How to Maximize Every Moment of Your Life

Caption: This is me on a Caribbean cruise. My shirt says, “Create Every Day.” My face says, “I love cruising.”

When you think about how to make the most of the one life you have, what comes to mind?

Many people, including myself, immediately think of things like traveling across the world, jumping out of planes, and surfing on the backs of whales. Extreme things. But such experiences, while individually spectacular, are only a small part of a great life. There are three things that are more important.Read More

My 9 Principles of Business Success

I admit it. My life isn’t everything I hoped for at this stage. But it’s more than I hoped for in terms of my business, career, finances, freedom, and world impact.

I’ve done well in business because of certain principles I’ve followed, which I’d like to share here. It will mostly be geared towards writing books (my main business), but the applications are broader than that.

These are the nine principles of business I operate by.Read More

To Be Happier, Embrace a Life of Imbalance

Conventional wisdom tells us that balance is key to happiness. I object.

Trying to live a “balanced life” sounds good, but I speak self-help BS, so let me translate: “live a balanced life” really means “frantically try to do everything.”

Ironically, our desire for balance is a driver of chaos. Am I really “supposed” to have a thriving business, excellent relationships and romantic prospects, great physical and mental health, adventurous travel plans, once-per-week volunteering, and responsible money management and investments, PLUS a nicely trimmed beard? Is that the life I need to be happy?

That’s just unreasonable when you add in the beard. That takes like… three minutes!

Guys, I don’t even have children. I can’t imagine adding “raise a human being” to my already-overwhelming list of things I “should” have for a balanced life. Many people have multiple children! Whew. How can it be done?

It can’t be done.Read More

Are you Making This Time Management Mistake?

One night, I was very tired because I had exercised earlier for two hours. It was 10:30 pm and I hadn’t done much work. Figuring that I would go to bed at about 12:30 am, I resigned to spend the rest of the night relaxing. All two hours of it.

Some part of me felt uncomfortable with that decision, and now I know why. I was looking at my available time too broadly. I had two hours before bedtime, and I thought it made most sense to relax since I was tired. But here’s the kicker: I can divide up that two hours however I please!

We tend to schedule our lives by the hour or half hour. This is a natural result of wanting to be on the same page as the rest of society (and practicing it until it’s routine), but it has an unintended and wasteful consequence.Read More

How Mini Habits Can Make Your Dreams Come True

A mini habit is a very small behavior that you force yourself do every day.

My second book, How to Be an Imperfectionist, discusses the soul of the Mini Habits ideology—accept imperfect progress in any amount and prioritize forward movement. I was shocked when a reader said this in a review,

“If you want to be mediocre and be happy about it, get this book.”

Mediocre? Huh? Something got lost in translation. Mediocrity is exactly what my books fight against! How did this misunderstanding happen?

How Real Life Kills Dreams

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