We have become a consumer culture, easily distracted by a digital world. As a result, it becomes increasingly difficult for us to maintain focus. This negatively impacts our jobs as well as our relationships.

In this episode, I discuss how lack of focus is destroying our culture and concrete methods you can use to regain your ability to focus.

Show Highlights Include:

• The shocking truth about how long it takes you to overcome distractions, and how you can maintain your focus to get more done ([2:30])
• Why your phone is your worst enemy when you’re trying to focus and what to do about it ([4:56])
• The stealth phone app that’s quietly stealing nearly 4 hours of your day without you recognizing it ([5:57])
• Why leaving your phone at home makes you smarter ([9:31])
• The “45/15” plan for regaining your focus to improve all areas of your life ([13:49])
• How “Mental Gymnastics” improve your ability to focus ([14:58])

Do you want to stop existing and start living your best life right now? Click here to get the first chapter of Dr. Rick’s best-selling book, Lessons From a Third Grade Dropout, for free.

How many choices do you think you make in the course of a normal day? Studies have shown that the average person makes over 35,000 choices!

That’s great news because every one of those choices provides you with an opportunity to make a difference in your life or the life of someone else. 

In today’s episode, I discuss how to set yourself up for good choices and how to use your daily decisions to make the world a better place.

Show Highlights Include:

• The most single important skill you can develop for a healthy and fulfilling life ([1:19])
• The surprising reason that even the choices that seem insignificant have a huge impact on your life ([3:25])
• How “Good Company” makes every area of your life better ([4:25])
• Why the choices you make are directly linked to the hope you have in life ([8:37])
• What the Ice Bucket Challenge can teach you about the power of choices and hope to change the lives of millions ([9:52])
  

Do you want to stop existing and start living your best life right now? Click here to get the first chapter of Dr. Rick’s best-selling book, Lessons From a Third Grade Dropout, for free.

Grief is something we all deal with at some point. It may be the hardest thing that you ever have to deal with. But everyone grieves in a different way, so finding the right help can be hard.

So what do you do when you’re searching for hope during the most difficult time of your life?

In this episode, I discuss how to find the right help when you’re grieving and the most important thing you can do to recover when you feel like all hope is gone. 

Show Highlights Include:

• Why seeking answers about your grief from others rarely works, and what to do instead to ease your pain ([1:24])
• A commonly overlooked, but critical stage of grief and how you can move past it ([7:22])
• What you must understand about the stages of grief to effectively navigate your own experience ([8:37])
• The 10-Second “Hope Exercise” that can pull you out of your darkest moments ([12:36])

Do you want to stop existing and start living your best life right now? Click here to get the first chapter of Dr. Rick’s best-selling book, Lessons From a Third Grade Dropout, for free.

Many people view solitude as a negative experience. But often this comes from confusing solitude with loneliness.

Done right, solitude provides nearly unlimited opportunities for reflection and personal growth.

In this episode, I discuss the benefits of life-changing benefits of solitude, why we avoid being alone, and ways you can begin practicing solitude immediately.

Show Highlights Include:

• Why solitude got a bad reputation and how it can improve your life immediately ([1:37])
• Scientific evidence that solitude makes you more creative ([7:04])
• How daydreaming makes your life better and how solitude makes you better at it ([7:51])
• Why having alone time reduces depression ([8:33])
• The truth about why we seek “noise” and avoid being along with our thoughts ([10:56])

Do you want to stop existing and start living your best life right now? Click here to get the first chapter of Dr. Rick’s best-selling book, Lessons From a Third Grade Dropout, for free.

If there’s one thing our world needs today, it’s a healthy dose of kindness. In the global economy, kindness has been downgraded from a value to a commodity to get what we want.

There’s a huge difference between using kindness and being kind. That distinction has been lost, and we’re suffering as a result.

In this episode, I discuss why kindness is good for your health and how to bring back kindness to positively transform our society.

Show Highlights Include:

• The inner power you possess to overcome all the negativity in the world ([1:51])
• How our culture has corrupted the meaning of kindness and how you can restore it to its original glory ([2:44])
• The surprising way practicing kindness improves your physical health and makes you live longer ([3:13])
• How kindness creates a “Helper’s High” that transforms your brain for the better ([4:37])
• The “generational effect” that a simple act of kindness can spark to make a positive change in a community ([12:30])

Do you want to stop existing and start living your best life right now? Click here to get the first chapter of Dr. Rick’s best-selling book, Lessons From a Third Grade Dropout, for free.

What if I told you that all the success you desire is within your reach if you do one simple thing? There is one decision you can make today to immediately improve your life.

That decision is to embrace a growth mindset. A growth mindset allows you to take everything that life can throws at you… And come out stronger.

In this episode, I discuss the importance of mindset and how to develop the growth mindset that will help you achieve all your goals.

Show Highlights Include:

• Why unsuccessful people have so much trouble turning things around and what they can do to fix it immediately ([2:46])
• The secret behind Michael Jordan’s greatness and how you can harness it to improve your own life ([7:26])
• The Growth Mindset secret you can use to overcome any obstacle in your life ([8:21])
• Why you should welcome failure  into your life with open arms if you want to get better ([9:54])
• What “genius-level performers” can have to teach you about the irrelevance of talent (and what you should focus on instead) ([13:29])

Do you want to stop existing and start living your best life right now? Click here to get the first chapter of Dr. Rick’s best-selling book, Lessons From a Third Grade Dropout, for free.

Go, go, go. Spend, spend, spend. Buy, buy, buy. 

The consumer mindset in our society today pushes people into thinking that the next purchase will make them happy. Yet so many people feel empty and depressed. Instead of focusing on what they have, they dwell on what they lack.

Gratitude is the key to getting out of this rut.

In this episode, I discuss how consumer culture destroys happiness, why gratitude is in short supply today, and an exercise you do to instantly become more grateful.

Show Highlights Include:

• Why living in a consumer culture makes you miserable ([2:06])
• The depressing reason that gratitude is disappearing in society ([3:04])
• How humility brings you instant happiness ([5:15])
• The surprising reason dramatic improvements in your life make you miserable ([5:43])
• What a Mourning Dove can teach you about peace and happiness ([8:29])
• The One Minute Happiness exercise that can instantly develop gratitude in your life ([10:56])

Do you want to stop existing and start living your best life right now? Click here to get the first chapter of Dr. Rick’s best-selling book, Lessons From a Third Grade Dropout, for free.

Everyone gets stuck from time to time. It feels like nothing is working, and we get trapped in an endless cycle of self-pity. We want to stay stuck.

Feeling stuck encourages procrastination and inactivity. You have to fight back against that feeling.

In this episode, I discuss why baby steps are important to get unstuck and how you can get your life back on track when you have lost all hope.

Show Highlights Include:

• The counterintuitive time to reach out in support of a person who has lost a loved one ([2:56])
• A simple choice that can change everything for the better when you feel stuck in your worst moment ([11:31])
• Why the smallest steps forward make the biggest impact when you feel hopelessly stuck ([13:58])
• How to crush overwhelm and fear of failure to take the steps necessary to get your life back ([12:55])

Do you want to stop existing and start living your best life right now? Click here to get the first chapter of Dr. Rick’s best-selling book, Lessons From a Third Grade Dropout, for free.

If you’re not growing, you’re dying. This is true for everything from your health to your mind to your professional skills.

You may be an expert in your field today, but if you don’t continue to grow and adapt, you’ll get left behind.

The ability and desire to learn is crucial to achieving and maintaining your success.

In this episode, I discuss why learning is important and how to regain the love for learning that education stole from you.

Show Highlights Include:

• The “Jack Dorsey Question” you can ask daily to launch you to the top of your field ([2:52])
• How learning every day defends your brain from the devastating effects of entropy ([4:01])
• The Lifetime Learner mindset shift that can instantly make you look forward to learning (even if you hated traditional education) ([4:22])
• Why school prevents you from learning and how to reprogram yourself today ([4:48])
• A simple but profound question the most effective leaders ask to help them get through the most challenging situations ([11:53])

Do you want to stop existing and start living your best life right now? Click here to get the first chapter of Dr. Rick’s best-selling book, Lessons From a Third Grade Dropout, for free.

A single decision can change the world for the better. But indecisiveness leads to procrastination, overthinking, and failure. 

Decisions have the power to motivate and inspire. But lack of decision can lead to frustration and resentment.

In this episode, I discuss why indecisiveness causes businesses to fail and a framework for making your best decision (even in the worst circumstances). 

Show Highlights Include:

• The surprising factor that motivated employees to work their hardest for a company, and how to put it to work for you (hint: it’s not money) ([1:31])
• What your body has to tell you about making the decisions and why you should pay attention ([4:24])
• A golden rule to follow for guidance when the right decision to make is unclear ([7:30])
• The 3-pronged decision-making process that leads to the best action to take in your unique circumstance ([8:56])
• Why dreams are enough to move you in the right direction toward achieving your goals ([9:33])
• How a single decision led Beverly Cleary to sell over 91 Million books ([13:19])

Do you want to stop existing and start living your best life right now? Click here to get the first chapter of Dr. Rick’s best-selling book, Lessons From a Third Grade Dropout, for free.