Focus on these four skills for just one hour per day and you will be unstoppable.

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You’re going to die one day. Hate to break it to you. Hopefully that’s not too much of a shock to the system.

I think it’s easy for people to get so caught up in the daily grind that we forget our time here is limited and every single day is not promised.

You owe it to yourself to maximize the journey while you are here on Earth.

Because one of the biggest regrets of the dying is that they never stopped to enjoy the time they actually had.

Never stopped to be more present with loved ones.

Always worked too hard, never took enough time off to travel and see the world.

Never pursued that one big dream that called them for decades.

Stop that shit in its tracks right now.

Go read this work by Bronnie Ware on the most common deathbed regrets and see if it doesn’t give you an anti-vision and inspire you to make a change right now.

Yes. You can change your life.

No. You are not too old to do it, either.

All it takes is one hour per day to Level Up your life and thrive.

Let’s do a quick journal exercise.

If you were to die one day … would you say that you lived life to the fullest?

Did you accomplish your goals?

Did you get time to appreciate the goals that you accomplished?

Were you able to experience new and interesting things?

Or did you live out your life paycheck-to-paycheck, always focused on the next big thing, never present, never enjoying the journey along the way?

Write about this stuff in your next journal session. It could reveal some eye-opening conclusions about where you are and how far you must go.

Memento Mori is the concept of appreciating life more because you are keenly aware of the impending promise of actually dying one day.

It’s time to embrace Memento Mori in your own life.

Because if you’re reading this, it’s highly likely that you are stuck in this endless loop, with life just being a dull blur of random unfulfilling events after mediocre projects.

Then you hit the 40s. What the fuck happened?

The career is mundane. You’re making enough money, but would like to make more. You know life has more going on than what you’re experiencing at the moment.

It’s time for a change.

But how the hell are you going to find the time to make this monumental change in your life if you’ve got kids, a marriage, a mortgage, a job and countless other responsibilities pulling at you in every direction?

So you do nothing. And let your body and brain atrophy instead. You settle for this cycle of mediocrity.

This is how you end up living a bitter elder life and looking back with regret.

You know there’s something better waiting for you.

And it’s time to get out of this cycle and start doing something about it.

All it takes is one hour per day of intense commitment to the proper lever-moving skills to Level Up your life to endless possibilities.

Today you’re going to get that blueprint so you can start changing your life for the better.

Let’s get into it.

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One hour per day to get out of this endless and mindless rut

“The days are long, but the years are short.”

I’m not sure where I first heard that phrase, but I think back on it quite a bit.

It’s particularly true if you have kids.

I’d been caught up in the stay at home dad thing for so long. Grinding through the diaper and bottle phases, potty training, sleepless nights, starting school.

I love my kids to death, but those early years are a real test of your mental capacities as a human.

Sometimes, you end up just going through the motions of this time period. Just shifting into a mindless robot that is looking forward to a simpler time when the kid can actually tell you that she’s hungry without having to decipher 15 different types of crying.

If you’re not careful, you look back a few years later and that’s when you finally understand the cliche, “They grow up so fast.”

Of course they do, but I was so busy trying to survive those days that I shut off and missed most of the early years of their childhood.

I had a goal of building a business, living financially independent and setting my own rules to live a more fulfilling, active, healthy life. But I was quickly losing sight of that end game.

It was then that I sat down and started journaling and leaning into the concept of Memento Mori when I realized that it was time for a change

But, as a stay at home dad to two, I knew that time was of the essence. The solution? Get real freaking clear on the skill sets I needed to build a better life and apply the minimum effective dose to make it a reality.

I arrived at one hour per day, just 15 minutes of focused energy on specific side quests that would allow me to Level Up.

Imagine being able to finally see that dream become reality.

You write that book. You start that business. You get that promotion. You go on that trip on the other side of the world. You get in the best shape of your life.

Life finally becomes something that you are excited to experience.

You wake up every morning with a fresh sense of energy and curiosity because you are using your brain to grow personally, perhaps also professionally, and learn new things.

It all starts with simple habit formation.

Healthy habits are built by starting with small, manageable behaviors and building up momentum over time.

In other words, you gotta put in the reps to build muscle, including your habit-forming muscle.

Of course, the problem we usually face is the common issue: Once we settle into family and professional life, time becomes drastically limited.

The clock is our enemy and impending deadlines and bullshit always cloud our blue skies of optimism. We see the storm coming and retreat back to this robot mode where we bury our hopes and live to fight another day.

“One day, we’ll get healthy or write that book or start that business. Yeah, one day.”

Until that day never comes.

Instead, you must find a way to prioritize.

Reinvention doesn’t have to be some full-on transformation that is complete in two weeks. It’s a metamorphosis that takes months, even years to actualize.

But as the momentum builds, you’ll start noticing small shifts and changes in your health, your confidence, your ability and motivation to keep going.

Only if you focus on the correct levers to pull to make this a reality.

I’ve been practicing this one hour per day skill development quest for almost an entire year now.

It’s helped me get into the best shape of my life; reduce my anxiety; find more clarity in my business and my writing; and break out of a social rut to start appreciating relationships with loved ones again.

I’m even playing video games again for the first time since we had kids almost a decade ago.

It starts by recognizing where your biggest areas of pain reside

Your life is a video game. You are the main character. And to win at this game by slaying the biggest of dragons, you must develop the skills necessary to Level Up.

I’ve realized that there are four major access points that when properly nourished, they will set you on the way to more meaning and fulfillment.

It’s a take on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

TLDR; the general premise was that for a person to be happy, they must be fulfilled in certain areas of their life.

For example, sure you can cure a ton of problems by being super wealthy. But, that doesn’t guarantee that you’ll still be fulfilled in your health or in your relationships (friends, family, intimate partners, etc.).

Likewise, you can be super happy with your love life, but lack the funds to provide basic needs for survival.

Physiological: You need basic things like food, shelter, water, clean air to breathe.

Safety: You need physical safety, sure … but also financial and mental/emotional safety.

Love and Social: Family, friends, intimacy, trust. Without it, life is pretty boring and certainly unfulfilled.

Esteem: The respect and admiration from others, but also deeper than that. This is about having self-respect and confidence in yourself.

Self-Actualization: Realizing your full potential. Maslow breaks this down as “the desire to accomplish everything that one can, to become the most that one can be.”

When you take a step back to look at these basic needs, you can see some pretty common spillovers.

Which is why I like to distill our pursuit of a more fulfilling life into four basic pillars, or side quests:

Your overall health: both physically and mentally

Your relationships with others: both loved ones and even your professional network

Your happiness: we aren’t going to get all woo-woo and try to redefine happiness here, but let’s be honest, most folks ain’t happy because life is life’in too hard sometimes

Your brain: learning should never stop, it’s the key to taking this project of reinvention to the next level

Going forward, you will treat each of these like daily 15-minute side quests in your journey where gaining experience points will lead to great rewards.

In total, just one hour per day (15 mins for each of the four pillars).

What can you do in 15 minutes per day? That can’t possibly be enough, right?

You’re looking at this the wrong way.

Think more about cumulative progress as you stack days of consistency, instead of thinking about just 15 minutes today.

For example: committing to 15 minutes of learning each day amounts to over 90 hours per year. That’s more than 2 average working weeks, and over 10 years it’s almost half a year of learning something new and useful.

You can change your entire life in that timeframe.

I’m going to break this down topic by topic to show you just what you can accomplish over the next year by devoting 15 minutes to four pillars.

Or one hour per day on yourself over the next year.

In 15 minutes, you can get an effective full body workout.

Will you get on the cover of Men’s Health magazine with just 15 minutes? Probably not. But that’s not your goal.

Your goal is to feel better, move better and be more confident.

A full body 15 minute session is totally fine to achieve that goal. That’s why I created my microworkout guide to get you a bit more active.

Along with walking and sneaking in a little more movement throughout your day, you’ll be fine.

With 15 minutes of a daily learning habit, you’ll accomplish learning more than the average person by far.

Use that daily brain building side quest to learn marketing, sales, writing or web development so you can grow your own personal brand or business.

Or if that’s not your thing, take 15 minutes per day to simply pick up a book and read.

A study of over 9.9 Million students found that 15 minutes was the “magic number” where they’d see substantial improvement in retention, learning and achievement.

You can read about five to ten pages of a book in about 15 minutes (depending on the subject matter and text).

Stack that up over a month of daily practice and you’re probably working through almost an entire book per month, or 12 books per year.

Is 15 minutes enough to build long-lasting relationships?

Perhaps not.

But imagine if you spend just 15 minutes per day reaching out to one person in your extended network.

Think about how many opportunities would arise for your business and personal development to have a commitment of networking with at least one person per day.

Not interested in growing your business network? Maybe you’re more into trying to nurture your relationship with loved ones. Cool.

Just 15 minutes per day of putting your phone down and asking your kids or partner a few questions about their day and really being present is better than 90 minutes of distracted half-assed listening while you scroll TikTok on the side.

But what about play? How could 15 minutes per day be enough time to really get any benefit of play?

Well, this resource says that just 10-15 minutes of play is enough to reap the benefits of the daily commitment.

What can you do in 15 minutes? Maybe complete a side quest on a video game.

Listen to a couple of your favorite songs (bonus points if you get active and dance to them).

Have more sex.

Meditate.

The benefits of play on adults is a long list of awesomesauce that look very similar to the benefits of daily exercise. But when was the last time you actually made play and fun a priority? Not just for your kids, but for yourself?

Now think about how you could add 15 minutes of something fun and enjoyable to your day.

On some days, it’ll be that minimum effective dose of just 15 minutes. But on other days, you may have more time and freedom to do more.

That’s the beauty of building momentum with the minimum effective dose of skill development.

Your one hour per day does not have to be all at once.

Prioritize your morning for 15 minutes of physical activity.

Then toss in 15 minutes midday of some learning and expanding your mind.

Mid afternoon can be dedicated to expanding your network and reaching out to one or two contacts, loved ones, etc.

When you get home from the office, or shut down for the day if you work at home, use that time to nurture your relationships with loved ones and close the evening with play time or that enjoyable activity.

No one said it needed to be some hour long morning routine that is perfectly time blocked into your daily schedule like some robot that works for a tech start up.

This is all about what is practical, not optimal.

But by simply building momentum on these four major pillars, you’ll start to see progress.

Progress promotes more motivation to continue these new behaviors.

Momentum with those behaviors leads to even more progress. That’s how the cycle builds into one hour per day of life-changing skill development.

Here’s how to get started by applying this practice of one hour per day that will change your life …

Step 1: figure out where you are lacking in the four major pillars of personal growth and fulfillment and how you’d like to prioritize them.

One thing for your health.

This can be exercise, nutrition, mindfulness, mobility.

If you’re already committed to a consistent workout routine, maybe mindfulness is something you’d like to add as a focus or mobility.

One thing to expand your mind.

What do you want to learn?

Is there something that you could really lean into right now that would help your business or career?

Or is there just something you’ve always wanted to get more clarity on? Find it. Then find the books, lectures, YouTube videos, etc. that will help you grow.

One thing to nurture or grow your relationships.

Again think about professional and personal.

Can you make it a goal to reach out to one new potential lead for your business per day?

Or maybe it’s about shutting off work and focusing on being present at dinner time with your partner and kids.

Maybe it’s a mix of both. Something that allows you to really enjoy this journey with the ones you love.

Speaking of enjoying the journey …

One thing that you freaking love.

Do it. Every day. Just 15 minutes of it if that’s all the time you have.

Play a game. Have more sex. Add 15 more minutes to your bath or shower and really relax. Read a few pages of a book for pleasure. Endless possibilities.

And when you have more time available, use it.

Life is meant to be lived, experienced and (remember) … it’s also meant to be enjoyed. So find more time in your daily life to enjoy the little things.

Step 2: Stay consistent as hell.

Apply the never miss twice rule.

You’ll miss a day here or there with one or all of these skill upgrades. That’s okay.

But the key is to avoid missing two consecutive days.

The minimal time commitment should make these side quests easier to stick to consistently. Rather than some 45 minute daily exercise routine, we’re only looking for 15 minutes minimum.

Do not miss consecutive days.

Even if some days, that one hour per day looks more like 20 minutes where you did 5 minutes in each side quest just to keep the momentum going.

No excuses. Do not skip back to back days.

Momentum is the biggest focal point towards actualizing your success and making this happen. You must do everything in your power to avoid letting momentum fall off.

This means planning ahead for things like the holidays and travel.

What are you going to do to either keep things moving with daily habits (perhaps scaling back to 5 minutes per day) or at least getting right back to work after a few days away (scheduling this into your calendar like an unbreakable meeting).

It’s the consistency that will win.

Step 3: Adjust as you learn.

This is just the starting point. A system that you can use to identify a target and work slowly and progressively towards that goal.

But as you learn (and you will be learning thanks to your brain habit) you’ll open up new ideas and goals and the potential for more skill development. This is a good thing. Don’t run from that, instead embrace it and see if you can start challenging yourself even more when you have the motivation, knowledge and ability.

View these periods as sprints or blocks of going deeper than usual.

Maybe when Fall starts and the kids go back to school, you have more time to focus a little more on one area.

Or perhaps there’s now a brand new pillar that you’d like to include, awesome. You now know how to apply the minimum effective dose and you can add new things accordingly.

But at the end of the day, if you get stuck or can’t seem to make it work, simply go back to the baseline of just 15 minutes per side quest per day.

One hour per day in total.

Step 4: Chart your progress.

You should keep a running log of your new side quests and adventures.

Grab a notebook and let that serve as your journal.

I don’t think you need to be terribly rigid with this so no need to fill it out every single day. But try to get into a regular flow of checking in with yourself.

Write out what you’re working on. Something new you learned. A quote that caught your attention.

Record the steps you’re taking to get to your goal and write about the obstacles you’ve faced trying to get there. Then you can detail the solutions for how you broke free from the obstacle to keep the progress coming.

Over time, it becomes a bit of a user manual for life. You’ll see recurring themes where you can apply past knowledge to help overcome future challenges.

And it gives you a cool little reflection point to look back on your progress and notice just how far you’ve come with this simple one hour daily commitment to yourself.

You are worth it. Stop letting time and your life just coast by on cruise control.

You owe it to yourself to get off of the sidelines now and start applying these general frameworks for leveling up your life.

Now, go get to work. Your first hour begins right now.

I truly believe that intense focus on these side quests for just one hour per day will Level Up your life and make you unstoppable

I hope you enjoyed this newsletter. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out.

If you’re interested in working with me to get a complete body transformation program that couples minimalist training with a personalized approach to nutrition (no calorie counting here), then you should check out my Lean4Life Coaching Program.

Not ready for all that yet? No worries.

Take what you’ve learned here and slowly apply it over the next month or two and let me know how it works out for you.

I answer all of my emails at pete [at] petecataldo [.] com … Hit me up with the subject line “One hour per day” and I’ll answer any questions you have to make this work for you.

Until next time,
Pete