A Guide To

Maximizing
Potential While
Balancing
Presence and
Productivity
Ø Doing masterful work, executing in both work and life, begins
when we embrace the journey that makes it fun and riveting.
This allows us to remaining present, calm and collected.

Ø Here are my principles to get there:

1. You Decide You’re Best In The World and Act Like It

Ø When you set the bar at best in the world, your world view
changes and you take bold action that leads to experiences
that have you grow much faster. In essence, you cheat time.
Ø At best in the world, all your standards become higher. You
raise the bar.
Ø Hold standards so high and physically act like you’re the best
in the world.
Ø Walk around all day everyday believing it and it will happen.
Ø Happy people smile first, then become happy. You don’t
become happy to smile.
Ø Best in the world is relentlessly improving in every area of life, in
any way possible.
Ø Click HERE for a great tactical piece on being the best in the
world at what you do.
2. You Don’t Learn to Learn, You Teach To Learn

Ø Mastery requires learning that’s in a deliberate state of

attention.
Ø Teaching others forces you to learn material in a way and the
practice of acting like you know forces understanding, state
and thus retention.
Ø A true master wants understanding from every angle and that
includes seeing how other people see and that takes
teaching.
Ø So read the subject, practice the subject, test the subject in
real life. Teach the subject and continue testing the subject in
real life (Ie. the market is the best teacher).
Ø Test with the best in your industry and only take advice from
someone you’d trade places with.

3. You Understand How Powerful A Human Mind Is And Work Your

Mind Out More Than Your Body

Ø The body is merely a reflection of the subconscious mind. We

all kind of know this but it’s scientifically true.
Ø It’s why you’re not surprised to find out the overweight person
often struggles with managing emotions.
Ø I used to eat to satisfy emotions and now see it as only fuel
which takes too much of my time which I wish I could have
back.
Ø “Most psychologists treat the mind as disembodied, a
phenomenon with little or no connection to the physical body.
Conversely, physicians treat the body with no regard to the
mind or the emotions. But the body and mind are not
separate, and we cannot treat one without the other.”
Ø Dr. Candace Pert, pioneering neuroscientist in her book “Your
Body Is Your Subconscious Mind.”
Ø Work your mind before your body, or recognize that working
out physically should be deliberate, with mental discipline,
with controlled breathing, etc.
Ø So many people over train in the gym and over lift without
proper technique when in fact a few resistance exercises are
all the body really needs to stay optimal.
Ø Quality over quantity. And it starts with mind over body.

4. You Believe It’s Your Duty To Maximize Your Human Potential —

 Because You Owe It To The Planet’s Future

Ø Changing the world for the better drives you.

Ø You transcend yourself to transcend the world.
Ø This is a level of commitment few people reach and it makes
decisions easy.
Ø It makes the ‘hard path’ glorious.
Ø Ghandi didn’t fear anything and felt glorious every minute of
every day and I feel the same way he does as I work and write
each day.
Ø “As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being
able to remake the world — that is the myth of the atomic
age — as in being able to remake ourselves.” — Ghandi
5. Discovering Your ‘Calling’ Is About ‘You’ Not ‘What’ Your
Calling Actually Is

Art by Emily May Rose

Ø Kanye West believed he can do absolutely anything he put his

mind to and began by rapping.
Ø But by being an awakened individual, by having the courage
to overcome his fear, he continued to think for himself and
followed his creative flow everyday which led to music,
fashion, film and more.
Ø Finding your calling is finding your voice and letting it express
itself through your work, no matter what the outward
manifestation of that work is.
Ø You can be a creative salesperson, designer, marketer or
doctor. You can also be horrible at all of them.
Ø Here it is summed up beautifully by Kanye West in one of his
most inspiring interviews.
6. You Understand The Nuance Between Habits and Addictions

Ø Harness habits and addictions for the better and know the
difference.
Ø Here’s how habits work:

Ø Brushing teeth every morning and/or at night is a habit.

Ø Compulsively brushing all the time is addiction.
Ø Using your smart phone effectively and optimally to empower
your existence is habitual.
Ø Answering every notification that hits you so you ‘know’ is an
addiction.
Ø Replace habits and addictions with the ones you want and
use force functions to control them.
Ø Ie. drink tea instead of coffee or recognize the 2pm coffee
break each day may be because your bored not needing
coffee so go and grab water and talk to a colleague and
then have the coffee if you still want it.
Ø Trigger, routine, reward.
Ø Same with addictions. I’m addicted to obstacle and putting
myself in the hardest possible positions and can’t be
comfortable anywhere else.
Ø Do the same and you’ll win even when you lose.
7. You Know The Difference Between True Confidence Instead of
Feeling Dopamine

Ø We all feel productive when we’re at the computer opening

emails and responding each morning. Though it feels good, it’s
the typical dopamine chase that’s making you feel confident.
Ø True confidence isn’t by just being in flow and feeling
productive, it’s being effective and getting feedback and
results that show your improving.
Ø Plenty of people feel confident and don’t get much done.
Ø Confidence in work should come from results that are
measured and reported. Do this and you’ll accelerate your
growth and progress.
Ø Don’t necessarily set a goal, but be maniacal about
measuring, and reporting results to someone for
accountability. If you really want to step it up, publicly declare
it.

8. You Wake Up With a Higher Purpose That’s Bigger Than Yourself

Ø Wake up thinking about what you’re giving back and

meditate/pray on it.
Ø Get deep every morning, you owe it to the world.
Ø Whether it’s through meditation or prayer
Ø The purpose of this is to cultivate space for mindful living.
Ø This manufactures drive and action that’s driven by that
feeling of ‘calling’.
9. You Practice Visualization

Ø Visualization is one of the most important skills though doing it

correctly matters most.
Ø “You must prove to the mind that you mean what you say.”
Ø I may get some slack for this one but I broke through after I did
nlp training with a trained nlp professional. Highly recommend
starting on Scott Adams blog who talks about the history of the
craft.
Ø Try visualizing something, declaring it publicly or to a group of
people that it’s happening, and meditate on it happening
each morning before you start the day and watch it manifest.
Ø Declaring it publicly above and beyond and committing is the
key to succeeding here.
10. You Don’t Waste a Second Of Your Time

Ø You hold time sacred and hyper value your time.

Ø Notice the nuance in that I didn’t say you’re ‘hyper
productive’ but hyper ‘value’ with your time.
Ø Make every second of your life a proactive choice. So many
people don’t know they’re hypnotized and watch life pass
simply because they’re not proactive and react to what it
brings.
Ø Take life by the balls and own it, don’t let it own you.
Ø Shape your environment so you own it, don’t let your
environment own you.
Ø The crowds of basketball fans watching the Golden State
warriors who assign so much value and meaning to a game
that’s purely entertainment for them boggles my mind.
Ø It’s one thing to be the master of a game but to be a fan to
where valuing it’s entertainment value and vesting yourself in
the outcome of something that’s purely for fun makes no
sense to me.
Ø Having said that, if it’s your choice to commit yourself to that
fun, great.
Ø Something tells me many of the fans would choose more if
they consciously chose instead of passively entertained
themselves.
11. You Don’t Get Passively Entertained

Ø You’re attuned to how conscious and self aware you are at all
times and that’s your entertainment — trying to be your best all
the time.
Ø You know the very real difference between entertaining
yourself proactively vs. being entertained all the time.
Ø Unwinding and recovering from a four hour work sprint with
food and some Netflix is different from looking forward to
leaving work so you can binge on Netflix and pass out before
you have to ‘get up and go to work again’.
Ø It’s all about mindset and shaping your reality.

12. You ‘Proactively Recover’, You Don’t Just ‘Rest’

Ø Proactive recovering signals your subconscious and the

universe that you treat your mind and body like the temple
that it is and cared for as it should be.
Ø Proactive recovering is a result of high performance.
Ø Recovering from a hangover doesn’t happen because you
don’t drink in the first place.
Ø Walking in the sun happens proactively after a morning of
‘work’, that could be anything from working your day job,
doing your art or anything else.
Ø Again, it begins with a state and the reality you have and
what ‘recovering’ means to you.
Ø It can be downtime on Netflix while you eat but what it’s not is
bingeing on Netflix when you get home because you’re
‘exhausted from work’ and can’t wait to ‘veg out’.
Ø Back to state.
13. You Take Your Diet Extremely Seriously

Ø Diet is so critical to performance and happiness I can’t

emphasize it enough.
Ø Feeling good inside is what produces greatness outside. Your
energy affects other people whether it’s customers,
employees, colleagues and more.
Ø The moment I hit my stride with a ketogenic diet, I accelerated
to unstoppable. This is from a productivity geek who has
historically struggled with diet/craving management and has
tried every diet in the book.
Ø Try every diet and find the one that works for you to feel and
perform your best as though your life depended on it.
Ø Feeling ‘shitty’ or being hungover isn’t tolerated when you’re
maximizing your potential.

14. You Know How To Use The Power of Context

Ø Creating context for yourself is so critical for every situation

you’re in.
Ø For example, I’m speaking in public next Monday.
Ø To prepare, I’m going to create a context that alleviates my
anxiety I sometimes have around public speaking.
Ø So 1, I’ll over plan and over prepare to deliver the best
performance I possibly can which means practice each night
leaving up and scripting out potential questions.
Ø At the same time, I’m going to manage how much I
emotionally invest in the event itself. This is for self preservation
so I don’t over do it emotionally and get stressed out.
14. You Know How To Use The Power of Context (continued)

Ø So context:
Ø “I’m going to give hundreds of these talks and this is one
of many.”
Ø “It’s not going to go as I exactly want it to, so prep as best
as I can and let the chips fall where they may.”
Ø “I’m having a conversation and the script I’ve prepared
will set the frame for a winning conversation.”
Ø That’s the best I can do and I’ll have full faith the conversation
will go as it’s supposed to go.

15. You Know How Effective You Can Be By Simply Controlling

Your Emotions

Ø You take ownership of your responses and hold yourself

accountable for any and all stress you create.
Ø You realize responsibility that all stress and emotions are self
induced no matter what the external circumstance you still
create it.
Ø This is a life long practice of honing self awareness for every
second of every minute of your life.

16. Giving Back Is Daily, All Day, All The Time

Ø You give back every day by creating value and being helpful
to everyone around you all the time.
Ø I called on a fellow entrepreneur to have him give me
feedback on our investor deck, and I ended up helping him
out for an hour on enterprise selling as we kicked off the
conversation and caught up.
16. Giving Back Is Daily, All Day, All The Time (continued)

Ø It blew his mind and he knows he can count on me for life.

Ø That’s how you become ‘charitable’ without ‘doing charity’.
Ø Yes I have charitable aspirations as well, but giving back,
being a ‘missionary’ entrepreneur, treating employees and
colleagues with extreme dignity and helping all is how you
become a person of social impact.

17. You Aspire To Solve Gigantic Problems

Ø At Traena, we’re selling enterprise training software now, but I

know we’re a deep tech human potential company that’s
going to solve a massive problem in the future.
Ø If you had $1 billion, what would you do with it?
Ø I know what I’m doing and my number is $300 million. We
need to get Traena to sell for $3 billion for that to become my
reality so I approach my planning and work with that in mind
each day and it’s now on autopilot..
Ø I want $100 million for a film studio.
Ø $100 million for a non profit.
Ø $100 million for my next company to raise the other $900
million to solve a gigantic problem for the world.
18. You Know How to Control Your Frame to ellicit The Behavior
You Want From People

Ø Controlling frame is such a critical skill and it begins with your

inner world.
Ø Your energy and thoughts emanate in your tone and action
which illicit’s behavior from people.
Ø Controlling your own inner frame (context, who, and how big
or little you are in that moment) allows you to set the frame in
conversations with other people.
Ø Establishing frame ‘control’ is basically who’s reacting and
responding to you. In any given encounter, frames collide and
there’s often a winning frame that commands the
conversation.
Ø I learned this from Oren Klaff’s book on pitching, which is one
of the best.
Ø In a nutshell, use emotion and response to illicit the behavior
you want and you’ll learn people. To learn more, here’s a
resource: http://artofvalue.com/learning-art-frame-control/

19. You Have High EQ And Cultivate It Daily

Ø Your EQ is so important because you know people is the most

important element to succeeding.
Ø The reason humans won as a species is their ability to
cooperate in large numbers.
Ø The best cooperators of people are the best at leading clients,
customers, employees, employers, life partners etc.
Ø Cultivate high EQ as though your life depended on it. Here’s a
free resource to practice daily and get a start:
http://www.wikihow.com/Develop-Emotional-Intelligence
19. You Have High EQ And Cultivate It Daily (continued)

Ø If you want to deep dive more (you should) highly

recommend Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence and his
latest on Focus.

20. You Know How To Exploit Your Strengths and Don’t Worry
About Your Weaknesses

Ø Because you know how to offset any and all weaknesses,

you’re not worried about them.
Ø You’re busy exploiting the f — k out of your strengths trying to
become best in the world at it.
Ø Best in the world does one thing well, not several.
Ø Delegate or prioritize accordingly.

21. You Live In The Spiritual Realm

Ø Benjamin Hardy lives in the spiritual realm. He was the #1 writer

on Medium last year and is the best writer in the world on
performance psychology right now.
Ø I live in the spiritual realm and am going to become training
tool #1 in my market niche. How that exactly shakes out is to
be determined, but I’ll tell you this, I will be the #1
entrepreneur going for the market we’re fighting for faster and
fiercer than the rest. Will you?
Ø Delusional? Sure, but we’re all deluding ourselves one way or
another and I’d rather delude myself into believing I’m the
absolute best vs. the other way which is how most people are
programmed.
Ø How we’re programmed and what we believe determines our
outcomes.
22. You Have No Boundaries

Ø There’s no goal too large that’s humanly possible, all it takes is

doing it and putting yourself in the environment required to
bring it out of you.
Ø Boundaries are how big or small you are and that’s based only
on what you’re willing or unwilling to do.
Ø I was willing to go through hell to start a company. At first, that
motivation was because I was a typical scared 20 something
trying to make it.
Ø When I learned it was because I pushed myself to create

23. Have Fun With Consciousness and Treat It Like a Game

Ø Yes you’re experiencing your senses but do you understand

how small you are in the grand scheme of things?
Ø Sentience and consciousness is it’s own separate thing you
have that shapes and creates experience.
Ø A little heady but elevate for a second and think about how
the world works.
Ø The Earth and everything that lives has been around for 4.5
billion years. Billions have died and will continue to die.
Ø Elevate your perspective and take a ‘Gods Eye View’ as often
as you can.
Ø This is both helpful for self preservation in anxious situations
(does it really matter?) and empowering to think for yourself
and trust your conviction.
Ø This is what makes me a voracious learner and explorer of big
questions:

Art by Emily May Rose

24. You Start Your Day With Intention and Manufacture a Great
Day From the Beginning Of It

Ø Yes you react, but you aren’t reactive with your day. You
shape it from the get-go.
Ø You wake up and acknowledge you have control over the
outcome of this day and prime yourself to create the best day
possible.
Ø Yes it doesn’t always go to plan but the universe will work to
create that reality if you do the same.
Ø The battle is won before the war in the same way the day is
won before it starts.
Ø Then every action you take is perceived as ‘successful’. It was
always supposed to happen that way and you’re just there
embracing it all and winning.
25. You’re Aware of The Power Your Beliefs Have On You

Ø Your beliefs are programs and affect you, it’s up to you to

choose what you believe.
Ø Do you choose to believe you’re capable of being #1 in the
world?
Ø Do you choose to believe you deserve to be? Believing you’re
entitled may be one of the most important beliefs you can
implant in your subconscious.
Ø Ever notice those that are entitled tend to win? It’s because
they believe they should have it.
Ø Do the same and pick every belief you want to believe to
create the person and results you want to become.

26. You Don’t Judge What Happens, They Know Good Or Bad Is
an Opportunity

Ø Like in #24, you’ve won the day already, so when a colleague

said something stupid, it was meant to happen and it opened
the door to teach him something without slamming it in his
face.
Ø Or best yet, you slammed it in his face because he wasn’t
taking the high road after you gave him three opportunities.
Ø You love obstacles and hard problems because they create
the biggest opportunities and have faith that the world works
out like it should.
Ø This is why assholes ultimately don’t last at work and the
cancerous culture fit eventually has to be fired even though
they produce.
27. You Have Deep Faith and Forgive

Ø This is why the same asshole in #26 ultimately don’t last at work
and the cancerous culture fit eventually has to be fired even
though they produce.
Ø You look at the asshole at work and feel sorry for him/her and
recognize they know not what they do.
Ø And that it’s unsustainable and you only hope they learn soon
enough because they always get’s what’s coming to them.
Ø The bad culture fit never works out no matter how smart they
are.
Ø As Reed Hastings famously says: “don’t fuck with the culture”.

28. You Master The Use of Your Ego

Ø Our egos can be our best friend or are worst enemy.

Ø Ego is essentially your ‘sense of I’, your ‘self’.
Ø This self is the one that’s usually self serving.
Ø If you listen to ego all the time, you’ll be bad at cooperating
with people and will be perceived as having low EQ.
Ø Given you want to maximize potential which means having a
reputation that people are attracted to, you want to use the
ego correctly.
1. Observe the ego as separate from you, and observe it.
‘You’ are what’s left over, remember that.
2. Taking an ego less stance breaks down people’s
defenses and creates trust. They won’t take from you if
there’s nothing to take. This set’s a precedent to use ego
powerfully, at the right times, when it matters, which
makes it effective.
 3. People should know it’s real when your ego comes out,
not see your ego daily and not take it seriously.
Ø For more to master ego, here’s a free resource to read more.

29. You Meditate

Ø Meditation has so many benefits and some of the best

performers in high stakes situations have attributed it to their
success.
Ø In Tim Ferriss Tools of Titans, one of the biggest takeaways he
had from interviewing top performers was that “more than 80%
of the world-class performers I’ve interviewed meditate in the
mornings in some fashion. But what of the remaining 20%?
Nearly all of them have meditation-like activities. One frequent
pattern is listening to a single track or album on repeat, which
can act as an external mantra for aiding focus and present-
state awareness.”

30. You Know How To Exercise Your Body

Ø Most people workout too hard physically.

Ø You realize the more important part of the body is the mind,
because it is it’s reflection.
Ø I’m in the best state of my life and I walk, breathe and do core
work, meditate and efficiently manage my energy with food
intake.
Ø Before I’d hit the gym for hours on end trying to ‘burn’ calories
which is a never winning battle.
31. Your “News” Inputs Are Managed Well

Ø You don’t listen to the dumb media companies that report for
eyeballs and clicks.
Ø You keep up with the bleeding edge technology, health and
other hobbies or issues you enjoy.
Ø How often does politics really affect you? That pissed off?
Create a new system others can follow.
Ø Resisting old systems is a much harder proposition because
incumbents are tough to take down.
Ø I learned that from Buckminster Fuller.
Ø Otherwise, being ‘informed’ isn’t ‘needing to know’ but
empowering yourself with inputs that continue helping you to
think for yourself and grow yourself.
Ø Replace your news with empowering and positive content
that shares that shapes the world in the same way you do with
your outlook.

32. You Think Of Yourself As A Machine

Ø This isn’t as far fetched as it sounds.

Ø They ‘download’ knowledge constantly.
Ø Their brain which runs their body is their ‘engine’.
Ø They’re voracious learners and are religious with their learning
and creative output as a way to ‘prime the machine’ and stay
sharp.
Ø They are constantly increasing the value of the inputs (see 29)
they ingest in their minds.
33. You Read Books More Than Any Other Source Of Content

Ø Voracious learners are obsessed with books.

Ø Books deeply cover individual topics with structure and
relevant storytelling from various angles.
Ø Mastering a subject means reading all the books on it.
Ø Books are deep and you go deep.
Ø You commit to making the time to reading long form books.

34. You Observe Your Thoughts Like Your Life Depended On It

Ø You know the power of your thoughts and don’t let them stress
you out.
Ø You observe them.
Ø Better yet, you observe the observer, who observes their
thoughts.
Ø You know you cannot control thought and are fine with that
though you can watch your ego and be aware of traits like
pride and fear that create a lot of thinking.
Ø Let go of the emotions behind your thoughts and transcend
your world.

35. You Know The Most Important Part of Making a Decision

Ø Is that it’s a commitment.

Ø Once you decide, commit, and remove all options of retreat,
you create a deep program.
Ø Try escalating this and declare a goal to the world and really
watch yourself blow it out and perform fearlessly.
Ø Rising to any occasion is how you grow and begins with a
decision to commit to the occasion
36. You Don’t Fear Death They Embrace It

Ø I was at a dinner and it was the 21 year old at the table who
said they hosted and produced a mock funeral for
themselves.
Ø They invited people to a room and he laid their dead and had
them visualize him on his deathbed.
Ø This is a practice for self preservation and a reminder to live life
to the fullest.
Ø It’s not necessary to do the whole production but meditate on
the idea each day to give yourself conviction to be what you
want when you want to.
Ø It’s been reported the number one regret of the dying is that
they weren’t the ‘selves’ they wanted to be but were the
selves others expected them.
Ø Don’t be scared of death. Your survival brain is separate from
you.
Ø Death is simply stopping consciousness. The rest of you is just
the matter.
Ø The only sad part are the stories we tell ourselves.

Conclusion

Ø Are you maximizing your potential while being productive yet

present?
Ø It’s your duty to raise the bar. Maximize your potential and give
that gift of service back with value to the rest of the world so
your future generations can benefit.