Most people living a psychology-based life are unaware of this. Even though it is driving them too, they are so caught up in the separate self-sense of the ego; they are driven more by stories, (thoughts) and emotions based on historical experiences and the memories of those experiences. Instead of their mind and thinking working for them, they think they are their mind and completely miss the boat so to speak.

From a Performance Lifestyle perspective; it’s hard to trudge through life when this is the case and leads to resistance and struggle.

Where does spirituality fit in Performance Lifestyle? It’s all spiritual and that will make more sense when you watch this video.

Here is a video by my spiritual teacher Andrew Cohen who explains the what the evolutionary impulse is. Learn what’s driving you, and resilient evolutionary living, what we refer to as a Performance Lifestyle, will make more sense than ever before.

Another great year has gone by.  For the most part, it was a challenging year for me in every way on what seemed like every front.

By “challenging”, I don’t necessarily mean bad or problematic,  I mean I had something big to resolve that affected everything… the capacity to evolve itself, and at times, it was hard, very hard.

I have been on the path, for sometime, towards the inevitable resolution that came to pass this year, but what I did not know was that I would need to and would end up resolving the biggest question of my life and it took a great deal of effort, as simple as it is.

What I’m referring to is the discovery and realization of what I am still currently experiencing as new,  but in reality, was ‘forgotten’– the authentic sense of self. Reconnecting with that, who “I AM”, challenged me life-wide.

A little background…

As someone who is committed to living better,  I approach life as a practice; I practice living better every day. I enjoy doing so;  I also enjoy the new life experiences that result. That I have been a seeker of what I’m revealing here, has been the driving reason why I became a lifestyle trainer, coach and wellness entrepreneur by profession.

This year I improved on many fronts; for example, after writing four books on plant-based, ‘nutrient rich’ eating, I greatly improved an what was already a relatively healthy eating style. I took my practice to a whole new level, realized the benefits and began supporting hundreds of people on how to do this.

I also endeavored into a new way to ensure people are able to eat healthy, no matter what. What you think you can’t do, for most people, they won’t do, and I want to change that. So I focused a great deal on improving the nutrition end of my what is really a “lifestyle” training and coaching business.

You may or may not be able to imagine how your whole life experience changes for the better forever when you take the way you eat to a whole new level and live ever-free of the seeming, but false inevitability of weight and health issues.

As I said, I made lifestyle changes across the board this year, not in nutrition alone, as I do every year, but ALL.”ALL” paled in comparison to THE greatest lifestyle change I’ve ever made and probably, will ever make.

I say “the”, not “my” in this case because I’m confident this development is not about my self or my lifestyle alone. It’s about the bigger Self with a capital S.

I’ll explain…

5 years ago, on a teleconference, I was teaching a Performance Lifestyle  “Training, for Life” class by phone…

In these trainings, we delve into the 12 fundamentals we all need to know (but never really learn growing up) to live our lives like pros– well, healthy, able to function and perform at ever-higher levels, free of the hidden lifestyle challenges that hold so many of us (amateurs) back– when someone asked me, “where does spirituality fit in all this?”

A perplexing question, I responded somewhat matter-of-factually, saying “it’s all spiritual”. But that was it. That’s all I could say.

For years after that, I wondered what I meant, and knew that was my ‘ultimate quest’ following more than a decade assembling a context-correct meme that actually revealed to people (including me) not only how to live a healthy lifestyle successfully, but how healthy high-achieving people live at the most basic level of life to maintain quality of life and achieve even their most ambitious goals. I somehow knew the idea would never be complete without conveying the very reason why some people are able to move through life with less struggle and so much more, grace.

I had been wanting that experience of grace for as long as I could remember and it’s probably THE reason why I have been championing the idea of a Performance Lifestyle. Up until this year, you would have been able to quote me on many occasions saying “I’m not graceful, but in the end I get it done.” Which, in retrospect translates to, “once I get over the resistance of my ego to change, and all the chaos and damage it creates, I finally arrive.” That has essentially been the story of my life, until recently.

Who doesn’t want grace–the ability to evolve and move forward without so all the struggle and in a position of strength?

The hidden challenge was, for me, even though I was teaching how to live healthy and more successfully by getting all aspects of your lifestyle working “for” you, not against you for all kinds of desirable results (much the way top athletes do)  it was still too hard to do, and for a reason I had an inkling of, but little awareness around.

There was something hidden holding me back. Whatever it was, I didn’t feel well because of it and the consequences it gave rise to. I felt like there was always a problem, and although I “game-faced” it for decades, I never had a well adjusted posture to life, or felt very aligned to life. I felt separate.

Fast forward… Truth is, I was being driven a little bit crazy by an over active mind in a stress full world, with a memory full of accumulating stories; many of which were created during times of my life when things weren’t going so well, in the past. They were lingering stories that were still affecting my present life in negative ways and that subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) torment, was holding me back from fully engaging with the world, and had for as long as I can remember. They cast doubt and amplified fear, and I wanted to be done with it, ALL of it.

I even co-wrote a book on the subject a few years back, with an esteemed Harvard Psychologist, called “The Curse of the Capable.“It helped me and countless others, understand what gave rise to the often painful stories of our lives, how to change them and transform. This helped tremendously slow down what I used to call the karmic “freight train” that was driving me behind the scenes, but ultimately, I was still not free, and I wanted to be.

Freedom is my highest value.

You may know what I mean. It was “the weight of the past”, it was still there,  and it really needed to be dropped. But how?

As I later learned, instead of “working it all out”, the way I was relying on, I needed to just “finish” with it; and that earlier question about spirituality,  would be just what I needed to liberate not just me, but a part of “we”.

Which brings us to the realization of 2012 I would like to share…

Fittingly, the year the world was supposed to end, ended up being the start of a new life; a life oriented around a new authentic or enlightened posture. By that I mean, living, no longer identified with my psychological self–thinking, memory, or history. I made a big internal shift.  I let it all go. All of it!

Oh sure, it’s still there, accessible at any time, the good and the not so good and for sure, I didn’t lose or stop using my mind. I am just no longer living my life wholly driven by it or according to it or restricted by it… hence, a new authentic life free of history.

The ability to think, remember and recollect history, is useful and essential for to relate with our selves and the world, but these faculties don’t represent who we really are, why we are here or our purpose very well.

You can attempt to use your mind to help convey who you really are, but it does a poor job representing who you are authentically. The reason is simple– the “psychological self” is not the authentic self and it is usually encumbered by cynical stories of the past; who we think we are but aren’t.

Stories are just stories and too many are just plain inaccurate, especially when it comes to explaining our authentic self –who we really are, why we are here and our purpose.

The “ultimate quest” I referred to earlier, would require nothing short of answering those existential questions–who am I and why am I here, and what is my purpose; beyond or before, “my name is John, I’m a lifestyle entrepreneur, trainer, and coach…”

And Today, after years of being preoccupied, at times unavailable because of this need to seek and answer those questions, I know the answers, not just intellectually but through direct experience. And they are ‘timeless’ to say the least.

This year, with the help of a respected, but misunderstood lifestyle practice, and the insight of not one, but a few evolutionarily enlightened teachers, I got free of the ego ‘s control over my life, and found my forgotten self; the far bigger authentic self I came into this world AS, before I developed memory and  history and the ability to think…or a psychological self.

Even though that ego still exists, and I am still affected by it from to time in both positive and negative ways; with regular meditation to strengthen an authentic alignment with life; I have become evolutionarily enlightened. I can now just live and let go, and free of the, psychologically-driven ego that personalized virtually everything to the point that felt like gravity pulling me back and down, constantly struggling. It was dictating my life more and more, the more I gave life to it, the older I got, making it ever harder to change, even with all the how-to knowledge and experience I had accumulated.

All of that knowledge and experience helped, but I now know first hand, the ego (the psychological self) if not maintained well and backed by an authentic or “enlightened” posture where you understand who you are, why you are here and what your purpose is, and identified that way, will leave you unresolved and chained to the past.

I learned this year, that unleashing our full potential requires we make the shift away from an egocentric life. Resolve that, and one can evolve and achieve at the level they choose.

Now free, I am living ever more authentically every day and what a ride its becoming.

Still somewhat fresh out of the gate in the grand scheme of things, it’s  been a whole new world full of OOHS, AAHS, WOW’S and lightness of being despite the challenges around me that used to burden me in ways that were “too” challenging for too long often causing me to stall.

It’s not like I’ve gone “Buddha,” but in a way, I have, and its great. The difference is. I gained spiritual self-confidence this year. It has changed everything and I don’t have to escape life or live under a tree to experience it.

It’s amazing what life can be like when changing is not just simplified to another flavor-of-the-month, simple -minded, single-variable psychological idea, (in the same way a new diet comes out every week) billed to change the game but doesn’t and can’t, prompting most of us to seek and consume, but never find and resolve; but rather simplified down to the profound shifts and changes we really need to make to get free of hidden “lifestyle” challenges. Those relationships to life, which if left UN-resolved, hold us back.

Like moving away from eating in a nutrient-poor unhealthy way, to eating in a nutrient-rich healthy way, shifting away from an egocentric life to an authentic one, will unleash YOU.

And it’s actually easier, because you no longer have to do constant battle with your mind, get over your history and practically get a PhD in psychology to make the every move you want.

So, as I mentioned earlier “the” development (the greatest lifestyle change I’ve ever made and will probably ever make) was not mine alone. By that I mean, living authentically, IS the realization of who “we” really are, why we are here and what our purpose is, and when any of us realizes that, you learn that “we” are not separate from one another.

Maybe by name, and body, gender, or profession… we are different, but in spirit we are not. We are all part of the evolving universe, creating the world we live in, as one.

With that awareness we can choose how we live, compelled to create a world with greater integrity, in the present, and not simply repeat the past– good, bad or indifferent.

When any one of us comes to this realization, we improve individually and collectively.

And with one less past-driven, often-outdated ego no longer in control, we can more consciously evolve, and the world can becomes safer, cleaner and less complicated.

When I went to Newport Connecticut over Christmas, the site of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, I contemplated what is would really take for people to live better and  create a culture that didn’t give rise to such acts.

https://www.facebook.com/John.Allen.Mollenhauer/posts/10151392949321412

I think the answer lies in living authentically, and no longer identifying with the cultural ego that has clearly gone awry. If we want it to change, we have to change, and for that to happen, we can no longer be held back by an ego that does not want to change with vested interests in the past.

Could I be any more grateful than going into the New Year feeling connected to others (or non-others) present to life, the present situation, able to move forward and navigate the present with ever greater ease? No. I am grateful at the highest level there is.

And I’m deadly serious about maintaining this new posture in life. As I’ve learned from my teachers, this requires a noble effort that gets less challenging and easier over time, depending on your practice. With consistent practice, I can confirm this is true.

And I will tell you, when you put out the effort to live free of your history, identified as your authentic self, only engaging with history to the extent that it helps you (we) in the present, from a liberated or enlightened (aware) position, you’ll take life way more seriously, driven by the power to choose, and it will feel lighter than ever before.

It’s the greatest lifestyle change I have ever made, and I don’t think there is any greater.

To effectively and change your lifestyle in anyway this year forward, without it being so hard, you’ve got to be able to live free from reliance on your psychological-self, know who your really are, why you are here and what your purpose is authentically. When that happens you will resolve the hidden lifestyle challenges, evolve and achieve your goals. I’m confident about that.

In reality, all other changes, including change itself, depends on our being able to live a liberated life.

Now we’re talking!

Happy New Year

~ JAM

It is the simple fact that the purpose of your lifestyle is to achieve your goals.

What better reason is there to make all the changes you need to make, other than realizing the outcomes you want for your life? That’s what drives us, the emerging creative impulse to achieve and getting clear on your goals is what unleashes your ambition.

As you may know, in a Performance Lifestyle® we focus on getting the structure of your life, Your Lifestyle (as a whole) and your goals into alignment so we can move forward in a position of strength, essentially firing on all cylinders, no longer held back by the hidden lifestyle challenges.

In the same way top athletes focus on optimizing their lifestyles so they can function and perform at their best, the same fundamentals apply to us, even if you’re not into sports or even a fitness enthusiast. To do this we focus on 12 fundamentals you need to know if you are going to live your life like the pro that you can be.

Is it challenging to do such intensive life work? Yes, of course it is, but what else is there to do? And the people who understand their present situation and do the work, they succeed. Period. The difference here, is that we focus on unleashing the full potential of your lifestyle to achieve your goals, not on achieving the goals themselves. Conceptually, you need both working hand in hand.

The next series of blog posts though, are going to about getting clear on what you want, so you can determine your goals and periodically create the road maps, or blue prints for achieving them.

I am hitting a new stage in my business, which is about ushering in the next level living strategies for goal- and success-oriented people, who want to achieve their goals, while maintaining optimal health and well-being.

I am taking my nutrient rich nutrition business to a whole new level and to do that, I have to have a map. So I am working with Tom Terwilliger as my goals coach, to help me create the success blueprint.

Here is a big point Tom made in module 1. Facing the achievement of this big goal ahead of me, it gave me relief to hear Tom say…

I am also working with a business plan developer to focus on the specifics of the businesses growth within the nutrition and lifestyle niche. This may mean working with another company(s) so we can maximize the opportunity because I am 100% committed to helping people make the switch to a nutrient rich healthy eating style as part of the lifestyle that helps them achieve their goals and this is a key area where I have been playing the entrepreneur.

The business is already in motion, but I’ve learned we have to do this kind of goals planning, periodically, not just once.

So, I am asking you… are you clear on your goals?

Being clear makes all the difference in the world between everything from eating whatever, whenever, to having no compelling reason to exercise and train, to staying up late at night and watching TV and waking up tired… to doing the opposite of all of that — fine tuning your lifestyle so you can achieve your goals.

I’ll keep you posted on progress, but why don’t you join me, by enjoying the online evergreen, self-paced Achievement Bootcamp, with Tom Terwilliger.

As the picture of this post suggests, you can unleash your ambition when you get clear on your goals. Here at PerformanceLifestyle.com, we’ll help you make sure your ambition does not outpace your ability to take care of you and maximizes your capacity to perform at peak. When you practice The 12 Fundamentals You Need to Know to Live Your Life, Like a Pro, you will fulfill your purpose.

The question was asked during a Performance Lifestyle® Training focused then on the first objective of Your Lifestyle, which is to make sure it’s health-promoting. Take whatever resonates for you. Whatever doesn’t, contemplate it, then leave the rest for another day.

When asked “where does spirituality fit in a performance lifestyle?“– a healthy lifestyle that gives you the edge, by supporting your ability to function and perform at higher levels and achieve your life, business and or sporting goals with an ever-greater quality of life, even in the process of facing inevitable challenges; I answered (knowing that it was not listed as one of the 12 lifestyle fundamentals you need to know to live your life like a pro) “it’s all spiritual.” The thing is, regarding that knowing, at that time, that was the limit of my ability to explain.

I needed clarity, not just so that I could handle that question, but I was just as inquisitive as my student. In retrospect, because while I was living better than ever at that time, I was not feeling free and needed some relief. And I was not getting that from a functional point of view from religion, or the “let’s all live in peace” movement.

Since that day, I have been on the path to understanding what I meant at that time; the very source of it all, free of the psychological ego that we have so personally and culturally become identified with that makes changing your lifestyle such a struggle.

Surely there had to be an easier way of moving or flowing through life than thinking everything through in such a cerebrally-heavy, energy-intensive way influenced by the not-always-so-rosy memory of the past and then seeking external guidance every time your thoughts are driving you a little crazy.

As someone who has always been a seeker of life’s deeper and most fundamental truths so I and others could improve our lifestyles and achieve our goals with the knowing that we could also just “be”, get some relief and experience freedom; I wanted freedom from the performance addicted life I was living. And today, I am happy to report, while I am still considered a  spiritual “seeker” for reasons I can discuss in another post; I am now a finder of that relief (what I can confidently say is the source of both being, and becoming) both of which ARE the spiritual basis of a Performance Lifestyle.

Stay with me here.

Living a lifestyle that works for you, not against you is bolstered, literally sourced, when you have an evolutionary world view. To have an evolutionary world view you need to be identified with who you really are, why you are hear and what you want, (what you’re up to, your purpose), so that you are not constantly sidelined by an ego, that wants everything but change. It’s the difference between bring an amateur and a pro. Pro’s, as I’m speaking about them here, know who they really are.

In teaching Performance Lifestyle we refer to the hidden lifestyle challenges that hold us back, but underlying all of these challenges is the ultimate hidden lifestyle challenge– identification with the ego – your mind (thinking) and your history of thinking, as who you think you are. Given both of these gears of the self, have a tendency to go very awry, you can imagine that this might be a bit perilous. No matter what aspect of lifestyle I am addressing with a client, it’s always the ego that makes change so difficult; hence, the title of this post.

It is the wretched aspects of the ego, that hold all of us back from emerging even greater in the world, and for some of us even getting out of of first gear (can you relate?); and it needs to be resolved if you really want to get your lifestyle working for you, not against you. But to do so, from a Performance Lifestyle perspective, you want to approach this subject from a functional point of view, else you can lost in the world of mysticism (spirituality), just as easily as you can get lost in the world of nutrition.

I have been able to shift gears very effectively because I am working within the practical context called Performance Lifestyle, so that I/we don’t make more out of things than they need to be. Deep dives are great, but they are even better when guided by a true and functional context such as Performance Lifestyle.

When I started this inquiry, after years of Performance Lifestyle training, and I could see it in my students, that there was this source of conflict that was getting in the way of lifestyle change, and so, I had to get to root of it all. Not, one psychological idea after another, as that would take a lifetime, and probably more than one lifetime. But unearth a whole new orientation that would enable people to resolve quickly, and evolve with new thoughts and skills so they could achieve their life goals.

Back in 2008, the prompt for resolving this matter showed up in that question that has stayed with me ever since– where does spirituality fit in a performance lifestyle? Without having it completely figured out (and we don’t have to have it all figured out), here is what I learned that resolves inner conflict in the only way it can truly be resolved– a re-identification with with who you really are.

You see, I have had many seemingly deep “spiritual” experiences over  past decades (most of which were religious experiences in the exterior), but none of which really changed things.

Simply put, they were external in nature, which evoked powerful but fleeting feelings of amazement, and feelings of worldly love and peace, that would inevitably fade away, but never revealed actual “functional” truth about spiritual experience, or enabled me to develop that “spiritual self confidence”, as my teacher referred to it, that I wanted so desperately.

It simply wasn’t a religious experience I was seeking. Spiritual self confidence, is knowing who you are.

I’m not referring to identification with religion (even though I still participate in a religious community) any more than I’m talking about identifying with a reputable name, a job, a talent or nationality… Even though I have all of these, I am not that, and neither are you. I am referring to understanding that unfolding energy and intelligence which is free of time and history, nor identified with memory or experience.

I am referring to discovering the authentic self we are all part and parcel of that originated with the big bang billions of years ago and continues to evolve, through each of us at its leading edge.

That may sound far out, but it’s not. It’s practical, and convey able and a reality of how the universe works that we need to get in tune with if we are to have the awareness and ability to emerge and change without so much conflict.

It’s not religion, its understanding and realizing spirituality in an impersonal, non ego-driven, non external kind of way that unleashes that knowing I spoke of earlier Ref: (“It’s all spiritual”) when for a brief moment in those days, I was in alignment with the energy and intelligence that is creating the universe. Who, I / We really are, is the creative impulse itself.

When we get free of ego, and we know who we really are, authentically, we can change or better said, we can “evolve” in an enlightened way. We can make any lifestyle change we want, with far less hesitancy and mental impediment because we are no longer conflicted by misidentification with ego that does not like to change most of the time and has a vested interest in the status quo. You probably know a little about the thoughts and stories our ego’s generate so that “it”, “we”, “you or me” can stay separate, be special, victims, stuck, proud, elitist, chosen etc, if we identify with it.

And this is good news. Knowing this, you don’t have to identify with your ego!

As a lifestyle coach and trainer, I have learned that it is the over thinking, history/memory driven ego that almost always has to be overcome, in significant fashion, before people will change. I know this with virtually every client I work with. I know this from experience. Without a deeper understanding of the interiority, the philosophical and metaphysical origins of who we really are; like I had been, most of us will stay firmly rooted in a psychological identity in which we feel trapped and need to “cope” with.

It helps to know how to think differently i.e. change a story from the past served up by your ego and get your thinking on the same team or in support of you; “working for you not against you” as we like to say. The world is full of motivations speakers, and psychologists and other pro’s very adept at this.

Evolving though learning new thoughts and skills itself also helps with feeling a bit freer, especially creative endeavors; but it’s a good deal of work to be identified with your ego and trying to change the ego, from within the ego at the same time, and the change is never sustainable.

The curse of a capable person, is an unsupportive accumulation of stories, stored in your memory, served up by your thinking mind (ego) that just keeps on replaying. And staying identified with your ego, is a sure fire way to keep chasing your tail and evolve agonizingly slow, because even if you are adept at changing your thinking (stories) your ego will continue dishing them up. www.thecurseofthecapable.com

And while it’s useful to do psychological work if you are really locked in the ego, or as a gateway to re-identifying with who you really are; ultimately, nothing less than a reorientation or a re-identification or new posture or alignment with who we really are authentically can change your perception.

I’m talking about identifying with the energy and intelligence that is creating the world right now, whether you see it that way or not. Only then can we live free of inaccurate and unsupportive egotistical stories, change them when we need to from a truly empowered place, that has no history, and emerge with lifestyles we can change with far less resistance, in ways that are truly profound.

Yes, knowledge is also needed to change your lifestyle, but unless you dig deep enough to reveal and make the most fundamental lifestyle change of all, all other lifestyle changes required for healthy, evolutionary, forward- movement will be harder than they need to be because of the inner conflict created by dualistic thinking–the flip flop between who you are authentically and your ego.

The “next level” we hear so much about, but so few of us really experience day to day (true for me until just recently, and still requiring a noble effort) is not some motivational jargon, or the ability to defeat the constant constraints of the status-quo ego, for sometimes only a string of a few days following a rah rah seminar or a new declaration, all while fearing a return to the usual. No. It’s something bigger than that. Way bigger that requires the most significant  commitment, which when made with no turning back, really simplifies life and relieves us from seemingly endless burden of existence.

It’s living a life, free; free of the ego’s constraints of history and the entanglement with karma (perpetuating consequences) able to both exist and change in the face of fears, worries, and concerns and the never-ending chatter of our thinking mind; a mind influenced by our experience of the past. No longer identified with any of it and able to let it go, because all of that stuff has nothing to do with who we really are, our ability to evolve picks up amazing speed. Only now, with calm, and poise.

What a relief!

If you look into what I’m conveying here, it is that we don’t have to spend the rest of our lives, from this day, this minute forward, overcoming a history we are identified with. You (we) can be free today, and change our lifestyles to manifest the life we want.

Do you want to change your lifestyle and create your life beyond the shadow of doubt (cast by your ego?)

If so, then, you truly need to go far enough and understand that we are not the proverbial humans who are having spiritual experiences, but rather are spirits (energy and intelligence) who are experiencing what it means to be human, who have to relearn how to live without the over personification of an ego filled with accumulated and often dramatic, traumatic, emotionally charged and addictive experiences (amidst lots of good stuff too), that takes over, and causes us to forget who we really are and think we are not free. As my teacher says, “we always already are free.”

I am all for this new orientation, which is really a re-identification, and I am deadly serious about it. Living a performance lifestyle requires we know who we really are, why we are here and what we are up to in this pass through life.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to intentionally live one more day, unable to make needed changes, because of ignorance of this deeper reality.

I used to always say, “I’m not graceful, but I eventually get it done.” I’ve tired of that… I choose grace. Do you?

So today, I am going to share with you an insight from my teacher, Andrew Cohen, who revealed… that enlightenment is a secret. It cannot be experienced by the ego, or the separate self. Only the deeper authentic self knows this and from this place, we can develop “spiritual self confidence” and “soul strength” which is even more important than enlightenment according to Cohen.

It is essential to re-identify with the authentic self (something that I can now say eludes most of us) to develop spiritual self confidence, if we want to change our lifestyles here for the better forever, and for reasons including but far greater than how we look, feel and perform.

Here is a profound insight from Andrew Cohen.

“Deep Experiences Are Not Enough”.

Spiritual experiences should serve as a catalyst for change that effects every aspect of the personality. Unless change occurs, spiritual experiences are worthless. Among seekers. deep experiences are quite common; but deep experiences are not enough because people can realize absolutely everything and still not change at all.

When there has been Realization and profound revelation, can a person live up to that which has been revealed? Can a person live up to that ecstasy in every aspect of their life? Most cannot.

The gift of grace is free. But can a person honor it totally and completely?

That’s very different. That’s when a great sacrifice comes in”

And I would add, that the great sacrifice is no longer identifying as someone special or separate, because you or I think we have a problem or think we are the problem, we’re not. The ego is, and that is what we need to give up.

And that’s why I think it’s time we resolve, and evolve our lifestyles from the deepest level there is– the realization if who we really are, and let that energy and intelligence drive us to evolve in every way, no longer driven by today’s personal and collective ego, which can and likely will keep you stuck. It has gotten a bit dramatic; don’t you think?

Changing your lifestyle for a whole new experience of life, is not that hard, when you know who you really are. I’ll give you a hint… it’s not that string of thoughts that stampede through your head on a day to day basis.

You’ve heard me talk here for some time about the purpose of Your Lifestyle, which is foremost to achieve your goals, but what if you’ve got 90% of The Lifestyle Down, but don’t have a blue print for achieving your goals?

If there is one thing I’ve learned about lifestyle improvements, besides the fact that you must have goals bigger than eating and exercise, if you are going to eat healthy and be active enough, it’s this: You have to be clear on what you want.

When you aren’t clear on what you want you will soon find yourself saying… “I could be doing and achieving more… a lot more.”

Now I know how challenging this can be which is why it’s such a focused area of a Performance Lifestyle. Matter of fact, I don’t think there is anything more important than getting clear on what you want, and why you want it.

Also, is your why powerful enough to inspire what’s driving you?

Once you have that “must” driving you, you are well on your way to achieving what you want, but let’s be clear. I don’t know of anyone who has not worked really hard on getting clear on what they want. This takes focus and effort. For most of us, it requires some workshop time. Any good business owner or athlete does this, so why shouldn’t you?

Tom has actually been able to create a formula or “equation” for the Science of Achievement. (See the picture above.) Tom Terwilliger can you get this formula working for you. As a matter of fact, I credit him for helping me zero-in on what I want. His original book, The 7 Rules of Achievement helped me clear a path to clarity. It’s taken some tweaking ever since, but the very tools he provided continue to help me with those tweaks.

The opportunity to be in a boot camp setting with Tom, is a real opportunity and whether you do or you don’t you will learn a great deal from Tom, because he delivers essential information right from the start. Take a look and see if Tom can help you get clear on what you want.

So go ahead and listen in on one of his webinars to learn more.

Likewise, each and every one of us has a present (personal, family, business) situation. It’s the whole of our lives, with all of its persistent challenges and joys, and it’s what we all really need to be focusing on; ideally as part of the collective whole, acknowledging the reality that none of us is separate. We are all connected.

That said, we all have a responsibility, to be present to our life situation, and not cover it up, which we all know is very easy to do, when it’s not going or working the way we want. Food anyone? We have a responsibility to resolve the often hard to face, feel and deal with issues in our lives that can prevent us from wholly evolving or moving forward in a position of strength in the world in a way that spreads more joy, not dismay.

Often times the challenges we face are deep, at the structural, financial, vital (energy), support layer of our lifestyles, which will affect your lifestyle in terms of how you eat, think and live in a serious way.

To do this, we have to come from a perspective, as Andrew Cohen says, of ” Facing  everything and avoiding nothing’, which I also convey by saying “resolve and evolve” in order to achieve our goals. I have gotten a great deal of experience with this over the last several years of my life.

A performance lifestyle is corner stoned by, not wholly about whether or not yet get enough sleep, or are eating a nutrient rich diet or are exercising enough; these are lifestyle factors that enable you to function and perform, look and feel the way you want to, but there is so much more to the lifestyle equation than these direct “rubber hits the road” practices.

What about those factors that enable us to get enough sleep, eat healthy and exercise? What if you don’t have enough space and time, are suffering from overwhelm or confusion, persistent fatigue, not enough support or a poor inner psychology etc?

This is why in a performance lifestyle we always need to get an understanding of the present situation, first and foremost, because why a person is overeating or experiencing fatigue may have less to do with elaborate discussions on sleep, or food, and exercise, and more to do with a seemingly unrelated issue that needs to get resolved.

You must always understand your present situation, which is the primary value of a coach, to know what your next steps are. And hopefully you have the skills to take those steps.

Herein lies something very interesting.

In order to evolve with new thoughts and skills and focus on achieving our goals, we have to apply the very same skills we learn in a Performance Lifestyle, to resolve our presentation situation. I have literally made a career out of helping people improve their lifestyle’s by helping them develop a situation-orientation and improve IT from an inspired, educated and supported place, as opposed to personalizing the situation and not being able to see the the forest from the trees.

When you focus on the situation, you are able to be more objective at what has to happen for your life to improve.

The picture above is a metaphor. In a Performance Lifestyle, the whole of your life is like a set of gears.

1. Your Life structure, how it has been set up
2. Your Lifestyle, how you think and live.
3. Your Goals, what you are seeking to achieve.

Getting all three in alignment is essentials for things to be working and from this position of strength, you can handle all other challenges. It’s not an over night process, but it does help you get real and troubleshoot your situation, discover what needs to happen and take action on it, on purpose.