Like most people I have a story and a past, and like any good story teller, it starts with bad habits, traumatizing experiences and drama (relatively speaking). To make it sound inspirational I would say that somehow, by the grace of god, by accident or just pure luck I found a way to overcome, push through the pain and live to see another day. What I learned in that chapter is that life isn’t easy for most people, you hit some speed bumps and road blocks along the way, then you can either let it define you, blame everything for your failures and choose to let it hold you back, or you can choose to learn, grow, adapt, transform, disrupt, change and plow forward. Either way the choice is yours.

My butterfly moment came after lots of self-induced trauma. Until that moment I blamed everything but me and had enough excuses and bullshit to keep myself locked up for eternity. Until one day, you just wake up and decide… Decide to take your life back, to be happy, to stop dreaming and start living. You gotta get the fuck out of your own way and DO THE WORK. It ain’t easy and it doesn’t happen overnight.

Mine started with reducing my wants and simplifying what I needed to be happy. I thought a lot about how I would write the next chapter in my book, what it would say about me and what I would leave behind for others. Then, through a lot of painful forgiveness of myself and of others I started to heal inside and out. Starting with my own abuse and neglect of my body. Blind, bleeding, decaying, balding, heavy and depressed were words I once used. So I poured my passion into my health, slowly adopted new habits, starting prioritizing my wellness over everything and aligned them to my principals. First my eyes, then my body, then my relationships, my environment. Like dominos, things started to cascade in their natural order and thus began my endless quest for self-improvement, enlightenment and reflection.

If you haven’t read about the dimensions of wellness here is my version;

  • Physical – Naturally feel good internally and externally, diet, exercise, sleep
  • Emotional – Be happy, share feelings, forgive more, judge less, be positive, let it go & don’t let it effect you so damn much
  • Intellectual – Learn, grow, self improve & level up
  • Social – More family, more friends, more community, open myself to others, communicate & experience more
  • Spiritual – Follow my heart, self reflect, listen to my soul, meditate & breath
  • Environmental – Change my surroundings, cleaner air, cleaner water, get grounded in nature, more sunlight, ocean views only
  • Occupational – Bring passion and love into my career, have a purpose bigger than myself, use my talents to give back

6+ years later… A shitload of failure along the way I’ve made some major progress So I’ll just ramble out the first things that come to mind in no particular order.

Met the love of my life, lost a ton of weight, stopped drinking (at the moment its been nearly 6 months), exercise regularly, ran a 1/2 marathon, eating mostly paleo diet, sleeping like a baby, found solace in meditation and breath-work, made huge improvements and progress in my emotional wellbeing, share more emotion with my significant other, read over 15 books, started to attract more like-minded people, spent more time with family, started to give back to the community around me, moved to Florida (Miami Beach to be exact), facing the ocean, spend quality time with people I love, taking long walks on the beach, spend more time in the ocean, love where I live, traveling more in nature, excited to go home from vacations, getting 1000% more sunlight, purified the air and water everywhere around me, I can see! (fixed my vision, no more glasses), got a brand new smile (fixed my teeth), found my passion in my career, launched 3 new companies, sold one of my existing companies and started a charity to give back using my talents.

There’s so much more I could write but I’ll end my rant… Just writing it makes me smile, makes me feel like a new human being :) There is no secret to this, you just have to break the habit of being the old version of you (great book by the way). When I make decisions, big or small, I think… what is the decision that is more in alignment with my goals of who I want to be, not how I used to decide to do things. Get up on a different side of the bed, change the way you drive to work, get up earlier, choose the healthier food option etc…

However, I find that without a plan, it’s not easy to execute. So, along the way I started to build a schedule of habits to help me align my day to my principals.

Daily Healthy Habits

  • Wake up – Water Cure – DO NOT READ EMAIL, NO PHONES, NO SOCIAL
  • Meditation – Guided, OHM, or 200- 400htz, Wim Hoff breathing exercise
  • Gym (5k rotation days or cardio), 45-60min exercise regimen
  • Cold pool, sauna or steam room
  • Paleo diet breakfast and shot of ACV
  • COLD shower
  • Paleo lunch & pills – venitone, alive multi, liver cleanse, turmeric, EPA DHA,  acetylcarnitine, nac, citicoline, enzymes, phosphatidylserine & dmae, k12, b complex, ginkgo,
  • Team meetings
  • Standing break from the computer (work), calisthenics
  • Blue light reduction before bed
  • Second meditation

Once per QTR

I’m not endorsing any of the companies, modalities or practices, you gotta find what works best for you and find your own groove. This is just what my body has responded to thus far. I’m still a work in progress and open minded to improvements (but only from those that demonstrate success in the areas they consult on). I’m also not implying that I live by this every day, but I feel like I can visualize, focus and execute to the plan when I have a written target.

What’s your healthy habit?