‘Aim to be the best you can be.’ This is a powerful phrase that’s thrown around a lot in the self-development field. But what does it actually mean, why is this something to strive towards, and how do you go about becoming the best version of yourself? It’s what we’ll explore in this article. What does it mean to be your ‘best self? Somehow, your best self implies there are two versions of you. The ‘you’ right now, and the ‘you’ that you have the potential to be (if you’re willing to take certain actions and decisions). In other words, there’s a gap to close because there’s more you could be, do, and have if you stay hungry to explore your limits and learn more about your strengths and capabilities. That could be better relationships, more money, a bigger business, a healthier body, more exciting hobbies - your definition of ‘best’ will be unique to you depending on where you feel you’re falling behind in your potential or aspirations. In this way, wanting to be the best you can be is a powerful motivator that forces you to take a more intentional path through life. It inspires you to look for the growth opportunities and it reminds you to figure out where you could step up. Your best self is a journey, not a destination. In fact, it’s a journey that’s never going to end, but don’t be put off by that! Instead, see this an empowering concept where you have limitless potential for growth. You’ll have already seen this in your life. Just when you think you’ve reached your limits, somehow you take another step and a whole new world of possibility opens up. That’s why your best self is also an attitude. It’s a commitment to being better today than you were yesterday. It’s a conscious choice to keep striving, and growing, and learning from every experience that comes your way. It’s a self-love journey too because being your best requires you to recognize that you are ‘work in progress’. It reminds you to appreciate your achievements and be grateful for what you already have while at the same time knowing there’s always more in your tank. It’s the more challenging path Living to become your best self is the harder path through life. Sure, it’s a mindset that creates the space for incredible relationships, impactful businesses, ideas that change the world, and an insatiable zest for life. But it’s also a route that’s going to be hard. If you’ve ever tried to be your best, you’ll know that personal growth is painful. You take on things you have no idea how to do and fail miserably! You get knocked down. You feel out of your depth and overwhelmed. You drown in discomfort and you’re forced to let old things go as your identity shifts and evolves. But that’s part of the magic of this path. • Every failure creates new insights• You get stronger every time you get back up• Discomfort expands your comfort zone• Letting go creates space for new opportunities Then there’s the elation of achieving an ‘impossible’ goal. The self-esteem boost from figuring it out. The confidence rush when you decide you won’t be beaten. There’s also the excitement of trying new things. The thrill of mastering a new skill and the courage to continually rediscover who you are. Yes! The journey to be the best you can be is addictive, transformative, and one of the most rewarding commitments you can make to yourself in this life. Better still, it’s also a personal project too. There is no right or wrong when it comes to your unique journey - there’s only your way. What’s most important to you will be wildly different from what someone else deems essential. But how do you do it? What are the strategies and mindsets that empower you to be the best you can be - even when you’re feeling beaten, disillusioned, and low in confidence. Check out these five. Five ways to be the best you can be 1. Embrace failure No one likes to be seen to fail. We’re social beings and losing face in front of other people never feels good! But reluctance to fail is always going to hold you back - because it reduces your scope for experimenting and exploring. If you want to be the best you can be you have to take risks. You need to step out into the unknown and do things you’ve never done before. Hindsight is the best thing and there will be plenty of times you’ll wish you had a time machine! But if you never try you never know. Give yourself permission to fail. This may be a big hurdle to overcome - especially if you’re a perfectionist. Work to shift your beliefs about failure and remind yourself that every mistake is an opportunity to learn. It’s true. Failure actually makes you better - if you allow yourself to adopt the mindset that makes this a reality. 2. Invest in the inner journey If you want to be the best you can be, you’ve got to invest in your own inner journey - this is a non-negotiable. You need to be able to reflect on experiences, your beliefs, your thoughts, and your goals. Continually build your self-awareness and you’ll unlock the inner wisdom and insights to understand your strengths, weaknesses, fears, self-imposed limits, dreams, desires, goals - the list goes on. The deeper your relationship with yourself, the more empowered you’ll be to be your best. It’s why so many top-performers and high achievers swear by their journaling practice - because all the answers are inside. 3. Set stretching goals You’ll never know how much you can do and how far you can go until you push yourself. That’s the power of setting your goals. They take you out of your comfort zone and inspire you to create or experience something you don’t have currently. Goals force you to commit, focus, innovate, and problem solve. They’re a catalyst for diving into your reserves to pull it out of the bag! Your goals create a huge learning experience too. Reflect on your performance and you’ll discover your limiting beliefs as well as unhelpful behaviors and triggers. Use your goals to sharpen your self-awareness and as well as achieving extraordinary, you’ll learn more about yourself too. 4. Commit to continuous improvement We’ve already said that being your best is a work in progress. You’ll never truly hit the summit of your potential because each stage of growth creates new learning opportunities. That’s why being your best is something you have to work on everyday. It’s not enough to invest in ad hoc sprints and bursts of activity, instead you have to make your best a habit. Go after the 1% improvements. Ask yourself how you could make something 1% better than yesterday. Do this everyday and you won’t recognize yourself in 12 months time. The amount of growth you’ll experience will be astronomical! 5. Cultivate positivity Henry Ford said it best, “whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” You can’t be your best if your inner critic continually undermines you. ‘You’re not good enough’, that’s too hard for you’, you failed before’, ‘people like you don’t do things like that’... The list is endless! Here’s the good news… Positivity can be learned. Even if you’re the most negative person you know, it is possible to develop a positive mindset. Sure, it’s not an overnight thing. It will take time and commitment, but make it one of your 1% things and you’ll be amazed what you can achieve when you brainwash yourself with positivity. It’s easier than you think… Turn off the negative news. Don’t engage in conversations that pull you down. Listen to positive audios, podcasts, and music. Repeat affirmations. Visualize positive outcomes. Make a big thing of your successes (even the small ones). Make positivity the default and slowly, but surely your default mindset can change. Being the best you can be starts today It’s never too late to commit to becoming your best self. Regardless of where you are on your journey through life, you can take proactive steps today to explore more of your potential and step closer to the person you really want to be. We’re here to help with tools, ideas, and community support to help you get out of your comfort zone. All you’ve got to do is start. Over to you… What’s one thing can you do today to be the best you can be?  

Do you ever look at successful people and marvel at their intense levels of motivation? How do they manage to find the strength to continue with their goals day after day? How do they have the self-discipline? It may feel like you could never achieve the same level of motivation as your heroes, but the reality is different. It isn't that successful people are more motivated than you — they simply do a few things differently than most. If you can master these things, then you too can achieve seemingly superhuman levels of motivation and produce the great work you've always dreamed of. It won't be easy, but it's simpler than you might think. 7 Things to Do If You Need Motivation To get you started, here are seven motivation tips to help you crush your goals. 1. Make a Public Commitment You’d be amazed what you can accomplish when you commit to it publicly. It’s a whole different level than when your goals are just floating in your head or sitting in a document on your computer. Public commitment leverages peer pressure in the best way possible. It’s a simple way to stay motivated, because if you don’t do what you say you would, you have no way to hide it. People will know, and they will call you out. How public you want to make your commitment is up to you. For some people, committing on your website or social media will be out of your comfort zone, and that’s fine. You can also make a commitment to friends or family. What matters is that you have someone who will know (and hold you accountable) if you don’t meet your goal. 2. Make it Meaningful One reason many people need motivation is that the things they’re working toward aren’t meaningful for them personally. Just look at someone like Elon Musk. He’s running multiple companies simultaneously, all while still making time to be with his family. It’s easy to imagine that Musk has some sort of rare gift that allows him to keep up this work ethic, but if you listen to interviews with Musk, you’ll notice how intensely he believes in the work he’s doing. His vision for SpaceX, for example, is no less than to make humanity an interplanetary species. With a vision like that, motivation is easy. Now, we’re not saying that you have to be as ambitious in your goals to achieve the same level of motivation. We can’t all be Elon Musk, and that’s okay. But if you need motivation, you can find something you believe in to work towards. It could be a goal for your job, but also just something you do on the side, such as training for a marathon or teaching yourself a new skill. What’s important is that you believe in what you’re doing and are doing it out of a genuine interest, not just because it’s something that other people say you ought to do. 3. Set Specific Goals One common mistake people make when they set goals is to make them too broad. This can be a real motivation killer. It’s difficult to know if you’re making progress when you have a large, vague goal. Therefore, we suggest that you set specific goals — it will do wonders if you need motivation. For example, say you want to learn the guitar. What style of music do you want to play? Acoustic or electric guitar? Do you want to shred on stage, or just strum a few tunes at family get togethers? And that’s just the beginning: once you decide on what your ultimate vision is for playing guitar, you need to break it down even further, giving you manageable weekly goals such as “learn how to strum a G chord” or “learn the chorus to ‘Sweet Home Alabama.’” 4. Keep Encouraging Words in Sight When you’re in the thick of a difficult project and things just aren’t going your way, it’s easy to get discouraged. In times like these, it makes a world of difference to have words of encouragement visible. We recommend putting motivational and inspirational quotes from your heroes over your desk or on your desktop wallpaper. That way, you can readily turn to them when you need motivation. To get you started, here are some of our favorite motivational quotes: "Start acknowledging all the good you are doing. Don’t discount the little things. I mean, how many times do you scold yourself for doing something small that wasn’t perfect? How often do you think the good things such as being on time, or signing a new client is simply how it’s meant to be? They need celebrating. You need more wins in your life. This will motivate you, encourage you, and help you see how brilliant you truly are." — Kai Ashley "If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten." — Tony Robbins "The most effective way to do it, is to do it." — Amelia Earhart "My favorite things in life don’t cost any money. It’s really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time." — Steve Jobs “People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing — that's why we recommend it daily.” — Zig Ziglar "What I've learned in these 11 years is you’ve just got to stay focused and believe in yourself and trust your own ability and judgment." — Mark Cuban “If you double the number of experiments you do per year, you’re going to double your inventiveness.” — Jeff Bezos 5. Create the Right Daily Routine What’s the first thing you do when you get up in the morning? Is it something that fills you with energy and motivation? Or is it something fills you with anxiety, stress, or boredom? If the first thing you do in the early morning is check your phone, for example, then you’re not setting yourself up for a motivating day. Seeing whatever horrors have occured in the news or immediately getting sucked into your email inbox are not the way to set yourself up for a motivating day. Instead, we suggest doing an analog activity like reading a book, journaling, meditating, taking a walk, working out or drinking your morning coffee as you watch the sunrise. These are simple activities, but they will do a whole lot more to give your day a motivating start than immediately getting sucked into the busy stress of digital devices. 6. Have Self-Confidence If you don’t believe in yourself, then you’re never going to able to believe in the work you’re doing. This will result in fragile motivation that will be easily shaken when things get difficult. We know it can be hard to believe in yourself sometimes; everyone has their moments of doubt. But what sets successful people apart from everyone else is that they recognize the self-doubt as normal and then push through it, doing great things anyway. To build your self-confidence, reflect on the things that have gone right. Look at all you have been able to accomplish. Celebrate all the good things that have come as the fruit of your hard work. Write them down if you need to. Post them where you can see them; reaffirm them to yourself. This will serve as a major confidence-booster. 7. Have a Long-Term Vision While we already stressed the importance of setting specific goals, it’s important not to go too far the other direction, either. It’s possible to get so set on checking off the items on your daily to-do list that you lose sight of why you’re doing the work to begin with. What big goals are these daily tasks serving? If you can’t answer that question, you need to go back to the drawing board. It’s much easier to persevere through difficult times when you know that the work you’re doing is in service of a larger vision. Stay Motivated for Good We hope you now see that motivation isn’t some mysterious natural gift that some people are just born with. It’s something that anyone can achieve and maintain with the right techniques. When you need motivation, you need to do hard work, of course. But you can stay motivated through difficult times provided that the hard work is in service of something you believe in.

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” - Albert Einstein Gratitude is one of those things you know you should focus on, but when you’re hustling to build your business and brand it can be easily overlooked. But did you know that learning to focus on feeling grateful can affect your success as a founder? Here are a few major ways gratitude and success are connected.   Feeling Grateful Improves Your Mental Health "I try to be grateful for the abundance of the blessings that I have, for the journey that I'm on and to relish each day as a gift" - James McGreevey Several studies have shown that practicing gratitude has definite psychological and even physical benefits. When you feel gratitude, it can increase your feelings of vitality and optimism and reduces feelings of depression, while also giving your overall well-being a boost. It’s easy to imagine how this can lead to more success both professionally and personally: the more vibrant, alive, and healthy you feel, the more energy you will have to dedicate to your business as well as your personal goals. Plus, if you begin feeling more positive feelings, you may be more inclined to take a few of those leaps of faith which are so often necessary when taking your success to the next level. This is one of the major reasons success and gratitude go hand-in-hand. Feeling Grateful Shifts Your Focus “Speak only endearing speech, speech that is welcomed. Speech, when it brings no evil to others, is a pleasant thing.” - Buddha Have you ever noticed that the more you focus on the negatives - daily inconveniences, setbacks, hurdles, etc.- the more those things seem to grow and consume your time? By choosing instead to focus on positive developments in your life and business, and cultivating a deeper appreciation for those good things, you will shift your focus toward appreciation for the things that turn out well. As you notice your successes more often, you will probably notice that your success grows the same way setbacks used to when that’s what you chose to focus on. Plus, by becoming a more grateful and positive person, you will become someone other entrepreneurs and business people feel great being around, which can lead to more opportunities for collaboration. A Grateful Attitude Promotes a Positive Company Culture "In the household in which I was raised, the themes were pretty simple. Work hard. Don't quit. Be appreciative, be thankful, be grateful, be respectful. Also, never whine, never complain. And always, for crying out loud, keep a sense of humor." - Michael Keaton According to polls, less than 15% of people regularly express gratitude to work colleagues. What might happen if you decide to become the exception to that depressing statistic and find ways to thank and show your gratitude for team members, staff, clients, and vendors on a regular basis? Most likely, they will get a boost from feeling appreciated and feel even more motivated to do a great job. Not only will this contribute to the overall success of your business, but it will also promote a healthier and more positive company culture. People will want to work with you and for you, because they will feel appreciated. In turn, they will be more likely to express gratitude for you, which can boost your own motivation. Practice Gratitude to Improve Your Life and Business Making gratitude a priority not only feels amazing, but it can also help you become more successful. If gratitude does not come naturally to you, don’t despair: anyone can learn to be more grateful and make gratitude a habit, even if your tendency is to be a pessimist. One simple way to incorporate gratitude into your daily life is to keep a gratitude journal. Start and end each day by jotting down a few things you feel grateful for. Perhaps you are grateful for how well your presentation went, for the beautiful weather outside, or for the fun time you just spent with family. It may feel silly at first, but this simple gratitude practice will, with time, help you to feel gratitude more easily.

Is a visualization exercise more than wishful thinking? It can be, without actions a vision can fade but without a vision actions eventually become muddled. Without a vision it's far too easy to get lost on the way to our goal. Worse, if we feel lost it eventually leads to us becoming indecisive. Once indecision tears into our lives it leads us down a dark path of all our progress being halted. If indecision effects us deeply we tend to look for a guide, someone with experience to help us along our path. This usually comes in the form of an external force, a friend, a coach, or the like. It helps in the short term but can become a crutch in the long run if we aren't careful. This is because an external force will not always be there to point the way for us. So, utilizing a third party to manifest decisiveness in ourselves doesn't develop the skill set for manifesting decisiveness in ourselves. How can we become the masters of our own decisiveness?   Visualization is an Exercise to Plot the Path There's little more we face in life as sinister as the motivation destroying tornado of indecision. It's a subtle force that sneaks slowly into our minds. At first we don't realize it's influence but in time it builds into a mass of power until it becomes a cyclone that crashes through our lives. In the wake of indecision's chaos confusion reigns that diminishes of any sense of self-confidence we have. Everything around us feels like a mess, we don't recognize our surroundings and it makes us think we're lost. It turns us around when suddenly we find that we're wandering aimlessly through life despite our best intentions or goals. What's worse is that we know how to beat indecision, we make a choice! Get up and do something, anything! Yet, when indecision has us in it's hold, knowing what we must do does not equal taking action. Indecision stops us because it veils any action we might take as just another step down a road you're already unsure of.   ...if you do not know where you are, then you can't know where you're going... To find our way we have to stop and take a moment to check our compass, find our true north, and verify we're headed in the direction we desire. When we do this indecision loses it's grip! Our steps gain back their purpose and a growing haze is lifted. Give visualization a try with this exercise!   Special Gift: A Visualization Exercise from the Inner Circle Once you’ve reflected on your year, the next step is to start looking forward. Our mission is to help you live a life you're proud of.  So it’s time to think about what you’d create in a life that makes you proud. A proud life is a balanced life that’s fulfilling in all areas. So if you could wave a magic wand, what would you love to create in the year ahead - to build a life that makes you proud?   STEP 2 OUTCOME  By the end of this step you’ll have a comprehensive list - categorized into areas that matter to you - of what you want to create for your life. This list provides a clear vision for your future. It’s a reminder of what you really want to strive for. It’s a reference point where you can sense check any decisions - to ensure your choices, actions, and hustle take you closer to where you want to go. ESTIMATED TIME: 60 minutes ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: Life Focus Worksheet TOOLS NEEDED: Life Focus Worksheet What's Visualization? To get to this stage you have to have reflected on the year that’s passed to give yourself a baseline to spring from. The next step is to visualize what you’d create for your life if anything was possible. Here’s why… By visualizing, you can use your imagination to create a new future. And because you’re using your imagination you don’t have to think in the way that you usually do. Instead, you can let go of any limiting beliefs and give yourself space to dream. This is hugely powerful.  When you think without limits and let go of any preconceptions of what you can or should do, you start to explore the things you really desire. You become a shade braver and bolder with your goals. And when you then articulate them on paper, you set the wheels in motion to make them a reality. In this way, visualization can provides a road map - a vision that can direct your brain’s focus. As a result, your future actions, decisions, and observations all work together to help you discover the insights and opportunities you need to make things happen. Have you ever wanted something so much that it consumed you? Then, as if by magic, you met the right person, read the perfect book, discovered the missing insight, or solved an ‘impossible’ problem. That’s the power of visualization.  It kick-starts a chain of action It unleashes your subconscious mind It provides the inner compass that takes you closer to the things you desire. It’s why Step 2 of your Best Year Yet uses visualization to tease out the goals you long to achieve.   How To Visualize When it comes to visualization, here are some tips to help you get the most value from this step. Firstly, aim to banish all your preconceived notions about who you are and what you’re capable of. We get it! This probably won’t be easy! You live everyday under the pressure of perceived limitations that have come to define you.   You tell yourself there are: • Things that you’re just not good at• Successes you could never achieve• Ways of existing and socializing that's just who you are• When you start to dream outside these confinements, things can get scary!• But awesome things can happen when you shrug off those old preconceptions and start from a place of openness about what’s really possible for you. It’s a little like starting a whole new life in a whole new place - where you get to define exactly who you are (and what you do). And because the people you meet don’t know any different, they accept your story outright. This is what visualization looks like. It’s the ultimate view of a life you love. A life that’s lived on your terms - where you’re not squeezing yourself into someone else’s framework and where you go after those meaningful goals that will bring you joy. So how do you visualise a life that would make you proud? Let’s move onto the activity instructions and start visualizing yours...   Action Items: Step 1 already got this process rolling. Thanks to your reflection, you’ve identified things you enjoyed in the past year (along with the things that didn’t go so well). As a result, you’ve already begun to think about what you want to create more of in your life (and what things you wish to let go.) So building on your Step 1 foundation, we’re now going to visualize what your life would look like if you could wave a magic wand and have everything and anything you desired. There are two ways you can approach this activity.   Method 1: Use the Life Focus worksheet You’ll notice the Life Focus worksheet comes in three formats: There are two versions already complete with eight categories And another one that’s blank - so you can focus on the categories that are important to you When it comes to your areas of focus there’s no wrong or right answer - there are only the areas that matter to you. So the first part of this exercise is to determine your categories. Either use the categories provided, create your own, or use a combination of both. Once you’re happy with your categories, now comes the fun part. It’s time to dream :-) Taking each category in turn, if you could wave a magic wand (and have absolutely anything you desire), what would fill each section?   To complete this task:  1. Set yourself a limit of three minutes per category 2. Grab a pen 3. Write down whatever comes to mind   Don’t censor yourself. The benefit of working to such a short time-span is there’s not enough time for your logical, analytical mind to trip you up and keep your thinking small.There key here is to dismiss what you currently believe is possible for you and instead dream as big as you dare! As Henry Ford famously said, “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t - you’re right.” Here’s the thing about your brain… It will look for answers to whatever questions you ask. Ask different questions, get different results. Just allowing a possibility the space to breathe can open up all kinds of opportunities that you previously didn’t imagine were possible. And remember you don’t have to achieve everything tomorrow! In fact, it may take you a number of years before you create everything you desire. But that’s part of the fun. Life is about the journey - not just the destination. And anyway you never really ‘arrive’ because every time you achieve a goal you simply open the door to an entirely new target.   Method 2: Sticky Note Method Here’s an alternative take on the visualization task. This is the same goal setting process that we use on our team retreats and it’s hugely effective. The principles remain the same. This is about thinking big and reaching out into the world of desire and possibility. To complete this exercise:  1. Grab a pack of sticky notes and a pen 2. Think about what you want for your life 3. For every idea that you have, write it on a different sticky note 4. Give yourself 20-30 minutes to do this 5. Once finished, categorize your sticky notes into different life areas 6. Then add them to the relevant sections of your Life Focus worksheet The key difference with this approach is you get to think about your life as a whole instead of category by category.   Did you like this exercise? There's more inside the members only community! DON'T LEAVE THE YEAR TO CHANCE. STAY ON TARGET Two Eyes are Better Than One When we reflect on our lives having someone we trust to work through the details can give incredible insight we might otherwise be blind to. This is because those around us aren't caught up in the habits and cycles our mind engages in. When we share our visualization with others it helps clear paths and reveal truths  we might otherwise miss with our singular viewpoint.