Question to achieve the things you want:

What would happen if you gave just a little bit more?

"There are no traffic jams on the extra mile." - Zig Ziglar

You can get pretty damn far in life by just being someone who cares.

• Cares to push a little bit more
• Cares to show up with a little bit more energy
• Cares to give the little bit extra

It doesn’t require talent or intelligence, just the right attitude.

There’s a lot of upside in that, simply because so few will do it.

Sometimes in life, we need to recognize that it's not our lack of time or energy, but our lack of desire that holds us back.

When things aren't going our way, it's easy to blame time or energy for the lack of success or progress.

But in my experience, whenever I’ve blamed these, I could really dig deeper and attribute it to a lack of desire. I just didn't want it enough, I wasn't willing to give a little bit more.

The truth is that we make time and energy for the things we really want:

If you have an exciting vacation planned and need to make a 6am flight, you have no issue getting up at 3am to make it, because you have the desire. You really care.

The key is choosing the things you truly care about—and then showing up every single day to create them, even when the rewards feel uncertain.

Nothing bad ever comes from working hard on things you care about.

Remember that.

Quote on the nature of courage:

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Talent and intelligence are abundant. Courage is not.

The world belongs to those who have the courage to take action.

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Framework for a wealthy life:

The 5 Levels of Financial Wealth

In the Financial Wealth section of my book, I propose the following simple model for thinking about your money journey.

There are five clear and distinct levels of Financial Wealth:

• Level 1: Baseline needs are met, including food and shelter.
• Level 2: All baseline needs are exceeded, and modest pleasures become accessible. This includes meals at restaurants, simple vacations, and spending on education.
• Level 3: Baseline needs are no longer top of mind, and the focus is on saving, investing, and compounding wealth. More significant pleasures, such as multiple vacations, are readily available. More aggressive asset compounding generally begins at this level.
• Level 4: Most reasonable pleasures are readily available. Asset accumulation accelerates, and assets begin to generate passive income to cover some lifestyle expenses. This is the level of moderate financial independence, as you can reduce your active income and continue to live the same lifestyle.
• Level 5: All pleasures are available. Asset accumulation reaches escape velocity, and assets generate passive income in excess of all lifestyle expenses. This is the level of complete financial independence, as you can remove all active income and continue to live the same lifestyle.

Any path upward through the levels requires a disciplined focus on the three pillars of Financial Wealth, which I identify as:

1. Income Generation: Create stable, growing income through primary employment, secondary employment, and passive streams.
2. Expense Management: Manage expenses so that they are reliably below your income level and grow at a slower rate.
3. Long-­Term Investment: Invest the difference between your income and expenses in long-­term, efficient, low-­cost assets that compound effectively.

It's important to remember that each level has its own stresses, problems, and headaches. While the traditional money problems you feel at the lower levels dissipate as you climb the ladder, new problems arise and replace them.

Money solves money problems, but it will not, in a vacuum, solve anything else—it simply changes the types of problems you face.

This model should allow you to (a) identify your starting point, (b) map out the vision for the life you are trying to build, and (c) start to plan the actions necessary to create that life.

Understanding where you are on these 5 levels (and the actual life you are trying to build towards) is essential.

Remember: Thriving is a continuous journey, not an end state.

Note: This framework is distilled from a deeper exploration in the Financial Wealth section of my book, The 5 Types of Wealth. Legendary investor Bill Ackman said, "I like asymmetric investments and I don’t know of a better return than this book." Order the book and reply to this email with your receipt and I'll send you the 50+ page companion workbook, along with a few other special bonuses!

Order The 5 Types of Wealth Now!

Passage I can't stop thinking about:

This is beautiful...

That final line hits hard:

"When you are content to simply be yourself and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you."

Study I'm paying attention to:

In 2014, Stanford University researchers found that ​walking increases creativity by an average of 60%​.

The researchers gave participants a series of tests of creative thinking—and had them take those tests during or after a period of walking or sitting.

Nearly every single participant saw improved creative thinking while walking, and interestingly, the walking effect on creativity was the same whether the walking was indoor on a treadmill or outdoor.

The lesson: Feeling stuck? Go for a walk.

"Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it." - Søren Kierkegaard

Note: You can find the full research report ​here​.