This morning I got to thinking about my younger self, the kid who decided to leave high school after 10th grade because he knew better than anyone else. The kid who played in every coffee shop from Maine to Delaware convincing even the apprehensive shop owners to let him set up and play a few songs (and who also dragged his friends out of Friday/Monday classes to help share the driving). The kid who realized that he loved the world of business just as much as music and decided to start building multiple streams of income on the side…just to ‘see what would happen.’
And I realized how proud I am of that kid. I am PROUD of my younger self because that dude was a hustler. He only listened to himself, didn’t take no for an answer, he believed in his own version of reality and he went out and GOT what he wanted. The feeling of pride that I get from thinking about that kid makes me incredibly happy and is a huge motivator for me to keep doing what I’m doing TODAY because five years or even a year from now, I want to look back on this time in my life and be just as proud of the man I am today as I am of the dude who told coffee shop owners he would sell 10 caramel lattes per set if only they’d let him sing a few songs to their patrons (it ended up being more like 2 but it was still a good sales pitch).
Notice that NONE of the things I mentioned above have anything to do with tangible outcomes because I don’t care about the outcome – I care about the journey.
My encouragement to you is this: how do you want your future self to look back on your current self? Start acting like it then! Don’t start big, start small. Pick one area of your life and get consistent whether it’s a promise to tell your girlfriend she’s beautiful every day or a promise to get to the gym 3 times a week. Get consistent with ONE thing and just show up. Who cares if you’re having a bad day and you can only run 2 miles instead of 3? Show up and hustle and get through it and you’ll be back at it tomorrow and you’ll be stronger and badder and faster and you’ll feel AMAZING even if your hip flexors are screaming bloody murder at you. Your future self isn’t really concerned about the results – your future self just cares that you showed up on game day with your cleats, helmet and a willingness to improve and learn. This isn’t a new year’s resolution…this is a “how do I want to feel about myself?” resolution and that power rests in your hands alone.
And did my younger self really know better than anyone else? Absolutely, they just didn’t know it yet and maybe they still don’t but the truth is, the secret to my younger self’s success is that he couldn’t have cared about them less.


On Sunday, I had lunch with a close friend of mine and his 94-year-old grandfather (John). Aside from the portion of the meal when I had clams casino for the first time, the real treat was listening to John talk to us about his marriage to Marge which is going on 74 years.
My GPS was shot. So I called Garmin. And after being on hold for 40 minutes, I picked up the phone and said
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