Ok… this is really hard for me but it’s probably about time that I come out and confess something. If you know me well, you may have guessed it, though I’ve never actually said it out loud. I’m not proud of it but I can deny it no longer.

I’m a hoarder.

I like… stuff. I apparently really like to collect things. And it’s not something I’ve ever really taken the time to notice, until I consciously look around our basement (which is basically my own floor of the house since Jess has almost literally no interest in going down there). It means that I get to decorate it however I want.

But the essential issue is that I have a lot of interests. Hobbies. Things in my heart that are very close to me. 

Whether it’s sports memorabilia, music concert posters, posters of 14er’s I’ve hiked (for those of you not in Colorado, those are the state’s collection of 14,000-foot mountain peaks), beer swag (only the classiest of stuff, of course) or my own collection of music instruments – everything has its little designated spot. 

Now, to be clear, I think I’ve done a pretty good job by at least keeping the displays tidy and uniform and not completely overdoing it. After all, at the last house we lived in, the basement was an absolute travesty. Kind of like a college freshman dorm room had thrown up all over an 800 square foot space.

But there are only so many of those designated spots available in a basement area and at some point, it most assuredly crosses a line from classy and sleek to garish and vulgar. Quite honestly, I’m probably really close to that line.

Which is why Jess and I recently came across a book that we’ve really been able to connect with. So, maybe her a little more than me so far, but part of the reason I’m writing this is for some semblance of acknowledgment that I may, in fact, have a problem.   

The Illusion of Money by actor/comedian-turned transformational author/comedian Kyle Cease and is all about looking at our pursuit of achieving money in a completely different perspective around unlocking our creative genius rather than wholly focusing on money as a tool to just buy shit or targeting all our efforts solely just to make it.

Because Jess is much further ahead in the book – becauseI tend to skip around from one thing to the next – she’s been diving head into many of the actions steps later in the book and taken me with her in those mind-expanding activities. 

One in particular that we’ve really begun to immerse our daily thought process into has been to consider our daily practices (and those outside of them) on a scale of 1-10, 1 being the least aligned, least exciting thing to your body – your whole being – and 10 being the absolute most exciting to you. He describes a 10 as something you’d never for a moment have to consider or talk yourself into. It just is.

When you start to consider everything you’re doing on a scale of 1-10 – working out, what and where you eat or drink, how you’re generally spending your time throughout the day – it begins to change your entire perspective on literally everything you do. And as entrepreneurs, it’s shines an even brighter light on that scale as literally everything in our day can be taken into account.

Ironically, when we first started doing this, the practice itself was definitely not a 10, not even close – but I realized very quickly that a primary reason for that rating was because I wasn’t actually liking my ratings for several other things I was spending my time doing. I realized very quickly that I needed to be experiencing way more 10’s. 

And once I began bringing my focus back into a space of achieving more 10’s, my attitude around everything immediately began to shift. My mindset adjusted. My excitement around all of my daily practices just… switched. And now looking at that 1-10 scale has become a highlight in its own right in my day.

So…. what are the 10’s in your day? Your week? 

What lights you up, excites you to the point that you can’t stop talking about it? And, possibly more importantly, what would give you that feeling of daily elation? 

The answers could really surprise you. And it may be a bit frustrating at first. 

But you can’t find that buried treasure without doing a little bit of digging first. And you may come to find out that you enjoy that digging too. 

I didn’t at first. But the real joy comes from experiencing the process of the practice.

What are your 10’s? I dare you to find out….