Life is all about perspective.

This weekend I visited my grandpa in the hospital (he is doing fine), but is recovering from a small procedure and working on getting his strength dialed back up and his nutrition on track.

We had a great visit, and as I was driving home, I couldn’t help but think about all of the little things I likely take for granted that he would trade anything for in a heartbeat.

My legs were pretty sore from the weekend’s training, a feeling he’d trade places with immediately if it meant he could do the running and lifting I was healthy enough to do. It’s the halfway point of our fiscal year at work and we have a busy week of mid-year reviews and such coming up - a schedule he would trade places with versus a week in the hospital in a blink. I still had to prep my chicken and rice for the week, another week of bland dieting to work on cutting for summer, a meal he would certainly take over the tray lunch he was served there.

It shouldn’t take a catastrophic event in our lives to truly come to appreciate the little things, but it often does, until we can get it through our thick skulls to be proactive about searching for that mentality. Our challenge this week is to enforce that proactive nature. Your “blah” week is the version of someone else’s best week of their lives. Let’s go have one -

Brain - Are You In Need of an Identity Foreclosure?

Most people don’t consciously choose their identity—they inherit it.

I re-listened to a podcast (Nick Bare Podcast - Link Here) in which Lewis Howes talks about identity foreclosure, a concept where people prematurely commit to an identity without exploring other possibilities. You grow up believing you’re an athlete, an accountant, a teacher, or a "shy person" because that’s what others told you. You buy into it, lock it in, and stop questioning whether it actually aligns with who you are or what you want.

The problem? When life forces a shift—an injury, a layoff, a new challenge—you feel lost. If your identity was built around a single role, what happens when that role disappears? You don’t just lose a job or a skill; you lose yourself.

Tips From Lewis to Redefine Yourself:

1. Question Your Defaults
   Ask yourself: Who am I outside of my titles, achievements, or past choices? If everything you’ve built were taken away today, what would be left? Identity foreclosure happens when you stop asking these questions and accept the first answer society hands you.

2. Detach from Labels
   You are not just a “corporate worker,” “runner,” or “introvert.” You’re a dynamic, evolving human. Challenge the labels you’ve given yourself. Try saying, “I am someone who enjoys running,” rather than “I am a runner.” This small shift creates room for new versions of yourself.

3. Expose Yourself to New Challenges
   The fastest way to break identity foreclosure is to do something new and uncomfortable. Learn a skill outside your comfort zone. If you've always been the “quiet one,” sign up for a public speaking course. If you’ve always worked a 9-to-5, start a side hustle. Prove to yourself that you’re not locked into a single path.

4. Reframe Failure as Growth
   Identity foreclosure makes failure feel permanent—as if failing at something means you’re not cut out for it. But failure is just feedback. The people who grow the most are the ones who detach their self-worth from any single role and embrace reinvention.

5. Regularly Revisit and Rewrite Your Narrative
   Every year, take inventory: Am I still aligned with what I want? If not, rewrite the script. You get to decide who you are—not your past, not your job, not society.

The most important concept to take away is that you are not a finished product. You are a constant work in progress. The second you stop believing you can change, you trap yourself in an outdated version of your life. If you feel like your current identity no longer servers what you value, refuse to be locked into it. Find your next niche, which you will undoubtedly one day outgrow too.

(Also - Lewis is a great writer. His latest book “The Greatness Mindset” is worth the read)

Body - ChatGPT Prompts for Runners

I have invested a significant amount of time in 2025 trying to get a better understanding of AI and practical utilization for it. AI can seem complicated and intimidating on the surface, but once you acquire a baseline knowledge of how to prompt it, it can and will become a valuable tool.

Of late, I have been asking myself throughout the day - “what things could I automate or improve by using AI?”

Summer is upcoming, and race and training season is beginning. If you have any ambitions to run or complete an endurance feat this year, look to these prompts to get your wheels spinning:

Training

1. I am currently running (insert weekly miles) a week and want to train for a (insert distance). I have (insert months) months before I would like to race. Can you lay out a plan that allows to run (insert days a week) days a week, increasing my weekly mileage by no more than 10% until the race?

2. I have been running for (insert time) and want to start incorporating different types of runs into my training schedule. Can you provide 5 - 10 different workouts that would help me improve my speed and endurance, that differ from just a normal run?

3. I am running (enter days) days per week, and want to incorporate 3 days of strength training in my schedule. Can you give me a 3 day training plan that will help me build strength and muscle, while also staying fresh for my runs? Please make sure the 3 days cover all body parts, and that the workouts can be completed in 50 minutes to an hour.

Recovery

1. I am increasing my running each week and want to incorporate 5 to 10 minutes of stretching to the end of my run. I have been feeling specifically tight and sore in my (insert muscle), (insert muscle), and (insert muscle). Can you provide a 5 - 10 minute routine to target these groups, with images?

2. I am a (enter age) year old (enter gender) who is running (insert weekly mileage) miles per week, on (insert days) days per week. Can you provide me a few different meal options that I can have post-run that will facilitate recovery, and also align with my goal of losing weight?

Motivation

1. My favorite motivational speaker is (insert name). Can you give me a 5 minute pep talk for my run today, using their voice and tonality? Feel free to include humor

Once you start to see more of these prompts, you start to get a better idea on how to speak to it. Check these out for yourself this week to get rolling.

Book - Combating Digital Dementia

You don’t need a PhD in neuroscience to recognize it—our attention spans are fried. Be honest with me - how often do you walk into a room and forget why you’re there? When you are eating dinner, riding in an Uber, walking downtown - how often do you instinctively reach for your phone? How many pages of a book can you get through without checking notifications?

This isn’t just a modern inconvenience—it’s digital dementia, a term coined by neuroscientist Manfred Spitzer (I read about this concept this week in Growth EQ’s Digital Survival Guide). It refers to cognitive decline caused by overreliance on technology. Our devices have become external hard drives for our brains, storing everything so we don’t have to. Directions? Google Maps. Phone numbers? Stored in contacts. To-do lists? An app handles that.

The result? Our brains get lazy.

The Cost of Digital Overload

• Studies show that the average person checks their phone over 250 times a day. That’s 250 interruptions, 250 micro-distractions, 250 hits to our ability to think deeply.

• MRI scans reveal that excessive screen use shrinks the gray matter in the brain, the area responsible for memory, focus, and impulse control.

• The average attention span has dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to just 8 seconds today—shorter than a goldfish.

• Heavy smartphone users show weaker connectivity in the prefrontal cortex, the region responsible for decision-making and problem-solving.

The worst part? Most people aren’t even aware it’s happening.

The Antidote: Read More, Scroll Less

This dilemma is at the foundational level of why I started this newsletter and feel so passionate about reading as a pillar of our overall well-being. If you want to reclaim your focus, your memory, and your ability to think—start reading. Books force your brain to do what social media never will: sustain attention, engage in deep thought, and build mental endurance.

• Reading strengthens neural pathways that are weakened by constant screen use.

• It improves working memory by forcing you to retain and recall information.

• It restores focus—research shows that just six minutes of reading can reduce stress levels by 68% and significantly improve concentration.

Reading is the mental equivalent of lifting weights - our Superset. It counteracts the passive consumption of digital content and strengthens the parts of your brain that technology is eroding.