Here's 57 insights, traits and nuggets of wisdom from from the most magnificent people to ever live. I encourage you to use this list as a check-in process on your own life and what you can grow in order to take your life to the next level. 

1. Live by the mantra “progress not perfection”, “one small step” and “you don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” Exceptional people don’t get paralysed by their indecision or the bigness of their vision. Instead, everything is chunked down to the PRESENT moment when only a small step (and perhaps a BIG decision) is required.

 

2. Exceptionals (in today’s world) “try before they buy” when looking at their life purpose. They start a blog without telling anyone, learn an instrument just for fun, or work for a business before starting one of their own, simply to test if this is something they want to dedicate their daily lives to.

 

3. Just because you’re good (or even great) at something doesn’t mean it was what you were born to do. Find something you LOVE to do, no matter how good or great you are at it. And then observe how great you become at the things which you bring you so much joy.

 

4. Your parents and your friends are NOT your career advisors. If you are in a profession that OTHER people wanted for you, GET OUT. Your life is to be written by YOU, not by others.

 

5. Most people exercise to LOSE SOMETHING (normally weight). Even if you feel like you must think this way, ensure you are also exercising to GAIN something (energy, clarity, better moods, time to yourself, etc.).

 

6. Know your BMI (Body Mass Index) and its relation to chronic disease. This could be the wake up call you needed (watch video 2 of my 4-part training series to calculate your BMI and know why it’s vital information).

 

7. Ensure you exercise for strength, endurance and flexibility. Not having any one of these reduces your quality of life at ANY age. You don’t want to be a weak walker or an unfit yogi.

 

8. Like diet, exercise is about “different folks, different strokes.” Just because others like CrossFit, doesn’t mean you should too. Just because some love yoga, doesn’t mean you must. If you love playing golf and your friends or family don’t, that’s OK!

 

9. According to Dr John Demartini there are 6 universal movement patterns - Walking, Hill Walking, Swimming, Dancing, Yoga and Making Love have stood the test of time. Incorporate some or all of these into your regular lifestyle (note how far from wisdom we have gone when you consider that all 6 of these are irregular parts of many people’s lives today).

 

10. When you “Get” that the quality of your peer group equals the quality of your life you will make sure you only surround yourself with quality human beings. Write down the 5 people you spend the most time with and ask yourself how that makes you feel. Put an asterisk next to anyone you know is not empowering you and get to work on recruiting a new member into Team Exceptional You.

Come join quality human beings in Byron Bay at Exceptional Life Blueprint LIVE

11. Call that person you know you need to see more of and ask them out for lunch. Your shout! This is not urgent, however it could be the most exceptionally IMPORTANT step you take all year and change your life.

12. Guard your mind and soul zealously by carefully choosing your media consumption. Never underestimate the power of advertising and marketing to inject subconscious beliefs in you (the example I always use is “Someday I’ll end up dying in a ……………………..) Who actually wants to do that!

13. See or speak with someone you love everyday. It’s sad how easy it is to go a full day without having a meaningful conversation these days. Phone /facetime or real life. Not a “Facebook chat” or sms conversation. They don’t count.

14. Ditch the diet. Just eat real food, most of the time. And when the chocolate cake gets put in front of you at the wedding or special event, have a bit or eat the whole lot, and just enjoy it. 10% of the Ikarian diet is sweets (And yes they contain gluten and white sugar) and they are enjoying greater longevity than anywhere else in the world.

15. If you are still looking for a diet, then choose the Gandhi diet – eat something, see how your body feels, and either include it or exclude it from your food regime. No calorie counting, no points, just pure common sense.

16. The Don’t Buy It Diet is also a good one J

17. Wheat is genetically modified these days. Sad but true. Read Wheat Belly to get the full picture. There is no such thing (outside of Einkorn) as a healthy wheat product anymore. You’re eating genetically modified food (see #13 to avoid a panic attack when you next consume it though).

18. LOVE your family and friends for WHO they ARE and not what they DO. If you are vegan and your friends are paleo, don’t chew their ear off about how ignorant their food choices are. And vice versa. Socialising is about love, not food choices. The Okinawans eat rice every day and enjoy “pig ear” soup whilst the 7^th day Adventists are strict vegetarians. Stop stressing about the perfect diet. It will never arrive and the stress of it all could in fact end your life prematurely.

19. Let me repeat – don’t fight with your friends or family about food. If you need to take a stance, call it “exemplification” which is also known as leading by example. Offer your insights when asked but don’t be an evangelist about food (trust me, I walked that unpopular road and it’s no fun). Be happy, eat your food, and let others please themselves.

20.  And yes, you will be judged for your food choices and the choices you make for your children. So remember, what other people think about you is NONE of your business. Prepare to be misunderstood and judged, and know that this is a part of the human condition and is not going to disappear. Whatever you do will draw the judgmental eye of your fellow human beings. And that’s OK.

21. If you are determined to get some tests done to further personalize your diet, look into genetic testing (Google Smart DNA) or your blood type. Both are fiercely personal to you (and much better than a one-size-fits-all diet). If you are of Scottish heritage it’s fair to say coconut products are not part of your genetic makeup.

22. Your family was designed to include polar opposite personalities WITHIN IT (I know, crazy right?!). Your family tests your ability to love the parts of yourself which you are yet to love. For every argumentative one there is a submissive quiet soul. For every urgency addict there is the urgent-averse chilled out soul. For every risk taker there’s a conservative one. Don’t try to change this or look down on your opposite sibling or partner or cousin or parent. LOVE the differences in your family and don’t try to change them.

 

If this is easier said than done then write down 20 benefits or advantages of your sibling or parent being the way they are. If that’s too easy then write down 50.

 

“What’s good about X being that way? How does their X trait serve me?”

 

You will have an awakening doing this exercise. And don’t thank me, thank Dr John Demartini for this wisdom.

23. Love your family, but don’t let them dictate to you. You come “through” your family, not FROM your family. You are your own individual soul – we might call you your “mother’s son or daughter” but you are YOU. Just because your Dad wanted you to be a teacher doesn’t mean you have to be a teacher. Sometimes having this conflict in family is the only way your family can grow and evolve. It might hurt to do this, but it will be worth it. See shade 17 for more on this.

24. Know the role you play within your family and be at peace with it. Are you the organizer? Are you the mediator? Are you the oldest child who is the barometer of the family (i.e. if the oldest is in a good mood then often the family is too)? Are you the life of the party? Are you the matriarch or the patriarch? Wherever you are know your role and fulfill it to the best of your ability. Put away the ego or the unrealistic expectation of being someone you are not and play your familial role.

 

Sometimes your role is not what you wanted it to be. You were the daughter who became the mother when your mum died prematurely. You are the middle child who became the oldest when your brother tragically died. You are the dad who now plays dad AND mum because your wife is unwell or you have divorce or one has passed away.

Sometimes life throws us brutally unexpected curveballs that we did not and could not plan for. Like it or lump it, that is the nature of life.

Burn in your brain somewhere - “Life isn’t fair, but it’s worth it.”

25. Know the top 5 values of your partner? I’ll tell you Sarah’s –

1. Our children – particularly their health and their emotions
2. Our marriage – particularly having regular contact / conversation / communication
3. Food preparation and feeding the family
4. Her health – particularly her diet and time to herself
5. Her Family – particularly the relationship she has with her Mum.

 

What are the 5 most important elements of your partner’s life? It could be anything from money to TV, sex to work, romance to reading. What consumes your partner’s time, money, energy and thoughts?

26. Use this knowledge to improve every area of your relationship. Talk about these top 5 values, ask questions about them. See the flame get bigger in your partner when you focus and talk about what’s important to THEM (that’s why I don’t strike up conversations with Sarah about the football! The conversation goes nowhere which makes perfect sense! And that’s why Sarah never talks to me about makeup!)

27. Know the top 5 values of your children. What brings them joy? When are they at peace? What makes them so sad when they don’t have it? Where do they spend their time? What do they surround themselves with? I’ll tell you Maya’s –

 

1. Family Time (she loves all 4 of us being together)
2. Pre-School (playing with friends)
3. Playing with Darby (she may not say this but her time dedicated do it does)
4. Food (she is perhaps a little too consumed by it!)
5. Craft / ballet / reading

 

With this knowledge ensure you talk to your children in terms of what’s most important to THEM.

28. Have rituals in place for your intimate relationship. Daily and weekly and so on. Daily couch time or meal together, weekly date night, etc. Showing your partner that they take up time and space in your mind and soul is a powerful self-esteem booster. Never forget how precious the human heart is, no matter how “Grown up” you are.

29. Have rituals that nurture your relationship with your children. Daily meal together, reading time, excursions, dates, whatever it is. Joint and separate are fabulous too. It’s incredible how novel spending time with just one child becomes when you have multiples (I recently had Maya for 48 hours and it was incredible).

30. Have daily rituals that nurture the relationship you have with yourself. It could be having a bath, writing in your journal, exercising, praying, reading, meditating or walking. Whatever brings you closer to your spirit.

31. Have rituals with your parents and grandparents. It could be daily or weekly phone calls, meals together, annual holidays or letters. Distance is no barrier, just make it work. There is no more powerful relationship in life than that of a child and their parent. Without your parents you would have no life. Do whatever you can to nurture it and show gratitude for it.

32. Have rituals with your siblings. Whether it’s a phone call or a catch up or a holiday together. Honour and appreciate the people you grew up alongside. They are a big part of who you are today.

33. Know the 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman and identify the Love Language of the people closest to you in your life. Honour these love languages regardless of whether you like them or not. The Love Languages of others are like values – they are not for us to choose or mould for others, they are ours to observe and honour.

 

For what it’s worth my primary love language is Physical Touch and Sarah’s is Acts of Service. Whenever I do the dishes, unpack the shopping, take the kids out so Sarah can have a break, give Sarah a sleep in or make dinner, I am filling up the love tank.

 

Comment below how you use Love Languages in your own life.

34. Know the difference between feminine and masculine energy. Know if you are true feminine or true masculine at your core. It’s possible to be female and true masculine however it’s quite uncommon. Love the differences of these two polar opposites and celebrate them in your relationship with others.The work of David Deida is excellent on this.

35. Take time out each day to learn and grow. There are so many ways to do it – just do it consciously. Read a book, do an online program, get a coach, learn an instrument, etc. Do something to grow every day. One of my ways to grow is reading.

36. Constantly ask yourself “what can I learn from this?” and/or “where is the perfection in this?” This is a great journal question to answer each day over a cup of chamomile tea (you know my ritual!). This is a particularly great question to ask when something challenging in your day has taken place.

37. Compile an Exceptional Learning List. Include activities or skills you would like to acquire. Mine include -

Surfing

Permaculture

Deep Sea Diving

38. Include languages you would like to learn. This is a short one for me – I just want to learn French right now!

39. Do the same for Music. Again, I have only one desire at this point in my life – the piano.

40. Do the same for places you want to visit. Here’s an example of mine which includes places I have visited and places I intend to visit -

The Pyramids

The Eiffel Tower

Ring of Kerry

The Great Wall of China

Mount Everest

Niagara Falls

Grand Canyon

Ikaria

Okinawa

Sardinia

Loma Linda

Nicoya

Antarctica

41. Do the same for books. I love reading autobiographies and biographies. I’m currently reading “A Century of Wisdom” about Alice Herz-Sommer and have recently enjoyed books about the lives of Steve Jobs, Andre Agassi and Bear Grylls.

42. Do the same for movies. Watch QUALITY movies less frequently is more enriching than regular B-graders (particularly when you have kids!).

 

I have a list of Academy Award nominated movies that I intend to watch. To give you an idea this year so far I have watched Philomena, Her and The Imitation Game.

 

What are your favourite movies? I would love you to put them in the comments below for others to observe and learn from.

43. Save a % of EVERY dollar you earn. Never withdraw from these savings again. If you do this with at least $10 of every $100 you earn and invest it wisely in an index fund or similar you can be rest assured you are on your way to financial independence. The stories of Sir John Templeton and Benjamin Franklin are just two of the financial success stories of compound interest.

44. To repeat the words of Albert Einstein, compound interest is the “eighth wonder of the world.” Feverishly commit to it.

45. And to repeat again, part of what you earn is yours to keep. Texts from any generation in any language will confirm this wealth principle. Australians spend 114% of everything they earn (and that’s the AVERAGE), so rest assured the majority of humanity in today’s world hasn’t grasped this truth yet.

46. Contribute at least 20% of your income to demolishing bad debt (credit card loan, car loan, personal loan, etc.)? Every payment is improving your net worth (your wealth).

47. Live off the remaining 70% until you are debt-free and then use that 20% to invest. Again, this is not my financial advice, this is the wisdom of The Richest Man In Babylon (Great little book), Bob Proctor, Dr John Demartini, Warren Buffet, Sir John Templeton, and more.

48. Work your way up the wealth creation ladder instead of trying to get rich too quickly. If you are beginning by saving cash (ideally make your first goal to save 30-90 days of living expenses before you do anything else), then investing in stock indexes you are on the right path. If you are day-trading or playing the futures, warrants and options game without any solid foundation behind you, you are barking up the “get rich quick” tree. John Demartini’s “How To Make One Hell of a profit and still get to heaven” is one of the best books on this topic.

49. Don’t sacrifice your happiness and fulfillment in order to pay the bills and sustain a lifestyle. You have three options here –

* Either find a way to enjoy your work more (attitude and perspective might need to change) OR

* Find work that you actually like OR

* Start the business of your dreams (or at least make a plan and intention to do so).

50. Never stop working on making your living from work that you truly love. Connection profit and purpose is a part of the mission of being a human being. I am yet to meet someone who feels completely fulfilled doing work they do not enjoy or do not see the greater good in.

51. Remove any addiction you have to feeling guilty, angry or frustrated with yourself when you aren’t happy, positive and accepting. Sadness, negativity and rejection are parts of human nature. Simply make a commitment to work on making them more “Fleeting” parts of your personality rather than mainstays.

 

A great remedy for improving this is to continually ask “what’s good about this situation / person / circumstance.”

If you are still looking to be at peace “all the time” watch Decoding Deepak – a documentary made about Deepak Chopra by his son.

52. Remove any expectation you have of other people. That’s right, expect NOTHING from others and then everything is a gift. The alternative is to experience anger, betrayal and despondency when you feel like others “let you down”. Whether it’s your husband’s jocks on the floor, your child’s churlish behavior or your friend arriving late to a catch-up, acknowledge them all as first world problems and avoid getting caught up in the minutiae of daily living.

53. If you are determined on having expectations of people (sometimes necessary), then ensure they are communicated to them BEFORE the event so that if the expectation isn’t met, you are not the only one aware of it.

54. Remove any addiction you might have to world peace. Wherever you find peace you will also find war. Be grateful for war – without it Mother Theresa would not have left her legacy. Nelson Mandela wouldn’t be Nelson Mandela. Humanity as we know it has been built of people like the aforementioned. Acknowledge any "wars" you might have going on in your life right now, and then decide that rather than "fighting" the war in a destructive manner, you will instead use your love, courage and compassion instead. Again, Holocaust survivors who have found forgiveness in their lives are great at teaching this. 

55. Remember that you are a limitless soul. Show that to the world by forgiving those who have behaved against your own values of humanity. Forgive those who don’t apologise, or who have died without apologizing. Accept the apology you will never get and you are showing yourself your own exceptional nature.

56. Believe in coincidences (or that there are none). If you don’t, just try it on for a day. See the divine guidance, divine intervention, or divine perfection in everything that happens in your day and despite being one of the 7.5 BILLION people on this planet, experience the joy and gift of being one of those lucky ones. You were the exceptional sperm and egg that won the race, you are the exceptional one still alive today, you are still here to fulfill some exceptional purpose.

57. Believe in yourself, appreciate your magnificence, and create your own Exceptional Life Blueprint.

 

You are exceptional,

Marcus