is presented. After that, the headings used throughout allow you to skim along the surface and find the section that is most pertinent to you in the moment. Pop in and out of the book for reference as needed.
Part I: Reality
I share with you the piece of my story that got me here, the solution I discovered along the way and how I am going to teach you my system to find your own way through this.
Chapter 2: Be Human - Like You Have a Choice
Chapter 3: Follow Instructions - An Owner’s Manual Made by You for You
Part II: Reboot
This is the system and principles that you will use in creating your Owner’s Manual.
Chapter 4: Start Here - Make Your Expectations Work for You
Chapter 5: Get Curious - Awareness, Curiosity and Compassion
Chapter 6: Try Stuff - Experiment and Evaluate
Part III: Reset
You will learn how to apply the principles from Part II to figure out what works best for your body and your life and build that into your Owner’s Manual.
Chapter 7: Eat Better - Five Steps to Reset Your Eating
Chapter 8: Boost Energy - Move and Sleep Like Your Life Depends On It
Chapter 9: Cultivate Environment - Create an Operating Space that Supports You
Part IV: Reclaim
In this section you will learn tools and strategies to put the handling instructions in your Owner’s Manual into action.
Chapter 10: Take Action - Turn Knowing into Doing
Chapter 11: Steer Dynamically - Navigate Common Obstacles
Chapter 12: Own It - You Got This
I’m excited to bring you the system and principles that helped me through when I needed a reset. They continue to be the principles and systems I live by today.
By learning the process, you will have powerful tools that can serve you into the future because when your life and your body change, it will be time to update your Manual and you will know exactly how to do that.
Chapter 4:
Start Here – Make Your Expectations Work for You
“1.4 A: Don’t get hung up on your views of how things ‘should’ be because you will miss out on learning how they really are.”
– Ray Dalio, Principles
Let’s start at the beginning. The best place to begin is where you are now. It’s the only place to begin, really. You can’t start where you used to be or where you wish you were, but sometimes your mind likes to make you think you can. Stepping into the reality of “what is” is an essential principle for building an Owner’s Manual that you can rely on. If you build your Owner’s Manual based on where you were at a previous time in your life or where you think you should or want to be, you’ll be building the wrong manual. It will be for somebody else’s life or the wrong version of your life. Certainly, use past experiences to inform what you choose to do now; you’d be missing out on learning from them if you didn’t. At the same time, expectations that what worked then should work now can get you into trouble. Expectations in general can get you into trouble, and that’s why I’ll give you tools to get them working for you instead of against you in this chapter.
Start Where You Are
You want the most current version of your Owner’s Manual, the one that takes into account your body and your life right now. It’s therefore essential that you build it in the context of the realities you encounter in your life right now. As it is, not as you wish it were or as you think it should be – what it is.
Show up with the intention of wanting to know the truth about your reality (as difficult as that may be sometimes). It doesn’t do you any good to hide from the truth about your life. Correct that: it doesn’t do you any good to hide from the truth about your life if you want to change it. Any good outcome is rooted in an accurate understanding of reality. Start from here, the place you actually live, now. Here are some principles for starting where you are:
Practice a beginner’s mindset
Life as you know it right now is not exactly as it was a year ago or a day ago or even a moment ago (if you want to get super technical and a little woo-woo). It’s continually evolving and changing, and this is where those who approach with a beginner’s mindset come out on top. Beginner’s mindset means you approach any situation with the underlying belief that you have something to learn. It’s much easier to learn if you believe there is something to learn.
This is especially true in the “expert” space, where it’s easy to feel a pull to be the person who has all the answers especially in your area of expertise. Do you know someone who responds to everything with a version of “I already knew that?” Right. Don’t be that guy. The more of a master you truly become, the more you realize how little you know and just how much there is still to learn. Open yourself to the idea that, although it used to be X way, it is totally possible that Y is the way is it now. Or that you believe A to be true but can entertain the possibility that B (or something else you have yet to discover) may also be true. And if that is the case, you want to know.
Writer and artist Brian Andreas says, “It doesn’t help to listen carefully if you’re only going to listen for stuff you already know.” With each new learning, you get to begin again with a new perspective. Be open to see the next thing you don’t yet know, and it will find you more easily.
Embrace a growth mindset
If beginner’s mindset is that you believe you have something to learn, growth mindset is when you believe you can learn. The opposite of growth mindset is fixed mindset. Fixed mindset says you’re born smart (or not). You know what you know (or not). You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. That’s a pretty difficult (almost impossible) place to change and grow
