They say that most every person has somewhere in the range of 65,000 thoughts per day. 90% of these thoughts are repetitive, useless and past based. Many of these repetitive thoughts create vicious cycles in our mind and keep us in inaction instead of being in action in the things that matter.

Many people medicate themselves with poor habits or meditate themselves to minimize these thoughts so they can function on an ongoing basis.

I have a lot of direct experience in this area which is one of the reasons for writing this. My Dad was more or less a minimalist and he was someone who made things happen, from investments, building projects, and most to him importantly bringing family together. His background as a missionary in India humbled him to make this happen and create an amazing life for his family.

After my Dad passed away ten years ago, I took on being more like him and simplifying my life. Up until that point, there were serious clutter issues from years of collecting stuff, open loops from promises being made that weren’t met. My home at the time in NJ was full of excess furniture, trinkets from travels, engineering books from my college days, party material and clothes. It was basically “stuff ” that held me back to different phases of my life before, hence the old me. Read More

Have you ever noticed that every successful person has a team with whom they surround themselves?

For example, the head coach of any sports team has countless assistants and trainers. Every CEO has a board of directors. Of course, the President has his cabinet, as well as numerous other advisers and consultants.

And what about you? Who is in your cabinet? Who are your assistant coaches? And who is on your board of directors? Do you have anybody?

One big reason people have difficulty accomplishing their goals is they try to do all the work on their own. In other words, they try to do everything in a vacuum, all by themselves, and without outside assistance. Read More

By Evan Lenz

I recently signed up for an amazing service called Peer Success Circles. It has absolutely transformed the way I go about my work. With a daily accountability partner, I’ve been much more effective and efficient at getting things done and moving forward on my goals. I’m now in my fifth week of this program, and I’m still loving it. It has become a new way of life. I should have started this long ago.

But one thing I’m learning this week is that I still need to take time for reflection. (Thankfully, the questions in this program naturally drive you into doing that too.) In the past, I actually reflected—or daydreamed—too much. I’ve now become much more action-oriented. Each day, I create a plan of attack, complete with a specific schedule of how I’m hoping to spend my time. And I track how I do—how closely I stick to the schedule, taking note of where I deviated. I’m developing new habits. Rather than habitually looking back at where I just was, I move forward. Reviewing how I did at the end of each day does wonders for my self-awareness, for staying on track, and for finding ways of doing better tomorrow. Read More