The Stay On Track™ System

A personal operating system built on the four core pillars I live and swear by. 

• Peace
• Progress
• Structure
• Focus

The Stay On Track™ System is created around these principles. Let’s break them down.

1. Peace

The overview.

Like walking barefoot in the grass but with a pen and paper.
This section grounds me and creates a sense of stability.

When time lives only in your head, everything feels like a mess. Weeks blur together, days bleed into each other, and your mind tries to make sense of everything at once, creating overwhelm.

A calendar takes time out of your head and puts it on paper. Suddenly everything feels more manageable.

2. Progress

I'm not here to coast along, I'm here for the ride. Without meaningful progress towards something that matters life feels dull. 

A vision is important, but without action it becomes anxiety. It stays in your head, feels inspiring one moment, and creates overwhelm in the next. Or even worse, forgotten if you don't write it down. This section exists to help you make meaningful progress towards a brighter future.

- Getting clear on your vision gives you direction. (Freedom) 
- Choosing a path makes it feel doable. (Make A Living Doing What You Love)
- Progress happens when you break down vision into actions. (Create Content)
- Progress feels meaningful when you see how far you've come (Track it)

You no longer need to create an entire YouTube video, write a book, recover from burnout, or live up to your full potential all at once.

You just need to spend 60 minutes on your needle-moving action.

Over time, your daily actions pile up, your vision starts to feel real, and you become surprised by what you can do. This builds confidence and is a big part of how I managed to put autoimmune condition in remission, grow a social media account to 150,000 followers, and quit my job.

Rome wasn't built in a day, it was built with: Consistent effort, small steps — one week at a time.

 

3. Structure

Structure, just like a schedule, has a bad reputation. It’s associated with pressure, limitations, and control, the opposite of freedom. A schedule was always given to me, made by someone else for me to follow. Hated it! But structure created by you can actually create freedom. When done correctly. 

I remember too well at the beginning of my creator journey, after working my 9–5 and squeezing in content creation on weekends and evenings. Completely drained at the end of the day, but it didn't matter, I was always left with a feeling of “I could have done more.” Never really happy with what I had accomplished.

The reality is, there are always more things to do. And if you don’t have a target to aim for, there’s no way of knowing whether you’re hitting it.

Without structure, how do you know what’s enough? What’s too little, too late, or too much? You don’t. And that’s why you can never fully relax or feel proud of yourself. Recipe for burnout. "More" is a terrible target to aim for. 

It's better to lower the bar, build a structure with limitations and daily targets. 

Example:

• Wake up at 06:00
• Work 4-hours on your most important task
• Avoid sugar
• Go to the gym
• Go to bed at 22:00

Hitting those targets makes me feel stoked! It makes me feel proud. It allows me to relax when I get home and be present with the people I love. "I did what I set out to do and I even have some energy left in the tank."

Without structure, you’re easily led astray. Everything is up for debate and you try to figure it out as you go. Every option is a possibility and there are a million options. That kind of inconsistency becomes exhausting. Freedom is deciding what you want and do that.

Through years of experimenting, I’ve built a structure for myself where I can exist freely.
My arena. A stable baseline.
But also something I can break if the situation calls for it, and find my way back to when needed.

If I start to feel distracted, sad, have a UC flare-up, or stop making progress, it’s probably because I’m not doing what I know I need to do.

Consistent sleep times, daily walks in nature, regular exercise, and a clean diet were key to my burnout and Ulcerative Colitis recovery. Instead of taking what doctors prescribed, this is what I prescribed to myself, and it worked. (Not medical advice.)

4. Focus

The to-do list on The Stay On Track™ System only has 10 spots for a reason. 

If you run out of space, you’re doing too much. Do less, achieve more.

If you aren’t careful with your attention, priorities blur, and the next thing you know you’re answering emails while sitting in a meeting, while cleaning your desk, while planning for tomorrow, while coming up with 3 new ideas. Busy, but not very effective. Do what you set out to do.

This goes without saying but writing down your most important tasks helps you remember them, and gives you a little extra dopamine when you get to tick the box.

It’s also nice to look back at your completed tasks at the end of the week and feel even more proud of yourself. 

If these pillars resonates, feel free to apply them to your own journey. Use them for inspiration to create your own system or download the The Stay On Track™ System here. Three years of refinement, tested in real life. $20 feels fair. Give it a go, thank me later.

Ride safe.

/J