Lean Out Your Life

Listen up everyone—because this moment is yours as much as it is mine. Leaning out your life isn’t a hack you pull off in an afternoon; it’s a pilgrimage through three interwoven realms: physical, mental, and spiritual. Think of each realm as a separate trailhead leading to one common summit—clarity. This week’s training is your map.

Physical realm: We begin with the body, the living journal that records every triumph and misstep. Clean fuel, deliberate movement, disciplined rest—these are the chisels that carve away the excess. When your body is light and responsive, the road ahead feels less like a grind and more like an invitation.

Mental realm: Next, we climb into the mind—the command center. Cluttered thoughts weigh as much as unused calories. Identify the loops that drag you backward: self-doubt, procrastination, worry. Replace them with a single question: *Does this idea move me closer to my purpose?* If the answer is no, cut it loose.

Spiritual realm: Finally, we step into the quiet sanctuary of the spirit. Here, meaning outranks metrics. Rituals—whether prayer, meditation, or a sunrise breath—steady the compass when storms roll in. A clear spirit gives every physical rep and mental repetition a destination worth the sweat.

I want you to grab a sturdy notebook—yes, paper and ink, something you can feel. For each realm, answer the questions woven through this guide. Write with honesty; write as if your future self is leaning over your shoulder. When days turn heavy and distractions howl, crack open those pages. Let your own words remind you why you started and show you the lean path forward.

This is a process, not a sprint. But commit to it, and you’ll find that every ounce of unnecessary weight you shed—whether on your waist, in your thoughts, or around your soul—uncovers a clearer, brighter route toward the life you’re meant to build.

Before you continue, ask yourself these three questions:

Am I on track to reach my goals in life?

Why haven’t I reached my goals yet?

What is stopping me from reaching these goals?

 

Leaning out your life is the process of thinning out or eliminating excess from your life. The leaner you are physically, mentally, and spiritually, the easier it is for you to reach your goals. Being leaner physically allows you to run faster and jump higher by dropping excess body weight. A leaner mind will enable you to focus better and complete more tasks by letting go of mental dead weight, such as unexplored ideas. In a spiritual sense, a leaner spirit will allow you to experience more peace in your life by forgiving yourself of any mistakes you made in your past.

Excess in your life can become clutter. There is no worse thing in the world than clutter. Clutter is when there are piles of distractions that busy up your life. My wife taught me an old tradition: you must clean the entire house before the new year. You eliminate the clutter by throwing out everything that doesn’t belong in your home next year. This process symbolizes a clean slate, and the same technique is used at companies. Most companies file away all old paperwork and throw out anything irrelevant to the company in the next year.

There are three forms of clutter that everybody encounters in their life:

1. Physical clutter: This type of clutter can range from piles of clothes on the floor of your room to stacks of paper at your desk. The extreme version is a hoarder. Imagine the crazy person who never throws away anything and lives in a house filled with magazine mountains, toy piles, and a couple of stray cats. They get nothing done. They are so distracted by the mountains of stuff around them that they have no room for new things to be added to their house. Physical clutter can also be internal, and it can manifest itself as excess fat on the body.

Write down three things that physically clutter up your life.

Example: Old clothes, excess body fat, anything physical.

2. Mental clutter: This type can range from unexplored ideas, such as book ideas, business ideas, movie ideas, etc., to thoughts of the tasks you must do for the next day. These thoughts are great until they pile up to the point where you can’t execute any of them.

Write down three things that mentally clutter up your life.

Examples:

Unwritten books, old business plans, new unexplored ideas.

3. Spiritual clutter is the worst type because it can be the hardest to clear out. This clutter ranges from hatred for people, unforgiveness for loved ones, and fear. This clutter causes a hardened heart and a closed mind, keeping you from achieving your goals or receiving new blessings.

Write down three things that spiritually clutter up your life.

Example: The name of a person you never forgave. The name of a person you have wronged. The one thing you regret.

Now that you understand what clutter is, how do you?

Lean out your life?

There are five methods that I used to lean out my life that has worked wonders for me. These methods have allowed me to have a clearer mind, a leaner body, and a more peaceful spirit.