My family and I are in Cabo for the week.

A baby-moon before number two shows up in a few months.

Soaking up blue skies and sunshine while the Pacific Northwest does its usual gray, misty winter thing.

We had dinner reservations last night.

While getting ready, I put on a shirt in that gray zone of "does this need to be ironed or not?"

So I asked Kels how it looked and she said, "It looks fine."

I immediately went to change, then came back out and told her that "fine" is a word I want eradicated from our family language.

Fine...

What a terrible word.

There is nothing in my life I want to describe as fine.

I don't want my body to be fine.

I don't want my marriage to be fine.

I don't want my business to be fine.

I don't want my relationship with God to be fine.

I don't want my mind, my skills, my friendships, the food I eat or my experiences to be fine.

And I definitely don't want to reach the end of my life and hear someone ask:

"James, how was your life?"

"Oh, it was fine."

Instead, I want all of the above to be outstanding.

"Fine" is a form of toleration of the inadequate. It's the enemy of excellence.

And tolerance of the inadequate is actively promoted by the Modern Playbook.

You get there by sleepwalking into a life you didn't choose because you're distracted from your standards.

If you don't want to live just a "fine" life, you have to learn what Mark Manson calls the subtle art of not giving a f*ck.

Or said another way:

You have to learn the discipline of giving a f*ck about only the few things that truly matter.

And not giving a f*ck about anything else.

The Modern Playbook instead gets you to pay attention to and care about everyone.

Be on 24/7.

Buy this.

Chase that.

Worry about this new thing now.

More.

More.

More.

But when you care about everything, you care about nothing.

When you spread yourself thin with distractions, you end up in the land of fine.

And when bloat creeps into your life, your business, your team, or your family, mediocrity follows.

How are you?

"I'm fine. This is fine."

When it's not.

Every moment you're in 'fine' is a moment you're robbing yourself of your true potential.

Just like speed is the enemy of love, bloat is the ally of fine.

Removing "fine" from your life takes extreme intentionality.

It requires clarity around what you actually desire.

And the courage to say no to a lot of good things so you can make room for what's truly outstanding.

To your success,

James

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