How I Stay Sharp and Motivated at 60+

How to stay sharp and motivated at 60 plus. Most people think that when you hit your 60s, you slow down. But for me, it's been the exact opposite. I feel sharper, more motivated, and more curious now than I did in my 30s by far. And that's not because of luck, money, or genetics. I built habits and systems that anyone can follow. Because the truth is, if you don't figure this out by the time you hit my age, you'll regret it. I've seen it happen to way too many of my friends. It hit me straight in the face when I went back from my high school reunion. I just could not believe it. So let me show you exactly how I stay sharp, motivated, and focused while running my billion dollar plus real estate portfolio with over 300 employees. So the body ages, but the mind only ages if you let it. So how do I keep my mind fresh? For me, it's by creating habits and also engage in businesses. So just in the last few years, I created Limitless Expo with my partner, Tyrell Yarber, as an example. We're now in our fourth year, but I started it in my 60s. I created a mastermind with almost 50 people that meet every single quarter just to be better. And it's built all around personal development. And we bring speakers in, and we read books, and we go really cool places. So the first thing is, if you're not reading, you should be. I always have a bunch of books sitting next to my bed. I'm always reading all kinds of stuff that will never stop. I completely stopped reading after I got out of college, but then I picked it up again in my 30s, and I never looked back. But I'm constantly in the personal development mode. So a lot of times when I go to speak at some conferences, I actually go there selfishly to also learn from the other speakers, get to know them, take notes, and also sharpen my own saw. One of the conferences that I created in my 60s with my partner, Tarle Yarber, was Limitless Expo. Last year, we had over 60 speakers on five different stages. We had over 2,000 people all talking about financial freedom, personal development. And these are all high net worth people trying to figure out how to get better, not only in the boardroom, but also at home. I also created a mastermind in my 60s. Now, this is something that I do once every 90 days or once a quarter. And there's about 50 members currently now, and they all pay to network and get better personally. They're trying to build their personal lives and their business lives together as a group in one big room each and every quarter. And we, of course, go to really cool places. We bring in great speakers. We study books, and we study together. We study as a team, because business, it is a team sport. I've also been writing books for over 20 years. I currently have eight books in print right now, and I'm working on nine, 10, 11, and 12 as we speak. So, of course, I created my own publishing company, and so now I have that as a business as well. So I'm publishing business books at the same time, because once you write a book, it doesn't mean anything unless there's other people reading it. So you have to create distribution channels and all the relationships that you need in order to actually sell those books. So currently, we're onboarding authors and growing that company as well. I also take a lot of personal time. So many of you know that I take all summer off, and I also take fall break, summer break, any kind of break. That was all started and based around when my kids were little. And I still do that now, even now that they're out of the house. You need time to sit back and reflect and just think. You should spend a 30-year time actually just processing and thinking, because working and working and working and not actually reflecting actually doesn't move the needle as fast. Once you reflect and look at what went right, what didn't go right, then you can adjust, and trust me, it'll have compounding effects for you. So I hit financial freedom or what most people would call financial freedom well over 20 years ago. So I could have coasted, but instead, I started to double down. And I'm constantly always taking a look at that balance. Like what is a good balance from a health standpoint, from a business standpoint, and from a relationship standpoint? And health and relationships are number one, And for a lot of people, a lot of entrepreneurs, they always put business at the top. There was a time where I went to a personal development seminar, and the speaker said, in most households, it goes business, kids, spouse, when really it should be spouse, kids, business. And that stuck with me, and that was over 20 years ago. So one of the things that still keeps me sharp at my age is still working on deals that I believe in. I love building communities. I love creating value. And I know some of you are watching our accredited investors who might want to see some of the types of projects that we're working on. Some of the multifamily deals, some of the billboard deals, maybe even some of the businesses. So if that's you, here's a link below where you can learn more. So here's the truth. In your 20s, you get energy for free. But in your 60s, you have to work at it, man. Like you have to earn it. So what habits keep me sharp each and every day? So let me walk you through some of my morning routine, my exercise, my diet, and things that I avoid. And trust me, this is a long, slow process and can be painful at times. And it requires a lot of self-reflection. The first thing, like this morning, was I get up, let my dogs out. I grab some water with some lemon in it. I get a cup of coffee, and I go, and I stretch, and I meditate. And I do that for about an hour each day. And what that does is it just centers me and keeps me grounded. And during that period of time, I reflect on all kinds of things. And what happens is your mind goes from going 100 miles an hour, because oftentimes I have a tough time sleeping just like anyone else. And I do wear my little aura ring at night as well. And I have a group of buddies that I text my sleep score. Last night, my sleep score was 89. This weekend, it was 90 and 92. So those are pretty good. And trust me, I've been low. I've been in the 60s. I've been in the 70s. And I started to take a look at that. And so sleep is a big, big deal. So that also has been part of my routine. Because if I don't sleep really well, and I get up, and I'm a little bit tired, it affects the rest of my day. And also, it pours out onto my friends, my family, and my co-workers for sure. So sleep is a big deal. And there's all kinds of things that can affect sleep. How often you drink water, how late you drink water, how late you eat, if you drink alcohol, how often, how close to bedtime, all of that stuff. It can be disruptive. And all of it has a processional effect for the next day. Obviously, exercise is a must. You have to move. You have to keep moving. For me, I love to just walk. I love to ride my bike. I did that this weekend. I go to the gym. I have a trainer. All of those things. And then what do I avoid? I actually like my pizza. I like my chocolate chip cookies. And I like to have a beer here and there. But way different from when I was a younger man. Because trust me, alcohol is a young man's game. If you're in your 60s and still boozing, then shame on you. You got to fix that. So oftentimes, I let my business schedule dictate my personal schedule. So I'm trying to keep big open days. For example, everything I do in business, I try to do on Mondays and Tuesdays, which leaves me Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. So I always look forward to all of those things. I look forward to Mondays when we shoot these kinds of videos like this. I look forward to Tuesdays when I'm actually running my business. And I look forward to Wednesdays and Thursdays and Fridays to do whatever I want. Which might be playing golf. Or it might be actually working. Or it might be working on a business. Or it might be traveling. It might be speaking. Whatever I want it to be. But it's my time. And I use it sparingly. The other thing that I don't do is I don't have this phone near me in the morning. So when I get up, I don't even look at it until about 9 or 10 o'clock. And guess what? I really didn't miss much. And then I use it mostly just for communication. I try to stay off of social media. Even though a lot of us get sucked in and drawn into social media. In my opinion, it just pulls me into what I would consider to be very bad habits. And a lot of wasted time. So like anyone, I'm not fail safe either. There's a lot of times where I definitely go out and I've drank too much. And my next day is disrupted. And I don't feel great. And I wake up not feeling so great. I go on trips. I'm tired. I don't sleep. And everything gets disrupted and affected. What happens is I eat worse. I skip my workouts. All of those things. And voila! Of course, you're more irritable. You're not getting along with people. You're gaining weight. All of the stuff that's actually quite simply obvious. So like anyone, don't beat yourself up for not being perfect all the time. So the reality is you cannot stay sharp in a dull room. So I'm still engaged with my EO, my Entrepreneurial Organization, and my YPO members. I'm still going to trips. I just went to Miami for a global marketing summit where I was meeting these incredible entrepreneurs that were talking about, you know, kind of the next level of AI and AI agents and all that kind of stuff. I'm always trying to sharpen my saw. So who you're choosing to spend your time with and why is extremely important. As the great Jim Rohn said, you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And that actually is pretty true. Birds of a feather flock together. So sometimes this is just merely about changing your environment because environment is much more stronger than will. So you can have all the willpower you want, but if you're in the wrong room, the wrong environment, you're going to get sucked into bad stuff. So it's exactly what happens when you meet somebody after work at the happy hour, right? It just turns into beyond the happy hour. Then of course, there's all kinds of things that can happen from a problematic standpoint after that. So you guys know better. We all know better. We're just making excuses for ourselves. So another thing that I started to do is once you start to develop these habits, you know, these systems and these things, people start to take notice and then they start asking you to mentor. So I've been mentoring people in EO entrepreneurs organization and young people all the time. And certainly my time with Rich Dad as a Rich Dad advisor sent me all over the world to be able to meet some incredible people. And what I really recognized from that period of time is there's a massive need for financial education, which is exactly why I started this channel. So I'll share with you a couple examples. So one of the reasons why we started Limitless was so that I could be around some really cool people and that I had read their books or listened to them or whatever. And obviously interviewing RFK Jr in front of 2000 people was certainly one of those highlights. But also I got to do a podcast with Chris Voss who wrote the book, Never Split the Difference. And by the way, I had read this book, I'd study this book, I'd watch his master class, which I was a subscriber of and I really learned a lot from his books. And so it was my honor to really be able to interview him and do a podcast with him about his book and of course the books he's writing on. So each time I read a book, study a book, interview an author, interview somebody who's really super cool, I always learn something and I always try to apply it to my life. And slowly but surely what I'm doing is I'm just sharpening my saw moving forward. So what you're really trying to do is you're trying to move the goalposts because guess what guys, the game never stops ever. And the people that move their goalposts, they're the ones that are actually winning the game. So people still ask me what drives me today and it's energy of being able to mentor people that are younger. It's actually being in the middle of the deals and it's not money at all. It's actually the game itself. Seeing if you could take something and turn it into success, mentor a bunch of people, coach a bunch of people and be part of the solution, teach people how to produce and not just consume. So the mission really is beyond money. This is about personal development, education, community and legacy because winning really is way more than network. That's why we continue to do these YouTube videos, these podcasts and all of those things because all the stuff that I'm learning in, you know, with kenmackler.com as an example, I'm bringing over to our properties. I'm actually talking to our marketing department about social media strategies because I'm actually in the middle of all that. So everything that you do has an application somewhere else. And the very worst thing that I've seen people do is actually work toward retirement, grab that golden ring, get that watch. And then what they do is they slowly deteriorate over time because they don't have any purpose. And not that I need purpose to live, but I do think that it helps to have something beyond yourself that you can work toward to keep you motivated. So most people think aging means slowing down, but I found that it could actually mean speeding up. So if you want to see what a day in my life actually looks like, just watch this video next.