Twenty-three years of Law Enforcement taught me that continuous training will not only will save your life, but will help you stay at the top of your game. But what about training on your own personal time, for personal reasons at your own expense? My friends, the best thing you can do for yourself and for those around you is to become the best version of yourself. This involves growing, learning & developing; whether it be for a hobby, personal growth, spirituality, communication skills, a new career or a side business. Put the time and money into yourself. This will give you and those around you the best ROI. When you invest in yourself and become the best version of yourself, this is where the magic happens for you and for those around you.

“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound” When you fail and you are by yourself, then your failure is really insignificant. No one was there to witness it so you can say it never happened. But when we fail in front of others, it is larger than life, it’s documented and recorded in history for everyone to revisit. If you can laugh at yourself when you are by yourself then why can’t you laugh at yourself when others are laughing at you. Ya could. Remember my friends, it’s YOUR journey; no one else’s. Just keep Doing You and BE THE TREE.

Failure is the state of not meeting a desirable objective. The opposite of success. Failure, and the resultant pain it causes, helps to shape and mold us. How can we recover from our failures? 1. Accept It; 2. Embrace It; and 3. Let Go of It. You have a choice. You can take it personal when you fail, let it devistate you and give up.; OR you can get back up, dust yourself off and move forward.

For many years, I equated Happiness with Success. I thought that reaching certain levels of success would bring happiness. But in reality, they were meaningless achievements that provided short term happiness at best. Are you really happy commuting long hours to make crazy money just to pay for an unnecessary hi-cost life. I now know that, for me, success does not bring happiness but living a happy life is success. The key to creating an action plan for you to live a happy life is self-awareness.

Today is February 15th, the day after Valentine’s Day, and society has finally decided to give out 8th Place Trophies to adults by calling today “Singles Awareness Day”. Relationships fail for many different reasons and we should neither be punished nor persecuted when they do. But to celebrate or be rewarded for being alone is absurd. We all deserve to be in a healthy relationship. It is what makes us a civilized society. Being alone is not something that should be celebrated, rewarded or proud of; but it is an opportunity. It is a special time; a time for reflection and self-awareness. When you are alone, this is God’s way of telling you that you have work to do. This is a time for you to become a better version of yourself through introspection, self-awareness and personal growth. In time, you will be rewarded with the healthy relationship that God wants for you. Today should be called “I need to start focussing on ME day”.

Do It Every Day is the 3rd D of my 3 D’s of Happiness. Once you have taken the effort through self-awareness to discover you, have taken the initiative to execute and DO YOU, have selfishly decided to DO IT FOR YOU, now just DO YOU EVERY DAY. If you can’t do it every day, at least do it every chance you get. But isn’t it sad when you only do what you love on the weekends; or when spring & summer arrive, you suddenly come alive; or worse, you stop doing it altogether. There are many people living the life they want to live every day. They aren’t just lucky stiffs. They are choosing to live their lives on their terms. You and I can make the same choice. DO YOU, DO IT FOR YOU and DO IT EVERY DAY.

Do It For You; the second D of my 3 D’s of Happiness. Are you just going through the motions in life? Not doing YOU for YOU. Depleting your emotional bank account as Dr. Phil would say. There is no need for past regrets; but you can change what you do from today on. Just make a conscious choice to be happy. If you continue to deplete your emotional bank account, you will eventually have nothing left of you to give. So what can you do to Do It For You? Make the choice today, right now, to live your life on your terms and finally DO YOU, FOR YOU.

Do You is the first D of my 3 D’s of Happiness. But before you can DO, you have to BE. This is done through self-awareness. Peel back the layers of that onion by asking yourself what are you good at, what are your passions, what are your core values, and what is your DNA? The answers to these questions should be genuine; from your heart & soul. I say, “Before you can DO YOU, you have to KNOW YOU and it wouldn’t truly be YOU if you worried about other people’s perceptions of YOU”.

Do You, Do it for You, and Do it every day. Doing You is simply a matter of self-awareness. Figure out who you are, what are you good at, what is your DNA and what is your purpose in life. Stop lying to yourself and everyone around you and just be You. Do it for you. If you don’t live your life for You, you will wake up one day hating your life and who you have let yourself become. Even worse, you will start blaming and resenting those around you for what is really your fault. Do it every day. Once you figure out who you are and have decided to live your life for you, keep doing what makes you happy. Don’t stop. My friends, life is a balance but you owe it to yourself to tip the scales in your favor. It’s never too late to Do You, Do it for You and Do it every day.

Resilience is the ability to recover from or adjust to misfortune or change. Adversity is a fact of life. Things do not always go our way. Sometimes, it seems that things never go our way. Resilience is a part of our character that allows some of us to get knocked down by life yet get back up and come back even stronger. Listen to some tips on how we can persist in the face of adversity.

Consistency is to stand firm and carry on regardless of obstacles or distractions. Tony Robbins believes “It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives. It’s what we do consistently”. Dr. Gloria Petruzzelli provides 5 Tips For Being Consistent: 1. Make a conscious decision to remain consistent; 2. Revise your concept of time; 3. Have a plan and know your objective; 4. Remember that feelings & thoughts are temporary and subjective; and 5. Do one thing at a time and be in the present moment. I believe that when you stay true to yourself while executing consistently, everything else will fall into place.

Commitment is the state of being dedicated to a cause, activity or goal. T.D. Jakes once said “You cannot conquer what you are not committed to”. Logan Marshall of the Free Life Project provides 4 Steps to Unshakeable Commitment: 1. Get your mindset right;2. Refine your goals; 3. Focus on what’s important; and 4. Hold yourself accountable. If you have been putting off anything in your life, please ask yourself why. Whatever your mountain to climb is, commit to it and stick to it.

Podcasts are entertaining, informative and a great way to pass the time while multi-tasking. Why would you start your own? Maybe you like to hear yourself talk, maybe you were meant to bestow your wisdom upon others, or maybe you are just plain funny. So how do you get started? I suggest you download the AnchorFM app to your smartphone. It’s easy and it’s free. This podcast is a fun hobby which allows me to connect with you. But the real benefit is the legacy it will leave. Wouldn’t you love to hear the voice of someone dear to you who has passed on and, more importantly, wouldn’t you want someone to hear your voice again once you are gone? That is true legacy.

Aristotle once said “ Through self-discipline comes freedom “. Self-discipline is simply the ability to make yourself do things when you know you should, even if you do not want to do them. But why is this simple concept so hard? Because we as humans are naturally drawn towards pleasure, not pain. Our parents taught us not to touch fire. Education taught us that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Society teaches us to take the easy way out. But champions, mavericks, trend setters and pioneers do the opposite. They take the road less traveled, they think out of the box, they go where no man has gone before and they brake those chains that bind them. Self-discipline is painful emotionally and physically. You must flip the switch and re-wire your brain to embrace the pain of your struggle, work through it and let the pain be your oxygen that fuels you to get what is yours. You have to see it, feel it, work through it and want it more than you want to breathe.

Minimalism is the Intentional promotion of things we most value and the removal of everything that distracts us from it. Minimalism suits me because I have realized that I neither need or want much in the form of stuff. I know this lifestyle is not for everyone. Just remember, when the financial ball drops, you won’t be able to pick it back up if your hands are carrying excess baggage. Minimalism is not about living less, it is about living more with less.

The continuation of Joshua Becker’s list of 10 Tips to Start Living in the Present. 8. Stop Worrying - you can’t fully appreciate today if you worry too much about tomorrow; tomorrow is going to happen no matter what. 9. Think Beyond Old Solutions to Problems - our world is changing so fast that most of yesterday’s solutions are no longer the right answers today. 10. Conquer Addictions - addictions will hold you and the people around you hostage and will take away your freedom; emotionally and physically. The bottom line is this: you can live either in the past, admiring those useless plaques & awards on your Wall of Fame; you can live in the future, looking out the window dreaming of a better life while sitting on the sofa doing nothing; or you can live in the present, in the moment, working & grinding everyday towards realizing your dreams.

The continuation of Joshua Becker’s list of 10 Tips to Start Living in the Present. 4. Forgive Past Hurts - resentment festers and the more you hold onto it, the stronger it gets. 5. Love Your Job - you can either find a new job that you do enjoy or focus on the positives of your current job. Full disclosure here; I absolutely believe that life is too short to spend one minute doing what you hate. 6. Dream about the future but work hard today - dream big, set goals and plan for the future. But remember, dreams without execution are just dreams so you must work hard today as the first step towards realizing your dream for tomorrow. 7. Don’t dwell on past accomplishments - if you are still yapping about all the great things you did yesterday then you are not doing much today.

Joshua Becker believes that “the secret of health for both mind & body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly”. Here are some of his 10 Tips for Living in the Moment: 1. Remove unnecessary possessions, 2. Smile, and 3. Fully appreciate the moments of today. Remember my friends, we are not promised tomorrow.

Mis en place is the French culinary term for having the right ingredients “set in place” before you start cooking. It is not enough to just have Drive. What are the ingredients for having the drive of a champion? 1. A strong Why and 2. Discipline; containing a dash of commitment, consistency & resilience. The drive to succeed is already inside of you. God is the Master Chef and set you up when he created you. The Mis En Place is up to you.

Drive is the innate urge to attain a goal or satisfy a need. Drive is the starting point of motivation. It helps you focus on a specific goal. It is the first step. Without action or execution, your journey is just a dream. Drive is the first step in the execution of your journey to success. Your drive will set you on your way and the strength of your drive will determine how far you go.