May your actions speak louder than your words. May your life preach louder than your lips. May your success be your noise in the end.

The result of enormous success is often pretty noisy — lots of people talking, writing, and sharing stories about it. The actual process of achieving enormous success, on the other hand, is far more discreet. But it’s this process that happens quietly, behind-the-scenes, that makes all the difference in the world.

Marc and I are fortunate enough to know a number of enormously successful human beings. Regardless of lifestyle, industry or profession, they share many of the same subtle yet powerful daily rituals. And that’s precisely what I want to discuss with you today. Here are twelve key things the most successful people we know do quietly and diligently: (more…)

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
— Clare Boothe Luce

Let’s start off here with a simple question:

What does your perfect day look and feel like?

Visualizing your perfect day is important not necessarily because it will be a recurring reality, but because it’s crucial to understand what a simple life — or an “uncomplicated life” — really means to you. And it’s different for everyone — for me, it means practicing my morning gratitude meditation, quiet writing and reading time, a few fours of focused time with our coaching clients, and doing something memorable with Marc and our son, Mac. For others, it’s a long morning walk, afternoon yoga, a productive day in the home office, and a hot bath before bed. And for others, it’s simply lots of time to focus on an important life goal, while still leaving enough time to get a good night’s rest.

Take a few moments now to visualize what a “perfect day” means to you.

Then shift your focus and consider all the miscellaneous, needless nonsense you get involved in on a daily basis, both mentally and physically, that goes against your “perfect day” philosophy.

Again, we can all agree that life is NOT perfect, and surely there are very necessary, hard things that must be handled every day. But there’s still a lot of mental and physical energy spent on matters that don’t deserve our time and attention.

Truth be told, the average day is actually pretty simple, but we insist on making it complicated.  Let’s break the cycle!  Here are a few easy ways to gradually uncomplicate your life — and yes, it’s a GRADUAL process, because it’s easy to change your life one tiny step at a time: (more…)

Be the type of person whose values, priorities, and actions always agree with one another.

Why is it that over 50% of our new course students tell us they feel completely overwhelmed and exhausted in their personal and professional lives?

The answer may surprise you: It’s not the number of minutes they spend awake and working hard each day that’s the issue—it’s that they often spend 99% of those minutes juggling too many things at once.

Be honest…

• Do you check social media apps on your phone when you’re sitting in meetings, or when you’re spending time with family and friends?
• Do you eat lunch at your desk, or while you’re on the run?
• Is the TV often on in your home, even when you’re busy doing other things?
• Do you send the occasional text message while driving?

The biggest cost of doing multiple things at once like this (assuming you don’t crash from the texting and driving) is (more…)

When things aren’t adding up in your life, begin subtracting.

Busyness is an illness.

Think about your own life and the lives of those close to you. Most of us have a tendency to do as much as we possibly can—cramming every waking minute with events, extravagances, tasks and obligations.

We think doing more will get us more satisfaction, success, etc. When oftentimes the exact opposite is true.

Less can be far more rewarding in the long run. But we’re so set in our ways that we can’t see this.

And so…

• When we work, we shift from one task to the next quickly and continuously, or we multi-task—juggling five things at once until the end of the day… and yet we still feel like we haven’t done enough of the right stuff.
• When we finally break away for some healthy exercise, we tend to push ourselves as hard as we possibly can… until we’re exhausted and sore, and less likely to want to exercise tomorrow.
• When we go to a nice restaurant, we want to try all the appetizers, drinks and entrees, indulging in as much deliciousness as we possibly can… and we leave feeling bloated, sometimes uncomfortably so, and then our waistlines stretch.
• When we travel to a new city, we want to see it all—every landmark and every photo op—so we do as much as physically possible… and we return home from our trip utterly exhausted.

How can we tame our urge to do too much? (more…)

What you focus on grows.
Stop managing your time.
Start managing your focus.

“Am I making meaningful use of this scarce and precious day?”

That’s a simple question Angel and I challenge our course students to ask themselves anytime they feel busyness overwhelming them.

Because excessive busyness is rarely meaningful.

And make no mistake about it—excessive busyness is a widespread, modern-day illness!

We fill our calendars and our social media feeds with various kinds of busyness, oftentimes just to avoid being bored… to avoid being exactly who we are, exactly where we are. The instant we feel a bit idle, we run off in the direction of the nearest shiny object that catches our attention. And in the process, we not only miss out on the serenity and beauty that exists within ourselves, but we also miss out on (more…)

STARTING NOW: NO shortcuts. NO quick fixes. NO blaming others. NO “I’ll do it tomorrows.” NO MORE EXCUSES!

The mind is a wonderful thing. It’s also an excuse-making machine that frequently tries to convince us not to take actions we know are good for us. And this prevents many positive changes from taking place in our lives.

I’ve had to learn to watch these excuses very carefully in order to make the positive changes I’ve made in my life: a healthier diet, regular exercise, meditation, more sleep, daily writing, better planning, less procrastination, more focus, etc.

If I hadn’t learned about these excuses, and how to suppress them, I would never have succeeded in making these positive changes. In fact, until I knew better, I had failed countless times when I was young because my mind’s deceptive tendencies used to get the best of me.

So why does the mind mess with us and make irrational excuses?

Because the mind wants comfort, that’s why. It’s afraid of discomfort, pressure and change. The mind is absorbed in its comfort zone, and anytime we try to stretch that zone too far, for too long, the mind tries desperately to get back to ground zero at any cost—including sacrificing our long-term health, happiness and success.

So let’s expose 10 of the cowardly mind’s most damaging excuses once and for all… (more…)

“Trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.”
? Molière

How often has this happened to you? …

You want to do more with your life – get into great shape, pursue a hobby you’re passionate about, start your own business, or work toward a new career, etc.  You start building a positive habit that will take you in that direction – exercise, waking up early, writing, meditation, an evening routine, studying, etc.

You begin with a lot of determination (for a week maybe).  Then something makes you skip your habit for a couple of days: a new project at work, unexpected household events, illness, family coming to visit, and so on.

Those “busy” days keep popping up, and so you skip more often.  Before long, you abandon your new habit altogether.

It’s frustrating isn’t it?  Trying again and again to build positive habits, but not being able to?

Sometimes you feel that you simply don’t have it in you to do anything anymore.  You are just too busy, too old, and just plain exhausted.

But what if that’s not true?  What if the only things holding you back are a few limiting beliefs?  And I’m not talking about negative beliefs.

We hold numerous beliefs about what works, about the correct way to do things, and about what we need to do to be successful.  And on the surface, many of these beliefs sound quite positive and motivational, and they are in some situations.  However, in many other situations, they turn into motivational myths that completely cripple our progress and prevent us from building positive habits.  Let me explain…

Myth #1:  All you need to do is work really, really hard to be successful.

This belief is single-handedly responsible for (more…)

Too much to do, not enough time to do it.

Sound familiar?

Twenty-five years ago, at the dawn of the modern internet revolution, people were predicting that our technological advancements would eventually allow us to work less, so we could pay more attention to what’s truly important in our lives.  Today, however, there’s plenty of evidence to the contrary.

We may be able to achieve twice as much in half the time, but that’s what’s expected of us now – it’s the new baseline.  On top of that, technology fills our free time with endless distractions – we’re checking text messages, email, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc., 24/7.

And so, despite its benefits, our technology has us feeling as desperately overwhelmed as ever.

The solution?

Mindfulness.

Or more specifically: mindfulness as it relates to prioritizing, letting go, and reframing our thoughts.

1.  The Art of Mindfully Prioritizing

The moment we admit to ourselves that we’re trying to (more…)

What we truly need to do is often what we most feel like avoiding.

If we don’t go after what we want, we will never get it.  If we don’t ask the right questions, we will always get the wrong answers.  If we don’t take a step forward, we are always going to be standing in the same exact place.  Life is a journey comprised of small steps.  The key is to take these steps, every single day.

We know this already, right?

But how often are we stuck in a cycle of worry, fear, and other forms of overthinking?  How often are we aimlessly distracted?  And how often do we procrastinate?

After consistently working on my mindfulness and time management habits, I’ve become reasonably proficient at getting things done with minimal distraction and procrastination.

Today, for example, I wrote a 1000-word email newsletter, proof-read and cleaned up a chapter in a new book Angel and I are co-writing, coached one of our Getting Back to Happy students, responded to comments and emails from dozens of students and readers, worked on business planning and strategizing for a few active side-projects, spent a quality evening with my family, and of course now I’m writing this post.

It might seem like a lot, but it happens one step at a time, with presence and focus.

With that said, however, I’ll be the first to admit that I still struggle with some detrimental habits that sneak up on me and get in the way of my effectiveness.  And these are super common habits among my friends, family, acquaintances, and students alike – these are the things we all do that end up wasting our lives, one precious moment at a time.  The word “waste” may sound overly dramatic, but it’s really not.  After spending the past decade coaching thousands of people, and working through my own personal issues, there’s little doubt that these are the most popular ways we all collectively waste our lives:

1.  We waste our lives with meaningless distractions.

Distractions are both more damaging and more tempting than we realize.  When we fill our lives with (more…)

Anyone can make today more complicated than it has to be, and most people will. It takes a touch of wisdom to do the opposite.

Our days fill up so fast, and are so frenzied and jammed with drama and distractions, they often seem to be bursting at the seams.  And the craziest part of it all is that we get so accustomed to this kind of chaos, we think it’s normal.  We go about each day without ever questioning why we feel so darn stressed out.

Angel and I lived this way for many years, until a time came when we were dealt a series of harsh reality checks that forced us to reexamine everything.  One of the key lessons we learned through this reexamination is that it’s not terribly hard to make our lives a whole lot simpler and happier, one day at a time… one step at a time.

Today, I encourage you to join us on our daily journey of living a simpler, happier life by following the seven steps I’ve outlined below.  Keep in mind, however, that while Angel and I have fully incorporated each of these steps into our daily lives, we did so gradually.  I suggest you choose one right now and begin working on it.  Then revisit this list when you’re ready to take the next step.

1. Identify what’s most important, and eliminate the rest. – This may sound like a drastic measure to some, but it’s really not.  Today will quickly fill up with time-wasting activities if you aren’t careful.  Thus, you must remember that being productive isn’t just about getting things done – it’s also about leaving things undone.  The simplicity and efficiency of today relies heavily on the elimination of non-essential tasks.  You must identify what’s most important to you, and then eliminate as much as you possibly can of everything else. (more…)

NOTE: This post has been updated with new information and republished here:

The Life-Changing Magic of Doing One Thing at a Time

Photos by: Sean Hawley and Dave Gough

Besides the intelligent art of getting the “right things” done, there is the often-forgotten art of leaving the “wrong things” undone.

This past month at our first annual Think Better, Live Better conference, dozens of people asked me how Angel and I “get it all done.”

In one woman’s words that were captured on a video testimonial recorded at the conclusion of the conference:

“Marc and Angel, how do you do it?  How are you so enormously productive?  How do you host incredible conferences, write hundreds of blog posts every year, coach hundreds of Getting Back to Happy students like myself, personally respond to student and customer emails so promptly, and still have time left to spend with family and each other?  I haven’t a clue how you make it all happen, but I’m so grateful you do…”

From the outside looking in, I can see how certain people might perceive us as being “enormously productive” – perhaps possessing some kind of magical potion that allows us to accomplish more than what seems humanly possible.

The truth, however, is that there is no potion, just a set of consistent, intentional choices to abolish the negative habits, beliefs and behaviors that would otherwise fill our lives with needless stress and our calendars with lots of waste.

And we didn’t invent the wheel here either – all of our closest mentors and peers walk a similar journey of maximizing productive output by minimizing mental and physical time-wasters.  I encourage you to join us…

1.  Refuse to wait around.

Stephen King once said, “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”

An obvious bias toward (more…)

“Do not ruin today with mourning tomorrow.”
—Catherynne M. Valente

This short article was inspired by an email we received this morning from a new course student:

Dear Marc and Angel,

I have a big problem.  I’m intelligent, highly educated in my field of study, and have achieved numerous professional accolades while working for large corporations over the years, but now that I’ve branched out on my own as an entrepreneur I’m stuck in a rut.  I have dozens of good ideas that I can easily execute on, but every time I rev up and start taking massive action, I get overwhelmed and scared.  I start second-guessing my choices and myself.  Or I start worrying about and obsessing over all the possibilities for both success and failure, until everything comes to a halt and I’m utterly exhausted.  There’s so much I want to achieve, and I know I’m capable if I could just get beyond this.  What do you recommend?

Sincerely,
An Overwhelmed Student

Our reply (an open reply to all who feel overwhelmed):

Dear Overwhelmed Student,

It’s time for a quick story about life…

Once upon a time there was a woman who had been lost in the (more…)

The worst enemy to happiness is self-doubt.

Has self-doubt ever stopped you from doing something you longed to do?

That little voice in your head kept whispering…

“Who are you to even try to accomplish that?”

Whether you wanted to run a marathon, start a business, or go for a promotion, that little voice kept nagging at you that you’re not good enough.

In early 2014, this was the soundtrack that played on repeat in my head.

See, I really, really wanted to start a new business.

But even before giving myself the chance, the soundtrack began to loop, and self-doubt kicked in.

“There’s no way you could be successful.  Who are you to even try to do this?”

After my self-doubt monster talked me out of starting my business, I smothered my passion for the topic.  I went back to my life, until I came across (more…)

Those who do not get up and move, do not notice their chains.

About a decade ago Angel and I started the blog that would ultimately become Marc and Angel Hack Life.  We didn’t know how to design a website.  We didn’t know what a blog was.  We didn’t even really know how to write very well.  All we knew were five things:

• We recently lost two loved ones, unexpectedly, to illness.
• We were struggling in our personal and professional lives.
• We needed an outlet.
• We were passionate about writing, and improving our writing.
• We had not been writing enough.

So we created a website and turned it into a blog.  Since we didn’t know exactly what it would be about yet, we just registered the domain name www.marcandangel.com.  The idea was that even if our concept for the blog changed over time, our names would remain the same.  They were a safe bet.

Start Anyway

To be honest, we didn’t feel ready to write publicly on a blog.  But the important thing was that we started anyway.

It was a week after a mutual best friend passed away unexpectedly.  We were spending a lot of (more…)

A human being who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.

You wonder … “Where do my days go?”

You are busier than ever before, but you have very little to show for all that time spent working and hustling.

Gurus tell you that time is your most precious resource, but it seems to fly by like never before. You’re overwhelmingly busy, but your to-do list stays a mile long.  Technology promises to streamline your life, but in reality, all it seems to do is complicate it.

You spend your days rushing and being pulled in five different directions at any given moment.  Priorities change constantly.  Your inbox can’t go 20 minutes without a massive download of emails.  Your job responsibilities are intense, and, simultaneously, your co-workers keep sending you meeting invites.  Then you rush home to try and prepare a healthy dinner that your family will actually like, all the while texting your best friend and catching up with social media updates.

How are you supposed to get things done right?

It’s exhausting!  You’re exhausted!

But it’s not just you.  It’s happening to most of us, every single day.

You wish you lived that dream lifestyle that TV shows and magazines try to sell you, with plenty of time to relax and indulge in your passions.  And although you “know” that dream is not real, you still crave some peace in your life.

Ready for life to feel a lot less stressful?

I have great news: With a few simple habit changes, you can save yourself a lot of time and energy.  If you’re ready to get more value out of your limited time, then its time to…

1.  Focus until completion.

Have you noticed how starting a task often demands more energy and willpower than actually doing it?  Especially when (more…)

If you’re stuck and you don’t know how to rise, don’t look outside yourself.  Look inside.

Have you ever felt like you were racing around in circles without making much forward progress?  I know I have, many times.  In the past I caught myself feeling stuck more often than I wanted to admit, and eventually I knew I needed to find a new roadmap.  I was feeling utterly depressed and trapped by the same old problems and scenery.  I needed to free myself!

The first thing I learned as I struggled to find my way is this:

Fear is the cage that keeps you stuck.  Faith is the key that sets you free.

And the second thing I learned is that getting unstuck isn’t just a single action – it’s a process – a life-changing journey.  And all journeys begin with a call to adventure, and this call is different for all of us.

Here are ten strategies (“calls”) that I’ve successfully implemented over the years to help clients and myself get unstuck, mentally and physically, even when doing so seemed impossible.

1.  Relocate Yourself to an Inspiring Environment

One of the simplest ways to get unstuck is to simply shift your environment.

For example, if you went from this:

To this:

Your mind and state of … “stuck” … would shift rapidly.

And the great thing is, it doesn’t have to be that dramatic a shift.  You can (more…)

Make today count – at the end of it, let there be no explanations, no excuses and no regrets.

When we think about walking with the dreamers, the believers, the creative types, the planners, the doers, the remarkably successful people with their heads in the clouds and their feet on the ground, we get excited.  We want to jump on their bandwagon, join the party and hoot and holler!  We let their spirit ignite a fire within us to leave this world better than when we found it.

And that’s great!

But what we often neglect, at least initially, is the fact that these “successful” people have been working hard and quietly, often for long, tedious periods of time, to achieve what others eventually interpret as remarkable work.

The truth is, the result of remarkable success is pretty noisy – lots of people noticing, talking, and sharing stories about it.  The actual process of achieving remarkable success, on the other hand, is far more discreet (and underappreciated).  But it’s this gradual process that happens quietly, behind-the-scenes, that makes all the difference in the world.

The Quiet Rituals Interview

People have said that Angel and I are remarkably successful at what we do.  Forbes interviewed me recently and classified our blog as (more…)

Any darn fool can make a day more complicated than it has to be; it takes a touch of genius to make it simple again.

PLEASE NOTE: This post has been updated with new information and republished here:

How to Make Life Simple Again

Photo by: The 10 Cent Designer

The worst enemy to productivity and creativity is self-pity.

This morning I didn’t feel like doing anything.  It’s a combination of exhaustion from a few days of hard work, and a lack of sleep with a baby in the house.

I couldn’t motivate myself to do anything important, which is a rare occurrence for me.  I just felt completely discouraged and defeated.  I started overthinking things and doubting myself, and wondering whether anything I do is worthwhile.

I sat there in this funk for nearly an hour and wondered how to get out of it.  Should I just forget about today?  Should I just give up on this project, because I’m not as good at it as I thought I was?

That’s what I was considering, at least for a little while.  But the better part of me knew this mild state of depression was temporary, and so I dug into my own intellectual toolbox for solutions – little tricks of the mind that can have a real effect on reality.

Here’s what works for me – seven things to keep in mind (and do) when you feel discouraged and defeated:

1.  You are not the center of the universe (stop making it all about YOU).

I think we all have the tendency to put ourselves at the center of the universe, and see everything from the viewpoint of how it affects us.  But this can have all kinds of adverse effects, from feeling sorry for ourselves when things aren’t going exactly as planned, to doubting ourselves when we aren’t perfect.

So this morning, instead of worrying so much about myself, I thought about other people I might help.  Finding little ways to help others gets me out of my self-centered thinking, and then I’m not wallowing in self-pity anymore – I’m starting to think about what others need.  I’m not doubting myself, because the question of whether I’m good enough or not is no longer the central question.  The central question now is about what others need. (more…)