Isn't it amazing how far you have gotten?  If you look back at everything you've had to do to get to where you are today, it is truly amazing.  In fact, the chances of you being alive today are so infinite, it truly is a miracle.

But, put that aside for a second.  Now I want you to think about all of the people you have met and that have helped you and that you have helped along the way.  Think about that one connection or that mentor or that person you helped and how your actions with them helped your life and success.  I bet there are too many to count!  And then think about how the chances that these things happened are even more infinite that you being alive!  

The people you meet along the way, the relationships you build and create, and the lives you impact or are impacted by, are a huge part of your journey.   And they are rare in the probability arena.

What have you learned from them?  Are you taking it and using it to it's fullest every day?  Are you doing your best to honor these people and their contribution to your life and success?  The short answer for all of is, "Probably not."  Me included.

But perspective is an important thing and it pays to take some focused time and think deeply about these connections in your life and what you have learned from your experiences with them.  It will help to bring forth ideas, thoughts for how to take yourself to your next level, and how you can become a better overall person.  

This happened to me just the other day.  I was doing some work and came across some old notes taken from a mentor.  As I thought about the wisdom in those words, I became excited at how much they had helped me over the years and felt a deep feeling of gratitude.  The time spent reflecting was well spent as it gave new ideas for a problem I had been looking to solve.

It also gave me another idea for when these instances come up in life.  After you have taken the time and reconnected with the incredible lessons, advice, and acts of service that helped to shape you and your future - take time to reach out to these people.  Reconnect with them if it has been a while.  Tell them "thank you" and share how your experience with them has made a difference in your life.  In fact, I did this and ended up having a very timely call as this mentor had an opportunity that they wanted me to participate in.

So you never know, new opportunities and ideas could just happen through reconnecting.  Never forget the people you meet along the way!

You are hero.  You may just not know it yet.  The clip above from Thor is a funny scene, but the words spoke are simple and true.

"Heroes run toward their problems, not away from them."

One of the best ways to get real results and up your game is to grow yourself to be bigger than the problems you encounter.  To embrace going after your problems - running toward them.  

Most people avoid their BIG problems.  The ones they know they really need to deal with.  They put them aside as long as they can until ultimately they have to be dealt with or blow up in their face.  This does not good for them or their ability to reach their potential as they are always playing from behind.  

If you can see it through to embrace and attack your BIG problems as they come up, you will get better at solving them and you will get better at handling problems.  And the bigger the problems that you can solve, the bigger the business you can have and the more you can grow.  Think of it this way.  If you are set to be able to level 5 problems (on a scale of 1-10) and you get a level 8 problem - you're in trouble.  But, let's say you attack that level 8 problem and in doing so, learn some great lessons that you can use for problems in the future thus growing yourself to be able to handle a level 7 problem and so on....Pretty soon no problem or issue you run into seems to big or insurmountable.  

The reason is that you have learned and grown and gotten better at solving problems and put that knowledge into action.  As you repeat this cycle in your life getting better and better, you will find that you will be able to accomplish more than you ever thought possible.

So, run toward your problems and take pleasure in working through them - Because, that's what Heroes do!

Everyone wants to get more done and spend less time time doing it.  There are also a billion different books, courses, and articles on how to maximize productivity.

And that's the problem.  There is so much information on how to be productive and so many methodologies that most people spend more time trying to figure out what to do to get more done than actually doing it.

I've spent a lot of time figuring these things out myself over the years and have come to find a few things that really work well for just about everyone.

One of those is maximizing your "Productivity Zones."

What is a productivity zone?  A productivity zone is the time or times where you are most focused and productive during the day.  

For example, for me, 6am-8am and 1pm-4pm daily are the times that I have found myself to be most alert, focused, and productive.  It may make sense as first thing in the morning I am refreshed and ready and things are quiet.  But after putting in a couple solid hours of work, my brain is ready for a break, so I go and do my fitness regiment.  This wakes me back up, feeds oxygen to my body, and gives me energy.  After my daily fitness time, I am ready to go again, so I can settle in and be highly productive from 1-4pm.

I found these productivity zones by observing myself over time and tracking when I was most productive.  And now, I make sure to schedule my most important tasks and meetings during these time blocks.  In fact, I actually block the times on my calendar to make sure others do not take those times.

If you can tap into your productivity zones, you will be amazed at what you can accomplish.  And that is the hack.  It is not just about scheduling time to do things, but scheduling the time during when you are most productive.  This will allow you to get substantially more done with the time you.

Everyone's productivity zones will be different, but ask yourself, "I am maximizing my productivity zones?" If not, do what you need to do to make sure you are.  You will be amazed at what happens!
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We have some of the most amazing listeners at the Misfit Entrepreneur.  Not just for their incredible support of the show, but because of their own knowledge, insight, and curiosity.  I am constantly amazed at the email we get and the ideas that people share.

And fairly often I get asked what solutions we use at the Misfit Entrepreneur and that I use personally to stay at the top of my game and succeed.  I thought I'd share a few of them with you.  If you are a long time listener, you probably know that when I find someone that I really like and use, I typically will reach out to see if they would like to be involved with the show.  Full disclosure, you will see links below to special offers for some of the tools I mention.

Best Solution to Learn Each and Every Day:  Read if For Me

Read it For Me is the best service I have found to learn from the best minds easily and quickly every day.  Read it For Me summarizes the best books with the best points that you can in 10  minutes by text, audio, and video.  Their library has every top book on success, business, leadership, etc. that would want to learn from and their app makes it easy to take on the go in the car, gym, wherever.  I get to read a new book and get new ideas everyday!  And Misfit Entrepreneur listeners can get a free year of services just by going to www.ReaditFor.Me/Misfit.

Best Solution for Implementing Good Daily Habits and Journaling:  The 5 Minute Journal 

You've probably heard before that taking even 10 mins each day to write down your thoughts and focus on planning for your success can make a huge different for you.  Most people have trouble doing this because they don't really have a process or want to take the time to create one.  That is where the 5 Minute Journal comes in.  They have take all of the headache out of it and put together a journal back by science to help you better succeed with just 5 minutes a day of effort.  Putting this in place can and will change your life!

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Best Solution for Outsourcing and Virtual Assistant Help:  123 Employee 

I have used 123 Employee across different businesses for a number of years now.  You get a whole team that works with you and they do a fantastic job.  They can do just about any task you'd want them to do in helping your run your business and they are very affordable.  If you are looking to expand your capabilities and grow your business on a budget, these guys are the best.

www.123Employee.com 

​Best Solution for Marketing Help:  GenM

GenM is awesome.  You have probably heard me talk about them before.  They have created an online service that matches you with students looking for marketing internships to get experience and fulfill credits to graduate.  GenM provides classes and coaching to the students so that they are well prepared to help you with your needs.  And the best part is, the students intern with you for 10 hours per week for FREE.  You just have a $49 monthly fee to GenM for the service.  Imagine getting 40 hours a month worth of marketing help for $49.  It's incredible.  If you are not taking advantage of this solution, you are missing out.

www.GenM.co/misfit 

Best Solution Email Marketing and Automation:  Benchmark Email

I found these guys after trying all the major players from Constant Contact to Mailchimp.  First, they give you more capability for your money than any other tool out there.  Everything is included from the start.  Second, their user interface is so easy to work with.  If you like the newsletters we send out and the capabilities in them, that is Benchmark.   Misfit Entrepreneur listeners get a free 2k Account just by signing up at the link below.

www.MisfitEntrepreneur.com/Benchmark

These tools have really helped not only me, but countless others in growing ourselves and our businesses.  Put them to work for you!

You, want to be rich right?  You want to make more money?  You want to be able to buy more of the things you want and live the lifestyle you want, right?

What if i told you, you were focused on the wrong thing.

You, probably like most people, are focused on getting "rich,"  But, if you really want have everything you want, you need to be focused on getting "wealthy."  This is a major distinction.

Most people measure their wealth by how much they make.  If they have a huge paycheck and make a lot of money, they think they are rich or wealthy.  Being wealthy is not about how much you make, but about how much you keep.

Wealth, simply put, is the amount of days you can live without having to work.  For example, if your bills are $5000/mo and you have $10,000 in the bank, you are 2 months' wealthy.  Most people that make a lot of money are not wealthy.  They are rich because they make a lot.  But, they also spend a lot.  In fact, if a lot of these people lost their primary source of income, they couldn't through a month at their level of lifestyle.

If you really want to have what you want, you need to change your focus from getting rich, to getting wealthy.  Part of that is understanding that getting a big W2 paycheck is the worst way to make your money because it is the highest taxed form of money.  The wealthy know this.  That is why Warren Buffett says he pays less taxes than his secretary - because on a percentage basis, he does.  His money is made from dividends, capital gains, and distributions from his businesses, which are all taxed at lower rates than the W2 income tax rates.  Remember, it's not how much you make, it's how much you keep that matters.

Additionally, the wealthy have their money work for them in the form of assets such as business ownership, real estate, and investments.  This helps to ensure that they remain wealthy and never outspend their ability to be wealthy.  For example, if you have 10 rental properties that pay you $1000/mo each after expenses and your personal monthly bills are $7500, you are effectively infinitely wealthy.

How about you?  Can you see the difference between being rich and being wealthy?  Can you think of a change you need to make in the way you approach money that will help you begin to build wealth?  Maybe you can set a goal to be so many days' or months' wealthy by a certain date.

Whatever you do, focus on being wealthy, not being rich!

Decisions. Decisions.  Our life is full them.  Everyday we make decisions in all areas of our lives, but every so often we have BIG decisions come to the table that we have to make.  

This can be a challenge.  Many times the big decisions can affect our lives, the lives or others, our family, our future, our career, and much more.  We go back and forth agonizing about what to do and the ramifications of our ultimate decision.  Doing this makes it even harder.

So, how do we go about making a big decision with logic and reason and ultimately confidence that we are making the right move?  Years ago, I read about a strategy that none other than Ben Franklin had developed for just such a situation.  

Ben wrote about it and said the following:

My way is to divide half a sheet of paper by a line into two columns; writing over the one Pro and over the other Con. Then during three or four days’ consideration, I put down under the different heads short hints of the different motives, that at different time occur to me, for or against the measure. When I have thus got them altogether in one view, I endeavor to estimate their respective weights; and where I find two, one on each side, that seem equal, I strike them both out. If I judge some two reasons con equal to some three reasons pro, I strike out five; and thus proceeding, I find where the balance lies; and if after a day or two of further consideration, nothing new that is of importance occurs on either side, I come to a determination accordingly.

The beauty of what Franklin came up with is it's simplicity.  You simply write down your pros and cons of the decision and give them a weight of importance.  The key is to give yourself a few days of doing it.  Sleep on it as they say.  Over the course of a few days, you'll have developed and settled on a pretty solid list.

At that point, you can see your pros and cons clearly and the decision will be become evident.  I have used this method for many years and it has proved to be very effective and allowed me to come to great decisions in the end.  Put it to work for you and see the difference it can make in your life!

For those of us with sight, we take "seeing" for granted.  But in reality, what most people don't know is that you don't see with your eyes.  Huh?  The first time someone explained how eyesight works to me, I was fascinated.  

We don't see with our eyes.  We see with our minds.  Our eyes are just the receptors that filter the information that our brain then takes and formulates into the world we see around us.  In fact, there a multitude of spectrum's of "sight."  We are actually wired to filter a tiny minute fraction.

The reason why makes sense.  We would have sensory overload.  We simply could not process everything our eyes could take in and feed our brain.  Therefore, our brain quickly filters out most everything to get the few things that matter for us to do what we need to do.  It focuses only on the most important things we need to see.

A great example is the famous Invisible Gorilla Experiment where people were asked to count how many times the people in white shirts passed a ball.  While all this is going on, a person in a gorilla suit comes out and stands in the middle of them, beats his chest and walks out.  When this was originally done, 50% of the people never saw the gorilla because their brains were focused on counting the times the basketball was passed.  We "see" with our minds.

Once you understand this, it can open up a lot for you.  It can cause you to look at things in entirely new ways.  It can cause you to question the way you see something and maybe see an opportunity that was never there.  Maybe, you can even see the future because you are not limited by being unaware that you see with your mind and your eyes are really just receptors for the information.

Armed with the knowledge, you can look at the world, you can look at business, you can look at people and have a better understanding of where things may go in the future and position yourself to take advantage. 

For example, I was recently in an Uber where I saw a fantastic new idea - a future for a lot of things.  A lot of Uber drivers will offer snacks or bottles of water on their own, but this Uber was different.  In the middle section between the two front seats, this Uber driver had a snack bar.  And the snack bar was connected to an app that you could download and have an account where you can purchase any item.   So, I checked it out and it's a cool new company that has basically turned Uber drivers into vending machines on the go.  But, why stop there?  What else could be offered through an Uber ride?  Maybe a company could offer pet treats or something else. 

The point is, most would just see this snack bar and think, cool idea.  Maybe even sign up for the app.  But, it is a window into the future of delivering goods and services if you know how to look for it.  You can see things differently, because you have started to open your mind up to what it can see and look for.

So, challenge what you see and look beyond it to see what else is there.  Who knows, maybe you will not only see, but be able to create the future.

Wait, what?  I should build a POSITIVE relationship with suffering??  Yes!

I know for a lot of people that doesn't make a lot of sense.  Who wants to embrace suffering in their life?  But, if you think about it.  Life is suffering.  It really depends on how you view the word "suffering" and the perception you have of what it means.  Suffering is part of everything you do.  When you work hard at the gym and break down your muscles to exhaustion, you are suffering.  When you push yourself to your limits of ability or mental capacity, you are engaging in a form of suffering.

And, of course, there is the type of suffering that brings real and true pain, such as an illness or death of a loved one that cannot be diminished.

We go through life with periods of suffering interrupted by great joy and success.  Usually, the joy and success is a lot shorter than the suffering and struggle we go through - but ask yourself - Is it worth it to go through the struggles, trials, suffering, and tribulation to reach those periods of joy and success?  I believe it is.  I believe that our ability to grow and persevere comes from the suffering we have to go through and like anything, the more experience you have with it, the more prepared you are to handle the inevitable bouts of suffering that come into your life.

A great example of this in my life was the news years ago that my wife and I could not have children naturally.  We are 10% of what doctors call unexplained.  Everything is healthy for us, but it just doesn't happen.  We suffered through this news only to grow as a couple and to find our daughter.  We may never have been the family we are without going through this multi-year struggle - and I could not imagine life any other way.  It was the suffering that lead us to a much more amazing life with an amazing kiddo that we love more than life itself.

So embrace suffering, because every time you overcome, you get stronger and it gets easier to overcome the next round and so on.  And in-between, you get to enjoy the fruits of your suffering - the amazing joy and success that life unfolds.

In 1519, Hernán Cortés led a large expedition consisting of 600 Spaniards and 11 boats to Mexico. The goal was to capture a magnificent treasure said to be held there. Once he arrived, Cortés destroyed his ships. The message was clear to his men - There is no turning back from this point. They accomplish their mission or they perish. What do you think happened?  With no exit strategy in place to save their lives, they rallied behind their leader as never before. And inside of two years, he succeeded in his conquest of the Aztec empire. 

Essentially, Hernán Cortés forced his men to go "All in."  Thankfully, these days, we don't have to make a decision between life and death, but every day we are faced with a decision as to whether we will live into our greatness or shy away from it.  

Most people, never get into the boat leaving toward their success, let alone think of burning it once they reach the shore.

Most people never even feel what it feels like to go "All in" - to commit to something so strongly that there is no option other than to win and succeed.  What if.?  What if you decided just once that you would live your life that way?  That you would commit yourself in a way you have never done before and never quit, stop, or allow yourself to be deterred in your mission to your goal (whatever it is).  What would happen?  Where would you or could you be?  

I bet you would take yourself to a completely new level in some area of your life.  The question is not "Can I do something?"  It's "Why the hell shouldn't I do it?"  If you want to truly succeed, and deep down you know what this is for you, you will have to "burn your boats" and go ALL IN.  If you give yourself any way out on your mission, you will tempted to take it when things get rough.  You cannot let this happen.

It's time to commit.  It's time to go ALL IN on your success and reach your potential.  Burn your metaphorical boats.  Never give up and never quit.

It's been said that the "Truth will set you free."  And if you look throughout history, you will find this to be true.  From Lincoln's fight to end slavery in the U.S. to Churchill sounding the alarm about Hitler and the Nazi's, the truth was the key to succeed.  And many times times the truth comes at a cost - for some a great cost.  But, if you look throughout history, it is worth it time and time again.

But, that the problem for a lot of people.  Everyone knows they should tell the truth.  The truth about themselves.  The truth about reality.  And most importantly, the truth in relationships and working with others.  But, everyone also knows that the truth can be painful - not just to them, but to those that hear it.

So, what do people do?  They do everything to avoid facing and speaking truth.  They create reasons why and convince themselves that it is the right thing to do.  The best thing for everybody.  In reality, they are just delaying the inevitable.  The truth will come out at some point and you will have to face it.  The more you delay, the worse facing it can be.

And that is just in working with others.  One of the hardest people to be truthful with is yourself.  The hardest thing to do is look inward and come to grips with the truth you need to tell yourself.  In fact, it is something the majority of people never do in their lives.  And they wonder what holds them back or why they can't get what they want.

In order to succeed at your highest levels and true potential, you must be truthful with yourself and those around you.  You must face you demons and stare them down and remove the giant burdens that plague you.  In order to truly become who you are destined to be, you must have a clear conscience and be intently focused.  You can't do this with a lie, big or small, nagging at you day and night.

No, you must get rid of it and the only way is to be truthful.  Look inward and tell yourself the truth, tell those around you the truth you know you need to tell them, and don't be afraid to ask for help in doing so.  Asking for help in areas where they need it is how the highly successful get there.  Embrace it.

If you want to succeed at a higher level in your life, resolve to tell the truth.  Start today and watch what happens!