#MindsetReset

Mel Robbins, who I first became aware of while surfing YouTube, has launched a program called “Mindset Reset” that is worth checking out. I’ve had good success folding some of the recommended techniques into my daily process, including the “5 Second Journal” morning practice (a worthy peer/alternative to the Tim-Ferriss-recommended5 Minute Journal”, which I’ve also used to good effect).

I found the ten-page guide’s 2018-in-review and 2019 planning prompts helped me put things in perspective and did a good job helping me focus down on a solid set of worthy goals for the new year.

One nice thing about Mel is that she pretty candidly relates her own daily struggles, as well as some fairly massive problems she’s had to overcome in her own past (such as bankruptcy and despair a decade ago), which tends to reassure one that this isn’t all pie-in-the-sky coaching with no grounding in reality and its myriad challenges. Mel’s recommendations are practical, relatable, and can be applied in incremental steps.

The daily installments of this 35-day program are being archived (see Mel’s YouTube channel for the videos), so you can try it out and benefit regardless of whether you started at the cusp of the new year. The entire thing is free. See melrobbins.com/mindsetreset for Mel’s intro video and to sign up for the emails that will get you started.

Blake Leeper: A Runner Without Legs

I can think of no better way to kick things off than with one of the most inspiring interviews I have yet seen.

My sons and I have watched this several times. It is worth every minute. There are many deep and universal life lessons in here, as well as a chance to see what it’s like for someone to face and overwhelmingly conquer an extraordinary physical hurdle – with relentless determination, and the greatest attitude I have ever seen in anyone.

Blake Leeper:

Welcome

Welcome to a new experiment.

I’ve long taken an interest in the mindsets, practices, insights, and cultivated character traits that enable people to take command of their lives, overcome obstacles, expand their capabilities, achieve ambitious goals, and fulfill their highest potentials.

A lifetime of observation has persuaded me that the techniques and ways of thinking that produce success can be acquired — that they are learnable, and teachable — and it has long interested me to learn as much as I can from the methods and successes of others. Discovering kindred thinking in places like Tim Ferriss’ podcast over the past couple of years has added fuel to my lifelong interest in the subject, and prompted me to start this site, where I aim to share what I’ve absorbed and promote the great work of others that I’ve found useful.

Working to gain capabilities is one of the most valuable things you can do for yourself and those around you. It builds versatility, resilience, independence, and autonomy, fosters a culture of competence, and paves the way for you to build the life you want.

I’ve combed through a lot of material, in late nights on YouTube, bouts of podcast-ameliorated insomnia, and reading online and off-, taking notes and searching for ideas, approaches, and techniques that have the most usefulness and applicability. My aim here is to distill the best elements of what I’ve learned into concise and useful gems that I can pass along.

I won’t hold myself up as an example of optimal productivity by any means, nor can I promise some overnight recipe for instant success. I find myself regularly humbled by my own shortcomings. But I am on the journey, continually striving to learn, and I make it my goal to improve a bit each day, week, month, and year — to learn from success and failure alike, and incrementally refine and augment my methods. I find regular contact with reality to be the most salutary thing in the world for productivity fads and abstract theories about how to accomplish things. I mean to keep my practice and recommendations firmly grounded in the invaluable feedback that such trials-by-fire provide.

If these things interest you, then I invite you to keep an eye on these pages, where we may strive and learn together. With a determined perspective, every challenge becomes a valuable opportunity to able up.