Question to establish your focus:

If everything stays the same, what one change would create the most impact?

In every arena of life—from your career to your health to your relationships—there are countless variables that govern your progress and growth.

When faced with a variety of potential variables, the decision of where to focus your attention and energy becomes challenging. If you don't focus, you end up scattered, applying modest attention to a bunch of things, rather than intense attention to one thing.

By adding a forced constraint (one change), we can create clarity.

In a given arena, if everything were to stay the same as it is today, what one change could you make that would create the greatest positive impact in your life?

Here's an example from my life:

Let's say my goal within the health arena is to level up the appearance of my physique.

I ask myself this question: If everything were to stay the same, what one change can I make to my health routine that will create the greatest positive impact toward that goal?

I look at all the variables impacting my appearance: Nutrition, lifting, cardio, and recovery.

Evaluating each, I can say with confidence that a focus on the intensity of my lifting is going to create the greatest positive impact. It is the one area where I don't feel I have applied my full attention and energy in the last few years.

I commit to 90 days of intense attention and energy toward that single variable. Everything else will stay the same.

The idea here is that the question forces you to identify the atomic variable.

Everything else is a distraction. Focus there first.

Progress follows attention and action. Do less, create more.

P.S. I recorded a short video talking through this. You can watch it here.

Quote on finding your path:

"If the path before you is clear, you're probably on someone else's." - Joseph Campbell

The clear path is the safe path. It's well-marked and well-lit.

But if you want more out of life, you have to leave it behind.

Enter the woods and carve your own.

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An idea to define a life of success:

Emerson's Definition of Success

This may be the best definition of success I've ever come across:

"To laugh often and much: To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you lived. This is to have succeeded." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I'd break this down into Emerson's 9 pillars of success:

1. To laugh often and much: Laughter keeps us young. Without laughter, you aren't really living!
2. To win the respect of intelligent people: Earning the respect of people you admire (my adaptation on "intelligent people") through the way you live your life.
3. To win the affection of children: Children see through BS. You cannot earn their affection without being kind, genuine, and trustworthy.
4. To earn the appreciation of honest critics: Earning respect of good faith critics through the way you live your life.
5. To endure the betrayal of false friends: Surviving the inevitable betrayals of people you thought were friends. Painful, but impossible to avoid.
6. To appreciate beauty: Expressing gratitude for the tiny daily beauties all around us.
7. To find the best in others: It's easy to point out the flaws in others, but it's much better to seek out the best in them and focus there.
8. To leave the world a bit better: Taking daily actions to improve the world's condition, whether in a grand or tiny way.
9. To know one life has breathed easier because you lived: Acting in the service of others, rather than solely in the service of the self.

So much beauty in these ideas and words.

How are you doing on this definition of success?

Article on how to be happy:

​My 7 Rules for Happiness​

Beautiful piece on "rules" for happiness.

My favorite was the first one: Embrace the seasons of your life. My perspective is that most of the pain and struggle we encounter comes from wasting energy complaining about the prior season or worrying about some future season. When we embrace the current season for its imperfections and opportunities, we find a way to thrive.

P.S. I like the idea of creating my own list of happiness rules. If you'd like to see a piece on that, reply YES to this email.

Visual reminder to zoom out:

This visual was so impactful that I bought a high resolution print from the artist's store to hang in my office.

Remember: When in doubt, zoom out.