Dedication This book is dedicated to my two grandmothers, Granny Abbott and my late Grandma Rowland, two women who thrived through discipline, hard work, and standing their ground. Each of you gave me a different understanding of the world and what it meant to be strong in my own way. GRANNY ABBOTT, you are always the quiet, poised woman but one all the children knew not to cross. Levity and creativity has always flowed through you, which helped me tap into my own creativity. I love hearing your sweet giggle and seeing that bright smile whenever I visit. GRANDMA ROWLAND, you were the original petite powerhouse. Your fiery sass and aggressively blunt approach helped me discover my own “take me as I am” attitude. You were taken from this world far too soon. Rest in peace, Grandma. Contents Cover Title Page Dedication Introduction Day 1: Be a Positive Goal Digger—and Aim Big Day 2: Affirm! Day 3: Learn to Love Yourself Day 4: Exercise Your Mind and Spirit Day 5: Visualize! Day 6: Prepare to Succeed—Daily Day 7: Be a Relentless Rebel Day 8: Fuel Yourself for Success Day 9: Be Authentic Day 10: Know Your Life Purpose Day 11: FIFO! Day 12: Describe Your Legacy Day 13: Layer in Change Day 14: Rock Your Victories Day 15: Eliminate Excuses Day 16: Put In the Effort Day 17: Be Unstoppable Day 18: Adjust Your Attitude Day 19: Lean on Mentors Day 20: Banish Stress Day 21: Declutter Your Life Day 22: Change the Scenery Day 23: Don’t Forget the Chocolate: Moderation and Self-Control Day 24: Turn Setbacks into Comebacks Day 25: Train Your Brain Day 26: Have Successful Failures Day 27: Develop Healthy Obsessions Day 28: Take Control of Roller-Coaster Emotions Day 29: Solidify Intention Day 30: Climb the Unclimbable Day 31 and Beyond 30 More Mind-Body-Spirit Challenges for Every Day of the Month Acknowledgments References Index Photos Section About the Authors Also by Christmas Abbott Copyright About the Publisher THERE’S A BADASS hiding inside you. It’s time to unleash it. I’m not talking about someone who’s mean and nasty or a troublemaker. I’m talking about a mentally tough person with a powerfully positive attitude . . . someone who exudes a daring, knowledgeable, make-it-happen drive, with kick-ass charisma . . . someone who pushes the limits in life from all aspects and knows exactly who she is . . . someone who respects mind, body, and spirit and rocks with confidence as a result. When people like this do something—at work, at home, in the gym, wherever—they do it all out. The reason this breed of ballsy folks is so successful: They know how to kick bad habits to the curb—and they’ve done it. I’m talking about bad habits like overeating, not exercising, smoking, abusing alcohol and drugs, and just plain being unkind to yourself. Bad habits mess with your life in a zillion little ways— screwing with your psyche, chipping away at your self-esteem, or putting you at risk of serious physical or mental problems. Consider smoking, for example. It’s no secret that this bad habit can ultimately do deadly damage through a heart attack, cancer, or emphysema. So you definitely don’t want any bad habits to stall your happiness and success. How do habits form, anyway? Understand that we are what we repeatedly do. If you do something over and over again, the brain cells involved in that behavior begin to sprout tiny fibers called dendrites. With enough repetition of the behavior, those dendrites grow and entwine with other brain cells. Once they’re all linked up, your brain has formed a physical circuit called a neural pathway, which quickly and efficiently enables the behavior. The new behavior is wired into your brain and is now a habit. How long does the habit formation process take? It depends on how many times you repeat the behavior. If you repeat it occasionally—like having one or two cocktails a week—then it’s not likely that you’ll develop a drinking habit. If you repeat the behavior five or six times a day, and you get some sort of pleasure-producing reward from it, the habit gets ingrained faster, maybe in a month or so. This goes for bad habits as well as good. What I’m here to help you do is get rid of bad habits and form new ones. And I know all about how to do it. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m a fitness trainer, competitive CrossFit athlete, business owner, author, and public speaker, among other things. But I wasn’t always this productive. Not at all! From age thirteen until my early twenties, I was a mess, physically and emotionally. I was crazy—and killing myself with my crazy. I was a heavy smoker. I was a druggie. Booze. Meth. Really bad stuff. I couldn’t change; I didn’t want to change. So . . . habits, really bad habits? Yes, I know more than a thing or two about how to rid your life of them and be a success. It took me a long time to clear up the wreckage of my life, but through it all, I discovered that buried within my psyche was a mental toughness I didn’t know I had. Mental toughness encompasses a lot of qualities. Preparation. Focus. An attitude that drives you to persist and strive for things you consider worthwhile. It’s a get-off-your-butt- and-do-something reaction to failure. It’s about encouraging thoughts that lead to positive emotions and minimizing the negative emotions that demotivate you. It’s a head game that lets you take absolute control over your life. It’s what having a badass life is all about. You’re not born with mental toughness; it’s something you develop—which is what this book is all about. Each chapter covers ways to develop mental toughness so you can be the best for yourself. These are action-oriented techniques I’ve used in my life for years—and techniques I now teach my clients and cover in my seminars and speeches: goal setting, self-love, overcoming failures and setbacks, harnessing positive thinking to attract success, and other issues that will help you seek what makes you happy. All of this is based on my personal experience of creating a better life for myself. With my own lifestyle and habit shifts, I was able to create a whole new world for myself—a world that I loved and thrived in. I moved up quickly in my work. I was able to create solid business plans with no previous business experience. I implemented practices and created programs that educated, elevated, and empowered my staff. I created nutrition seminars that are uniquely mine—and which would lead to my first book and many additional opportunities. You can do whatever you want by applying my techniques. You can become more financially secure if you want to. You can become physically fit. You can build a business. You can be more successful in your career and in your relationships. You can find happiness and create a self-fulfilling life. I’ve seen my personal training clients transformed—not only physically but mentally and spiritually as well—by putting these techniques in play in their lives. So are you ready to form life-affirming habits, such as mental toughness? Will you push fear out of the picture and take control of your life? Will you give up nasty lifestyle habits that are standing in your way of happiness? Will you get rid of self-limiting thoughts and start living life to the max? To do all this, you have to start implementing good habits to build a foundation so strong that it overrides your bad habits. I know, ugh!!! That doesn’t sound fun at all! Don’t worry—we’re going to make it fun. You’re going to be your own boss, kick bad habits to the curb, and replace them with good ones. You’ll build your mental fortitude—automatically, without all the suffering and sacrifice you’ve been through a million times before. The goal is a level of happiness and success in your life that you may not have felt before. That’s the badass way—and what this book is all about. This book is a day-by-day motivational guide designed to encourage habit change and mental toughness through fun, dynamic daily tasks. It takes you through a 30-day program with easy-to-implement solutions involving positive daily habits to create a better, well-rounded lifestyle. It takes 30 days to break a bad habit and 30 days to make a good one. So if you follow my program faithfully, a day at a time, expect to meet a “new badass you” at the end of one month—one amazing phenom who looks great, feels great, and storms the scene with heart and soul. How badass will you be? Total badass. My 30-day program shows you how to increase your willpower and self- confidence, overcome negative thinking that has held you back before, and love yourself; it also helps increase your creative and logical thinking. The Badass Life will help put the power of your mind, body, and spirit to work for you. This is the whole-package program. Each day tackles a different subject, with fun activities in different categories that will get you firing on all cylinders. For example: • Mind work that includes quizzes, life questions, or small challenges that make you think, not just act. These help activate your mind for greater motivation and the ability to overcome obstacles. Your mind is really the “hard drive” of your entire system—the controlling force. The stronger your mind, the stronger your spirit and body will be. I’ll emphasize the power of thoughts, for what we think determines the course of our lives, good or bad. When you change your thoughts, you change your world. • Physical challenges for the day, as well as suggestions for nutritious foods to eat each day to help you understand—and feel—the physical power of healthy eating. Your body is truly your temple—it holds your mind and spirit—and you get only one! • Spirit work for emotional and spiritual wellness. Here I’m talking about your moral compass—your internal GPS that guides you toward doing the right things and connects you to a bigger purpose for your life. It’s what gives your life direction and purpose. Your spirit is your spunk. Here I’ll include work on loving and respecting yourself, meditating, journaling what you appreciate about yourself and your life. These practices open your mind to a deeper, better understanding of how to change habits. Each day you’ll work on making a single positive change. One positive change leads to another. Day by day, you work on small behavioral changes like repeating affirmations, learning positive self-talk, setting your day up for success, trying a new type of exercise, and so on. Along the way, you’ll notice that you’re slowly but surely getting in badass shape—mentally, physically, and spiritually—and feeling phenomenal. As you go forward, use this book as a workbook, too, writing things down on the pages. Better yet, do it in a personal journal. Once you start journaling, patterns will start to emerge, you’ll overcome obstacles to health and fitness, and you’ll feel empowered to make positive changes in your life. Beginner or expert, I have you covered. Just take it one day at a time, and resist the urge to read this book fast or work through each challenge too fast. I outline everything in detail, with lots of tips that will enhance the good habits and loosen the grip of bad habits on your life. You’ll work on your mind, body, and spirit every day, and you’ll set the stage for what can grow into an amazing badass life. Trust me, stick with it and you’ll reach a point when you can’t imagine not living like a badass. After tackling various mental and spiritual challenges, you’ll be surprised at how everything in your life starts to fall into place—finances, job challenges, relationships, and more. For years, I’ve seen the results of all this firsthand: how eating right and working out regularly make you stronger and more vibrant; how being truly honest with yourself and creating accountability systems keep you on track; how goal setting, empowering thoughts, and attitude change seep into other aspects of your life; and how the fitness lifts your spirits and translates into success in everything you do. So now’s the time to ditch the excuses, reach your goals, and even exceed your wildest expectations, using this plan of action and in-the-trenches resolve to turn your dreams into reality. Our mind, bodies, and spirit hold the treasure of life inside of them, life that we have been given. We are good, and we should be treated with honor every day that we are alive. To do that, focus on everything I have for you here. They’re simple things, but they’re incredibly powerful. If you work at them daily, they can change the precious treasure that is your life. As is true with anything, it just takes some practice, patience, and some belief in this book and yourself. I feel that we are all on Earth for a purpose and our lives have deep meaning. Discovering that meaning is part of life and motivates us to do all we can to make our lives last as long as possible. Let the discovery begin! —Christmas