It’s true that “Healthy living starts between your ears.” Living your best life is a mental and spiritual game first. I discovered this after repeated frustrations of quitting good habits even when they were working for me. The problem is I didn’t have a healthy and positive mindset about what I was doing and why. Once the motivation waned, or it got really hard, I would revert back to old, lazy ways of thinking and being.
That’s why I make these short, impactful videos: to remind ME of what mental fitness looks like with advice I can use to help me be my best. I hope they are helpful to you.
MFTOD 1 – REPLACE VS CUT
Check out this 2 min video about a healthy living tip you can implement today.
MFTOD 2 – FOOD IS FUEL
Is food your friend? Check out the link in the caption for a short video to challenge your thinking.
MFTOD 3 – ACCOUNTABILITY
Healthy tip about something that no one likes to talk about.
MFTOD 4 – VALUES
Simplify decision making and reduce stress with today’s tip.
MFTOD 5 – PRIORITIES
3 important questions to ask yourself today.
MFTOD 6 – FORGIVENESS
This might be the most important mental fitness exercise you do.
MFTOD 7 – TIME
Do you know how you ACTUALLY spend your time? I bet you have more of it than you think…
MFTOD 8 – HELP
Answering this one question might make your day.
MFTOD 9 – COMMITMENT
When acting like a 2 yr old can help you achieve your goals.
MFTOD 10 – TRANSPARENCY
For all the “manly men” out there, do you possess this measure of masculinity?
MFTOD 11 – STUCK
Do you ever feel stuck? Maybe to get un-stuck, you need to try something radically different.
MFTOD 12 – BUSY
Are you really too busy? Or are you just B.U.S.Y.? It’s time to go against the flow.
MFTOD 13 – VISION
The truth is, we have more control over our life and choices than we think. It’s just a matter of slowing down enough to make conscious decisions about our day, our week, our life – so we can live this short life more on our terms – with purpose and passion, according to our personal values and priorities, and hopefully making a positive difference, and leaving a lasting legacy.
MFTOD 14 – FAIRNESS
But what is fair? Surely fair can’t be only when it benefits me. And surely not everything bad that happens to me is someone else’s fault.
MFTOD 15 – PUZZLE
Let me explain how life is like a jigsaw puzzle and how the illustration can help you live on purpose.
MFTOD 16 – GAIN VS GAP
Flip the script on how you measure progress.
MFTOD 17 – PROCRASTINATION
There’s never a perfect time to do anything. Stop waiting for the perfect moment and do what’s right even when it’s hard.
MFTOD 18: DISAPPOINTMENT
Dealing with disappointment is hard. Here’s a healthy way that works well for me.
MFTOD 19: WAITING
Waiting is hard. Here’s the thing: Waiting can be a powerful exercise of mental fitness. But making it so is not easy. We need to change our minds a bit about waiting.
MFTOD 20: EXPECTATION
I believe that a MAJOR cause for our stress, exhaustion, frustration, and general unhappiness is because we blame others for our unmet expectations. Here’s how to manage expectations in a healthy way.
MFTOD 21 – WILLPOWER
Do you lack willpower? Me too. I don’t think willpower is the problem. We need another line of defense. Find out what you really need to stick to your goals.
MFTOD 22 – CAKE
How does cake inspire mental fitness? I’m glad you asked.
MFTOD 23 – HARD
Yes, life is hard. It will always be hard. But here’s the thing…
MFTOD 24 – SELF WORTH
How you see yourself matters… a lot.
MFTOD 25 – COMPARISON
Don’t forget that there is no one else like you. Be careful when you think, “I want to be like ______ ,” because there is always a chink in their armor.
MFTOD 26 – REAP
There is no easy button. You get what you create. So why do we live expecting the easy way?
MFTOD 27 – IDENTITY
So who are you? Where does ones identity come from? If we don’t know who we really are, we can’t possibly be our best, live out our values, and pursue our goals and dreams with intention and confidence.
MFTOD 28 – HEALTH
Success, no matter how you define it, is absolutely impacted by your health. So ask yourself these 2 key questions to help you optimize your chance for success.
MFTOD 29 JOURNALING
Slowing down long enough to physically write with pen & paper regularly is a key way to work on your mental fitness.
MFTOD 30 FAILING FORWARD
The greatest lessons we learn in life are from our failures, not from our successes.
MFTOD 31 BABY STEPS
This is one of my favorite concepts for conquering my mind. It’s not new, but one of my favorite movies of all time, Bill Murray’s “What About Bob?” explains it perfectly. The idea, of course, is to take something big and scary and turn it into very small, simple, incremental steps toward it.
MFTOD 32 WHY
Knowing why doesn’t make the goal easier, but it provides the inspiration, motivation, and driving force to keep going when the going gets tough.
MFTOD 33 ADDICTION
Everyone is addicted to something. It’s human nature. That’s right. You are an addict. I am an addict. This starts a 4 part series on addiction.
MFTOD 34 BAD HABITS PART 1 DECIDE
Step 1 of 4 to freedom from the bondage of our bad habits.
MFTOD 35 BAD HABITS PART 2 DESCRIBE
Step 2 of 4 Identifying the trigger is different than the behavior we are trying to correct.
MFTOD 36 BAD HABITS PART 3 ADVANCE DECISION
Part 3 of 4 for breaking bad habits. You must REPLACE the old behavior with a healthy new one when triggered.
MFTOD 37 BAD HABITS PART 4 NEW REWARD
Part 4 of 4 of breaking bad habits – the REWARD
MFTOD 38 BUSY ADDICTION
Busy actually means 4 things that we don’t like to hear but they are true.
MFTOD 39 CHALLENGE
Take an alternate view of your challenges.
MFTOD 40 FOOD PART 1 WATER
It’s absolutely a matter of mental fitness to do food well. I’ll show you how in this series of short videos – starting with water.
MFTOD 41 FOOD PART 2 INGREDIENTS
We have been conditioned that high carbs is bad, protein is good and food manufacturers are expert at creating packaging to convince you their product is healthy. NEWS FLASH: Packaging that says, ‘low fat’ ‘low carb’ ‘high protein’ ‘gluten free’ ‘sugar free’ ‘low calorie’ etc. does NOT mean the product is good for you. You need to read the INGREDIENT list to see what’s in it.
MFTOD 42 FOOD PART 3 TRACKING
It wasn’t until I actually tracked everything that I put in my mouth for several weeks that I finally realized how far off I was from doing food well. Check out some tips and benefits for food tracking you can start today to help you reach your healthy living goals.
MFTOD 43 FOOD PART 4 TIMING
Welcome to part 4 of our series on food. So far we’ve covered the importance of proper hydration, focusing on the ingredients list vs. the nutrition label on foods, and the benefits of tracking what you eat. Let’s talk about timing for eating snacks. Yay! Everyone loves snacks. I’m talking about HEALTHY snacks today – those that can help you in your healthy living journey.
MFTOD 44 FOOD PART 5 SUSTENANCE
Welcome to part 5 of our series on food. So far we’ve covered the importance of proper hydration, focusing on the ingredients list vs. the nutrition label on foods, the benefits of tracking what you eat, and last time some help with timing snacks, esp. in the evenings and around your workout schedule. Today I’ll share some ideas about what foods to eat – especially for snacks, as this is where most of us get tripped up on our healthy eating journey.
MFTOD 45 LESS IS MORE
Our culture tells us that we must have more of everything. But what if that is all backwards? What if less is actually better?
MFTOD 46 STUFF
We’d all like a life with more time, more money, and more freedom to live a more meaningful life. Right? And if we are honest, our stuff is not helping us with any of that. So let me offer you a few ideas about reducing your stuff and the negative impact it may have on your life. These have worked well for me.
MFTOD 47 CELEBRATE
6 Tips to enjoy the celebration with all the food & treats and stay aligned with your healthy living goals.
MFTOD 48 ACTION PLAN
This one sentence action plan from James Clear’s book Atomic Habits can provide the clarity you need to achieve your healthy habits.
MFTOD 49 FORGIVE YOURSELF
If I’m to live free, to be confident with healthy self-esteem, and to sincerely love and serve others well, I must be able to forgive myself for my mistakes – even the really ugly ones. Cuz from my experience, I know for sure that when I don’t forgive myself, I feel really down, discouraged, depressed, insecure, unlovable, and worthless. It’s not possible to love others well when I feel like that, or even be a person others want to be around.
MFTOD 50 CONFIDENCE
…as one whose wasted a lot of time, energy, and money on the wrong ways to get confidence, I can tell you from personal experience. It’s surely not from achieving the goal, getting the salary, buying the car, or wearing yourself out to win approval and acceptance from others. Been there, done that. It’s exhausting. I’m still working on it.
MFTOD 51 VICTIM OR VICTIM
Life is not simple. We face many bumps and turns along the way. The race is real, the battle continuous, and the painful experiences may pierce our hearts. However, our circumstances should not define who we are or how we react. Rather, as believers our behavior in every situation should honor the Lord Jesus, and our identity should always be based on the salvation He has provided for us.
MFTOD 52 SEEK
What do you seek? We all seek something. We are in seeking mode all the time. You will always find what you are looking for. This is a powerful idea that can work for you or against you.
MFTOD 53 YOU
Others are a mirror. A reflection of you. Want others to change? Work on you.
MFTOD 54 BOREDOM
We often become really uncomfortable with boredom feeling like there must me something MORE that must be done NOW. Or we may think that boredom means we need to change what we are doing. Maybe we just need to change our minds about boredom. What do you think?
MFTOD 55 RUN
I realized that whether or not you run sprints at the track or jog through your neighborhood, we are all runners. That’s right. We are all running TO something or away FROM something regularly. Maybe not by stepping one foot in front of the other literally, but between our ears we are all runners.
MFTOD 56 PRACTICE
You have heard it said practice makes perfect. Then someone will correct it and say, “no….perfect practice makes perfect.” What they mean of course is that if you are practicing the wrong thing or in the wrong way – poor technique, out of sequence, negative mindset, etc. then you will never get to perfect. It’s good advice. But I was thinking about practice in a different way.
MFTOD 57 PLANKEYE
Let’s stop making lame excuses for our flaws, failures, and mistakes. Let’s own our mistakes, make sincere apology wherever needed, and work to grow and be better.
MFTOD 58 HUMILITY
Humility acknowledges the truth that we don’t have it all together and we need help. It’s healthy to think this way, especially when we call upon our Creator to help us.
MFTOD 59 TRENCHES
We dig our own trenches in our mind. And they can be changed, re-routed if you will. But it’s hard work and it takes time. Here’s some ideas on how to dig the good trenches to help us live a happy and fulfilled life.
MFTOD 60 MARGIN
Do you often have a list of things you just can’t get to because you’re so busy? Maybe you’re tired. Or more like exhausted. You find yourself running frantically on the hamster wheel of life doing your work – meaningful work even. Do you ever think, “Is this all there is to life?” Creating margin in your life can help. Here’s a few ideas how.
MFTOD 61 STRENGTH
Have you ever felt like you just can’t do it anymore? You are out of strength. You are exhausted, frustrated, and discouraged because things just aren’t working out like you thought? Dang it, life is hard. I want to offer a couple ideas about strength that hopefully will encourage you no matter where you are relative to the storms of life.
MFTOD 62 CONSISTENCY
You will get good at whatever you practice. Consistency compounds. Watch my story here.
MFTOD 63 PRAYER
Everybody prays. Regardless of the faith system, people pray. And good news: prayer is great. I believe it’s among the healthiest habits a person can have. Prayer reflects our hearts desire to express gratitude and humbly ask for help. When we are desperate and at the end of our rope, we pray. When we need help that we can’t seem to get elsewhere, we pray. And sometimes when something good happens, or disaster is avoided, we may even say out loud, “Thank God.” Everybody prays. But do you ever wonder why your prayers aren’t answered?
MFTOD 64 INTERESTED
This is a hot topic that everyone is talking about. If you can get in front of it, you will surely separate yourself as one of the good guys. And there’s a relationship tip in here that may just blow your mind.
MFTOD 65 INTEGRITY
Integrity is really hard. And you and I may not have the integrity we think we do. But before you despair, know this: you are not alone. We are all guilty. We all lack integrity somehow. Let’s grow our integrity together with a few ideas that I believe will help.
MFTOD 66 TRAIN
Many of us are pretty good at training our body. But do we spend the same energy to train our mind and soul? Let’s have a look at what training is and how we can apply it to getting better between our ears.
MFTOD 67 SCARS
It occurred to me that perhaps my most meaningful scars are the unseen ones. The emotional, mental, and spiritual scars of battles fought between my ears. Here is where the greatest life lessons are learned and where wisdom is earned. Watch my story to be encouraged how your scars can help others.
Team Quadzilla 