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Level-Up Moments 150 150 admin

Level-Up Moments

Have you had moments where you felt like your life really leveled up?  Are there any patterns you see in these moments?

For every level-up moment I’ve experienced, I can trace it back to something I embraced that was new for me.  Also, through taking in new input, it helped me see old things with a new perspective.

A Few Level Up Moments

For example, a moment when I leveled up socially was during a workshop.  I had been trying to solve this problem of making money in an inspiring, heart-centered way all alone.  This wasn’t working.  Instantly after meeting people who were making a living in a heart-centered way and connecting dots, things started shifting quickly in a positive direction.  I started making passive income every month after my first book was published 3 years ago (right after the workshop) and still continue to make a liiiiiiitle every month now.  This changed how I looked at finances.  I had been serving a company to earn money before…and that means I served one entity.  But with the book I published lots of people benefitted – in a smaller way, but the volume of people I served was waaaay larger and I loved a lot more of the process. From then on I saw how the solution to this problem was more of a social problem than a how-to, step-by-step, information / mental problem.  It made me look at the old way of doing things with a new perspective.

Another level up moment is when I joined a 12-step program, and left a lot of my life up to my sponsor.  It was beautiful.  From the moment I got the sponsor, health wise and weight-wise my life was better.  I ended up losing 110 lbs from that moment.  Again…the answer for me was social.  They told me exactly what to eat and when and how to satisfy my hunger to be able to sustain it to lose weight and have a normal-sized body.

I had to embrace spending $500 on a workshop and traveling to Las Vegas. I had never spent that much money on a workshop and never traveled to Las Vegas.  That was new for me.  I had to embrace joining a 12-step program (I actually didn’t know it was a 12-step program before joining) and having a sponsor who told me what to do.  That was new as hell!

Now I’ve seem to come to a place where I’m being called to embrace more input.  Even with this blog…it’s not receiving much traffic now, but i know the steps to get it off the ground because I’ve repeatedly gotten things off the ground before.  It feels like I’m being called to get more of my work/art/ideas etc into more people’s hands, to put it out there in a much bigger way, and invite more feedback and be able to handle and process it consistently.  That will be new for me in so many areas.  It requires me to face many fears, but it seems unavoidable if I want to take my life in a direction where I want to make my living through creative expression.  It is feeling like one of those level up moments.

Back to You

What is calling you?  Is there something in your life that you want to level up?  Embrace the new as much as possible to spark a level-up moment!  New experiences or new travel destinations or new vacations or new workshops or restaurants or new habits or new trials or new input or new physical exercise or new groups to join or create.

You might find old, mental conditioning rising up in your mind to enhance your doubts and fears, but suspend the disbelief for a while.  Don’t block the energy that is leading you to new.  Follow the breadcrumbs, stay curious and follow the energy where it wants to flow on step at a time.  Keep consulting with the present moment and allow the next right action step to come through.

Does High Quantity Lessen Quality with Creative Work? 150 150 admin

Does High Quantity Lessen Quality with Creative Work?

A concern with a lot of quantity with creative work is…will the quality go down?  I saw this question posed by someone at the beginning of Steve Pavlina’s 365-day blogging challenge.  Since I’m participating as well, I actually wondered the same thing.

I’ve experienced quite the opposite in this 365-day blogging challenge.  I’m really proud of some articles that I’ve written, but I know they wouldn’t have happened without all the other articles I’ve written that I roll my eyes at.  It’s as if quality comes from quantity.   You have to get in the reps to realize the quality and see the results.

It reminds of something I read today about song writing, but one of my favorite song writers, John Mayer.

On the subject of writing good songs, John Mayer urges new writers not to worry too much about whether a song is good or bad when they are writing it. “Just write it,” he says. “The rule is: write bad songs, but write ’em. If you start writing bad songs, you start writing better songs, and then you start getting really good.

“If you try to get into the building on the twelfth floor, you’ll never make it. You have to get in the basement floor and work up from there.”

Pushing Past Your Limit 150 150 admin

Pushing Past Your Limit

I remember in high school I wanted to try football.  I did well academically, but always wanted to test myself to see if I could have some semblance of athleticism in a bigger way than basketball in nearby parks.  So I took put football on my high school schedule.  It was off-season football, so it was mostly training for the upcoming season.

I sucked at the beginning.  Badly.  Struggled through most of their routine exercises, and lost all competitions.  I got hella embarrassed to the point where I started coming after school to practice and get help.

I remember having 1 completely crazy coach during that time that stood out.  He’d say some pretty ruthless things to people, and would often get a lot of pushback and backlash for what came out of his mouth.

One day, we went out to find out our lap times – how fast we could run one lap around the track which was a quarter mile.  When it was my turn, I might have gone about half way when I felt I couldn’t keep running, so I started walking.  Keep in mind I genuinely felt so tired, I didn’t think I could run anymore….until…

I see him with a super angry face, marching over to me.  He then proceeds to scream in my ear.  I was feeling so embarrassed.  I don’t know what he said…but I do remember running at that very instant again.

It was a pretty out-of-body experience.  Where did this energy come from to run?  I didn’t think I had anymore left in the tank, but apparently I did?  I remember running in a very surreal way…thinking “I’m not supposed to be doing this…but I am”.

I’ll never forget that day, because it was where I really felt like I could push past my limit.  All it took was a little embarrassment.  Who am I kidding?  It took a lot of damn embarrassment.

Pushing Past Your Limits 

Is there a limit you feel you have?  How can you enlist help to push past it?  Maybe you don’t need a crazy coach (or maybe you do?) but is there any way you can get a coach or a mentor to hold your feet to the fire?

You feel differently about yourself after you push past a limit you had in your mind.  It changes how you view yourself, and it’s a damn good feeling.

Where Creative Ideas Come From 150 150 admin

Where Creative Ideas Come From

I set an intention to publish content every day here on This is Badass.  So far, so good.  This intention stirs something up in me that I didn’t predict.

This is the primary method I’ve used to write thus far.  I learned it concretely from DAI.

I sit back and imagine the wave of subjects to talk about.  Then something flashes inside me, like a spark.  It is a wave and I can chose to ride this wave or I can let it pass by and wait for another one.  There is an abundance of waves to ride at any time as there are an abundance of waves in the ocean.

It’s like surfing…and surfing is pretty badass, so I hear (I’ve never been surfing on actual water)

Sharing these little adventures in creativity is rewarding for others and rewarding for yourself if your intentions are for the highest good of all.  That energy must come back to you in some form…like every action has an equal but opposite reaction.

It can also work the same way if the intentions are dark.  They come back to you in some form.

Practice this!  Commit to writing (or creating another way), sharing and inviting feedback.

Make sure to add some “you” in your creations.  Every ride, every wave and every rider is unique.  Amplify the uniqueness.

How to Build Momentum In Life 150 150 admin

How to Build Momentum In Life

I always tell people if you want to know the secret to happiness, I can give it to you in one word: progress

Tony Robbins

If you’re having a problem with momentum, go out and get a small victory and celebrate it. Rinse and repeat.

Documenting can also come in handy. Sometimes you feel like you aren’t going anywhere, but if you’ve documented everything along the way, you can look back and see where you’ve come from and all the little steps you took.

This is a foundation of skill building. When I started in piano, my first song was Yankee Doodle. I was fortunate enough to have many family members celebrate this small victory with me.

When I went in my 12-step program I would be in awe of people who were so far in the journey to me, and they kept reiterating to me that it’s a journey of 1 day. Take it 1 day at a time, and repeat that one day. “This disease is arrested one day at a time”. Over time you build habits.

If you want a Youtube audience, serve one person who’s watching your videos.

If you want more blog subscribers serve one person who’s reading your blog.

If you want a more fit body, don’t worry about all the things you think you’re going to have to do in the future. These things don’t exist and just clutter your mind. Think about being fit today and pushing yourself today and doing what’s hard today so that it becomes a habit.

What Slows Productivity Down 150 150 admin

What Slows Productivity Down

I see so many, “how to be more productive” articles, but I don’t ever see this problem framed as “you’re naturally productive, so what’s stopping you”.

So I Googled “Things that slow productivity down” to see what was out there already and this article popped up that pretty much echoed everything I was going to write about. And written 4 years ago. That’s wild! Well done StartupGrind. Well Done.

I especially agree with the “energy levels” section of that article. I saw this a lot with jobs. Many jobs I worked for would push and push and push the employees and not give any significant downtime. It was like they wanted more orange juice, but they were squeezing an orange that had been all squeezed out. That orange might produce more teeny droplets, but there is no flow any more.

Another approach that seemed to make more sense, is to play and have fun and rest until you want to go back to work! And if you don’t want to go back to work, evaluate the work or how you’re actually doing the work. I had never thought of this perspective, but I saw the value after taking an extended break to Mexico. I wasn’t even aware of this perspective until I received coaching in my coaching program.

I think this really works well if you’re doing creative work. Your mind goes to different places on vacation and when you come back to work you relate to it differently.