I arrived in New York City like I’m sure many have before me.

A little optimistic, a little scared, and a lot overwhelmed.

But, although this was my biggest rodeo, it was not my first. This was the fourth new city that I have moved to in the last 15 years.

Despite being an introvert, I have become used to meeting new people, making new friends, and building a support network.

But this was New York City. Perhaps it would be harder to do so here?

“I am a millennial, computer scientist, book author, standing on a TED stage, and yet I’ve never had a social media account.” - Cal Newport

I was shocked when I saw Cal Newport’s talk “Quit Social Media.“

Cal is an author that I deeply respected. His book, Deep Work, was very influential in helping me through the editing process of The Will of Heroes.

I wanted to achieve Cal’s level of success – and I thought social media was a necessary part of making that happen.

Yet, not only was social media not necessary for him now as an established author, but it was never necessary for him at all.

This opened my mind to new questions:

Maybe social media isn’t necessary – even for business owners...

The clock was ticking and I was in agony…

I had just begun a new “time-restricted eating” habit where I could only eat between the hours of 10 AM and 6 PM.

I change up my diet plan about once per quarter so I'm continuously learning and experimenting to see what works best for me.

This time-restricted eating was the hardest yet.

It was the beginning of 2018 and I believed that I was on the cusp of "the next big thing."

After nine months of hard work, I had built a platform called Educo with TED Talk speakers to help them turn their content into step-by-step applications that people could use to take action on the advice from their talks.

The idea of helping individuals take action on expert advice had been a dream of mine for years – and finally it was about to become a reality.

It was not long, however, before my dream turned into a nightmare.

The date on my calendar was approaching and my fear was growing… 

Weeks earlier I had told my mentor and friend, Bill Eckstrom, about the project I was working on to help professionals flip anxiety from a negative emotion into a positive ally in helping them perform at their best.

“You don't get rich writing science fiction. If you want to get rich, you start a religion.” – L Ron Hubbard.

In 1953, science-fiction writer L Ron Hubbard set out on a mission – create a new religion based on his book Dianetics.

Hubbard truly believed in the psychological benefits of the practices suggested in the book. So he released it to the psychological community – expecting to be hailed as a genius for discovering these new ways of understanding and improving the human mind.

It can feel like you’re drowning.

No matter what you do, no matter how hard you work, no matter what productivity strategies you try; you just can't seem to find enough hours in the day.

I knew that feeling well. But I was able to escape the quicksand over the last year through one simple rule:

Work one fewer hour each day.

No, this isn't going to be one of those posts about how you need to rest more – I didn't escape 'the quicksand of not enough hours in the day' by taking that hour off.

I did it by devoting that one hour to automation.

The clock was ticking…And I was up against it.

I had just begun calling experts to sell them on the Educo platform, and I hadn’t had much success yet.

I was nervous.

I was awkward.

I was failing.

And I needed some way to separate my ego from the results.

In life, certain things will always be out of your control. How others respond to you is one of them.

Of course, you can improve your communication skills, but if someone has a bad day, they are not going to respond as well to a proposal.

In moments like that, you need to let go of focusing on results, and focus on what you can control.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

That's what former Marine, Erik Therwanger, told me about the approach to leadership that he learned in the Marines.

It's also the foundation of his 90 day run.

The concept is incredibly simple – the US military has a long history of teaching young men and women how to become the best version of themselves in just 90 days.

So why not apply that same methodology to the civilian world as well?

Millions of years ago, humans were weak and vulnerable creatures.

Compared to other mammals, we weren't strong...

We weren't fast...

We didn't have sharp teeth...

We couldn't fly...

So how did we not only survive but make it out of the food chain?

If there is one thing I’m sure of, it’s that right now you have a problem on your mind. You’re not alone. We all have problems.

And like most people, I often think I'm alone in dealing with them.

Filmmaking isn’t about the little details, it’s about the big picture!” – Johnny Depp, portraying Ed Wood. A.K.A the worst filmmaker of all time.

All my life I've been a big picture thinker.

I've tried to achieve a grand vision... Create a disruptive innovation... And, of course, change the world.

This perspective has helped me immensely in handling setbacks, pushing through struggles, and remembering to see the forest instead of the trees.

However, the devil is in the details. And I've had a lot of devils come up and bite me because of my focus on the big picture.

But, at the beginning of 2018, I set a 'SMARTS' goal to focus on both the forest and the trees.

You know the feeling. 

That feeling in your gut that makes you want to avoid pushing yourself.
        
Staying within your comfort zone feels good. Life outside of it is scary.

It's complicated, it's challenging, and it can result in hard, cold, embarrassing failure.

But it can also result in growth.

Thus, life asks you a tough question – comfort today? Or growth tomorrow?
 

Our mission in starting Educo Community was simple – create a platform where expert ideas could be heard.

But in a noisy world how do you define who is an “expert”?

Knowing full well that we weren’t the experts on this topic (see what I did there?) we turned to an organization who is known around the world for selecting great experts – TED.

Imagine that you and I went back 100 years to a time when cars were first made available to the average person. 

It's an exciting time.

This disruptive change in technology has given us the freedom to reach destinations beyond what we dreamed possible. 

**But there's a catch.**

There is nothing special about me.

Throughout school, I was a B student...
I was never talented at sports...
And my English teachers would laugh if they knew I made a living from writing.

However, this lack of talent forced me to learn several crucial life skills:

• I had to develop a strong work ethic.
• I had to practice habitually.
• And I had to learn how to learn.

But I never would have developed these skills without one crucial factor...
 

There is no worse state of mind than desperation.

You forget your values.
You compromise your principles
You make big sacrifices with equally big consequences.

You become so focused on getting out of whatever jam you're in, that you lose sight of what the consequences of your actions will lead to down the road. 

You're probably familiar with the saying, 

"Hit two birds with one stone."

But imagine for a second that this saying was your reality. 
Imagine you were trying to hit two birds with one stone because you relied on those two birds for dinner.

When we look at the great entrepreneurial examples in history one name is sure to be on the list — Henry Ford.

Ford is synonymous with the invention of the automobile, but why?

• Did he invent the first car? No. 
• Did he invent the internal combustion engine? No.
• Did he design the best car in the industry? No. 

There is little doubt that Ford was relentlessly driven to succeed, but he certainly was not a genius...

There are two things I'm sure everybody reading this has experienced at some point:

Failure & Guilt.

Everybody has tried... 
Everybody has failed...
And everbody has felt guilty about letting friends, family, or themselves down.

But does feeling guilty really motivate you to "get back on track?"

As you may know by now, I have a deep passion for 3 things:

1. Scientific facts...
2. Technological resources...
3. And helping individuals achieve whatever greatness they seek.

Since starting Willpowered 2.5 years ago, those points reminded me why the exhaustion, doubt, and failure was worth it.

On November 4th, four days prior to Election Day, President Obama sat down with Bill Maher to discuss some pressing issues the country faced. 

*Note: I'm just using this as an example, this isn't about either man's politics.

To my great delight, one of the first discussion points was of great importance to me:

Facts.

When I was a teenager, there were few things I feared more....

Not because of school work, but because they were a reminder that I *was not the person I aspired to be.*

The hotel maids – all who claimed to be the furthest thing from habitual exercisers – were learning how many calories they were burning on a daily basis.

I don't believe it...

I thought as I hit my kick starter goal of $12,000 in November of last year.  Only a few days earlier, everything seemed hopeless.

I was two-thirds of the way through the campaign, and only raised half of my funding goal...

**How was I going to raise just as much money in half the time, when I had already reached out to all of my friends, family, and subscribers!**

At 24 years of age, Mark Cuban was far from what many would call a success.

“I was living in a 3-bedroom apartment in Dallas. I didn’t have my own bedroom. I slept on the couch or floor depending on what time I got home. I had no closet. Instead, I had a pile that everyone knew was mine. My car had the usual hole in the floorboard, a ’77 FIAT X19 that burned a quart of oil that I couldn’t afford every week.”

Over the last 6 years, I have deliberately put myself in "no retreat" situations. 

I have moved to a new city, I have set a hard deadline, or signed up to do something out of my comfort zone. Whenever I'm becoming a big fish in a small pond with my personal development, I jump into a bigger pond – even if I'm not ready.

I've done this so often, in fact, that I developed a process that helps me achieve the "unrealistic" goals necessary to make it in the "bigger pond."

Right now, I have yet another unrealistic goal. So here is how I planned to achieve it: