Logical Evolution Podcast Logical Evolution Podcast

I want to give you a bit of hope today – and some guidance about that hope.

I want you to know that creating those visions you have for how you want your life to be are not nearly as complicated as you make them. However, you do need to include one essential component – alignment.

To succeed with less effort, we have to think more scientifically about our goals, and we must apply the universal laws that exist to reach those goals.

Let’s use an example. Let's imagine that “Ann” has a broken arm. We all understand what needs to happen when a bone is broken! Ann needs to get that bone aligned, and she needs a cast on it to fix it in place for healing. That’s the natural intelligence of how the body works.

It's only after that initial realignment has happened that she can move forward. When the cast comes off, that’s when she can work on range of motion and strength.

What DON’T we do is when an arm gets broken? We don't immediately say, “Oh, your arm can't lift anything heavy, let's start getting you on a strength training routine,” right? That's ridiculous, the bone is broken!

This is no different from when we experience disconnection from an end result that we want to achieve. In this situation, the most urgent need for you is to realign. What is the basic focus for the experience you want when you reach your goal?

When it comes to healing, and it comes to reaching our goals, we always want to start with alignment. Whatever is at the core will propagate out. Often, when we feel stuck in reaching a goal, we look for a new technique, and we try to take action.

We put action on top of that “stuckness,” when that’s not what’s needed most often. Often, what we need to do is stop and ask, “Did I did I lose the alignment with my original intention?” We need to stop and remind ourselves where it is we want to be going, so that we can ensure that our actions actually match that and aren't in conflict with it. The more in conflict our actions are with our true intention, the more difficult it’s going to be to get results that we're looking for.

What we are doing to create the goal must reflect the qualities of the goal too. If I’m working toward a goal that I think is going to bring me more joy and peace, then my actions along the way to achieving it must reflect those same qualities. If one of the things you really value and want to create more of is integrity, then you want to make sure integrity is throughout your approach.

We often get stuck because we're missing alignment, which is why I want to bring it to your attention today. We get caught up in trying to take more action, and it takes a lot of self-discipline to pause and ask, “Do I need to realign so that I'm able to move forward toward where I want to go, instead of run around in action and hope that what turns out in the end is aligned with what I'm looking for?”

So, the very first strategy always has to be alignment – alignment with the principle you want to bring into your life through that goal.

For example, imagine your goal is to get into a great romantic relationship. What does that mean? It's not about that person as the end goal. But, when you get there you want to be able to be authentic with the person, you want to have someone who appreciates you and who you appreciate. These are the type of alignments that we want to seek out as you're taking steps toward the goal. It's not about finding the person, right? Because not just anyone is going to make you feel like you've reached that goal.

I hope this helped you today in thinking about where this urgency of alignment is needed for you and your goals. My goal is to help you create the life you want, and to feel like you have the power to create that life using universal laws that are really right at your fingertips. It's a matter of learning them and then choosing to use them – not getting caught up in what most of the world does and trying to take more acti

Have you noticed that there are moments in your day when you're clearly not feeling engaged in your life? Have you noticed times that it feels like you're just going through the motions?

What do you do in those times?

If you struggle in those moments, today I’ll share with you an effective way to handle it. I think you’ll recognize it as something you’ve heard before, but maybe you dismissed as too simple or categorized as too “woo woo.” So, I’m going to explain it to you more scientifically in the hopes you’ll realize its value and start using it to your advantage.

I want to remind you of the power of pause. When you see that you’re going down a path that you don't enjoy, pausing must be the first step to effectively transform that moment. If you were planning to go somewhere, and you realized that you were driving in the wrong direction, you wouldn't just keep going! You would stop and say, “I need to make a turn; I need to move in a different direction so I really get to the place that I want to go.” However, chances are you may not do that in daily situations.

Instead, I see that when we're feeling not engaged or joyful about our lives, we tend to just put action on it in a way that's kind of avoiding what we're feeling. We try to just “muscle our way through it” forcefully, which makes it even more difficult.

The reason this approach doesn’t work is simply momentum. I've spoken about momentum before, but I’m hoping that by looking at it from this angle, you’ll see the real the real gem of information that's there.

When something has momentum, it has a tendency to keep going. If you don’t want it to keep going, then you need to do something to stop it. The best thing to do is to act opposite of it and bring it to a pause so that you can go in a new direction.

That forceful approach is going to use a lot of your energy. If you're using energy in order to create a higher energy state (like joy) – well, it's counterintuitive. That doesn't work.

By pausing (stopping momentum first), you actually KEEP the energy, so that you can now take it in a new direction. Pausing also gives us an opportunity to have insight. When we push through something, we are missing a huge opportunity to learn.

There are many ways to pause, but to be honest, one of the best ways to do it is to use your own breath. This is where some people mindlessly chuck the technique into the “esoteric” bucket without considering it. Your breath is a very tangible thing – it is something specific, not “woo woo.” You can feel it physically, and you can hear it in many cases.

Additionally, it's always NOW. Right? I can't breathe for yesterday, I can't breathe for tomorrow, if I'm aware of the breath that I’m taking now, I'm automatically conscious of the moment. When you're conscious of the moment, it’s a momentum stopper. Now you have the opportunity to harness your own energy – you hold whatever momentum is happening in this state of suspended animation. From there, you can decide to go somewhere deliberate with it, not somewhere that's just an unconscious reaction to your day.

So, my goal today is to remind you of this – of the power of pause. I want you to be able to keep the power that you have and use it deliberately to create. Harness this power by becoming conscious of your breath. What does this mean? It means to feel the sensations of your own breathing and make that the focus of your attention for a few minutes. When you breathe in, you feel the breath coming in – maybe you feel your ribs expand. When you breathe out, you might hear the sound, and you feel your body contracting. If you really engage in that for even 5 breaths, you will be in a different place afterwards.

Don't leave all of your energy to chance. Don't let the world take it. Claim it for yourself. You claim the power in that pause, and then take that energy where you want to go with it.

I want to remind you of an important distinction today – the difference between a VECTOR and a SCALAR.

I remember learning about this back in my physics class in high school. This is the difference between having speed, and having speed with direction. You can think of the idea of spinning your wheels – that's got a lot of speed and activity, but you're not going anywhere. Or you can have speed and direction – by driving down the road.

This is a trap that I have found myself in before. Maybe you can relate, and maybe you have an area in your life where this is happening now. Maybe you have an area where you're taking a lot of action, but you're not sure you're getting anywhere.

We can easily get caught up in taking action and forget about noticing whether we have the right direction. Are we actually moving forward with this action? Or are we just spinning our wheels?

Recently, there's been a big emphasis on your morning routine. I definitely believe in the importance of a good, solid morning routine, so I, too, was seeking one out. I was learning from different people and different books and trying to gather all these activities and actions I needed to take to make my “amazing morning.”

I ended up feeling like I had to have 20 things on this list! I had to get my cup of tea, I had to have my drink of water, I had to do my meditation, I had to do my planning, and so on! They just added up.

What I eventually realized is that I disconnected my activities from my direction. Instead of focusing on whether I had all the “right” activities that these books and teachers said I should have, I needed to consider a different question: What do I want to create with this morning routine? How do I want to feel, and be, and think when I'm done with my routine?

I needed to know where I wanted to end up at the end of this routine, so that then I could properly select the right activities that, for me, would take me there. Each activity might have a different effect on me than it would on someone else, so I needed to consider the direction the activity would take me specifically.

I want to remind you to think about this in your life. If you're starting to feel tired or burnt out, or feeling like your efforts aren't taking you anywhere – maybe you’ve gotten caught up in activity. Are you focusing on speed more than direction? Are you being a scalar, when you need to be more of a vector – being conscious of where you want to go?

When you pinpoint that place to you want to go, you are going to be much more likely to get there than if you are simply leaving it up to chance or other people’s ideas. Take in that information that you can gather from other people, but then apply it to how you want to be and where you want to take it.

I hope that helped you today. If you think this message would speak to someone that you know, please pass it on to them. Until next time, be your best and keep being evolutionary!

I want to ask you today if you've ever been told that you need to “suck it up,” or if those are words you've ever told yourself.

I, personally, can think of those days at work after a long day of meetings and projects where I'm feeling kind of drained…but there's that one meeting left, or there's that one thing I have to finish in order to be done for the day. My inner dialogue is to “just suck it up, just gotta finish.” It's about getting that last thing checked off, so I can just go do something else. It's like I'm wishing away that moment.

If I'm going to be honest, I have those times at the end of my work day when I'm making that transition to go be a parent too. There's a lot of times I don't really feel like it, and it's a similar internal conversation, that I have to “just suck it up to get through until bedtime.”

But that's not the kind of person I want to be, or the kind of experience that I want to have. It doesn't lead to a very fun time for me, let alone everybody else.

The “suck it up” strategy – which can work to get things checked off – is never going to create change in our lives. This strategy creates a life that feels like the same life on repeat. In order to change your experience of life, you have to look at a new strategy – the “level up” strategy. Instead of sucking it up, you need to level up. Our lives will not level up unless WE level up.

The level up strategy is three steps – it’s very simple, but it's very hard! Most people won't do it! You may be tempted to put it to the side, ignoring it as too simple. But I want to challenge you to try it.

The first step of the Level Up strategy is pause. Pause and notice, what’s your level of energy? What's your dominant emotion? We have to make that pause, and that can be hard for those of us who are get-things-done focused. Taking that pause is the first step, and it's sometimes the hardest because you have to break yourself away from what's going on. Our emotions and our energy state are very changeable, they are simply a result of what we've been thinking over the recent past. But that first step is actually stopping. Ask yourself, where am I on a scale of 1 to 10?

After that moment of awareness, step two is to decide – what do I want it to be? What would I rather be experiencing right now? Do I want to be at a seven? Would I like to feel a little bit more hopeful, a little more enthusiastic?

Step number three is to make that happen, to act to make that shift come about. It can be done in under three minutes. It can often be as simple as playing a favorite song of yours. It might be doing a yoga pose. It might be taking a moment to make a cup of tea or coffee.

It can be done in just a few minutes – it’s a matter of actually stopping and doing it. You have the option of being that that person behind the slow car, being aggravated at the time it's taking for someone ahead of you to move. Or you can be in that same position behind the slow car, but having a good time! It doesn't get you there any faster just because you’re in a state of frustration. You're going into that last meeting or doing that last thing at work – you might as well do it in a way that is not only more enjoyable for you, but actually will have the effect of leveling up your life.

When you choose to level up, your life will level up with you. So, my challenge for you today is to take these three steps and implement them. It can be done in five minutes or less

Thank you so much for your time and your attention today! Until next time, be your best and keep being evolutionary.

Popularity or integrity? We can’t have both. In fact, the more outspoken you become with your message, the more you’re going to receive negative feedback.

Just those of you who are parents I know can relate to this! Whether you oversee a team at work or a team at home (or both), think about some of the decisions you’ve had to make. Think of the ones that you know weren’t going to be popular, among your kids or your team or your friends, and think about why you’ve made those decisions. It was likely because of something that you believed in deeply and that ultimately you believed would be of the biggest benefit to them. When something’s beneficial for you – truly beneficial – it’s beneficial for everyone. The more that we act in integrity, the more that these types of beneficial decisions are made.

Sometimes there’s a transition though, a point where we feel like we’re rocking the boat if we make decisions like that. Sometimes there are turbulent times we have to go through to get to the other side if we’ve been on the popular track for a while, but the other side is always better.

In order to be able to make decisions with integrity versus popularity, there’s one thing that has to be in place. You have to know what you value, your core beliefs, what’s important to you. For me, one of those values I have is truth. I believe in aligning with the truth. I believe that knowing the truth will make everyone better off than hiding from the truth. So for me, that’s a benchmark to always refer back to. If I’m faced with a decision that involves being popular or standing with the truth, it’s a no-brainer. I’m going to stand with the truth and I’m going to allow what’s unpopular to be there.

If we get our confidence, sense of peace, and self-esteem from looking inside ourselves and acting in alignment with what we know in our hearts, then it’s ok whether someone likes us or not. Of course, it doesn’t feel good not to be liked, but it’s not going to matter. If we refer within, whether someone likes us or not is not going to move us off of our value system, beliefs, our desire to serve others through those beliefs.

We need to think about some of the recent decisions we’ve made, and gauge ourselves. Where are we on a scale of 1 to 10? Am I making decisions out of popularity (a 1) or out of integrity (a 10)? Maybe there’s different areas of our lives where we’re in different places. Maybe with our group of friends we’re sliding more toward popularity, but at work we’re in integrity. Is it situational? Is it consistent? Is it at a place where I want it to be? Are there any situations gnawing in the back of my mind that just don’t “feel right”? It’s not too late.

Ultimately, acting in integrity is going to draw you more into the life that you want. The universe knows what you stand for. If you’re going for popularity, what you stand for is going to be all over the board, so your results in life are going to be all over the board.

I go a lot more into this topic in my course, but also in my free 5-Day Mach 22 Challenge. The challenge also discusses this idea of really knowing your core beliefs and values that you want to express through your life. So, if this is a bit new for you, or if you’re ready to recommit and reevaluate, then please go to my website home page and opt in to the challenge there.

Take some time today to look at any areas where you’re more concerned with popularity than integrity. Commit to bringing those areas to light, making shifts, and seeing the results.

If you’re a logical thinker like me, then I bet you’ve had this same experience I’m going to share with you today!

When I first realized that there was a whole world of personal development and that maybe it could help me create change in my life, the first thing I dove into was books – lots of them. I was living in Houston at the time, working at NASA, and I used to spend my weekend at the Barnes and Noble down the street from my house. I would wander up and down the Personal Development aisles, finding books and bringing them home. I was a studier – I had my highlighter, and I was doing all the exercises diligently.

I don’t know how many books in I was, but at some point I noticed that I was reading the books with an intention of trying to VALIDATE what I was already doing. What I realized within that is this – if I’m just looking for the ways I’m already doing it “right,” I’m not really going to find things I need to change to do better. I had to stop being afraid of seeing where I wanted to grow. I had to stop being afraid of wanting to be better. Having more in life and being a better human, friend, and family member was a great desire, but it also required that I become more honest.

Instead of looking to validate myself, I needed to look at where I could live more into those desires. Was I nice? Yeah, probably. Could I have been nicer? Yes. Can I still be nicer today? Yes. I can still go to another level of kindness. I can go to another level of generosity. Allowing ourselves to be open and honest about where we want to evolve, that allows us to see the things we need to see for it to happen.

So – Do you want to be validated or do you want to have change occur? Ask yourself – really! Letting go of being validated means you’re going to open yourself up to feeling those negative things that we think are bad, like doubt, or fear, or shame. But what I want to bring to your attention is that seeing where we can change doesn’t mean we need to judge ourselves as bad. As I said, maybe I’m a kind person, but I could be kinder. And if I want more of what kindness is going to bring me, I need to be willing to see those places. Being honest doesn’t mean judging; that can be a big roadblock for people.

So, ask yourself that seriously today! Do I want validation or do I want evolution? If you are someone who chooses evolution, let’s stay connected.