Tomorrow can either be 100 times better or 100 times worse and it’s entirely dependent upon how much time you spend planning for it today.

Words without love are noise; words with love are poetry.

I’m announcing the Small Business Book Club, launching in August. Whether you own, lead, or help manage a small business (or any business of any size for that matter), I think spending the five Mondays in August with us discussing Upstream will have positive effects on your work and life.

If I only choose to do hard stuff when I feel like it, I’ll probably never feel like it’s time to do the hard stuff. But if I commit to it before I feel like it, then it’s harder to go back on. I’ve already decided. It’s time for the work. Let’s get busy. The calendar says so.

When change is needed, pause a bit to see if you just need to change yourself or the entire system. Confusing the two will have you misdirecting effort in what could be a colossal waste of time. Houses have thermostats; people have jackets. Don’t try and swap the two.

What is one thing you can cut out that would make you the best at what you do?

The heaviest things we carry everyday are those things we can’t take pictures of.

Don’t bloom where you’re planted. Plant yourself where you can bloom.

Stuck in a traffic jam? Wait for an ambulance.

Once one appears, sirens blaring, just stay on its tail. It’ll clear a pathway and you can get out of traffic in no time.

Of course, you may not get where you want to go. But at least you’ll get there quickly, right?

I’ve done at least 10,000 push-ups this year.

As of January 1, I had done none.

Most days, I’ll try to do at least 100. Some days I don’t do any. The streak doesn’t matter as much as the total does.

The hardest step? Killing an idea. Knowing that when it’s not working, it’s time to move on.