The more I go about each day, in each new journey in life, the more I realize the collection of stuff that you take with you. One takes stuff in the form of memories. Memories of childhood, memories of wonderful events, and sometimes memories of not-so-wonderful events. But your memories contain parts and pieces of your life that ultimately end up in what I call stuff.

Then you have stuff that is tangible. You have stuff like your house, your car, your desk, your computer, and your phone. All of these things are stuff that you have, and you interact with on a daily basis. They become a part of your life. What does this stuff really mean? This stuff, to me, is not about meaning but is symbolic of how you go about doing what it is you do on a daily basis.

Another element of stuff is people. Yes, I realize I’m referring to a human being as stuff, but if you’ll bear with me, you’ll see my point. People are filled with stuff. Good stuff and bad stuff. Meaningful stuff. Not-so-meaningful stuff. Stuff that makes you feel good comes out of people. Stuff that makes you not feel good also can come out of people. But you’ve got to realize and recognize that all people, just like yourself, carry around an immense amount of stuff.

And the last stuff, the last element of stuff, is all in your mind. What occupies your daily thoughts? What occupies your ambitions, your dreams, your prayers, your hopes? It’s all filled with stuff. Stuff in the form of where you want to be in five years, where you want to be in ten years. How do you want to be remembered when you’re gone? All of this is just random stuff. And the cool thing about stuff is there’s always more of it.

You take some of the hardest things in the world, analyze them, and sometimes you find the greatest solution to anything is just how simple you can make it. When things get complicated in my life, both business and personal, I always try to go back to thinking about what is the simplest solution or simplest thing I can do to solve the situation. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But I’ve always tried to keep things just purely as simple as possible.

Keeping it simple takes a big focus. Many times you overthink things in your mind. You think through too many scenarios, too many different outcomes, too many different ways to solve a problem, when usually the simplest answer is always the winner. It takes a very smart person to keep things simple, and the more I grow, the more I see, the more I come to know in this world, the easier I find that the answer usually lies in something simple.

Whether it’s a situation that happens to you or somebody else, you can usually look at the root cause and boil it down to one simple thing that can fix all your problems. Now, I’m not saying that everything in the world can be looked at in such a simple manner, but oftentimes I think as people, we overcomplicate things far too much. I think we rationalize and overthink things way too much. I think we, in general, just sit there and think about things way too much. Part of freeing your mind and freeing yourself comes with simplicity.

We’ve all heard the phrase “keep it simple, stupid” or the KISS method. I think there is a lot of value and understanding that goes into this. The simpler you keep things, the easier they seem to become. The simpler you keep things, the better your thought process is, and the more things you are able to expose and open your mind to. In a lot of ways, the simpler you keep things, the happier you will be.

I’ve never been afraid of taking a new path. In fact, exploring new roads and blazing new trails has always intrigued and inspired me. While it may seem like I’m just risk-averse or somewhat of a daredevil, it’s really more about the adventure. Taking a new path doesn’t mean going into something blindly. It means venturing into something where you can envision the future and have a sincere hope that it turns out as you imagine.

Taking new paths, I believe, is what sets me apart from many people and why some don’t understand the directions I take. I’ve always been willing to try new things, adopt new approaches, and explore uncharted territories. Yet, I’m still rooted in the consistency of maintaining the fundamentals of good blocking and tackling.

I have a sense of adventure and a desire to try new things. I enjoy seeing new outcomes and gauging how well things will work once they’re realized, which is why taking a new path is always so intriguing and inspiring to me.

Don’t get me wrong; new paths can be frightening and troubling. Sometimes, they are fraught with uncertainty, but they are always fun. Whether you know the outcome, can predict the outcome, or have no clue how things will truly turn out, it is always entertaining, intriguing, and inspiring to take a new path.

You go through life, you go through your day, you go through your week, and you have so many ups, so many things that are positive, so many things that make you ride high. So many things that make you feel invincible and unstoppable. And then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, you get hit with something from the side—a down.

Now, it’s just naturally part of life that you’re going to have ups and downs, and you always hope you have more ups than you have downs, but you always have to put it in perspective. You always have to remember that just when you are ahead, just when you think you are on top, just when you think you are absolutely unstoppable, something is going to hit you out of left field. You hope that you can get through it and get past it quickly. You keep your positive mindset and positive energy, but you always have to be expecting that as good as you think you’ve got it, as good as you think you’re doing, as good as your life is going, something unfortunate is going to happen at some point.

This is not to be a naysayer, not to be a Chicken Little and think the sky’s falling, but just to remember—and even remember to celebrate—the greatness, the good things, the wins even more so. Because, you know, at some point you’re going to have a day, you’re going to have an event, you’re going to have a situation that is not the way you wanted it to turn out. You know that no matter how good things get, there’s always something that you’re going to wish didn’t happen the way it happened. And in the end, that’s what keeps the balance of the ups and downs all together.

The key to managing the ups and downs is always keeping a positive mindset. Always keep that unstoppable pep in your step. Always keep that sphere of influence over yourself where you feel like you’re unstoppable. You feel like you’re on top all the time. And with that, that’s how you can win every day.

As I run through life pretty fast, sometimes I have to remind myself that guardrails need to be applied. Guardrails are not the two metal rails on the side of a road that keep you from going off a cliff. The guardrails I’m talking about are the mental and physiological boundaries one needs to put on themselves to keep their life in check.

Sometimes you run a little too fast and might run into a guardrail, but the great thing about having a guardrail is it brings you back to the center of the road. It brings you back to a place where you can thrive and go very fast for a very long time.

I’ve lived my life and career a lot of times without guardrails, and usually, like any good road without a guardrail, sometimes your car goes over a cliff. But you can always bring it back and find a way to drive with guardrails. The figurative meaning of this is to put boundaries in your life. Know when it’s going too far. Know when you’re going too fast. Know when you’re going out of control. But also know and respect the proper speed, the right energy at the right time.

To me, that is what putting guardrails on the road in front of me is all about. You have to respect the guardrails. You have to know that when you’re getting too close, or things are getting too unsteady, you’re going to have to brake. You’re going to have to slow down and refocus. But know that the guardrails you put around yourself are only going to help you in the long run. They have for me, and I think about guardrails constantly and how I need to apply them in my daily life.

Over the last month, I have started a new trend to get my day going. Every day, I wake up and read a couple of things: a daily devotion and a daily motivation. Then, I make a list of three things I am grateful for. Not all of them have to be things; they can be people, places, or situations. But I make this list and have diligently maintained this habit over the last month.

Over the course of the year, I began my days feeling grateful and thinking grateful thoughts. Now, I actually put pen to paper and write down at least three things, sometimes more, but never less, that I’m truly grateful for.

People, places, and situations come into our lives every minute of every day. Some make us feel truly grateful, some make us feel unnerved, and some make us feel downright scared. But by taking the time before I begin each day to write down three things I’m grateful for, I start my day off on the right foot.

Being grateful is difficult, even in the wake of disaster. Even when bad things happen, even when you find yourself unsure of what to do with a certain situation, person, place, or thing. A sense of gratitude can really change your overall mindset and how you approach and view the world.

I’m not saying that everything is sunshine and roses. Today, one of the things I was grateful for was a somewhat uncomfortable situation in my life: a business deal that isn’t great and that I’m looking for a way out of. But I turned my perspective around to be grateful for it.

The essence of it is a real sense of gratitude, starting with making a daily list of at least three things I’m grateful for. Not all of these things are good; sometimes, it’s good to be grateful for things that aren’t going your way in life because they make you stronger.

As the days and miles have recently been rolling over, I have spent a great deal of time in a mode of reflection.

What has spurred this on is watching my children, who seem to be getting older and more grown up with each passing day. Seeing my oldest daughter not too far away from her teenage years makes me look back over a period in my life where everything has moved by really fast. The fact that all my kids are getting older, my time spent in my company is fast approaching 20 years, and I am now in my mid-40s has caused me to have moments of deep reflection. It’s also been interesting to travel with a much younger group of people in the company and see what things are important to them and how they view the world. All of this has triggered random moments of reflection.

In these moments, it is really rewarding to pause and think about how grateful and blessed I am for the things in my life.

Even with all the tests, trials, tribulations, and stress, it is still a truly wonderful life to live.

There are challenges every day, but I wouldn’t trade a minute of it.

One thing I have really leaned on heavily this year is developing a real sense of gratitude.

Practicing a genuine mindset of gratitude has shaped me more powerfully than anything I have ever experienced. When things start to go wrong in my day, or I have sudden feelings of tremendous stress and anxiety, I find it easy to pause and think about something I am grateful for—be it a person, place, or thing. Shifting to a mindset of gratitude helps me not to worry so much about what is bothering me in the moment but to focus on thoughts that make me happy. It brings a peaceful and pleasant feeling to wash over me.

Sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the moment and in every little detail, but far too often these things cause stress, which creates anger and negative thoughts to occupy space in our minds. Remember that when this happens, simply stop and think about what you are truly grateful for, and everything will be better.

Over the last few weeks, culminating in an event out of town last night, I have witnessed and been deeply touched by the thought of something bigger than myself being present in the world.

Through all the days, activities, tasks, people, phone calls, and situations that you deal with, sometimes you end each day just blown away by the sheer number of things you have to do physically and mentally. Every given day, it’s both surprising and shocking that the human mind can go through so many things at once while maintaining composure and staying focused on the next task.

However, last night ended a little differently. After a pretty busy week, I attended an event that promotes helping underprivileged children by providing them with a home, education, and a great environment. A friend of mine invited me to this event several years ago. Not knowing what to expect, I decided to attend with my wife, Amy, and we were really blown away. It’s become something we do almost annually.

It’s not easy to attend. It’s not easy to find people to take over your daily responsibilities, especially with four kids and all their activities—from baseball to dance to friends. But this event has touched us in a meaningful way, and it serves as a good reminder that there is something bigger than yourself. There is something bigger than your daily problems, worries, and situations that can get you so unraveled and focused only on yourself.

Something bigger than yourself can come in many forms. It can come from a higher power, from something that touches you and to which you devote time, energy, and resources, or simply from being reminded on a daily basis. There is something out there bigger than each of us.

As someone who always believes in the power of positive thinking, I truly think attitude is everything. Until the other day, I had never understood what the word “affirmation” meant. I’d heard it before, but I hadn’t really spent much time investigating its meaning.

But when someone asked, “What is one thing that could happen to prevent you from getting angry?” I responded, “If more people took the time to tell me that I did something good, or that they were impressed with how I handled something, it would probably make me more mild-mannered.”

This may seem odd, but I am someone who always believes in praising the work of others. This is partly because, early in my career, I learned that praising people makes it easier to be direct and firm with them when they mess something up. You always had to be overly positive when acknowledging work that was well done.

But I’ve now learned that positive affirmations go a long way. They influence how you think about things, your mental state, and how you view yourself and the work you’re doing. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t need anyone to tell me how great I am. I do a good enough job of that on a daily basis 😊. But what is really rewarding and encouraging is to hear positive affirmations that sometimes come unexpectedly.

It could be someone simply saying, “Hey, I like your shirt,” or “It looks like you’ve lost weight,” before they even start discussing work-related things. Or it might be, “Hey, that was a really good job,” “Congratulations on a job well done,” or “That was a really nice piece of creative you thought up.”

You can give positive affirmations in many ways, but the simple fact is, you just need to give them. People need to hear them, yourself included. And the more you give, the more likely you are to receive.