When I first met my wife, Joi, I knew we would be married and live happily ever after. But there was a problem. Joi didn’t see it that way - at least not right away. If life has taught me anything, it’s that almost nobody is on the same page when they first meet. We might be in the same book but not on the same page. In the early weeks of our relationship, I was in full-on action mode, and I was on a mission to achieve my goal as quickly as possible. I was also getting frustrated since Joi didn’...
Jan 17, 2022•11 min•Season 16Ep. 4126
There's an idea floating within your mind. Soon it will demand your attention. Is this all there is? Am I destined for something bigger? Your real purpose will arrive in your life when you: 1) Accept WHO you are and have always been. You are beautiful just the way you are. 2) Accept WHAT you do when you are doing you. Life is far more enjoyable when you spend most of your time in your comfort zone - and step out occasionally. 3) Accept WHEN when you want to start living in the moment. Now is a g...
Jan 14, 2022•13 min•Season 16Ep. 4125
Before I begin, I want to define what I mean by doing nothing. I don’t see doing ‘nothing’ as something unproductive. Instead, I see ‘nothing’ as a protected personal space that lies between your thoughts and your actions. It is a place that provides a contemplation and planning opportunity before launching into massive and focused action design to reach your outcome and achievement of your goal. It is a holding space where inspiration, desperation, motivation, even intimidation, bubble up into ...
Jan 13, 2022•11 min•Season 16Ep. 4124
Is a title like "Three Steps Required to Change Anything" an oversimplification of what it takes to get what you want? Or… is it the acceptance that everything is simple - until we complicate it. If you guess the second, you will get along just fine. So, what are those three steps? The first step to getting anything you want is to KNOW what you want. Many will argue that the first step is the most difficult. Like they say, "work with the outcome in mind." I don't see it this way and believe it's...
Jan 12, 2022•13 min•Season 16Ep. 4123
You hear a lot about using morning rituals to get more done. But what if you could use your mornings to get more done for YOU? In the fast-face world, we live in today; there seem to be two groups when it comes to how to use mornings—personal and productivity. Once folks remove themselves from the craziness of jumping out of bed, taking care of the kids, and hitting the drive-through, they choose one of the two. But what if there was a third group that was more satisfying? Before I go on, I need...
Jan 11, 2022•13 min•Season 16Ep. 4122
Have you ever caught yourself doing or saying something you swore you would never do? You have been TRIGGERED! It can be frustrating when you set the rules and don't follow them. Sometimes you put your foot in your mouth. Sometimes you put the pizza in your mouth. In any case, your emotional habits are triggering your actions before you can do anything about them. Controlling behaviors that have been on auto-pilot for years takes: 1) Catching yourself after the fact. Notice your mistake and see ...
Jan 10, 2022•14 min•Season 16Ep. 4121
If you study people who have had success in any area of their life, you will find they have much in common. Not only do they follow a set of rules, they follow those rules no matter how much life gets in the way. What are those rules? The person who has the strongest "Why" wins. The person who shows up wins. The person who is most persistent wins. The person show never assumes wins. The person who is the best at what they do wins. The person who plans and documents their journey and interactions...
Jan 07, 2022•12 min•Season 16Ep. 4120
Have you ever found yourself stuck in the middle? I spoke with a client trying to be everything to everybody. His business was not growing. His life was not happy. He couldn’t seem to find a way to make progress. That’s when I said… “My friend, you are stuck in the middle. Nothing good happens when you are in the middle.” In business and life, it’s okay to have low expectations and surround yourself with like-minded folks. It’s also okay to reach for your dreams, have high expectations, and expe...
Jan 06, 2022•10 min•Season 16Ep. 4119
I’ll never forget the day a mentor of mine said to me — “You have to become the person you want to be before becoming the person you want to be.” What? So I have to fake it until I make it? Heck no! I’m not going to change who I am - no way! “No. You’re not changing who you are. It’s just that you have to understand that the future, you will have a different set of beliefs than you hold right now. That’s called growth. Whatever you believe, you will become.” At first, I thought he meant I would ...
Jan 05, 2022•12 min•Season 16Ep. 4118
It's the time of the year when it seems almost everybody is setting new goals. It's also the time of year most folks will quickly give up on those goals. There has been a lot of research about how long New Year's Resolutions last. On the short end, most folks give up at 12 days, the most committed stay in the game for an entire month. Now, since it takes 66 days to set a new behavior, it's no wonder people have such a difficult time changing. Here's an exciting way to think about that problem. S...
Jan 04, 2022•11 min•Season 16Ep. 4117
I’ll never forget the day a friend called and made me an offer I couldn’t refuse - and I didn’t. Rob was an event promotor who had snagged the chance to book an up-and-coming comedian named Jerry Seinfeld into a local venue. He needed somebody to warm up the audience and introduce Jerry. I was all in when he agreed to cover my drink tab and let me hang out with Jerry before the show. It was 1986, and Jerry’s television series about nothing was still in development. I know that because it’s what ...
Jan 03, 2022•11 min•Season 16Ep. 4116
Toss Your To-Do List This is the time of year when people start thinking about getting more productive in their life. Over time, I've learned there is a significant benefit of growing older and wiser, figuring out what works in most areas of life, and learning to avoid the school of hard knocks. I'm always amazed at how much time people fritter away deciding how to be more productive— trying to keep up with their never-ending daily list of things. Eventually, though, we all learn that a good lif...
Dec 31, 2021•12 min•Season 15Ep. 4115
I can't tell you how many times I've heard somebody say— "If I knew I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself and saved more money." True or true? Modern times are interesting times, and when it comes to living a long life, people either think life is too short or long. If you do things correctly, long enough is the best answer, but 200 years ago, most folks didn't have the luxury of thinking about things like that. If you lived during those times, you lived at a sl...
Dec 30, 2021•11 min•Season 15Ep. 4114
My friend sent a note on a subject that profoundly resonates with me. He asked me, "What's more important, passion or money?" Ask any person who knows me, and they will tell you that I am all about doing what makes my heart sing - PASSION! After all, you know what they say — "Do what you love, and the money will follow!" I bet you've heard that most of your life. I will also bet that you have personal experience that would suggest otherwise, and there are millions of starving artists, writers, a...
Dec 29, 2021•11 min•Season 15Ep. 4113
Let me start by saying that goal setting is powerful, and you should be doing it - but there is a good chance that you are overdoing it. It's human nature to set goals, and you do it every day without thinking. That's why it's so powerful. It's also why it's so easy to set so many goals that you can never get any of them done. Let me define how I see goals. No matter what distracts me, I've come to think of goals in two ways: 1) Legacy Goals that I will spend my entire life achieving. 2) Living ...
Dec 28, 2021•12 min•Season 15Ep. 4112
When my wife and I were first married, it wasn’t long before I learned that waking up at 5:45 AM, and every step after that, seemed to be programmed into her DNA - and I was not too fond of it. Over the years, I had grown to dislike mornings. Mostly because I found myself doing one of two things; the hustle and bustle of the daily grind or what the self-help gurus were telling me I “should” be doing with my mornings. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it didn’t. My wife, on the other hand, doesn’t d...
Dec 27, 2021•11 min•Season 15Ep. 4111
Are you a person who always does things the same way or prefers to change things up at every chance? If you’re lucky, you are both. Traditions are the secret sauce behind the emotional connection we feel at this time of year. Family get-togethers, office gatherings, crazy shopping crowds? Yes. I know we’re in a pandemic, and not everything is as it used to be - but it is in our minds. The traditions make our lives unique and are always present, never forgotten, and form the fabric of our lives. ...
Dec 24, 2021•11 min•Season 15Ep. 4010
My mind is constantly searching for a simple, three-step process for anything that will help me get what I want, and that usually comes down to something I talk about a lot; making a decision. I speak about decision-making much of my day because it’s the most dynamic tool you have in your personal development tool kit. It should be easy — Almost everything you will ever want to do in life has already been done. The solution to getting what you want should be based on logic and proven steps. In o...
Dec 23, 2021•11 min•Season 15Ep. 4109
As we approach the most spiritual time of year, I find more and more of my thoughts are focused on what my future will bring. But instead of drafting a list of goals, my mind seems to settle into a different place— What if I could give myself a gift that would instantly give me what I want? What if I don't have to chase my dreams and start living them instead? What if there was nothing in my way - ever? While that way of thinking may seem out of touch in today's world, it's not. It happens every...
Dec 22, 2021•11 min•Season 15Ep. 4108
I can’t remember her name, but I can tell you she was not a happy person. It was a hot, hazy, and humid Virginia day when I arrived for a class reunion. As I stepped toward the check-in table, a friend of more than thirty years locked eyes with me, broke into tears, and screamed— “Oh Scott… can you help me? I’m not happy!” Next, she bolted out of her seat, ran around the table, and hugged me… and hugged me… and hugged me… and hugged me. This is not the first time this has happened, and being a p...
Dec 21, 2021•11 min•Season 15Ep. 4107
Sometime between Halloween and Thanksgiving, I found myself finishing leftover candy and bit into a Jolly Rancher - a recipe for disaster for anybody with a mouth full of dental work. As you might have predicted, it wasn't long before I was at the dentist. I don't like dentists much. Maybe it was because as a kid, our family dentist was Dr. PAIN… uh… Dr. Payne. Still, there I was with the sound of drilling and suction filling the room, along with the occasional mumbled answer coming from my mout...
Dec 20, 2021•11 min•Season 15Ep. 4006
Over the past few years, there has been a trend in business toward an open, communicative, friendly, and supportive environment. While I believe that’s the way it should be, there has also been confusion amongst everybody in the company and customers. Who’s in charge? Who’s the leader? Where are we heading? Without a strong vision applied to the entire momentum of the company, there will be no momentum. And while ideas percolate from everybody involved, somebody needs to gather them into a visio...
Dec 17, 2021•11 min•Season 15Ep. 4105
Is the Universe whispering to you and nudging you to move in a specific direction? Before I go on, I need to admit that I am certainly not an expert in the Universe or it works in our life. The magic of gravity is enough to blow my mind, and the only Secret I know is that you are the only one in charge of getting what you want in your life. But what if you know that Universe is speaking to you? Calling you, compelling you to get off the sofa and do what you say you want to do? But you still won’...
Dec 16, 2021•10 min•Season 15Ep. 4104
When I began training and competing with my dog in agility, I made a rookie dog trainer mistake. I wasn't consistent, and my dog was getting confused. One day, my trainer said, "For a dog, one time means all the time. Every time you let them do something new, they're just going to keep on doing it." Now, as silly as it sounds, that came to mind a couple of weeks ago when my wife, a creature of routine and habit, did the same thing. We were invited to attend Thanksgiving with family, and Joi's tr...
Dec 15, 2021•10 min•Season 15Ep. 4103
I was on the phone with a client that was in a bit of a rut with her Real Estate business. It had been a good year, yet she found herself coasting and feeling like nobody wanted anything to do with her. “What should I do? I know I can do more? I don’t know what to do?” I think most people feel like that from time to time. When that happens to be me, I always remember two things: “What you practice in private you will be praised for in public.” “The fortune is in the follow-up.” While that sounds...
Dec 14, 2021•11 min•Season 15Ep. 4102
If you knew me as a child, one thing would be true; that I was 100% a non-adult and would maximize my time getting away with being cute and funny. That’s what kids do - and I love it. Children don’t generally ask for permission or forgiveness. That’s has nothing to do with what they want to do. It never enters their mind. It doesn’t matter if it’s a good or bad decision. Once a child decides on their path, nothing will stop them. Most times, exploring Life isn’t an issue. Unless it is dangerous ...
Dec 13, 2021•10 min•Season 15Ep. 4101
My wife and I were looking for something on Netflix and found ourselves repeating the scroll a couple of times. Finally, the screen changed, and the graphic offered us a choice. It said, "just play something?" Yes, please. Just play something, so I can put the remote control down and get back to petting my dog. Thinking back on the moment, I was reminded of a book I read a long time ago. In 2005, Barry Schwartz wrote Paradox of Choice. It challenged the traditional thinking that said the way to ...
Dec 10, 2021•12 min•Season 15Ep. 4100
I’ve noticed in my life that humans are hoarders when it comes to keeping stuff in their life that works and doesn’t work. They keep hanging life their life depends on it. Now, before I go on, I think there are two situations at play here: 1) Hanging on to what has worked well but needs to go so you can do more of what you want to do. 2) Hanging on what doesn’t work in hopes that it will work well someday. Both can go on for years and lead to nothing but frustration as you continue to long for s...
Dec 09, 2021•12 min•Season 15Ep. 4099
I was riding my Harley-Davidson Road King a few days ago when my mind suddenly thought - “The Chinese Philosophical concept of Yin and yang describes how opposite or contrary forces may be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world.” What? What? Huh? It happened right in front of the Daytona Speedway and got me thinking about advice I give my clients about slowing down. It goes like this - “You must slow down to get what you want.” Advice like that is why I get the bi...
Dec 08, 2021•12 min•Season 15Ep. 4098
"You need to get out of your comfort zone if you want to succeed!" I can't tell you how many times I've heard that. Thankfully, that silly advice is something I've only accepted a couple of times. I hated every second of it, ran right back into what makes me comfortable, and have never told anybody to get out of their comfort zone. "But, Scott? Isn't getting out of your comfort zone how you get what you want?" Yes, and no. Don't get me wrong. I firmly believe that you should continually be expan...
Dec 07, 2021•12 min•Season 15Ep. 4097
