotions. It's, it's the way you relate to your family. It's, it's all of that. It's the holistic success. Okay, so next key principles of lifestyle design. So here are three core pillars of lifestyle design. The first thing is kind of what I was alluding to earlier with the whole vision statement. It's vision, clarity, vision, clarity. What does your ideal day actually look and feel like? Now, I wanna do a quick exercise with you. I want you to, I want you to ponder this for, for a brief moment. If you know that most of your days are going to be very similar. Think about it, the last five years of your life, most of those days were very similar. You probably go to work in the same route that you go every single day or probably pick up your kids, or you have this same routine. You go to church or whatever it is that you're thing, you go to the gym. It's the same routine. So if you know that the majority of your days are going to look very similar, then why not design those those days, those, those, the, the majority of those days. Why not design it in such a way that when you look back on it every single day, you're doing something that your future self would thank you for? You're doing something that's enjoyable. You're, you're taking advantage of, of your life. You're, you're getting the most you could possibly get out out of your life. Most days are the same in fact. When your life is very monotonous, what happens is it tends to feel like your life is going by even faster because you don't have a lot of distinctive memories to look back on. When you look back at your year, it felt like it went so fast because you don't have a lot of variety. It's the same day repeated over and over and over again. I remember hearing this, this quote where it said, most people, they die at 25. They just don't get buried until 75. That's how most people live. How profound is that? Most people die at 25. They just don't get buried to about 75 years old because they're living the same life over and over and over. So what the, the, what does the ideal day actually look and feel like? Think about it. What if you knew you only had one month left to live? How would you live every single day? You had a full month? What would you do if you know, man, you only have 30 days to, to make the most out of those 30 days? What do you do every single day? I know for me, I would still go on a walk. I'd still drink my coffee, I'd still spend time with, with my family, still hang out with my friends. I, I'd still be up in coffee shops that still probably go to the beach, you know, doing these things, making this a part of the, the day-to-day lifestyle. So what does your ideal day actually look like? So even if you have to go to a job that you currently dread, how can you make it more pleasurable? And this leads me to the idea of what I refer to as pleasure stacking. So pleasure stacking is this, let's just say you have to do something daunting for the day and you really don't feel like, like doing this. On a one to 10 scale, ask yourself, where does this fall on a pleasure scale? Like, some of you're probably like, yeah, I don't feel like doing it. That's like a negative two, right? And you're thinking, yeah, I, I, that's not pleasurable at all. And I get it. So here, here's the thing. What if you could get it closer to a 10? What would you have to do in order to get that task closer to attend? Super important to reflect on that. Why is that? Because think about it. If your day by default, think about, think about the one day you've repeated over and over and over these last five years. Think about it like, like a typical day. And if you had to rate that day on a one to 10 scale, where would that day fall? Some of you may say, well, it's like a six. Nothing crazy, just working right, working existing, because most people are not actually living, they're just existing. So think about that. If your day's a six, how can you get it? Even if it's just to a seven, how could you make it a seven? Or if your day's a seven, how can you make it an eight? Doesn't have to be a 10 because Lord knows when, when life is life and then the bills is bill, and it ain't always gonna be a 10. You may very well have a lot of rough days, or maybe it's not a rough day. Maybe it was just a rough moment. So you never want to let a bad moment create a bad day. So yes, are bad moments going to happen? Are stressful moments going to happen? Is your boss gonna piss you off from time to time? Or your, your, your colleagues are gonna annoy you from time to time, or your kids gonna drive you crazy some from time to time? Yes, like chances are that probably is going to happen, but. It doesn't have to create a bad day. Let a bad moment be a bad moment. Just like I shared earlier with emotions, usually emotions in less than two minutes, it's, it's processed through your body. It doesn't have to last and, and carry on and fester throughout the entire day. Feel what you need to feel in the moment and make a committed decision that no matter what happens, you're always going to do your best to get back to a beautiful state. You're always going to do your best to get back to a place of peace, joy, love, gratitude, all of that high vibration. That's the idea. Yeah. Life will happen and things will happen throughout the course of the day, but allow your emotional home to be one of which that is conducive to your overall wellbeing. One of which that is happy, joyful, or even just content. So that's, that's the biggest thing more than anything, is really getting to a place where you're very clear on how you want your day to be and how you can get it as close to a 10 as possible. So right now, for example, I know that my day is going to be closer to a 10 if I work out. Why is that? Not because I just love working out. I wouldn't say that I love working out. I love the way that I feel after I workout. How many of you can relate to that? Drop a one in the comments. If you don't really love working out, but you love the way you feel after you work out, or you love the way you look after you work out, or just even a month of working out. When, when you put on that, that nice outfit for the day and you're like, okay, you know, I'm looking good. The arm's looking nice and toned and maybe, maybe your belly is a lot flatter than it typically is. You love that, right? But you may not love doing all those reps in the gym or sweating and that whole process. Okay. So that's the idea. At the end of the day, when you rest your head on that pillow, what did you do for the day that you can be proud of? Yesterday I went into the gym. Most days I go into the gym. I am. In and out in less than 30 minutes. I just go to maintain. I'm not trying to be in no bodybuilding competition. Your boy is like, I'm not out there eating thousands and thousands of calories a day to keep. Like it ain't that deep for me. I just wanna maintain. So I go in and less than 30 minutes because I wanna enjoy my day. I don't wanna be up in there two hours on, on bodybuilding mode. And I'm not sure how many of you can relate to that, but that's me. But I always love the fact that I did a little something every single day to just stay healthy. And imagine if you can go to bed every single night, just a little proud of yourself that you did something a bit challenging, something that you didn't feel like doing, but you did it anyway, and something that you know your future self will thank you for, and you actually feel like you're taking care of yourself. Like it's a really, really good feeling. So that that's something that you ultimately have to reflect on is sometimes a perfect day. Doesn't exempt you from not from doing hard things. You still have to do difficult things in order to make it a really great day, especially if you're someone who likes to be productive. Because happiness, a, a lot of happiness comes from growth. Whenever you're growing, you're a lot happier, but in order to grow, you have to do difficult things. So it's this weird paradox that we live in where you, you would think that you'd be a lot happier just being able to lounge out on the couch, Netflix and chilling, eat an ice cream all day. I don't know, maybe that's the case for you, but it most certainly is not for me. If anything, you start to feel a little bit guilty because you know that you're putting garbage in your body, you know that you're not living up to your potential, you're not giving, you're not contributing, and it is essential to craft your day where you do hard things throughout the day. Because those very hard things bring the feelings of, of pride. And I'm talking about the good pride, not the ego pride, the pride that is like you, you're proud of yourself, you're, you're proud of yourself for doing something that actually matters, doing something important of, of sacrificing, of doing your best. Okay, so what does your ideal day actually look and feel like? Many of you have heard me use the acronym of leaf. I call it the Leaf of Life. And one day I was reflecting on it and I thought to myself, man, there are about four predominant emotions that I want to experience throughout the day. And those emotions are, I wanna feel loved, so I wanna feel loved. How many of you love, love? Anybody can relate. I'm a, I'm a, I'm a Libra. Not sure if you're into the, the horoscopes or whatever. I know some of you're like, oh, you know, the horoscopes are, uh, evil or whatever. Listen, it is what it's, believe what you wanna believe. But I love, love and I know a lot of people who are born around the same time as me. Also love, love. I would assume that a lot of y'all love love, and I love the feeling of feeling love, whether it's your family or, you know, it could be your, your romantic partner or it can be friends. But it's important to flood your day with opportunities to love and be loved. And when you think about it from a neuroscience standpoint, this is oxytocin. Oxytocin is the love hormone in your body. Whenever you feel in love, whenever you feel those warm, cuddly feelings, it's oxytocin. It's, it's a happy chemical in your body that makes you feel good. So that's, that's why being in love and all of that, it feels incredible. Another. Emotion or experience that I want to have throughout the day is feeling empowered. That's what the E stands for in leaf. Feeling empowered. How many of you want to feel empowered? Like you feel confident, you have high self-esteem. You just feel like a billion bucks. You look good, you feel good, you smell good. All of that. And I most certainly love the feeling of feeling empowered, feeling powerful, feeling in control, and it's, it's just a really good feeling, right? You feel motivated, you feel inspired, all of that. I, when I think of feeling empowered, I think of just all of those feelings. And a lot of the times when you think about it, again, from a neuroscience standpoint, is dopamine. That is dopamine. That's another happy chemical that you are experiencing. Now, the A stands for being in a state of awe like. I remember hearing that when Steve Jobs, the last thing he said when he passed away was, wow. Wow. It was like he, he saw the other side and or maybe his life flashed before his eyes and I got goosebumps even just thinking about it. Right. But that is that state of awe. You ever travel somewhere and you see this historical landmark for the very first time and you are just like, wow. It, it takes your breath away. I mean, could imagine if you could feel like that on most days. Yesterday when I was at the TV station, I was talking about how faith looks around the world. So as a world traveler, what have I experienced in terms of being around a lot of different belief systems and faiths and religions and all of that. And I spoke about just the beauty of these historical landmarks that were divinely inspired. When you go to the Christ, the Redeemer statue, for example, and just see it there hovering over Rio de Janeiro, right? It, it, it's like, it's, it's being in a state of awe when you go to the Vatican City and you see the greatness or the Haas, Sophia and in Istanbul, Turkey, and you see the magnitude of it going to Thailand, seeing the big Buddha, right? Like, all of these things are just like being in a state of awe. Seeing the pyramids of Giza for the very first time, the Taj Mahal for the first time, the Taj did not even look real. Like you go there and you look at the Taj Mahal in person, it doesn't even look real. It, it looks like there's some big postcard just there in front of your face. It's, it's being in a state of awe. But how can you do it on a d on, on, on a micro level, right? So that you experience a state ofWe daily. Listen, sometimes you experience awe just being surrounded by your family, by your loved one. Learning new things. Learning new things. Like, wow, I didn't, I didn't realize this. Right? Or getting in tune with nature and be being in a state of awe. Your spirituality, meditation. And when we break it down into a, from a neuro stand, a science standpoint, then that it's really serotonin. Serotonin is a mood stabilizer in your body to make you feel good. That's what serotonin is. And whenever you're in a state of awe, that's essentially what's happening. Your serotonin levels are spiked, okay? Now another feeling is fulfilled. Fulfilled. That's the F. So you have loved, empowered, awe. Fulfilled and how many of us genuinely want to feel proud of ourselves. We want to feel as if we're making a difference in the world, as if what we're doing matters. That feeling of fulfillment, that you're doing the best that you can. And I love that feeling of being fulfilled. So that is what I refer to as the leaf of life. Okay? And there's so many other emotions, of course, that you would like to experience, but when I think about the four predominant feelings or what I want to experience emotionally, those are the ones that that come to mind. Okay, so next up we have, uh, when it comes to vision clarity, it's not just the big trips. Your normal Tuesday afternoon matters too. Think about it today, Tuesday on the Breakfast Club. How many of you would honestly say drop a y in the comments? How many of you would honestly say. You feel as if your Tuesdays are a lot better because you jumped on the breakfast club and you got the personal development. It's like you always feel a little better after you jumped on and learned something new. You maybe feel a little bit motivated or inspired. Maybe you learned something new for the day, but how many of you have a better Tuesday? Because this is how you set the tone for the day, maybe even for the week. So that's the idea, is integrating things into your daily life where it's stacking value. So it's not just these vacations, it's how you spend your average Tuesday. Because that's how you're going to live most of your life. It's routine. Most of your life is not going to be these epic seven wonders of the world. Most of your life is gonna be you driving to work, you possibly sitting through traffic. So guess what? If you're gonna, if you know you're gonna sit through traffic, tune in to something that you enjoy listening to. Learn something new. Listen to. Listen to your favorite music. Don't just sit through traffic. Do you know that most people spend up to a quarter of their life just waiting, waiting, waiting in traffic, waiting on lines, waiting for customers. So we're just waiting in general. And think about that. Even if it was just 10% of your life, think about how many people just sitting in traffic and the amount of hours that they just waste just sitting there. But what if you can learn something new? I had a friend who was from a part of Russia that had really bad traffic, and I'm talking about hours and hours and hours every single day. And she mentioned that the traffic is so bad that people literally, it, it's a part of the culture where people take courses, like audio courses online where like that's, that's a, that's embedded in their culture where if they're driving for four hours at a time, they're just automatically listening to, to things that are educational because it's a waste of their life just sitting through traffic every single day. No value. So how can you stack value? That's the big idea. And how can you do it on a normal Tuesday, not on a just a Saturday where you're at the bar hanging out and turning up. Okay, so here's a quick exercise. Close your eyes and describe your dream daily life. From morning to night, what does that look like? Your dream, daily life, if you had to really process that from the time you get up to the time that you go to bed, and I remember I, I've worked on this a lot over the years, but think about it. How would you want to wake up? Chances are you won't wanna wake up sluggish. So yesterday I ate dinner super early because I wanted to wake up feeling refreshed. So if you want to wake up feeling as refreshed as possible, it starts the night before. So you have to make sure that you're not eating right before you go to bed because your body is digesting that food all throughout the course of the night. So if you're waking up feeling a lot more sluggish than you typically do, like eat two to three hours before you go to bed. Okay? Another thing is don't drink a bunch of water before you go to bed because you're probably going to have to get up throughout the night to use the bathroom, and it's going to affect the quality of your sleep Also. Dim your entire room. Make sure there aren't any lights because lights in your room could also affect the quality of your sleep. There's a lot of things. Make sure it's cold enough because if you're hot throughout the course of the night, I realize that my air conditioner has to be at 75 and we need a fan on rotation in order for me to get a deep sleep. Okay? So find things that you can do to enhance the quality of your sleep. So that's how, and, and think about this. A third of your life is spent sleeping. So why would you even ruin your sleep? Why would you ruin a third of your life by not sleeping properly? So how you wake up really matters, and that's why it is essential to make sure that you're not eating right before you go to bed. Also, no screens after 10:00 PM if you want the best quality sleep, no screens. Um, after 10:00 PM Uh, another thing is when you wake up, how do you wanna start your day? I know for me, I look forward to having my cup of coffee. How many of y'all can relate to this where you genuinely look forward to that morning cup of coffee every, every single evening? Like, man, I can't wait to get up in the morning. I'm looking forward to having my me time. Right? So oftentimes I, I do my best to get up before my family so that I can have that little bit of time to myself to just. Peace and quiet. Be in peace and quiet and enjoy my coffee, be in my thoughts, all of that journal, whatever it is. Okay? So that's how I like to start my morning. And I know that if I go for a walk and I go to the gym, my day is also going to get closer to a 10. I know that if I am productive with my work, whether that's content creation, whether that's podcasting, TV segments that I have to shoot, whatever it is, I know that I'm, I'm going to feel a lot better. Even if, let's just say I have to reach out to a certain amount of prospects in my business or do a certain amount of presentations. All of these things lead to a better day. It's gonna get me closer to a 10. Now, if I, again, read bedtime stories to my kids, that's also going to inch me closer to a 10. If I, if I have good food throughout the day, that's also going to inch me closer to a 10. So what can you do? What does it look like for you? What does it look like? So if you know you're gonna work your nine to five. How can you beautify that experience? How can you make sure that your drives to work are the very best that they can be? One thing that I can assure you, and I have some of my clients on right now that I've worked with over the years, you guys know that I'm big on dressing your best. Like, I would have some of, some of my clients on right now that I would have take a picture of themselves right before they go into the office because I wanna make sure that they're looking their best. Because I know if they're, they look their best, they're gonna feel their best. Think about it. Isn't it true that whenever you look good, you just automatically feel better throughout the day? Y'all know exactly what I'm talking about. I mean, it's, it's like you imagine, imagine for those of you even put on that new outfit, you feel incredible because you, you, you look good. So that's why even exercising is so important, because exercising is going to determine the way you look and how comfortable you feel in your own skin. Okay? So all of these different things. Can inch you closer to a 10. Doesn't have to always be an eight, nine, and 10. Maybe you turn to five into a seven. But that's still, that's still progress. So hopefully this is all making sense so far for you guys. Okay. Now next up we have values first. Business building values, values first or career building. Okay? So you wanna build your career around your life, whether that's your business or your job, but not your life around your career. So you build your, your career around your life, not your life, around your career. This is super important to understand. So, prime example, setting income goals based on your desired lifestyle. Not comparison, not not keeping up with the Joneses. That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about your desired lifestyle, whatever that is. So I know for me, I like to, I like to eat out, so I like to go out and eat out. I love beautiful aesthetics. I like ambiance. All of these different things are, are what I enjoy in my, in my daily lifestyle. Like, I'm not gonna lie, I feel kind of guilty even saying it sometimes, but I, I lived a lot of years just eating out every single day. And then when I went, you know, started just navigating through entrepreneurship. I said entrepreneurship, right? Um, entrepreneurship. When I started navigating through the different cycles of it, you realize that, oh, you know what, I probably should be cutting back on certain things, right? And that's just how it's, but you have that north star for how you like to live. For me, it's going on vacations with my family. It's, it's going to eat out, uh, as much as possible, but you have to manage your finances so that you can live that lifestyle. I don't care to drive a Maybach or a Rolls-Royce. It's not my thing. I don't care to live in a mega mansion or it is not my thing, right? So I, I'm not comparing myself to, to anybody, right? And my, I'm running my own race. So you have to determine what's your specific desired lifestyle and set income goals based on that. So if you want to vacation throughout the course of the year, then you know, you have to set a certain amount of money aside every single week so that you're getting closer. So, so think about this for example. We all have money that we spend. Somebody or some company is always trying to take our money out of our pocket. It may be a subscription, it may be the tolls. It may be buying that meal that you really didn't need, that$15 salad that you really didn't need to buy or, or buying that, that cocktail in the evening, whatever it is. But everything is always trying to take our money. Now imagine at the end of the day, you can go go to bed knowing that you actually saved money, and the money that you save is going to be used on that vacation for the year. Think about that. Like what if your goal for the day is to live such a lifestyle that nobody gets to take your money. You're intentional about who you give your money to, and you follow through on your specific budget. Okay, so that's, that's what we're talking about here. Now, creating flexible offers that support. Freedom. So you may very well create an offer. So for example, the way that I pay for things these days, I, I pay for my vehicle, I pay for our home. All of that stuff comes from offers that I set up. I do coaching, I do consulting. So when was the last time you created an offer? Like do you have a specific service? Even if you work a job, you can still provide your expertise, you can still have some kind of offer. So what if you created offers to sustain your lifestyle? I have tons of clients and at any point in time, if I want to earn extra income, I get more clients and I pay for things that I, like. If I want to pay for a vacation, I can land a client and pay for that vacation with that offer. So it's a different way of thinking and it, it is essential because when you're working a nine to five typically is if you do this, you get this and you're kind of limited in terms of your income potential. But if you create offers, whatever that offer is, it could be a product, it could be a service. You can pay for your desired lifestyle with that offer. Okay? So the idea is that time autonomy is also greater than money goes alone. It's not just money goes, but it's the time freedom. How, how much time, freedom do you want? Sometimes peace is greater than ambition. Sometimes you just, you just wanna break. You wanna be able to relax. You don't want to be stressing out over next month's bill. And that's why you have to be diligent with how you go about your finances because it's not just financial freedom, it's also time freedom. And you have to kind of determine how you're going to go about that because it's like this great seesaw. You have to find that sweet spot where you're doing well financially, but you're not doing it at the expense of being a slaves to the money. Next up we have protecting personal joy. Protecting personal joy. When was the last time you thought about protecting your joy? I always say peace of mind has to be protected. Your peace of mind has to be protected. You have to safeguard your peace of mind because there's so much negativity. Most people, unfortunately, they talk, they talk about negative things, right? You have the media, you have all these different things focused on a lot of negative. So how are you protecting your peace of mind? So you wanna schedule joy the way you schedule meetings, schedule joy, the way you schedule meetings. So what's something that you truly enjoy and schedule it in? So if you're used to scheduling in your work meetings or family life, how can you actually schedule in things that are fun? That's why when I cover the five F's for holistic living, you oftentimes hear me mention faith, fitness, family, fortune. But what's the fifth F? It's fun. It's fun because why squander this precious life that you have? Okay. When it comes to protecting personal joy, here are some daily micro joy practices. What are some micro joy practices, things that you can do to enhance your joy? First and foremost, we have movement, movement, movement. It, it can trigger endorphins. Endorphins is another happy chemical, and if you ever wanna remember the happy chemicals, think. Dose. Think of the acronym dose, DOSE. Think of it like a dose of happiness. You have dopamine, which is responsible for motivation. You have oxytocin, which is responsible for the feelings of being in love or or love. You have serotonin, which is the mood stabilizer. Whenever you feel high self-esteem and self-worth and serotonin, you also have endorphins, which mask pain. It's like the runner's high, so movement triggers, endorphins. Whenever you get that runner's high, you feel incredible after an intense workout. That's That's why you feel that way because it's masking all the pains and you get this surge of energy. Also, you have sunlight. Sunlight produces serotonin in your body. So sunlight is a major contributor to overall joy. You have creative hobbies, so what are your creative hobbies? How can you express yourself creatively? Maybe it's painting, drawing, whatever, journaling, all of that stuff. And then quality relationships. So relationships that also fill you up with joy. Okay, so how can you schedule all of these things as micro goals for the day? Next, we have boundaries when it comes to protecting personal joy. So boundaries is saying no to what drains you, even if it looks good on paper, even if it looks good on paper. So you may feel as if you have to do this certain thing because everybody says, oh, you should be doing that. But if it is draining you, if it is sucking the life out of you, then sometimes that no is far greater than that, yes to that very thing. Peace of mind has to be protected and setting healthy boundaries. Like I know that if I'm gonna be talking to some family of friends that are just gossiping, I'm gonna limit that. I'm gonna set a boundary on that because that's sucking the joy out of my life. And, and this could apply to so many different things. Think about the things that, that really suck the joy out of your life. So, for example, whenever I work a specific way, it strips the joy out of it. Sometimes it's also the way you communicate. So I know sometimes if my communication isn't the best, it'll also strip the joy of the moment. So being super intentional about filling your life up with as much joy as possible and setting boundaries from, uh, for things that essentially take the joy away. Okay, so here are some common mistakes people make. When it comes to their life, waiting until they make it before enjoying life, waiting until they make it before enjoying life. Listen, nothing is promised to any of us. You may be waiting for that financial breakthrough to live your life, but then you get the financial breakthrough and you don't have your help or you have that financial breakthrough, but God forbid a loved one passes away you, you have no idea what life holds, so enjoy it today. Don't wait 20 years before you can start living your life. I saw one of my social media posts, and it was something along the lines of I was traveling and I posted something along the lines of, I'm so happy that I never adopted the mindset of waiting till I was 65 years old and retired in order to start living my life. Think about how many people have subscribed to that. It's, it's insane. So do not wait until you make it. To start living your life, live your life now, I promise you, you won't regret it. I promise you, I've never regretted the money that I've spent, even if it was a little bit more than I should have. I've never regretted the money I spent on incredible experiences with my loved ones that were memorable travel experiences, okay? So investing in experiences over things will always be far more valuable to invest in those experiences instead. Next, we have, building success by someone else's definition is another common mistake. Think about that. Most people, when they identify success, they're thinking the house, the big house with the white picket fence and driving a Mercedes or BMW, and like, that's, that's what success is. And, and that, that one vacation a year. But is that really success for you in your eyes? Like I meet people all the time that they may be young and they're making millions and millions and millions of dollars doing extremely well financially. They don't have a family, or they're outta shape, or they have no lifestyle, they're a slave to that business. And in my mind, I'm like, that's not, I mean, you may think that that's success, and that's cool if that's success for you, but that damn sure isn't success for me if I always have to be a slave to the business. Right? How many of you genuinely wanna live like that? It's, it's like I, I meet people all the time that say they wanna be rich, but they don't realize what being rich comes with. Oftentimes it comes with working a lot, 60, 70, 80 hour weeks with a lot of stress, a lot of overwhelm, a lot of responsibility. So be careful what you wish for. I think what you really are looking for is freedom, the ability to pay for the important things that you need to pay for, and also the time freedom, and you don't necessarily have to be a multimillionaire to be able to live a lifestyle of freedom. Next up, we have, when it comes to protecting your, uh, or common mistakes that people typically make, is. Prioriti, prioritizing, hustle over happiness, prioritizing hustle over happiness. Now, I believe in the philosophy of hustle, harmony. It's the hustle, because in order to do anything great, the reality is you do have to hustle. Let's, let's call it for what it is. You're, you're going to have to put in the work. I, I've never met any, and this is specifically for those of you who want to do great things with your life. If you don't care to live a life of greatness, then this is not for you. But if you're someone where you want to achieve big things and you want your life to be big, and you wanna live up to your fullest potential, then yes, you're gonna be hustling. However, it should never be a situation where you're prioritizing that hustle over your happiness. And the thing about it is if you hustle, typically you're going to be happier because you're being productive. However. Happiness is a lot more than just hustle. Happiness is holistic. Happiness is when you can go to bed at night and sleep well through the night. That's, that's what happiness is. We have to redefine what happiness actually is and what success actually is, because when you really, really think about it, it's like we, we praise the financial success and we don't praise enough people who actually have happiness with their families and live modest lives, and people who have peace in their life. So it is important to really reevaluate the way you perceive what, what, what ha or how happiness really feels for you. Because you may be happy Netflix and chilling with your significant other or kids, but for somebody else that may not be happiness for them. I know people who go on vacation and they're miserable on vacation. They can't wait to go back to work. Like they're, they're on the Hawaii trip and they're there just on their phone the entire time because they can't wait. Like, is that really what you want for your life? So you have to determine for yourself what, what that means. And it should be a situation where you're prioritizing your happiness over the hustle, not the other way around. Next is believing ba balance equals laziness or weakness. I know like when I first started taking Sundays off, a lot of people, a lot of my leaders probably thought I, I was crazy, like, or I'm getting soft. But one thing that I can tell you is like, you could judge a tree by the fruit that it bears. And I love my family. My family loves me and we have a, a, a pretty good family life. Like we enjoy our time. Like we're, we're, we have a great relationship and that's taking Sundays off. That's prioritizing them, making sure that I don't ever lose my soul in the process. So it is essential. It is important. Okay. And, and balance does not necessarily equal weakness. Okay? And it's, it's, if you wanna be successful, well, do you wanna be successful also in your family life? Do you wanna be successful with your health? Do you wanna be successful with your spirituality? Okay. It's not just financial. So that's the part that I, I always preach this so much because I think we live in this illusion that, oh, I'm only going to be successful when I have a certain amount of money in my bank account or my credit score a certain way, or when I'm debt free. But I know a lot of people who have that in their miserable, okay? So balance is, is balance could actually help your success. Sometimes taking that time to rest and reset could actually help you be more productive and, and prevent you from going through burnout. So it, it does very well help. So reframe that belief in, in balance. And your reframe should be balanced isn't a luxury, it's the foundation of sustainable success. Balance is the foundational, uh, the foundation of sustainable success. And I know because I've lived like this, I'm a, I'm a holistic life coach. So this, this is my wheelhouse, if you will, and I teach this more than anything. It's hustle, harmony, it's holistic living, and it's, it's the wellbeing of your whole being. It's the, the full picture. Okay? So here are some actionable steps to start today to design your life so that you don't have to vacation from it. Okay? So here's a simple action plan that you can take. First and foremost is audit. Do an audit. What parts of my current life feel good and what parts feel heavy? So think about that for a second. You wanna do an audit of your life and what parts of your current life today feel good. So whether that's, let's just say your work may feel good or your family life may feel good about your health right now, but what part feels heavy? It may be your finances that are a bit heavy right now. It may be your relationship with your significant other that's a bit heavy right now. So identify, you have to have the awareness of it in the first place. Secondly is to clarify. So you have audit and then you have clarify what one to two lifestyle upgrades would make the biggest difference in your life. What are one to two upgrades that will make the biggest difference in your life? One thing that I love is when we do family dinners, family dinners are always a major enhancement to our day. Especially as a family when we can just sit down. We don't always do family dinners, but when we do it is really great. Okay. So that can be a lifestyle upgrade, for example. And, and the reason why we don't is because we work as entrepreneurs. A lot of our work with our specific business is in the evenings. So it, it is, it is something that, you know, for whatever reason we've, we have this lifestyle where it's not every single day. And I'm sure if we really, really wanted to, we can. What we do is we'll commit a Friday evening just to our family to make sure that that's anchored in, so it's not going over a long period of time. And then Sundays, it's just all family day. So at least two days out of the week, we ensure that we're getting, getting together as a family and breaking bread together. Okay? So that's a lifestyle upgrade. And for you, it may be something completely different. It may not be having dinner, maybe it's having breakfast or having a talk with your kids before they go off to school. But think about these things. You have to clarify it. Okay? Maybe it's going for a walk with your spouse so that you guys can connect on a deeper level. Okay? But what are one to two lifestyle upgrades that will make the biggest difference in your life? And perhaps that's going to bed earlier for a lot of people so that they feel better throughout the day. They have to get more sleep. You'd be surprised at how sleep really affects your mood throughout the day. Next we have a line. What changes can I make to my business or a schedule to support this lifestyle? So what can you adjust? What can you maneuver to make this important? So what I've discovered is if you know that you have less time throughout the day, you're a lot more intentional with how you spend that time. So maybe if you optimize your calendar in such a way, you can knock out a lot of the important things so that you can support this lifestyle in the best way possible. I remember I, I was committed to getting the bed by 10, but then when I, when we launched our, our last company, it was like all out massive action and that got completely out of whack. However, what I did do was I wasn't waking up as early the next day just so that I can make sure I get a minimum seven hours of sleep every single night. And that was a major shift. Okay, so how can you shift your schedule? How can you optimize your calendar so that it's most conducive for alignment? And lastly is commit. Choose one small thing to change this week. It can be finishing at work at 4:00 PM twice this week. So maybe that's what it is. Maybe it's knocking out all of your emails, responding to all of your emails. That way you aren't getting overwhelmed and you do it at a specific time in the day. Maybe it's dedicating an hour to deep work. I call it dream building. So maybe your business, your lifestyle upgrade might be working on your business one hour out of the day in a beautiful environment. And that's your me time where you get to focus just on your dream. Maybe it's writing that book, creating that content, writing that article, whatever it is. But you have to commit to it and choose one small thing to change this week. So if you guys don't mind and drop a comment, let let us know what's the one small change that you'll commit to. What's the one lifestyle enhancement that you'll commit to this week? It can be reading the book, it can be meditation or prayer or whatever it is. Maybe time to journal, read your scripture, whatever, but put in the comment thread, what's going to be your one lifestyle enhancement for this week and commit to it. Okay? So as we close out and bring this plan in for a landing, remember this, you don't have to settle for a life. You need to escape from. You are the architect of your reality. So start today. You are the architect, architect of your reality. Doesn't have to start next year, next month. You can literally start this right now. Put it on your calendar. That's my recommendation. If you want to ensure that you're going to follow through, remember what I mentioned about habits earlier, you have to reinforce this habit and support this habit and stack it in value. That way it's pleasurable. You have to get it on the calendar. That way it's at the forefront of your mind. That way you already know when you go throughout the course of the day, you have that on the books. So super, super important to remember that. Okay, so as we wrap up, guys, I hope that this was super valuable for you and whatever your lifestyle is, just remember that the most important thing is to acknowledge the fact that you only get one life to live. We don't know what's on the other side. We have these ideas of what's going to happen afterwards, but when it's all said and done, one thing that's an incontrovertible fact is that we have this life and you get to choose how you want to live this life. You don't have to. You simply get to, life is happening for you. It isn't happening to you. So take back control over your life and determine today how you can live your life in such a way where you don't have to vacation from it where every single day of your life, it is a joy and it is possible to live like this, but you have to be intentional. It is lifestyle by design. Get back to the drawing board and my, my encouragement to you all is to take some time today to really reflect on what you want the majority of your days on earth to look like and design your life in such a way where you can get it as close to a 10 as possible and you can live. Like, like today, when I go on vacation, I look forward to coming back home. I actually love my life, and this is not to boast or brag or like I, I have a lot of moving parts. I have my family life, I have all kinds of obligations, a lot of different things to be stressed about. But you know what? I, I have designed my life in such a way where I actually look forward to coming back home. And I just wanna impress upon you that this life is possible. And I'm not telling you something that has been read from a book or listened to on a podcast. This is personal experience. So it is possible whether you are working a nine to five or even a job that you dread, understand that the rest of your life can very well be the best of your life. So I hope that this session was valuable for you. If it was drop a like, comment, share, tag, someone who can get value from it, feel free to hit me up in the dms. If you guys, uh, you know, want some information or you know, maybe you need some advice on something, I'm always very responsive to my messages that come in. Until next time, guys, take care. God bless. Breakfast is served. I'll be seeing you all next week. I.