What's Your Empowering Mantra for 2014?

Earlier this year, in 2013, I hit a bottom.

I wasn’t homeless or completely broke, but I could see both from where I stood in January. I had been working on some exciting projects, managing spiritual music artists and producing major events with world-renowned teachers and performers. But so much of that was for non-profit endeavors, and let’s face it, managing spiritual music artists was essentially a non-profit endeavor, too. And I had been doing that for over 5 years.

I was living the thrilling life of a professionally liberated man who had jumped off his first metaphorical cliff long ago and then made a lifestyle out of jumping off such cliffs … but I was growing really weary of all the falling. In fact, I went splat on the ground in January when I was too embarrassed of my living situation to invite a hot date into the home I was living in. After she quickly disappeared, I vowed to stop falling and do whatever it took to finally spread some new wings.

So in February, I rented a cabin for 30 days in the mountains and went off to write a book and reflect on my choices.

I quickly realized the main reason I hit this bottom was that I had long ago stopped investing in myself.

For the previous seven years, as an artist manager and project consultant, I had been so invested in manifesting other people’s visions and dreams that I had lost contact with my own.

I decided that 2013 would be the year I went big. My mantra became:

Go Big! … or Go Homeless!

That meant I would once again invest in myself. I would not let money stop me from doing all the things I knew would serve my greater good. I was determined to spend my remaining few thousand dollars in ways that would put me in the same room with brilliant people playing big games in life. I forced myself to raise my game.

I took myself to Tony Robbins’ Unleash The Power Within event in March. I went to Burning Man in Nevada and Awesomeness Fest in Dominican Republic. I said “absolutely not” to work that wouldn’t pay me what I wanted to make. I turned my 99:1 model (charity:paid work) around to 10:90 … 10% charity to 90% paid. I started my breakthrough coaching practice. After all, when your lifestyle involves routinely jumping off cliffs, breakthroughs are fairly routine. I can easily coach others on breakthroughs! But this year, I believe I’ve made one of my biggest breakthroughs ever.

By consciously deciding to play a bigger game — by raising my standards for my life — life has responded.

I now live in a beautiful Santa Monica apartment a few blocks from the beach where I’m proud to host any hot date (even though I’m on a dating sabbatical). This summer, I co-founded two major funded projects: The Center for Mindful Education and Operation Mindful Warrior, which international best-selling author Marianne Williamson helped inaugurate. I now have a regular coaching practice, my blogs are blooming, and my first book is just about finished. It’s all still a work in progress – isn’t life always a work in progress?? I feel like I’m just getting started!

“Go Big or Go Homeless!”

Tony Robbins says, “if you want to raise the quality of your life, you must raise your standards.”

I raised my standards 10 months ago. I decided to stop playing small. And that’s made all the difference. Even this week, I’m at Tony Robbins’ Date With Destiny, still raising my game.

How about you?

You don’t need to adopt my mantra. You don’t have to threaten yourself with homelessness. Truthfully, I have such a huge support network that I would never be homeless, anyway, unless I really wanted to be. But that motto inspired me to raise my game, big-time. It gave me permission to fully go for what I want … or go essentially homeless trying. I was already at my bottom, living in places I wasn’t proud of, anyway. I didn’t have much more to lose.

But you don’t have to be scraping the desperate bottom to change the game you’re playing.

As 2014 approaches, consider where in your life can you raise your standards and stop playing small? 

What’s your empowering mantra for 2014?