How to Live Your Best Life

To celebrate my 44th birthday today, here are 44 things I have learned and know to be true to live your best life. What's good, it's Rob Cressy, and I'm vibing today on my birthday. And every year I create a big post saying here's the things I've learned to live my best life, and I figured let's bring some context and color to this bad boy. I'm gonna go down each of these 44, I want a small little snippet of context to it, having a ton of fun. So let's get this birthday party started.

Number one, happiness is not a destination, but a way of life. This is something that sits on a picture right in front of me in my studio as a reminder every single day that happiness is something, boom, it's a mindset, a lifestyle, it's a way of being.

Number two, never stop learning. And actually right next to that picture of the happiness is not a destination is an award I received from the Arete Syndicate on being a lifetime student. And for me, this single thing changed my life forever. When I was sitting there at zero, my first day of entrepreneurship, no clients, no website, no nothing, I was like, I got to get better, I got to improve. I'm making personal growth the top priority of my life every single day. Therefore, let's make myself better today than I was yesterday. That's all about never stop learning.

Number three, and I actually just said it, I didn't even look at it, make today better than yesterday. And the simplest way that I do that is by reading a book every single day for 30 minutes first thing in the morning. So literally within the first 30 minutes of being up, boom, I'm already better than I was yesterday. Rinse and repeat that bad boy for 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, the rest of your life. See what happens.

Number four, dance like no one's watching. Oh baby, I dance like no one's watching all the time. I was actually just dancing right before this. I was listening to that 2 Chainz birthday song and I was like, oh, getting after it a little bit. Number five, earn your confidence. Learned this so many times, but certainly in 75 Hard. One of the reasons why we do hard things is so that you can earn that confidence. Once you understand that, you can be the most confident person that you want to be because you earn it every step of the way.

Number six, give without any expectation of receiving. I love this. This is having a giver's heart. Whether it's the content that I'm creating, the things I'm doing in coaching, or just everyday life, man, be a go-giver. When you're a go-giver, like attracts like. Number seven, make time, not excuses. So many people live in scarcity mindset. Oh, I don't have enough time. I'm too busy. I'm too overwhelmed. I'll get to it someday. Please throw that in the trash. Make time. Do amazing things that you want to do. Not excuses.

Number eight, abracadabra, speak things into creation. For me, this is one of the biggest level ups that I ever learned. It's all about being a master of language, your ability to speak things into creation. It's why as a coach, I'm a master of listening. I hear everything that you see or that you say, because your story will tell me, or your words will tell me everything about what's going on with your story and who you are. Therefore, choose your words very carefully because they can either serve you or limit you in the world we live in. Abracadabra, speak things into creation for life.

Number nine, impress yourself. This applies to so many areas of your life as well as the world of AI. One of the prompts I always give is, hey, next time you ChatGPT, impress yourself. Do something you've never done before. And quite frankly, this is a great standard for all areas of your life. Hey, how can you impress yourself? Number 10, help others. It makes the world a better place. Somewhere along the line, someone helped me. So once again, I'm gonna be a go-giver and help others.

Number 11, embrace change. Man, change is an amazing thing. And one of my favorite quotes I learned back in the day is the best way to change is to change. Therefore, let's embrace that and see that as a good thing.

Number 12, and this is a more recent one, but one that is so rich in goodness and wisdom. Letting go is creating. So often we think that the only way to create growth is more, more, more. Action, more action, more action. But there is actually an opportunity to open up the possibility that by letting go, dropping and removing, that is also an act of creation. And once you're on that frequency, then you're like, wait a second, what are the things in my life that I can let go of that will actually create more of what I want in my life? It's like, wow, I'm really about that. There's layers to that thing I'm still unpacking myself.

Number 13, never stop working on your dream. Boom. Every day, top of mind, your vision, your dream. You can make it happen if you want. And I think back to the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey and I was like, I saw the statistics for entrepreneurship and small businesses and how many of them fail. And I asked myself one question. I was like, how do I not be those people? And the answer was simple. Don't quit. Don't give up. Keep believing. Therefore, I've become someone who specializes in not quitting or giving up on my dreams.

Number 14, let go of the past, focus on the future. This is all about focusing on what's in front of you, not what's in the rear view. Because we want to talk about and create, boom, here's where I'm going, here's what we're doing. All forward, not the past. You can't do anything with the past.

Number 15, challenge yourself and do hard stuff. I love to do this by design. One of the mantras I live by is get comfortable being uncomfortable. Another one, prepare for what's difficult when it's easy. And you're gonna hear a lot of these common threads because once again, how do you become somebody who specializes in not quitting? By doing hard things. Because you know there's gonna be obstacles, adversity and challenges. Some you see, some you don't see. They're gonna come your way. So let's start working on that stuff by design.

All right, next thing here. Oh, number 16, believe great things are going to happen. That's another part of this, of having an abundance mindset, is no matter the circumstances, we all have the opportunity to choose the perspective that we believe great things are going to happen, because that will serve you. And of course, all of this is like a pot of chili. Yes, any individual one of these can be amazing, but when you start stacking these things together, boom, super powerful, amazing life.

Number 17, normal is boring. And shout out to my friend Jesse Cole, who runs the Savannah Bananas. Had him on my podcast a couple times and he's somebody who shares this all the time and I love it. I love seeing what the Savannah Bananas are doing. They're absolutely revolutionizing the world of baseball. He says normal is boring. Jesse Itzler always talks about this as well. I love it. I don't want to do whatever everybody else is doing. I want to create something totally unique.

Number 18, be around others who inspire you and help you to grow. Man, there's been so many people, mentors, books, podcasts that have helped me along in my life, from being a part of Arete to Jesse Itzler's communities to what Colin and I are building right now with Unlimited.

Number 19, keep your head up and a smile on your face. This past week I was in Chicago, where I lived for more than a decade, and I was visiting. I love it there in Chicago. And one of the things that I was always so present about was when I was walking, even if I had headphones and listened to music or podcasts, my eyes and head are always up. Why? Because man, you can see so many things through your eyes up. For the majority of the world right now, they operate with their eyes down. They're just sitting there staring at the phone or staring at the ground.

And I'd always make it a point to look people in the eyes and smile at them. But I would estimate that 80% of the people, they never looked up at me. But man, there are so many things in my life and I'm thankful that I've been looking up. And one of the mantras that is often on my whiteboard, it says look up and love up. Because when you're on that sort of frequency and that positioning in your life, man, I'm always looking up, things are always looking up. Man, great things are gonna happen for you.

Number 20, this is a mantra I live by. Live by design, not by default. Shout out to my branding coach Gil Nevo for originally introducing this to me a long time ago. This is something that I fundamentally believe. I coach around it. My programs and courses are all about, among other things, how you can design your best self by design. So boom, all of this is very formulaic. I've lived this, because I was not this person a decade ago. So let's live by design, not by default like the majority of the world.

Number 21, stay young in your heart. So as I speak this on my birthday, to me, age is just a number. When everybody likes to crack those age jokes, I don't give a crap, because I get better as I age. And there's no hyperbole in that whatsoever. I truly believe it because I live it and I earn it every single day. So good example of this. Dropped my son off at preschool this morning at 8:30. And then after that, I went for a four mile run in the Florida heat. Why? It's my birthday, and I want to make sure that I'm earning my confidence every single time.

It's my birthday and I often get it, certainly as a compliment, like, wow, Rob, you're so much younger than you seem. I didn't know that that's how old you were. And it's like, yeah, this is by design. I'm young at heart. I do things in all areas of my life to keep me and create me as young, because I know once again what it is like to not live like this.

Number 22, have fun in everything that you do. I worked in a cubicle in a cube farm making $10 an hour with a computer with no email or internet access for a large period of time, and it was terrible. So I know what it's like to not want to do what you want to do for a decade of your life. Therefore, when I said I'm going all in to create my dreams and do whatever I want to do, boom, I'm surely gonna be making this bad boy fun, including this piece of content right here.

Number 23, I love this one. Be intentional about turning off the world. One of my things that is so key for high performance is auditing your inputs or controlling your inputs. Good in, good out. Bad in, bad out. And yeah, that seems obvious, but it's not easy oftentimes in this always on world to get away from the world. And it's why creating space from the digital world can create so much more space and clarity for yourself.

Number 24, you cannot worry and trust at the same time. This is a wise one, kind of a challenging one when you're in the middle of a worrying section where you're worrying about some fears, some judgments, some self-limiting beliefs, some things going on in your life. But guess what? Trust that things will be better. That's part of having a growth mindset.

Number 25, focus on the moment and being present. That creating your best life is really just living on a moment to moment to moment to moment basis over and over and over again. And crazy how this works. The more you remove yourself from the always on world and the more that you're just present with who you are and what you're doing, the more good things that will come your way. Number 26, take initiative. Yeah, this is an obvious one, but man, people who take initiative in all areas of their life, this is a skill that is oh so valuable.

Number 27, and this is a core value of mine, do what's right. It's something that I learned from my dad growing up. Every time I would leave the house, no matter what time it was, he'd always say, hey Rob, do what's right. And it built a great foundation for me because I'm someone who does what's right. And it's so important that it is one of my core values.

Number 28, yes and. And I don't know if ironically enough, but I didn't know this was going to happen, this is on my shirt that I'm wearing right now. Yes and, build upon ideas, don't tear them or others down. And this comes from my years of training in comedy and improv at Second City in Chicago. I took comedy classes for four years, not to become a comedian, but instead to learn the skill set of one so I could apply it to all areas of my life.

And the two words that are foundational to the world of improv is yes and. When you're on stage with someone, boom, you are partners together. You're there to make them look good and you are there to build up their ideas. And I'm going to end up doing a separate piece of content just on this. It is such a powerful way to live where you're constantly building up others' ideas.

Number 29, start your day by saying today is going to be a great day. And this is something that I've been doing for the last decade. And it's the very first thought that I have every single day. And this is by design, because you're gonna have a first thought every day, so why not do it in a way that serves you? So with this, you just wake up and you're like, today is going to be a great day. Boom. Plants that seed of abundance over and over again.

And imagine doing that three or four times in the first two hours you being up. Takes no effort. Now multiply that by 365 days a year or 10 years. You think you have some great days when you start by saying today is gonna be a great day? I do. I've lived it.

Number 30, get comfortable being uncomfortable. And this is something in the world of entrepreneurship, you sign up for challenges, adversity and discomfort. Therefore, your ability to see obstacles as opportunities. Learned this one in Ryan Holiday's book, The Obstacle Is the Way. One of my favorite books. I'm wearing it as a necklace right now as a constant reminder that the more you can get comfortable in the face of adversity and challenge, boom, the better things are going to be.

Number 31, love Mondays. I gave a shout out to the movie Office Space because it's the famous, oh, looks like somebody's got a case of the Mondays. And it's funny to chuckle about, but guess what? I love Mondays, because anything great that happened during the week started on a Monday.

Number 32, accountability starts with you. And one of the things that has been a superpower for myself is because I've got such commitment, I'm all in on this, I am self-accountable. Doesn't mean that I'm perfect, but man, nobody has to hold me to a higher standard than I do myself. And that starts with accountability. Number 33, don't care about what others think, because what's more important is what you think about yourself. So your ability to design the story that you're telling yourself, man, that's the only thing that matters. That is the most important thing.

Number 34, you have so much potential inside of you. And this is something I should constantly remind myself of, better just I can shatter my belief ceiling of what's possible. It's possible for me. It's possible for you too, or possible for anyone. So let's shoot for the moon on that one right there.

Number 35, and this one's also a core value of mine, radiate positivity. Negativity has no place in your life. And I learned this one at the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey. It was oh so simple. I asked myself one question. What will help me accomplish my dreams faster, positivity or negativity? Positivity, of course. Negativity would take me further away from where I want to go and slow me down. Therefore, this became a binary thing, a one or a zero.

Number 36, be curious and embrace new experiences. Curiosity is part of growth and imagination and vision. And you never know what might be around that corner. And designing this into your life can be oh so valuable. So much so that when you start to do new things, time feels like it's slowing down. Therefore, one of the things that I love to do is just set the intention of doing or trying one new thing every single day. Never know what might happen.

Number 37, always believe in yourself. Because when you are your number one champion for yourself, when those times get tough, boom, man, believe it's going to happen. This is so fundamental to me that I tattooed believe on my forearm at the beginning of my entrepreneur journey as a constant reminder to keep believing in myself.

Number 38, there are no limits, just opportunities. Man, when you can reframe limits into opportunities, there goes that belief ceiling, and seeing this world as truly limitless or unlimited in all the possibilities that are available. One of the declarations I speak every day is I am a freight train of possibility. And what it means to me is there is so much possible when I hold myself to the standard that I have, as well as everyone that I'm working with. Man, you're getting my standard in your world. There is unlimited possibilities for you.

Number 39, live in action. Man, this is a simple one, but such a good one. Good things come when you live in action. Number 40, give more hugs and high fives. I got to give a shout out to all my friends all throughout the year, because we are a group that loves to give hugs and loves to give high fives. Because we are friendly, we are front, we are fun and we are about that life.

Number 41, and I actually know this is on the list later on, but here we go. Be conscious of your inputs. Good in, good out. Bad in, bad out. That what you feed yourself with will start creating your thoughts. Your thoughts will create your actions. Therefore, how about we be more intentional about what it is that we're feeding ourself with?

Number 42, you are a mirror for others, especially your children. So project what you would want for them. And this is something that I really learned. I currently have a two and a half year old son, that throughout the two and a half years, I've always been aware that, man, I am a mirror for him. Therefore, let's be intentional about what I'm projecting onto them. Not that we're trying to do it on him, but you get what I'm saying.

Number 43, freedom comes from within. This year, my word of the year is freedom, and I'm exploring freedom in all areas of life. And what you really learn is that freedom is something that you create for yourself.

And number 44, love life. Man, the word love is just so powerful. And the best way to create a life that you love is to design the life that you love, which can be designing your best self when you do so in a micro to micro moment or on the macro level of things.

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