I'm sure most of you reading this are familiar with the 80/20 Rule. For example, 80% diet, 20% exercise. There are many other variations of this based on what the activity / goal is. But how exactly do you apply the 80/20 Rule to Aggressive Meditation? 

What I mean by the 80/20 Rule with Aggressive Meditation is 80% action, 20% motivation. And that is just the baseline for those getting started. Ideally, as you begin to master the practice that ratio should really be more like 90/10 or 95/5. The point here is to be aware of the effects that motivation have on us and to make sure we do not create a false sense of accomplishment. 

I believe this is why certain people, like Mel Robbins, feels that motivation is garbage. It's great to feel motivated and inspired but if you take no action it creates a false sense of accomplishment. There is a TED talk where Derek Sivers talks about the best thing to do when you have some new lofty goal or ambition. Keep your mouth shut instead of telling people. This is generally the opposite of what most of us do and he brings up some interesting psychology behind why.  To make a long story short it creates a psychological effect that makes you feel like you accomplished something which in turn makes motivation much more challenging. 

There is a similar effect with too much motivation. You can trick your brain into thinking you feel better because you accomplished something. But when you are consciously aware of this, and use the 80/20 Rule, you will find that sweet spot that puts your state in the right place to take action.

Just enough fuel in the tank to keep the engine running. Be brutally honest with yourself and make sure you aren't tricking yourself into a sense of false accomplishment. Action above all. 

In my past years, I was an active participant in the "should be" game. And I wasted lots of energy on this. What I mean by the "should be" game is the one where you keep fighting "what is" in lieu of what you think you are entitled to. Surprisingly, this is very common and something that we all battle with. 

One of the strategies I adopted in later years was to look at life like a video game with defined rules. There are many rules we have figured out, and there are many rules we have not. But if you truly want to reach your goal you need to be as strategic as possible and play within the defined rules you know already exist. Don't fight what is, acknowledge it and attack within these constructs. It's like the old saying goes "don't hate the player, hate the game". The sooner you stop wasting energy fighting what "should be" and start focusing that energy on "what is" the sooner you will reach that goal.

Accept what is, be strategic and define your plan of attack. It will make achieving it that much easier.  

One of the common themes you will hear throughout personal development and success strategies is state control. Being able to maintain a peak state is a very challenging thing in the world we live in. Especially as you level up. As they say, for every new level there's a new devil. 

One of the strategies I don't hear about often and I think is underutilized is leveraging nostalgia to trigger state control. Nostalgia is a very powerful tool to reframe situations and bring your state back to one that is more calm, positive and peaceful. 

Often times, when there is a lot on my plate and I am feeling overwhelmed or stressed, it is good to reset and take myself back to a time or a memory that elicits a strong positive feeling.  This could be the first time you met your wife, the birth of your child, memories of summer time with friends, anything that helps to reframe a situation in a manner that makes you think, is all this worrying really necessary? There are much bigger things in our lives that are often forgotten. 

​As you will find over time, these little tricks to maintaining peak state are one of the secrets to becoming the most successful and powerful version of yourself. Take yourself back, reframe the situation, and you will soon see that looming problem is not quite as challenging as it once seemed. 

 I recently finished a great book called "The 5 Second Rule" by Mel Robbins. No this isn't the 5 second rule you are thinking of where it is socially acceptable to eat that Cheeto you dropped on the ground so long as it's done within 5 seconds. With this rule, Mel talks about how important it is to take action within 5 seconds or else your brain is designed to talk you out of it. The rule is very simple, you count backwards 5-4-3-2-1 - GO just like a NASA countdown. There is some interesting science behind this and I would recommend reading the book if you haven't already. 

I started to follow Mel Robbins and read more into her work, life story, etc. In doing that I came across a video where she is making the claim that motivation is garbage.  See link here.  Her theory is that motivation simply makes you feel better. And feeling better is the wrong thing to be focusing on. Because after all, we should be making strategic decisions that take us closer to our goals, not making decisions based on what we feel like in that moment. This I agree with. And I do understand that motivation without action can often give people a false sense of accomplishment.

That said, I disagree that "motivation is garbage". My theory is that most people are just consuming it at the wrong time. Someone sends you a motivational video in the middle of work and maybe it inspires you for the next 20 minutes.  Maybe you watch a video in the morning to get you feeling better before your ride to work. But most people consume this media while their physical body is in a sedentary or resting state. Sitting in your desk chair at work, kicking it on the couch, laying in bed. Think about the last time you consumed motivational content and remember what state your physical body was in. 

I would hedge my bets that most of you would say you were in some form of sedentary state. That is why with Aggressive Meditation I incorporated physical activity in conjunction with the motivational content. Think about the message this is sending your brain if every time you consume this content your physical body is in a state of action. I hope to one day have the science to back this, but I have noticed a drastic difference by just changing the way in which I consume this media. 

What I am essentially doing is wiring my brain to expect physical action when it hears and sees motivational content. What is interesting is when I consume this type of media outside of Aggressive Meditation, when I am in a more sedentary state, I feel my body start to trigger the same things physiologically (increased heart rate, increased focus, etc). The feelings are almost identical to the ones I feel before I walk into the gym. Before Aggressive Meditation, this never happened to the degree they occur now. Very interesting and something I do intend to prove scientifically. 

So although Mel Robbins does have some amazing and inspiring content, I disagree that "motivation is garbage". I think it is simply consumed at the wrong time.  Give it a shot while taking some action and see how it affects you. Hope this helps. 

Over the last few years I have been working on being consciously aware of my internal talk track. Listening to the thoughts that go through your head objectively and making a conscious decision to control what you hear and think can make a huge impact on where you end up in life. One of the words I incorporated that has helped tremendously is "yet". 

Far too often we say things about ourselves as if we were not a dynamic person. As if personality traits and situations are permanent. This is a dangerous but very common pattern of thinking. 

"I'm not a gym person"

"I don't have much money"

"I don't have the discipline to get up early" 

I used to say things like this to myself all the time. And surprise, surprise, nothing ever changed. After years of reading and studying about the impact of thinking on my actions, I noticed and made one minor adjustment. I started to incorporate the word "yet" into my internal talk tracks. I am not sure if I picked this up somewhere or if it was just a random thought to try using this word. Either way, it transformed the way I thought about myself in situations where I had not yet achieved my goal.

​By throwing in the word "yet" I am acknowledging that I am not yet there, but will be at some point in the future because I am taking action now. This is an important thing to be programming into your subconscious. 

"I do not have the money for that, yet"

"I am not a morning person, yet" 

"I do not have the discipline to do those things, yet"

By just making this minor adjustment, I found it easier to stay positive, motivated, hungry and on track to my goals. To me, using "yet" feels more realistic than the "fake it till you make it" strategy where you say things as if you are already there.

So give it a shot and see what you think. Hopefully it helps you as well.

 Many of the questions I get around Aggressive Meditation are why and how did you create this? The answer is pretty simple, I didn't set out to create this, it just sort of happened by default. I know that isn't the answer you were hoping for but it is the truth. And after spending some time looking inward and really analyzing why and how this came to be it became clear to me exactly why my crazy mind developed this. 

Just to give you a little background, for 15 years of my life I played the game of football. From pee-wee all the way up to the Division 1 collegiate level. When I left the game for good it was more of a challenge to adapt to the working world than I imagined. For those who played sports for an extended period of time, you will understand this feeling. Joking around with co-workers just isn't the same as joking around with your teammates. That bond just does not exist in the same way.  In addition to that, when you leave the game you lose all the emotions that came with it. The workouts with your brothers that pushed you to your physical limit. The feelings you had before a game. The feelings you had after a big victory or a comeback where everyone counted you out. 

What I realized is that over the years, I started to develop a routine to achieve the same peak state I had during those times because I missed it so much. I realized just because I cannot play the game anymore, why should I give up on finding some routine that produces the same results and feelings? Imagine if I could recreate this feeling and went into each day ready to conquer the world like I used to in my glory days. Do you think it would give me an edge in business? Absolutely. But for me, simply going to the gym and getting a good workout in was not the same. In addition to that, over the last several years I have been obsessed  with finding ways to strengthen my mind which I never really worked on during my football career. Meditation, affirmations, tweaking thought patterns, etc is something that I never realized the value in. Why? I wrote this off as hippie bullshit simply because I did not understand it. When I really started to work on this area and then starting realizing results, it was game over for me. 

So now I was faced with the same problem every one else faces. How do I have time to do the meditation, affirmations, exercise, personal development, etc with my busy work and personal life and more importantly how do I do these consistently? In full transparency I was facing the same thoughts many of you probably have right now.  Motivational videos, books, talk tracks, etc. can feel cheesy and preachy if you consume them at the wrong time and too often. Additionally, meditation is very challenging to jump into cold and I was finding myself being inconsistent with doing this daily. The answer that ended up happening by default. I combined them all into one routine which I now use daily. That's how Aggressive Meditation was born. 

Now with this routine I am able to achieve a similar peak state like I had while playing, while also incorporating mental and spiritual aspects that leave me feeling extremely confident, centered, and humble.  And that combination has yielded tremendous results in both my professional and personal life. It is my "secret sauce". Now I may be crazy, and I don't know if this will work for anyone else, but if it helps even one person out there it was worth not keeping to myself. And that is my only mission by bringing Aggressive Meditation to the world. 

 "Well that's just like your opinion, man" 

If you haven't seen the Big Lebowski, you are probably a bit confused right now. For those of you who have, and are familiar with Jeff Lebowski, you might have more in common with The Dude than you think. So how exactly does this relate to fitness and personal development?

One of the strategies I developed to help break bad habits and form new positive ones was to think of my mind and body like The Dude. The Dude does not like change. He loves his routine of taking it easy, sipping a white russian and firing up a joint in between his league bowling games with Walter and Donny. Life is good, life is predictable, and that's the way he likes it. 

Enter the carpet pissers. The carpet pissers are any new habit you try to instill on your body or mind. This could be a diet change, choosing to rise early, starting a new exercise routine, etc.  It could also be a bad habit you are trying to break. The point here is that you are rocking the boat and The Dude most certainly does not abide. 

On a physiological level, we are all programmed this way. It's called Homeostasis. The body inherently does not want to change. This is a survival mechanism resulting from thousands of years of human evolution. Your body does not naturally want to lose fat or gain muscle, it wants to stay the same. This is why transforming your body can be such a challenge.

The same thing applies to your mind. Adopting new thought processes, committing to daily meditation or affirmations, and consciously choosing to spin things positive over negative for the first few weeks is just like pissing on The Dude's rug.  And that rug really tied the room together. 

But don't be discouraged, because after all you can use The Dude to your advantage. Once you have committed yourself to making a change in these areas you will find after about 3 weeks that The Dude now abides the new routine. 

By thinking about it this way not only does it make it easier for me to adopt new habits and break bad ones, it adds an element of humor that helps keep me motivated to see things through to the end. 

Don't be afraid to piss on a few rugs as you work to improve yourself. Before you know it you will be sipping on a white russian of success with The Dude himself.  And I don't know about you, but I take comfort in that.  

I often think most people never follow through with their dreams and ideas because they never make it through the initial momentum phase. What I mean by the initial momentum phase is the one in which you are starting something from scratch. This could be a business, a weight loss journey, etc. I have personally experienced this as it relates to fitness and body transformation goals. Just a little background context there, the majority of my youth (up until age 21) I was always a fat kid.  Playing the sports position I did (Offensive Line) this was to be expected. I remember when I left the game of football people laughing at me when I said I was going to lose the weight.  After all, the fat version of me was all they ever knew.

I used that as fuel and was able to lose around 100 lbs all said and done. So what did I learn during this journey? The initial momentum phase is the hardest. When you are dieting your ass off and training even harder, it sucks to look at the mirror and realize even though you lost 20 lbs, you still have 80 to go.  If someone saw you on the street they would not think you workout at all let alone as hard as you do.  BUT if you just break through this initial momentum phase and commit to consistent action without the expectation of anything in return, you will start to see tremendous results. Turn off your emotions, doubts and fears and just act. Surprisingly, the journey for me got easier the further along I got with one huge caveat. You cannot lose this momentum. Stopping and starting it will kill you. 

Fast forward 10 years and I am still riding the momentum wave. It is now my identity and what I do. Now granted I have fallen off the wagon a few times during this 10 years. And with that I learned first hand how important it is to maintain the momentum. Never get complacent or comfortable.  

Today, I heavily use Aggressive Meditation to maintain my momentum. Hopefully this will help some of you as well. 

When you are on the journey  to success in whatever your goal is, keeping your emotions in check is vital if you want to make it. State control, emotion control, you've probably already heard this a thousand times from other leaders in this space. If there is one thing I have learned thus far it is that you can make this journey as dramatic or enjoyable as you want. Luckily for you, there are millions of people who have already been down the road you are looking to travel down. Study them, take notes, and observe what worked and didn't work. When you have that done start to build out a checklist with all the good and bad things you should expect along the way. Here is an example: 

1) Get idea for business 
2) Thoughts of hope and excitement 
3) Initial fears and doubts 
4) Honeymoon phase of business where you have endless energy and excitement 
5) First big curveball / challenge to overcome 
6) Fears and doubts come back and maybe you don't feel as passionate as you did in the beginning
7) Overcoming initial challenges starts to snowball confidence 
8) People start to notice your business succeeding 
9) Those closest to you may express jealousy or negativity as you are making them feel inadequate for their own inaction on personal dreams and goals. 
10) If you are leveraging social media and start to gain followers, expect the negative trolling that will occur

As you can see, if you break this journey down into mini steps both good and bad, you can check things off as they come. Instead of getting blindsided by surprises, you can now take the approach of saying "yep, I was expecting that bad thing to happen or this good thing to happen, etc." It is also a good way to gauge if you think you can handle this journey. Don't even start unless you are 100% committed to making this happen. Now of course there are always unexpected things that happen. But that said, having a checklist that includes the vast majority of good and bad things will set you up for a much less dramatic and intense roller coaster ride. 

Prepare for the worst, hope for the best and enjoy the ride.