Every single day is a gamble, there’s no denying that. But what if you could give yourself a one percent chance to be better than the day before? Over time, and with consistency, this minuscule margin will build. The following list isn’t in any form of order or importance, just actions that I implement from the moment I wake up. It has helped shape me into the business owner, husband, father, son, and man I am today.

Remember that the most difficult with any new goal is the concept of consistency. You can have all the tools at your disposal, but if you lack the drive to continue to keep putting forth the effort necessary it’s all null and void. So with that said, let us begin:

Isolate 60 min. of your morning

The irony is that I’m writing this amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, so I’m sure we’re ALL getting our daily dose of isolation at this point. All joking aside, what I specifically mean by “isolating” your mornings is to remove all the work, social, and “life” chatter that clutters 90% of your day. For example, non-essential things on your phone that can wait:

• Replying to texts
• Replaying to emails
• Scrolling your social media feeds
• Online shopping

The list can go on and on, but you get the gist. Why is it that so many people get sucked into that tiny screen the moment they open their eyes and right before they go to bed? Simple, they’ve made it into a habit. So why not make a new and positive one? Now, obviously it’s going to be subjective to you and your lifestyle but best case scenario is to give yourself 60 minutes of just you and your mental wellness.

So what exactly does that mean? It all comes down to what you want to get out of it. A few that come to mind:

• Meditation/breathing exercises
• Yoga
• Catching up on an old book
• REALLY enjoy that coffee
• Watch the sun break the horizon
• Be grateful

Harden the body, harden the mind

Getting up some mornings is a chore in itself, forget about actually having to put in effort to workout. But that’s the beauty in it! The human body is so much more resilient than we actually give it credit for. It’s our MIND that is the weakest link the majority of the time. Your ability to recognize when this occurs and to keep pushing forward will be a daily battle, but know that you can always control the outcome.

Now you need to realize something, every single person is built differently. This should be an obvious thing to recognize, but you’d be surprised the amount of people who attempt to mimic someone else’s workout when they have no business doing so. We all have weaknesses, and you need to HUNT them down and kill them with extreme prejudice. Learnt to find the comfort in discomfort.

I could easily write an entire piece on fitness, but one last thing to mention is that you don’t need a Gold’s Gym style setup to put work in. After leaving the military and getting serious again about fitness, I made an oath to myself to focus on bodyweight specific movements first, before I ever touch a barbell again. Pull up’s, push up’s air squat’s, leg raises, and wall handstands were my daily “meal” for about a year. Kettlebells, sand bags, and resistance bands are other inexpensive options. What I want you to grasp is that whatever type of workout you do choose, make sure you give it 100% effort. Leave all your worries you may have for that day fused in the sweat on the floor.

Organize your day

How many of us forget that we have 10 things we forgot to do as we’re laying down in bed? I’ve been there. I thought I could manage my day to day by just “remembering” them in my head. As we all soon realize, that just doesn’t work out too well. In comes what’s know as the “Ivy Lee Method.” It’s basically a 100-year-old strategy that helps in people prioritizing tasks for the next day.

Now the idea behind ol’ Ivy Lee here is at the end of each night to find no more than six tasks you wish to complete the following day. They must be written with the highest priority first. You cannot move to the next task until it’s complete. Any tasks that weren’t completed for that day gets bumped to the next day. Rinse and repeat. The idea behind this strategy is to limit the amount of what’s known as “decision fatigue.” Without a beacon to guide us in the storm we sometimes call “life,” we sometimes either make a quick decision based purely off of emotion or take too long and stall at the breach.

I’ve personally had great success with implementing this format to attacking my daily tasks. It helps keeping me on target for my day and assists in helping me focus as to what actually needs to get down versus what I want to get done. One last thing to add on this is to physically write your task list down. Writing it, compared to typing it in your phones notepad, helps with your memory and your ability to take action on it the next day.

Dry-fire, it’s free

If you’re reading this, I’m sure that it’s mostly because you take the protection of yourself, loved ones, teammate, or partner extremely seriously. Serious enough to a point that you own a firearm(s) because you accept and understand that evil doesn’t care about rules and regulations. With that said, you also need to understand and accept the responsibility that comes with owning such things.

Driving to the range may be far and ammo may be expensive, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t make those one percent gains that we talked about in the beginning. Dry-fire is a simple and free method that you can use in your own home and on your own time to literally own the techniques that can guarantee your safety and those you love. Why wouldn’t you take the time and effort for something that’s free?

The question then becomes where do you start? If you’re talking completely free, then YouTube would be your best bet. Just be wary of the fact that anyone can post content up there so make sure it’s from a reputable source.

For the cost of three Starbucks latte’s, your next step up would be RANGEFOX. It’s a completely customizable and fluid mobile app that simply gives you purpose in your dry-fire and even live-fire. In it you can create your own setup as to how you carry, a built-in shot timer, leaderboards, and a pie graph on the home screen that shows your percentage between live and dry-fire. At this point in time, it’s currently only available for iOS.

For a more in-depth option Runenation currently offers a multitude of options for REMOTE COACHING. If you can’t make it to the range, a class, or just clueless as how to even get started this is a great choice if you want a one-on-one immersion. Briefly, here’s what’s offered

• A FREE 15 minute phone/video consultation to build that roadmap to success
• 30/60/90 day package split between rifle, pistol, or both platforms
• Customized and tailored programming fit for your needs. No “cookie-cutter” templates found here!
• Video critiquing as if I was right there with you
• A completely progressive path to make you more competent and confident in your abilities.