My 13 Life Rules For Being My Best Self | TD TV 04

Today, I’d like to share a document with you that I haven’t shared with too many people. It’s called my “13 Rules of Life.” While I’m constantly tweaking this carefully crafted list, the collection of rules below serve as the road map leading directly to my best life possible.

When everything in life is operating at world-class levels, these are the things guiding me. Watch and listen as we go deep on my life rules in the TD TV episode below — complete with a very special guest — or scroll down for the full list in writing.

• Go To Bed Before 11pm Every Night: Your sleep sets the tone for the following day. Committing to quality shut-eye is one of my top tips for optimal recovery, and I know hopping in bed on time will ensure I get a minimum of 7 hours of uninterrupted slumber  — a must for me to perform my best the next day.

• Stick To My Diet & Avoid Caffeine After 12pm: My constant energy is not caffeine-induced (crazy, right?). In fact, I’m caffeine sensitive. Thus, if I don’t limit my intake of the stimulant to the morning hours, there’s no way I’ll be in bed by 11pm. Additionally, I stay committed to eating right (I got on camera to share my daily breakfast here), and have no more than 2 beers — or alcoholic beverages — a month.

• Work Out For At Least 45 Minutes First Thing Every Morning: This rule goes beyond just knocking out a morning sweat. 5 – 7am is my time, and I use those precious two hours to be meticulous with my morning routine. While it starts with fasted cardio before the sun comes up, I also spend time journaling and praying prior to beginning the work day. #GetYourMindRight

• Do NOT Turn On The Phone Until My Morning Routine Is Complete: Yes, I have multiple rules devoted to my morning “Holy Hours.” Your phone robs you of your time, while also adding the anxiety of emails, texts, tweets, etc. I’m equally meticulous and selfish with the early hours I devote to my routine (by the way, I have a nighttime routine too), and it starts with avoiding the cell screen.

• The Power Of One: Every morning, I dive deep thinking about one person I’d like to channel my energy to for that day. Dub Leigh’s wife, Audrey, shared this powerful technique with me, and it truly allows me to energize others and be more in tune with them. That is the power of one.

• Do Not Swear: Your thoughts become your words, your words become your flesh, your flesh becomes your actions, your actions become your character. Everything you say counts towards your character, so I choose to use words that will empower me. Here’s a words-related challenge, an extension from my WOW Book, that really hits this rule home. It will help you select your words wisely.

• Win The Day: This is my must-have mentality. How I spend my day, who I spend my day with, and what I spend my time doing, all go back to this “Win The Day” mindset and my mantra of getting 1% better every day. Natalie Jill and I went all-in on Winning The Day on her Facebook Live, so check it out for a little “and then some” on this practice.

• Do My WLAG’s Every Sunday Night: If you haven’t heard me discuss my WLAG’s before, listen up because these are a game changer. The acronym stands for Wins, Losses, Aha Moments, and Goals. Every Sunday, I set aside time to reflect on the previous week and touch on all of these things in writing. I finish with my top 5 goals for the following days to ensure the upcoming week is a winning one.

• Write For At Least 30 Minutes Everyday: Doing what you love is a critical component of living your best life, and writing makes my soul sing. Whether it’s journaling, blogging, penning a book, or jotting down my WLAG’s, writing creates clarity for me, and clarity precedes genius (thank you, Robin Sharma). Heck, maybe it’s time you write down your own life rules. More on that later…

• Positive Interactions & Communication With All People I Interact With: By nature, I’m a people pleaser. Over the years, I’ve learned you simply can’t please everyone. Whether live or online, others are going to disagree with me; and I respect that. Rather than wasting my own time and energy confronting them, I do everything in my power to always keep things positive (hey, once you have haters, you know you’ve made it!).

• I Will Motivate, Inspire, & Create IMPACT To 10 Million Men & Women In My Life: This is my mission. Not only is it one of my life rules, it’s also the overarching theme of my life, and encompasses the “why” behind this list. Without this rule, the previous 10 would be completely moot.

• I Will Live My Life Guided By Purpose & Passion: Furthermore, I will not be steered by jealousy, gossip, temptation, or energy vampires (people who suck the energy out of you). I let my BHAGs (big, hairy, audacious goals) and decree motivate and inspire me to do my best work.

• I Understand That I Cannot & Will Not Please Everyone: I will be judged, and that’s ok. I need to focus on living each and every day in a way that results in zero guilt with how I conducted myself, what I said or did, the decisions I made, and my actions… knowing that I did my absolute best to be real, genuine, caring, and the best father, husband, leader, teacher, coach, trainer, and human-being that I can possibly be.

Whew. Simply sharing those with you gets me FIRED up! My friends, those are my life rules. They’ve been diligently developed over the years to reflect what I most need to do to live my best life possible. There’s no magic number with these. The magic is in spending the time to create your own rules. On the road to world class, life rules are your guiding lights. Feel free to use my rules as inspiration when creating yours.

P.S. If you enjoyed the video above, please hop on over to Facebook and “like” / ”follow” my page, so you never miss an episode of TD TV. I’m coming to you weekly via Facebook LIVE, and each episode includes an opportunity for Q & A. Got questions? Hit me up on social media and maybe you’ll be featured on TD TV!