My 5 Lessons from 2024

For the last Success Sundays of 2024, I want to give you the 5 lessons that I picked up from discussions with clients, that made the biggest difference in their lives this year.

First of all, I absolutely love what I get to do. I have loved every minute I have spent with my clients, hearing their stories, sharing their experiences, and diving deep into what truly drives them, and blocks them...

Nothing excites me more than seeing a client jump on a call with a beaming smile on their face because of the way their life has changed. Mostly because of the change, but also partly because it was all their doing. One of the best things about the way I work is I just get to sit there and ask questions and help people identify, understand, and let go of the barriers that prevent them from feeling the way they want to feel, performing how they wish to perform, and achieving all they wish to achieve.

The insights that made the biggest difference in my clients lives in 2024 are yours to share below.

Whether I am part of your journey in 2024 or not,

To your success in 2025,

Alec.

1. The Energy of “Proving Yourself” is the #1 Blocker of Success

We spend so much of our lives trying to prove ourselves. To parents. To friends. To strangers. To the world. The need to prove comes from the belief that we aren’t enough as we are. That belief is the real blocker of success.

The truth is, no one has ever achieved greatness by waiting for others to validate them. They didn’t need proof. They gave themselves permission before there was any evidence. The greatest of the greats all had this in common. They believed they were destined for success years before they saw a shred of it.

Muhammad Ali called himself "The Greatest" before anyone else even considered it. He didn’t wait for a title or applause. He decided who he was, and the world caught up.

If you need proof before you give yourself permission, you’ll stay stuck. Stop waiting for validation. Decide who you are today. Believe it. Own it. And let the world catch up.

2. Freedom is the Ultimate State for a Human Being

Every client I’ve worked with—whether in sport, business, or life—has only ever had one real challenge: a lack of freedom. Not physical freedom. Inner freedom.

It’s not about what they need to do to achieve their goals or perform at their best. It’s always about what’s stopping them from being completely free. Free to express themselves. Free to play without fear. Free to pursue what truly excites them. Free to be uncompromising in their journey.

When you aren’t free, you can’t perform. The weight of expectations, fear of judgment, and attachment to outcomes hold you back. When you are free, life changes. You act without hesitation. You create without resistance. You live without compromise.

If you want success, stop asking what you need to do. Start asking, “What is stopping me from being 100% free?” Freedom isn’t just the ultimate state. It’s the only state where greatness lives.

3. You Will Never Outperform Your Self-Image

This year revealed to me how profoundly self-image shapes reality. Whether it is income, performance, or relationships, we unconsciously set limits based on who we believe we are. These limits are not dictated by external circumstances but by the stories we internalize.

No matter how hard you work, how disciplined you are, or how much you hustle, you will never outperform the person you believe yourself to be. Your self-image is the invisible boundary of your potential.

Every human being has a mental ceiling. It shows up in subtle ways:

• “$10,000 a month? Sure, I can do that.”
• “$100,000 a month? I don’t know about that.”
• “Going a day without doubting myself? That feels impossible.”

Everyone has a level for which they stop & go "I'm not quite sure about that." which proves that you will never out-perform or out-achieve your self-image, as hard as you may work, as hard as you may train, as much as you may hustle, as many self-help books you read or mindfulness techniques you practice, you will not out-perform or out-achieve these self-imposed limitations.

These limits aren’t real. They’re just the point at which your mind says, “That’s not me.”

Self-image is destiny. Until you see yourself as the kind of person who can achieve at a higher level, you won’t. The breakthrough doesn’t come from working harder. It comes from changing the story you tell yourself about who you are. You don’t have to prove it. You don’t have to earn it. Just decide: “I am this person now.” Everything else will follow.

4. Things Can Actually Be Easy

Human beings have an extraordinary talent for complicating the simple. We glorify effort, equating it with worthiness, and we dismiss ease as undeserved. This mindset is a relic of societal conditioning that celebrates struggle over alignment.

But what if ease was not a sign of inadequacy but of mastery? What if the path of least resistance was not avoidance but wisdom?

This year, I learned that much of the struggle in life is self-imposed. We seek complex solutions to simple problems because complexity feels like progress. We grind relentlessly because we’ve been taught that success must be earned through pain. But nature offers a different model. Rivers do not force their way to the sea; they flow. Trees do not strain to grow; they unfold naturally.

The truth is, things can be easy when you stop resisting what feels natural. When you align with your strengths and passions, when you remove unnecessary friction, life flows. Simplicity is not the absence of effort; it is the removal of resistance. To embrace this truth is to unlock a way of being that is both productive and peaceful.

Yes, sometimes it is true that things are more complex or it requires more hard work than it appears, but it is just as true that WE are the ones who seek the complex solution, we seek to grind & work really hard, because we have in our minds that actually, if we were to achieve our goals easily, they might not be worthwhile after all...

5. There “Is” and There “Is Not” – There Is No “Becoming”

One of the biggest lies we’ve been sold is that we’re never enough. That we always have to “become” something more. That who we are today isn’t good enough.

This is what the self-help industry thrives on—the promise that you can “become” better. But here’s the truth: there is no “becoming.” Who you are today is all you will ever be. BUT who you are today is NOT who you were yesterday. Because as Eckhart Tolle showed us in "The Power of Now" there is no past, there is no future, there is only this eternal "Now".

So this doesn’t mean you can’t change. It means that change doesn’t come from “becoming” someone new. It comes from letting go of who you think you are. The identity you’ve built over years of living isn’t real. It’s just a story. The past doesn’t exist. The future doesn’t exist. All that exists is this moment.

Actors understand this better than anyone. To step into a character, they must completely release their attachment to who they believe themselves to be. Jim Carrey often talked about how, when he played a role, he forgot who “Jim Carrey” was. The person you think you are is no more real than a character in a movie.

And that’s the good news. Because it means you are free. Right now, in this very moment, you can decide to be whoever you want to be. The only thing stopping you is your attachment to the story of who you’ve been. Let it go. There’s nothing you need to “do.” Just be.

In this very instance, and every instance for the rest of your life, you are free to choose who you wish to be, and how you wish to behave. The only thing stopping you from this freedom is your attachment to who you believe yourself to be & the belief that you must "do" something in order to change.

Final Reflections: The Year of Freedom and Truth

2024 has been a year of unlearning, of letting go of the unnecessary to reveal the essential. The lessons are simple but profound: stop proving yourself, claim your freedom, expand your self-image, embrace ease, and let go of the illusion of becoming. These are not techniques or hacks—they are truths that I have experienced over and over this year.

The greatest gift you can give yourself is understanding. Understanding dissolves fear, clears the path to freedom, and allows you to live in alignment with your highest potential. As we step into 2025, may these lessons serve as a compass, guiding you not toward a destination but toward a deeper connection with who you already are.