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Intro

I have to start by simply saying thank you.

The newsletter has grown 5x over the past month and the outpour of messages I’ve received has been incredible. I appreciate your support more than I can express and intend to keep delivering the same level of content moving forward to hopefully make a positive impact on your lives.

For those of you who are new here or receiving your first subscription email, I post bi-weekly advice on how to improve your life and reach your goals through short stories and actionable steps that I have personally implemented to achieve the lifestyle I’ve always wanted.

This month, I will be going over topics such as setting yourself up for financial success, improving relationships, and following up on some of the action items from last month to continue on your journey.

Keep the feedback coming, it only helps make things better moving forward.

Discovering Your “Why”

Think back to the end of December when that feeling of the New Year crossed your mind.

Even if it was a quick thought that flashed through your mind and you disregarded it, the majority of people I know at least had some sort of thoughts of making a positive change in their lives or reaching a goal in 2024.

You may have set goals for the year or at least envisioned what you wanted to be this year. Maybe you made a New Year’s resolution, maybe not.

Whatever it was, at the end of the day you know you want to become a better person and reach a goal or series of goals to become the person you know you deserve to be.

For those of you who set those goals and have been working hard to achieve them and stuck with them so far this year, hats off to you. Most people don’t make it past January and I’m so proud of you.

For those of you who have given up, I’m proud of you for trying and wanting to get back on track.

Whether you have given up or are sticking with your plan, in order to stay on the road to success you need to understand why you are doing all of this in the first place. Discover your “Why”.

If you read the first email in this series, you set a vision for your future self and what that would look like. Now it’s time to take a deeper look into that and understand why you want to be that person and achieve those goals/milestones.

Is it for your family? Is it for fame? Is it for wealth? Is it for health? Is it for looks?

Once you have answered yes to one or several of those types of questions, I want you to ask why three more times. It doesn’t matter if the responses to your questions seem somewhat selfish or shallow, as long as they aren’t evil, cruel, or criminal, keep pressing forward. Ideally, they will be for the greater good, but not all reasons have to be pure. For example:

Vision: Start an e-commerce business

Q: Why do you want to start this business?

A: Because I have a great idea for a new product that can become huge and make me rich.

Q: Why do you want to become wealthy?

A: Because then I will finally have all the material things I want in life and gain the respect of my peers and family.

Q: Why do you want to have all these material things and gain the respect of peers and family?

A: Because I grew up poor and never had anything of my own that was nice and I’ve never had the respect from peers and family I felt I deserved so this will help to fill those voids in my life to make me happier.

Now, some of you might say those aren’t the most noble reasons for wanting to achieve a goal, but they are honest and can be tied back to multiple types of goals.

By the end, the final response is almost always going to be related to filling the void within your heart that will make you happy or you at least think will make you happy. This can be related to other goals such as wanting to build a shelter for the homeless as well, cultivating a community garden, etc.

Find your why, and use that as motivation to keep moving forward.

The Beauty of Tracking

There will be good days and there will be bad days throughout this journey. Sometimes you will see huge strides and quick wins, but other days you won’t see any success at all and may even feel like you are regressing.

I promise you are not regressing if you are implementing the actionable steps daily. This is a slow, methodical journey, nothing comes easy in life.

Here are your actionable steps for the week (in addition to finding your why) to help you push through the hard times:

This will get tedious so you will only need to do this for a week or so but can continue if you desire.

1) Begin to write down or take notes on your phone/laptop/tablet and track the things you are doing daily. TRACK EVERYTHING THIS WEEK. And yes, mean everything. Did you go to bed at 10pm and get up at 7am? Track it. Did you work out before you went to work today or after? Track it. Did you sneak in a drink tonight? Track it. Did you wear the uncomfortable dress today to look good? Track it. Be hyper-aware of your feelings throughout the day.

2) Now that you have tracked everything throughout your day that you have done, at the very end of your day right before you track your sleep time track exactly how you felt throughout the day. Did you feel great all morning, but crashed later in the day? Did the compliment you received in the elevator make you feel good or uncomfortable? Did you have a nice dinner with your family or fight with your spouse when you got home? Write all of your feelings on the day down.

3) Once the week is complete, break down each day and your actions related to your feelings. Did working out right when you woke up make you feel good or sluggish? Was showing up home late after work good, bad, or neutral for your mental health and relationships? Did eating the burrito for lunch make you feel good or guilty? Take this breakdown and start making plus (+) and minus (-) signs next to each action on how they affected your mood and life. If it was a big win give it an extra plus. If it made you miserable, make two minus signs. Start to incorporate more of the positive into your life and remove the negative from your life.

4) Make the changes that you tracked the following week. Forgive yourself for anything that caused shame or was a mistake from the previous week. Praise yourself for all of the positive changes and choices you made and are making. Start to feel the changes making a difference in your life and tell yourself that you are proud of yourself and that you are on the right path.

Hang in There

This is will a long journey, I repeat this will be a long journey.

There will be quick wins, but I know a ton of successful and happy people and none of them, zero, were an overnight success. It takes hard work and dedication so hang in there. I got you.

I hope that you enjoyed this content and will return and read my next email. We are still at the beginning of this journey, and I still have a great deal of advice and guidance to give. I will always provide direct, actionable tips that helped me and will help you find the joy in life that you have been seeking.

Until we meet again, check out the links below to my blog, Twitter (X), and email newsletter. You can also reach out to me anytime at [email protected].

Cheers.

-Tommy

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