Let’s face it ass-kickers get what they want. To be an ass-kicker you need to be the best version of yourself. The beauty is that anyone can achieve this. All you have to do is start putting yourself first. That means taking care of your mental, physical, emotional and spiritual health, I call this the 4 pillars of health. If one is missing then you’ll be a little unstable and If 2 are missing you’ll be completely off-balance. James Altucher talks about this quite often, but even before I read any of his books, I was aware of the effects that keeping these 4 pillars in check have had on my life. I suppose people who are ambitious are all acutely aware of the effects of these 4 pillars either directly or in-directly. After all, who doesn’t want to be physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually healthy?

So, is it selfish to put yourself first? Not really. All this means is don’t check emails, make calls or pay the bills first thing in the morning, all the logistics type stuff can be done later on in the day. Start your day off strengthening your spiritual pillar. What works great for me and others I know that lead successful, purpose driven lives is to start the day off by meditating and practicing gratitude right when you wake up. This will give you an extra boost of attitude and energy. If you don’t know how to meditate read up on “TM” also known as Transcendental Meditation. It’ll take no more than 25 minutes to perform and will clear your head, and make you feel good. Once you’re in that space of being thoughtless, stay in that space for another 15 minutes — that’s where the true magic happens. Studies show that being in the meditative thoughtless state for 15 minutes is more powerful than a full night of REM sleep.

Next, exercise. This doesn’t have to mean going to the gym and lifting weights, although it could (that’s what I do). It could also mean doing 20 jumping jacks, 40 push-ups, and 40 sit-ups, or going for a morning walk. The trick is to get your heart rate up — it releases endorphin’s and enhances your mood and your overall health. Also, If you’re one of those people that struggles to get to the gym but would like to go more. I’ll share a trick that will help you get there. Every time you have doubts about going, remind yourself that you are doing this so that you can feel better and in turn be a better husband, wife, friend, leader, and so on. With this in mind leave the house as soon as possible with your earphones and music player (or phone) and play a song that gets you pumped up. Once you’re there it’s actually quite enjoyable.

Now your mental pillar. This could mean writing, this could mean practicing idea generation by writing new ideas, basically, any creative endeavour. Remember, you’re either consuming or creating. The most successful people in the world are “creators” or more commonly referred to as “producers”. They produce massive amounts of value. To strengthen your mental pillar you’ll need to practice being creative/productive. I like to write and come up with ideas. I try to write at least 10 ideas per day that can help people. They can be new product ideas that I may develop at some point with my team or ideas for existing products that I can share with people. The beauty is you don’t need to develop a new product. If you can create new value by helping someone with an existing product you can still win. Remember, exercising your mental pillar is about producing value through creativity.

Lastly, your emotional pillar. This means carving out time to spend with your friends and family and cutting off toxic people. To build your emotional pillar you need to spend time with people you love, and with people that love you. I’m sure you’ve had a “friend” that would take small jabs at you, or make comments that make you feel bad, get rid of them. A thick skin is important but over time this friend will make you insecure, which will inevitably destroy you. You need all of the support you can get and you can only get real support from good natured, positive friends that have your best interest at heart.

To tie all of these concepts together, what I’ve found makes these pillars work best is when I turn them into habits and incorporate them into my daily routine. Warren Buffett once said “develop the habits of success.” If you think about it, that’s what success really is — it’s doing the things each day that help you create more success. It’s so simple but people often add complexity to it which is really just an excuse for not developing these daily success habits. I get it, up to this point it may not be clear as to how these habits translate into business success, well, they help in a at least 4 direct ways,

You need to be prepared for rejection, and being physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually healthy helps you deal with rejection more efficiently. You need to think big, you’re going to be thinking all day anyway so you might as well be thinking big. Having grand ideas is better when pitching investors, and customers because it makes it more dramatic and interesting. To think big you need to first think clear, and having clear thought is a direct result of over-all health and well-being. This health and well-being is achieved through the 4 pillars. Don’t allow your friends, family, colleagues or anyone tell you that your idea is not possible. It is possible and with the right attitude you can do whatever it takes to make it a reality. You’ll feel more positive if you are in good health. Do what others don’t want to do, do what it takes and remember that the successful person does all of the things that the un-successful person doesn’t want to do. Why doesn’t the un-successful person want to do these things? Because they’re un-successful in managing themselves. You have to first become successful in managing your body, mind, emotions and spirit before you can succeed in other areas of your life.

As you can see by now, it boils down to being the strongest/best version of yourself, which is ultimately achieved through self-control. If you can control your body, mind, emotions and spiritual self then you can control your destiny.

Super powers

It’s funny, well maybe not funny but interesting. I’ve been studying successful people as long as I could remember, starting around age 15. I never really understood what I was reading but for some reason it fascinated me. These were people who’ve changed the world, both their own world and the world at large. I always thought that these people were like super heroes, that they had some super powers that ordinary people didn’t have. I’ve been fortunate enough to meet some of these people in real life and guess what? They’re human. The only super powers that they possess is that they control their mind, body, emotions and spiritual purpose better than ordinary folks. These people aren’t perfect, they make mistakes but they respond better to mistakes, they respond better to the 4 points I mentioned above.

Stay Busy Stay Focused

When developing these habits it’s important that you stay busy and stay focused on whatever it is that you’re working towards. Plan all activities around your main schedule and keep your eye on the prize. It’s cliche but I guess it’s cliche for a reason, you only get afraid when you take your eye of the ball. Be so focused on your task at hand that you don’t have time to worry or fret. I’m sure you’ve heard all of these things before, consider this a helpful reminder to get you on track. And if you’re on track, then at least you’re reinforcing these concepts.

By being super focused you’re going to get a lot done, and you’re going to do things that people don’t understand. Just know that if you do anything out of the ordinary, you’re going to be criticized for it. If you don’t do anything then you won’t be criticized but you won’t get anywhere either. Accept that people will criticize you, and realize that they are only criticizing you because they have given up on their own goals. Otherwise why would they care to criticize you? (fyi, I’m referring to haters/un-constructive criticism).

In the spirit of Ben Horowitz, I shall now quote a rapper that makes the point of putting yourself first quite clearly.

“Don’t listen to your crew, do what works for you. Standing back from situations gives you the perfect view.” — Jay Z

At this point I hope that you understand the concept of putting yourself first and the benefits of doing so. At the most abstract level, you are the creator of your own world and in order to be the best creator, you need to be the best version of yourself. Warren Buffet once said, (I’m paraphrasing) “Berkshire Hathaway is my painting” If you look at it, Berkshire Hathaway is a work of art — the way that it’s structured is masterful. Companies in his portfolio own other companies, and they’re all connected through this unique web of ownership. That is his creation. Put yourself first and then decide, what will your creation be?

I hope this helps you — share it with your friends and family and help them too. Also, if you haven’t yet, follow me because i’ll be sharing how to get out of a rut in my next post.