Do you have routines to get things done? Or do you make it up every day? There is a story about Steve Jobs and his black turtle-neck sweaters. Not sure if it is true, but it makes a point. It was part of his routine. The story goes that black turtle necks are all he had in his closet. That way he never had to make a decision about what to wear and when. It was always the same. He used the routine to move faster, save time, and get more things done. I do like having a uniform of sorts at work. I ...
Jul 30, 2023•9 min
Just do one more… Everything I just listened to Ed Mylett’s book The Power of One More and it inspired me to do one more every day towards being great. In everything you do in life, if you do just one more you can be great. No one knows at what exact point the greats have gone from just good to amazing but there was a point, and all it took was one more time. In selection for special forces, it’s going just one more leg of the race, one more day of selection, or just one more time doing the dril...
Jun 25, 2023•10 min
In everything you do be humble. Leadership is something I’ve been taught since the beginning of everything… or so it seems. As a Boy Scout when I was younger, leadership is one of their core principles. There I was taught the Scout Oath and Law. Both fail to mention being humble. I grew from scouting to being a United States Marine. Leadership seemed to be the one constant from day one. I was taught leadership principles, traits, and core values. Of 5 traits, 14 principles, and 3 core values, no...
Jun 11, 2023•12 min
Those who are crazy enough to think they can change the world just might do it. Whether you think you can or think you can’t you are right. Are you grateful for what you have? Do you express gratitude for it? How often do express gratitude to yourself? The people around you? The world? If you are like most people in this crazy busy world, we don’t stop enough to express gratitude to the people and things around us. And the fact that we don’t do it just makes it harder. It is a habit that needs p...
Jun 04, 2023•12 min
It’s the everyday things that change us. “Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.” – Lao Tzu For some reason, I remember the end of the quote as your habits become who you are. I sit right now trying to make my habits into who I want to become. But it seems like that daily grind of doing something everything ev...
Sep 03, 2022•10 min
Changing you and your focus. How to change you and your focus in life is simple, just not easy. You just have to reprogram yourself. And it takes a long time. I’m going through a tough time with my sisters and father. My mother passed away suddenly about two years ago and my father spent the time since her passing in the bottle. He was an alcoholic growing up but gave it up about 15 years ago because a doctor told him it was killing him. So he quit. Simple, not easy. But my father is a great man...
May 22, 2022•10 min
Books will change your life even in the most unusual way. In 2002 I was part of an Anti-Terrorism unit on Camp Pendleton as a U.S. Marine. By then I’d figured out I liked reading and was into spy novels and saving the world adventure books. When my unit was activated and placed on alert as part of an Anti-Terrorism unit after September 11th I started reading everything on weapons and tactics I could get my hands on. At the time Marines could do MCIs (Marine Corps Institute) as a way to earn cred...
May 15, 2022•12 min
You have to go your own way when setting and accomplishing goals. No one will set goals for you; this is your first thought, right? But lots of people will set lots of goals for you over your life. When you are a kid, your parents set lots of goals for you. Most of them you probably don’t even know about. Or at least didn’t know about it at the time. Bet you didn’t know that they just wanted you to walk on your own after carrying you around for the better part of a year. As we get older more peo...
May 01, 2022•12 min
How do you get back to what you know you should be doing after a lapse in time? Have you ever hit a goal and then just stopped doing things you know you should be doing? Or worse, in my case, have you given up lots of things you know you should be doing to hit a goal and now have to restart all those things that you shouldn’t have given up. It’s like getting back on target after a hit or miss with a rifle, handgun, or even a mortar system. As a U.S. Marine, I was an 0341, infantry mortarman. I w...
Apr 24, 2022•12 min
The command to execute a breach, mission, or takedown of anything in the Military is always given in threes. My Marines waiting on the execution plan in the trash pit In 2003, Iraq, just outside of Baghdad I sat in a trash collection area with my mortar team waiting to rain fire on the enemy to support my fellow Marines breaching an intel compound and prison where political prisoners were hunted, jailed, and torched. Our intelligence was thin at best, so we had no idea what we would find. Which ...
Mar 09, 2022•18 min
Challenge can teach you everything you would ever want to know about yourself and becoming better. Finishing a challenge isn’t how you get better, it’s the road there that makes you who you are. Think about the hardest things you have ever done in life. When you finished, was it about the destination or about the climb that made you great? For me, most of my accomplishments in life made me who I am by having to overcome the challenge and grow into that person. In 1998 I set foot on the Yellow Fo...
Feb 13, 2022•13 min
Is fear a legitimate problem that keeps you from getting things done so that you can become the best you? I don’t know about you, but for me, that answer is a legitimate yes right now. I feel like I have so many things going on that I’m afraid if I try to do even one more thing, I’ll fail. It’s overwhelming (you can read more about being overwhelmed here ). When it comes to a challenge, failure doesn’t feel like something you just try again. I know the world is full of people that failed but jus...
Feb 05, 2022•9 min
How many times a year do you challenge yourself? And do you enjoy it? I want to challenge myself a bunch, but it’s hard. Last year in July I went to Yosemite National Park in California. One of the most beautiful places in the world. And the further away from people you get, the more beautiful it gets. The park is in the High Sierra’s and the change of elevation is incredible. It goes straight up and straight down to different places. We hiked and hiked, and hiked some more. I walked 6 miles the...
Jan 29, 2022•9 min
Are you overwhelmed? Me too! Can you believe that most people feel just like you? About a third of Americans report feeling overwhelmed in their everyday lives ( American Psychological Association reports ) and United Press International reports two-thirds of Americans feel overwhelmed by the issues facing the nation. If you are in another country, I’m sure the numbers are about the same. We live in interesting times. I have no idea what to do about the overwhelm of nations. But I know problem-s...
Jan 22, 2022•9 min
New Years’ Resolutions are crap, you have to do the work every day. Every year I make a resolution to get more in shape, do better with my money, and make something bigger in my business. Every year it is the same. The only year my life started to measurably improve was the year I started doing 75 Hard. I did the 75 days towards the end of the year. The program wasn’t invented when I set my same old New Years’ resolutions. And until 75 Hard, I had the same results… none. Why did it change? It wa...
Jan 01, 2022•10 min
What is the best schedule for a day? How can you build that best schedule? I’m sure you have been working on the best schedule for a day for years now. I’ve been trying to figure it out for a long time. I’m not sure there is a best schedule for a day because no plan survives first contact with the enemy. But you know what does survive contact with the enemy? SOP’s (Standard Operating Procedures) and Immediate Action Drills both survive contact with the enemy. In the Marine Corps, an SOP is how w...
Dec 19, 2021•9 min
Winning in life means being 1% better every day and being 1% better than the competition. I’m reading The Psychology of Selling by Brian Tracy to learn how to be a better salesman (my day job is selling car wash equipment for AutoBrite Company in San Antonio, Texas). The beginning of the book is about motivation. And I don’t know about you, but I could use a little more motivation in my life. So I’m actually reading this book for a second time and enjoying it more this round. In the book, Brian ...
Dec 11, 2021•9 min
Goal setting benefits are supposed to include making money, being in great shape, climbing the ladder of success, owning amazing cars, and just being the person everyone wants to be. How many times have you heard that? Especially at this time of year. It’s between Thanksgiving and Christmas. According to a dozen other websites and self-help gurus, this is when you should be working on your goals list for next year. So I started doing what I’m “supposed to do” and started going over goals. I foun...
Nov 29, 2021•9 min
Living a life of intent means doing everything with intent. When was the last time you did anything in your life with an intent? And what was that intent? Most of the time when I’m doing something it is with the intent to get it finished. Nothing else. Yesterday I mowed the yard. My wife so beautifully pointed out a couple of spots I missed. And it pissed me off. Not because she said something. She just pointed out my shortcomings. Not with mal intent, but with a questioning intent. Most of the ...
Nov 22, 2021•9 min
How to set personal boundaries and monitor them to ensure you are true to yourself Setting personal boundaries of what you will and will not do will help you get through tough times. This blog and 75 Hard is all about setting boundaries on what you will do, but how do you set boundaries on what you won’t do? We all have lines that can’t be crossed and that we don’t want to cross. You have those things that you won’t do and those things that you won’t let happen. After being a Marine for 10 years...
Nov 08, 2021•9 min
What to do when you fail, because you will fail at something sooner or later… but then what? I finished a 75 Hard Challenge a couple weeks ago and still feel like a failure. What do you do when you fail? I don’t know what to do but start again. You haven’t really failed until you give up on your goals. In the Marine Corps I was trained to continue to fight no matter what. You continue forward. If you can think, if you can move, if you can do anything, you move forward. Your mind will want you to...
Oct 26, 2021•9 min
Will your relationships with the people close to you suffer during and after doing the 75 Hard Program? I got a sad email from a heartbroken father. His daughter’s boyfriend was doing 75 Hard and at about day 30 abruptly ended the 7-year relationship for no apparent reason. He wanted to know if that was part of 75 Hard. That is definitely not part of the program, but could be an outcome and a possible downside of you completing 75 Hard. If you complete the 75 Hard Program it will have an effect ...
Oct 19, 2021•9 min
I just got back from Amm-Con (Alternative Mass Media Convention). It is a conference for 2nd Amendment content and other content creators that are shunned by most big web brands and social media sights. I got to see a bunch of my friends that I haven’t seen in years. We live all over the country and get to talk to each other via Zoom like the rest of the world right now, but it isn’t the same. I’ve been feeling in the dumps for the last couple of weeks. Job is stressing me out, the family wants ...
Oct 04, 2021•9 min
Yesterday I completed another 75 Hard. I am very grateful to have finished and run the race. Did I accomplish all my goals… that’s a big NO! Do I wish I had accomplished all my goals? Of couse! I did accomplish my biggest goal. I feel and think I’ve become a better person. I read three books, worked out every day and pushed more weight than the month before, and went faster than the month before. I wanted to lose some weight and a couple of inches on the gut and chest while I was at it. No such ...
Sep 26, 2021•9 min
It’s what I remember after September 11, 2001, a love for others and an admiration for our country and those that were ready to protect us no matter the cost. It’s been 20 years since the terrorist attacks on 9-11 and the world has changed considerably for the good and the bad. The attacks were horrible. Thousands dying and more are trying to make it right. Since then we’ve been at war. America has taken over two countries and killed tenfold what we lost that day or more. We’ve also lost more th...
Sep 12, 2021•4 min
Are you on your own journey? Are other people helping your journey? Changing your journey? Or hindering your journey? We are all on our own journey in life. We are going to the same place. In the end, we will all die, it’s just a matter of when and how. When you die, they will put the date you were born, and the day you died, separated by a dash on your tumb stone. That dash is your life. What you do with that dash, who you impact, and what journey you take to get there is up to you. Live your d...
Sep 06, 2021•9 min
Do you continue when you are sick? Give up for a day? Or give up period? Yesterday I was laid up by the Covid Vaccine. I felt so sick I could barely do anything. I didn’t want to eat, didn’t want to move, felt horrible. Before you go side-ways on me for talking about the Vaccine, it’s only relevant because I got mine the day before. Pain in my arm migrated to pain everywhere. It was the “I’m sick” body aches that come with a common cold. I just didn’t want to do anything. Even going downstairs t...
Aug 22, 2021•9 min
Just keep pushing forward until the results come. Zig Ziglar tells a story of two guys out in the hot fields back in the day. They come across an old hand pump that use to work. They pump for a while but nothing comes out. So they find a little water from a nasty creek to prime the pump. Then pump some more. One guy says that’s enough, I’m done. But the other continues on. Because the deeper the well, the longer it takes to get to the top, and the better the water will be. “Don’t give up, that w...
Aug 15, 2021•9 min
Just keep going like the energizer bunny is how to reach your goals. Every day is a new battle. Every day is a new challenge. Every day is the same but different. Yesterday I had to get up at 3 am and be at work by 4 to see an out-of-town customer by 7 am. No problem. Most people would take that day off from anything else. Most people would just do the minimum of everything that day. Most people don’t reach their goals. Here’s the secret of how to reach your goals. Work on them every day. No mat...
Aug 07, 2021•9 min
Motivation Monday bullshit will never work, only discipline and persistence will carry you through the hard times. Do you ever start at the bottom and look up? What’s that feel like? Do you think motivation Monday with a crappy meme is going to get you to the top? I use to think with enough motivation I could get anywhere. I loved Motivation Monday and memes that would give sayings like “Just hand in there” and the cat holding on to a rope. Now I understand that those will get you started, or le...
Aug 01, 2021•9 min
