A couple of weeks ago, the plumbing system in our home backed-up. As you can imagine, this was a pretty stressful (and disgusting) time. The plumber came out at 9PM but couldn’t fix anything. So, after I spent an hour cleaning the most impacted areas, Lorena and I had to head off to a hotel for the night.

Over the next few days, we had the plumbers come out to investigate further, a restoration company come to remove affected walls and flooring, and a contractor come to give an estimate on repair work. Oh, and did I mention that we are trying to sell our house? Yeah, it’s off the market as we deal with all of this.

This has been a stressful time for us, no doubt.

Keep Life Small

When these kinds of things happen, I’ve found that I benefit by keeping my life small. What I mean is that I limit my thinking to the present. I don’t think too far into the future, nor about the past. This just brings unnecessary added stress.

By focusing on the present, I make sure all my energy and actions are relevant to the immediate items at hand. In essence, I “wall off” my thoughts from anything else. I have tasks to do in the day, and so I’m just staying in the moment. At the end of the day, I reflect on the day and what I need to get done the next day.

This process can go on for a few days or a couple of weeks. I don’t enjoy it, but it keeps me sane. I’m a dreamer. I like to plan the future, and reflect upon my past experiences. But these things take up energy, and sometimes they can come with emotions that I just don’t have time to deal with. Between that time, I have a few distracting activities (like playing chess), so that I don’t wear myself out.

As time goes on and the major drivers of my stress become, well, less stressful – then I allow myself to expand my thinking gradually until things are back to normal again.

Everyone has their own methods of dealing with stress, so I’d say do whatever works best for you. But if you’re open to new ways of thinking, I can vouch for this approach.

• Keep life small.
• Don’t think about the past or future, just the day you’re living.
• Create checklists so you have a visual of your progress.
• Pat yourself on the back for making that progress.

And remember: like everything in life, this is only temporary.

#happiness

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At the time of writing this, I’m 38 years old, and I can say without any hesitation that recently I have become the healthiest I have ever been in my entire life.

There was a time when I was more athletic. For example, when playing soccer for my college. But I wouldn’t say I was healthy.

I drank a lot of alcohol.

I ate a ton of pizza, pop, and other junk on a daily basis. But, I was young, so I could get away with it. Plus, I was running so much with soccer that I never put on a single pound.

I don’t regret that time at all. I mean, it was fun to crush an entire pizza after a game or tough practice.

The younger me would find today me boring.

Remember when you were younger, and you would think about what you would be like when you were 10 or 15 years older?

Well, that young version of me would think I am pretty boring. In fact, he wouldn’t think it was remotely possible that he would end up this way.

For starters…

I rarely drink anymore.

For years, I drank a lot.

Too much.

It was how I relaxed, had fun, socialized, and did business. If I’m honest, I just loved catching a buzz. But it all came with a cost, especially as I got older. I became all too familiar with hangovers, threw-up more times than I can remember, and made terrible decisions along the way.

Alcohol does that. We think we are in control, until we aren’t. It got so bad for me that I cut it out of my life cold turkey back in 2019. There were countless benefits to doing so, one of the best was that it made losing weight a lot easier. For me, the quality of my sleep and clarity of mind were also welcomed changes.

Today, I have a drink maybe once every 6–8 weeks, depending on what’s going on in life (like when attending a wedding, for example). Even then, it’s one small glass of wine or champagne. Every time, I sort of regret it because it messes up my sleep. I’m just not as rested the next day.

By the way, I credit this book for helping me to change my mindset about alcohol. Give it a read if you’re interested.

But another shocking fact about myself today that younger me would not be able to comprehend…

I don’t eat meat.

This one is relatively new. Recently, Lorena started a vegan diet, so I decided to give it a try as well. I’ll admit, I was nervous when I first started because all I’ve known my entire life is meat, eggs, dairy, etc.

But you know what? It’s actually not that hard of a transition. It forced us to start thinking outside the box on the food we would cook, and we’ve been making some really tasty meals from plant based whole foods.

I feel pretty damn good, but more motivating is that I look good.

Vanity can be an incredibly strong motivator. It’s pretty easy for me to keep eating like this when my muscles have become more defined, I can see my abs without flexing, and my clothes fit exactly how I want them to.

How to reach your own peak health.

As I’ve started to enter middle-age, I’ve noticed that a lot of my friends and colleagues struggle with their own health.

I’m not a nutritionist, doctor, or even fitness expert. But what I am good at is pushing myself to question assumptions I’ve made about my life. I encourage you to do the same.

• Try a new weight routine that you’ve never done before. No matter what it is, you have the ability to do it, I promise. I mix up dumbbells and body weight exercises roughly four times per week for 20min to 1hr, depending.
• Pay attention to the food you eat. Track your macros for a bit (I did this, and lost 10lbs — and this was before switching to a vegan diet).
• Stop doing strenuous cardio and just walk every day. I walk 4000–6000 steps every day, depending on what I have going on. It’s a game changer. It takes me about 40 minutes to do, and I’ve found the “alone time” to be quite beneficial from a business and personal perspective.
• Most of all, have fun with it. Track your progress over time. Don’t get discouraged when you hit a wall. Just know that behavior switches like this always have a positive impact on your health, and if you have your health, you have your life.

#happiness

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Time isn’t lost, and since it’s not misplaced, “finding” it doesn’t make much sense. Yet, we hear all the time about people trying to “find time” to accomplish something.

It’s as if we like to pretend that the only problem is the time itself doesn’t exist, and we have to somehow stumble upon it in order to then, finally, get to the activity in question.

Personally, I think that this is a bullshit excuse.

Whenever anyone tells me that they have to “find the time” to do something, I know that they’ll never do it because they don’t want to do it. Plain and simple. When you want to do something, you do it. It’s action-based, not time-based.

You don’t need to accept the lies people tell you about why they won’t do something. They have their own priorities, and that’s fine. In business, or life, never wait on anyone to find time.

You can’t control the priorities of other people, but you can control your expectations of the people around you. Understanding this simple truth has helped me to alleviate a lot of unnecessary stress and negative emotions.

#happiness

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How do you define life?

For me, life is just a series of transitions from one moment to another.

They define our character.

They teach us.

They get easier with experience.

Our reaction to those transitions often dictates if we are stressed or content.

We measure our lives with our transitions because they are what we look back on as our most defining moments.

Embrace your transitions.

Transitions are your life.

#happiness

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