Self

Life Lessons: The Importance Of Grounding Yourself

Summer is magic on the East Coast. It was funny. Before I went on this little break, I was thinking about where I wanted to go. I live in a perpetual spring and summer. I live in a place where the ocean really isn't that clean. When you're somewhere the weather is always so nice and sunny, you forget what it's like to have a summer.

When I go away, I put a lot of thought into what I want to experience, because each trip is a different experience for me. I love to go to Hawaii just to chill out on my own, and I really relax. This trip, I thought about what I wanted to do, and I decided I wanted to experience the magic of an East Coast summer.

Summer is different on the East Coast. You can't wait for summer to arrive, but when it finally gets here, it's a very precious short time. It's amazing to most people that now we're in August and they're already counting down to the last month of summer here. Sitting on the beach here, I'm looking at suntans people have been working on all summer, that they'd get in one day in LA.

There's such an easy way about this place, especially if you're from somewhere that's so tense all the time. New York and the surrounding borough are always such a hotbed of tension, and people come out to the Hamptons to unwind. When I was a kid, we used to spend all our summers here, and for this tip, I wanted to re-experience all the things I felt as a kid. I wanted to feel some traditional summer magic.

I wanted some rain, thunder, and lightning. I wanted cloudy days. In LA, it's one perpetual light bulb in the sky. There's nothing very dramatic about an LA summer so it never really feels like summer. To me, summer is drama. You can literally feel the people unwind as they hit the beach after a long week in the city and after a long cold winter.

That's what I needed to experience this time around. I wanted a nice summer as I remember it as a kid. The 4pm sun doesn't hurt or burn. You can sit there at the beach and feel the rays, without feeling as if they're cooking you. In LA, the 4pm sun feels like it still wants to melt your skin because it's so much stronger.

It's been 21 years since I lived in New York but it's still home. Sometimes you just need to go back home and experience things in order to get yourself grounded again to what's important in your life.

I'm always grounded in my work. I make sure all my emails are answered. I make sure all my newsletters are ready for you guys to enjoy and learn from, and I have a great team of people who make it happen. Is my team perfect? Not at all. Do they have a lot of things to learn? Absolutely just like everyone else in this world. We all have so much to learn, no matter how great we are at what we do right now. There's always another level we can reach. There's always another level we can explore, and experience. That's what striving in life is all about.

Sitting here on the beach like I did when I was a kid I can reflect and see how much I needed to come here to ground myself. As I dictate this, and watching people on the beach, I realize my team, as good as they are, also need to ground themselves again.

Everyone needs to strive and that's what I look for in people — Whether it's a business relationship, a romantic relationship, or a friendship. I'm constantly striving to be a better person. Do I love who I am now? Absolutely! But I'm always striving to improve in any way I can because personal growth keeps you brain alive, your heart beating, and keeps you young. I keep working my body out, stretching, and doing all the things that keep you alive, young, centered, grounded, and feeling good.

I never understand it when I see people walking around out of shape. I know a lot of you are, and I'd like to propose a challenge. Exercise your body and see how you feel. I bet your heart will feel better, your brain will wake up more than ever, and you'll have more energy than you've ever had in your life. Do something that grounds you as I'm doing on this trip.

It's good to go back and spend time with my brother, my nephew, and his wife. It makes you appreciate what you have, where you are, and where you want to be. I drove around the other day and I was thinking, this would be a wonderful place to buy a house. It would be a wonderful place to spend summers, to grow, and to show my daughter so she can experience it like I did as a kid.

Grounding yourself is what life is about. Take some time out. Don't worry about dating and relationships. Visit an old friend. Reground yourself to who you are and your soul. It's so good for you and it's something we should all do.