I have been working diligently, as I always do, but this a great opportunity to recharge. When I go on vacation, I don’t 100% disconnect. Instead, I get inspired. I think about what I am going to write next. I think about the next steps that I need to take. When I am on vacation, I sneak off for a drive by myself. When I go to Vegas, I do a little gambling and have fun. I don’t see a vacation as an opportunity just to get away. I see it as an opportunity to reconnect with my dreams.

My regimen is not rigid. My priorities are whatever my family wants to do. Whether it’s going to the pool, going shopping or wherever the kids drag us, I go with the flow. If my mind wanders towards work or writing or strategizing, I let it. Whenever I get back from a trip, I’m ready to go.

Since it’s laborious to set up my laptop, plug in the keyboard, etc., I just don’t do it. I clean out my junk emails on my phone and if I feel like checking in with my manager,...

Human beings are creatures of habit. It’s easy to get comfortable with a routine and just go with it. If people check-in with their goals, it’s usually around the holidays, especially the New Year. A key to amazing success is incremental and constant improvement. In order to improve, we must be constantly checking in with our goals and avoid complacency. Some goals need daily check-ins. Some goals need weekly, monthly or quarterly check-ins. Here is a list of actions that we need in order to properly check into our goals. One big caveat, we don’t want to overly check-in with our goals. We want to avoid chasing the shiny new object. Most goals need patience and time to become reality.

1. Engagement. As stated above, it is easy to become complacent with our goals. We must be engaged and remind ourselves why our goals are so important to us. We have to ask ourselves why it is so important to achieve our goals. Remind yourself of this when you are feeling lazy or...

When I was younger, I watched my parents hustle their way to a comfortable life. I grew up in the ‘80s and the ‘90s. When I went to business school at USC, hard work was assumed. That way of thinking scared me a little. The reason that it scared me was not because I was not willing to do the hard work. It was because my disability got in the way of hustle and other factors that I assumed I needed to achieve amazing success.

As I started learning about success and I started creating my career, there were activities that my disability made exponentially more challenging or impossible. Although I was scared, I was up for the challenge.

Over the last few years, I have been looking at what makes people successful and what people do wrong. This year I came to a conclusion that, in order to become amazing and make a dream come true, we have to have a well-balanced life.

Instead of hustling all of the time, take time to think. I am rereading Experts Secrets by Russell Brunson....

Distractions play a part in how well you execute on the four buckets of activities: professional, personal, growth and miscellaneous.  Every day we face more and more distractions.  Our friends, our phones, social media, competing projects, and other shiny objects get in the way of productivity.  It takes discipline to work on the activities that move us forward.  Instead of being seduced by distractions, you need to focus activities that drive you in the direction of your goals.

Saying you have priorities and saying that you have discipline is not enough.  Your actions must be consistent with your words. Our true priorities are dictated by our time, by our dollars and by our attention. In order to become amazing, you need to focus your time and actually put your priorities on a calendar and commit to your actions without distractions.  In your priorities, what are the tasks that you need to produce?  Commit the time by putting it on a calendar....

There are four main buckets of activities that can lead to an amazing life. The way that you approach these buckets can empower you. They are: professional, personal, growth, and miscellaneous.

Professional

Whether you are an entrepreneur or you have a 9-to-5 job, the better that you execute the task, the more likely you are to grow and excel. What are the key projects that you need to execute?

Personal

We all have friends and family who require our love and attention. We need to put time and energy into these relationships in order for them to grow. The better we interact with our friends and loved ones, the more that we can enjoy them. Personal relationships are one of the most precious assets that we, as human beings, have.

Growth

If we don’t grow ourselves as human beings, we will never achieve our potential and the amazing life that we desire. This may include reading books, working on our psychological barriers, working on our limitations, dreaming and, even, sleeping....

We are faced with opportunities almost every hour. Some are opportunities to work hard and to make our dreams come true. We also have opportunities that feel good in the moment.  These may include coming home and watching television, ordering a not so healthy meal or buying something that we really can’t afford. We know that we should not perform these activities, but it just feels so good. No matter who you are, you are faced with these competing opportunities every day, every hour and almost every minute. To compound things, it’s often how hard you try or how much you enjoy yourself.  Even though you are working, are you giving a full amount of effort or are you seeing what you can get away with?  Are you eating a whole pie or a tiny cookie?

How you handle these opportunities leads to the life you have. If you want an amazing life, you must exploit the opportunities that will lead you to your dreams and minimize the negative opportunities that will hurt...