Blog Archives
Self-Doubt
You Are Capable of More offers practical strategies for overcoming self-doubt, taking ownership of your choices, building discipline, and turning everyday actions into meaningful personal and professional growth. What are some common ways self-doubt prevents people from pursuing meaningful goals?
I open the book with a story I had not told many people. When I was in college, the show Jackass was on, and my friends and I carried a shopping cart to the top of a dirt hill near campus, thinking we could ride it down like a sled. It didn’t work, and we spent the night crashing into the dirt and climbing back up to try again, until police lights showed up at the bottom of the hill. What we thought was a harmless prank ended with me in handcuffs, charged with theft by unlawful taking. The charge appeared in the local newspaper, and I felt like people saw the arrest before they saw me. I worried about future job applications and interviews, and whether that one night would become something I would always have to explain.
That is how self-doubt often works. We let past mistakes become predictions about our future, and we take something that went wrong and turn it into a belief about who we are. It also sounds reasonable, telling us we need more experience, more time, or a better moment to begin. In a survey for my book, 92% of people said they were capable of more than they were currently doing, and 85% said they second-guess themselves because of their own internal voice. One of the ideas I share in the book is that self-doubt can have a voice without getting a vote. You can hear those concerns, consider what you need to learn, and still move forward.
What advice would you offer readers who recognize the need for change but struggle to take the first step?
Make the first step small enough that you can take it today. We tend to picture everything a change will require, and that can make us feel defeated before we begin. If you want to change careers, start by updating your résumé or reaching out to one person. If you want to improve a relationship, put your phone away and give that person your attention. Choose something specific that moves you toward what matters.
I’ve put things off because I thought I needed to feel more confident first. What I’ve learned is that confidence often comes from taking action and keeping promises to yourself. Make a commitment you can keep, then build on it. When you slip, be honest about what happened and start again. Missing one day does not have to become a reason to give up.
How do you recommend readers use the book to develop a realistic personal improvement plan?
I wanted readers to have something they could keep coming back to. Each chapter offers practical steps, and the Playbook at the end brings the ideas together through reflection questions, decisions, and actions. My suggestion is to read one chapter at a time, answer the questions honestly, and choose one action to practice before adding more.
Then give that action a place in your daily life. “I want to be a better listener” is a good intention, but “I will ask a question and listen without interrupting during my next team meeting” gives you something to practice. At the end of the week, look at what worked, where you struggled, and what you need to adjust. You can use a journal or work through the book with your team. There are also free resources at YouAreCapableOfMore.com to support that work. A realistic plan should fit your life well enough that you can keep following it when motivation wears off.
Beyond the book, what are your long-term goals for helping individuals and organizations develop stronger habits and leadership skills?
My personal mission is to help people become the best version of themselves, and that mission came long before the book. The book was one way to put it into people’s hands, but I didn’t want the help to stop at the last page or depend on whether someone could buy a copy. That is why I built YouAreCapableOfMore.com, with free assessments that help people see what is holding them back, articles that go deeper into each principle, and worksheets and resources they can use on their own or with their teams. My long-term goal is to keep growing that into a place anyone can come back to whenever they feel stuck, no matter where they are starting from.
For organizations, I love coming in to present these concepts as keynotes and workshops, because so much of a person’s growth depends on the people they work with every day. Years ago, at a company holiday party, an employee’s wife pulled me aside to thank me, not for any number her husband had hit, but because she could see he was more confident and more engaged, at work and at home. I’ve received awards and reached professional milestones, but hearing that someone’s life was better because of the investment I had made in them meant something different. That conversation helped me understand the impact I wanted to have. It is why, in the book, I ask leaders, “Who is better because you led them?” I want to help more leaders and organizations answer that with real people whose lives they have helped change.
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Not because you’re lazy. Because somewhere along the way, the voice in your head got quieter about what was possible and louder about what wasn’t.
In a survey of more than 200 adults, 92% said they believe they’re capable of more than they’re currently living. When asked what was stopping them, the answers came back in four:
Self-doubt. The quiet belief that you’d fall short if you really tried.
Being too busy. Every hour already spoken for by someone else’s priorities.
Comfort. Things are fine. Not great, but fine. And fine is hard to leave.
Waiting for the right time. Which has a way of never arriving.
Not one of them was talent.
You Are Capable of More is about what’s actually stopping you, and what to do about it.
Chris Sund isn’t writing from theory. He’s spent two decades sitting across from people performing well below what they were capable of, and years doing it himself. What he found is that the thing standing between you and your potential is almost never ability. It’s the excuses you stopped noticing you make.
What you’ll build:
Train Your Inner Voice: change how you talk to yourself under pressure
Own It, Every Day: take responsibility before anyone asks you to
Growth Starts Where Comfort Stops: find the ceiling you built yourself
Time Is Your Edge: stop trading your best hours for everyone else’s priorities
Relentless Improvement: get better on the days you don’t feel like it
This isn’t a book about becoming perfect. It’s a blueprint for becoming better, in your work, your relationships, and the way you see yourself.
Beneath the surface is more resilience than you’ve had to use, more discipline than you’ve been asked to show, and more capacity than you’ve ever tested.
It’s time to stop waiting.
The STEWARD Blueprint: A Compass for a Purposeful Life
In The STEWARD Blueprint, author Andy C. Tseng offers a thoughtful, faith-centered approach to living with greater intention, balance, and purpose. Drawing from his experiences as a physical and occupational therapist, his Christian faith, and his personal journey from Taiwan to the United States, Tseng explores what it means to take good care of everything we’ve been given. His central message is that stewardship extends far beyond managing money or possessions. It involves caring for our bodies, nurturing relationships, developing our abilities, and using our resources to make a difference in other people’s lives. The book’s foundation is distinctly Christian, with Scripture guiding its ideas about personal responsibility, generosity, and fulfillment. Tseng writes with sincerity and a genuine desire to help readers recognize the value of their everyday choices.
The book is organized around seven interconnected pillars: Spirituality, Training, Eating, Wealth, Attitude, Relationships, and Development. Each chapter examines an area of life that deserves intentional attention, explaining how improvement in one area can positively influence the others. Tseng’s professional background is particularly evident in his discussions of exercise, nutrition, and physical well-being. He introduces practical concepts for incorporating movement, rest, and healthier eating habits into daily routines. His financial guidance addresses budgeting, saving, investing, and generosity, while his chapters on attitude and relationships explore gratitude, resilience, hospitality, and meaningful connections. Throughout the book, biblical teachings are paired with practical suggestions, personal experiences, and references to health and wellness research. Each chapter also concludes with reflection questions that encourage readers to consider their own habits and identify opportunities for growth.
I appreciated Tseng’s willingness to share his experiences with vulnerability and humility. He discusses professional frustrations, personal challenges, and lessons learned through difficult seasons, giving his advice a relatable, human quality. His stories about working with patients, participating in church communities, and discovering new ways to serve others make the larger principles feel tangible. Particularly engaging is his perspective that caring for ourselves strengthens our ability to care for others. This idea connects the book’s diverse subjects and gives the STEWARD framework a consistent purpose. Tseng’s writing is encouraging and accessible, often addressing readers directly through questions and invitations to reflect. His enthusiasm occasionally leads to repeated reminders about the importance of intentional living, but that repetition reinforces the habits he hopes readers will develop. The combination of personal testimony, biblical interpretation, and actionable guidance makes the book well suited to thoughtful, unhurried reading.
The STEWARD Blueprint will especially appeal to Christian readers who want to connect their faith with practical decisions about health, finances, relationships, and personal growth. It’s also a valuable choice for people navigating life transitions, reconsidering their priorities, or looking for ways to contribute more meaningfully to their communities. Readers involved in healthcare, ministry, mentoring, or volunteer work may particularly appreciate Tseng’s emphasis on service and his understanding of wellness as something that involves the whole person. Although the book’s perspective is firmly rooted in Christianity, its discussions of gratitude, discipline, connection, and lifelong learning offer ideas that readers from other backgrounds can consider. I’d recommend it most to anyone who enjoys reflective personal-development books with clear spiritual guidance and practical exercises. Tseng leaves readers with an inviting challenge: to recognize the gifts already present in their lives, care for them intentionally, and discover how those gifts can benefit the people around them.
Pages: 80
Welcome to the World’s Worst Club: A Raw, Unfiltered, Surprisingly Funny Companion Through Grief
Michele Greene’s Welcome to the World’s Worst Club is a brief and illustrated collection of personal stories about grief, family, and the unpredictable ways people respond to loss. Its organizing image is a club whose membership arrives without anyone’s consent, a premise Greene develops with dry humor and emotional candor. Drawing on her experiences as a daughter, mother, granddaughter, and friend, she examines how bereavement enters ordinary life and changes familiar relationships. Her observation that “Grief is one of the most human experiences we have, and somehow we are terrible at talking about it” establishes the book’s central concern. She gives that difficulty a recognizable voice, attentive to the awkward conversations, practical distractions, and conflicting feelings that accompany mourning.
Short sentences, generous spacing, and frequent direct addresses create the rhythm of someone telling a story across a kitchen table. She has an ear for the absurdity of social expectations, especially the pressure to remain composed while managing the logistics and interactions surrounding a death. Her humor often grows from the distance between what she intends to do and what she actually does. She’s willing to examine her own impatience, need for control, and questionable decisions, which gives the narration much of its credibility. The language is earthy and sometimes profane, and the comedy can be pointed. Through it, Greene conveys how laughter and sorrow can occupy the same moment, each expressing something the other can’t quite hold.
Greene remembers people through their habits, private jokes, forceful personalities, and everyday gestures of affection. These details give her recollections texture and preserve the individuality of the people she loves. She also considers the strain grief places on families, the assumptions parents make about their children’s feelings, and the care involved in supporting a grieving friend. Her inclusion of beloved animals extends that attention to losses whose significance others may overlook. One of her clearest statements, “Sometimes love is knowing when to be quiet,” captures the value she places on patient companionship. The quieter passages are especially effective because they let an action, an object, or a remembered exchange carry the feeling.
The compact chapters make Welcome to the World’s Worst Club accessible for readers whose concentration or emotional energy may be limited. Its illustrations and recurring club imagery reinforce the sense of an intimate, deliberately informal book. Greene’s repeated sentence patterns and closing reflections occasionally make the storytelling feel predictable, though they also establish a consistent speaking voice. The writing is most persuasive when its specific observations supply their own meaning, and there are enough of those moments to give the collection lasting substance. Readers who appreciate candid memoir and irreverent humor will find a thoughtful account of grief’s uneven course. Greene offers company through her willingness to remember honestly, acknowledge her own mistakes, and make room for feelings that can be difficult to express. The result is a personal and compassionate book whose warmth rests on the particularity of the lives and relationships it describes.
Pages: 135 | ASIN : B0HGC386BF
Love Conquers All
Stephen Vincent’s Love Conquers All is a personal memoir about his marriage to Guadalupe, a Mexican doctor whose warmth, determination, and love of dancing fill these pages. Their story begins with a connection between South Carolina and Guadalajara, and Vincent brings an infectious sense of wonder to the experience of falling in love across languages and cultures. An English-Spanish dictionary becomes an essential companion, and family members have plenty to say about the developing romance. There’s humor in the awkwardness of communication and tenderness in the attention the couple pays to each other. From the beginning, the book invites you into a marriage shaped by affection, Christian faith, and a willingness to build a life together through whatever comes their way.
One of the book’s pleasures is how clearly Vincent’s personality comes through. He tells stories with the enthusiasm of someone sitting across the table, remembering one detail and then reaching for another. His Southern expressions, playful asides, and open delight in his wife give the writing an intimate, spoken quality. The storytelling sometimes circles back to familiar declarations of love, and its pace follows the associations of memory. That repetition also makes his priorities unmistakable: he wants you to understand how much this woman means to him. Guadalupe emerges through her dancing, her medical knowledge, her devotion to family, and her work helping people in the Hispanic community. Those details give her a presence beyond the couple’s romance. You can see why Vincent takes such pride in her generosity and drive.
The accounts of illness and caregiving give the memoir its strongest emotional weight. Vincent pays close attention to the practical demands of care: appointments, supplies, unfamiliar equipment, interrupted sleep, and the effort of learning what another person needs. These passages make the marriage vows feel specific and lived. He also shares the fear, frustration, and exhaustion that accompany the work, which gives his expressions of commitment substance. Christian belief runs through the whole book, with Scripture appearing frequently as a source of reassurance, guidance, and reflection. Readers who turn to faith during difficult seasons will find much that speaks their language here. The most affecting moments connect that faith to an ordinary action, showing how a conviction becomes a decision to stay close, listen carefully, or take on another responsibility.
The photographs, Guadalupe’s handwritten words, and contributions from the couple’s daughters deepen the sense that you’re being welcomed into a family’s own record of its life. They let other voices join Vincent’s and give the book the personal texture of a keepsake shared with readers. Its appeal rests in that closeness, along with its direct account of what sustained attention to a spouse can involve. For readers drawn to Christian memoirs, cross-cultural relationships, or the daily realities of caregiving, there’s plenty here to consider and carry into their own lives. Vincent’s affection is expressed so freely that it encourages you to think about how you show yours, and how often you make it visible. In Love Conquers All, a marriage vow becomes a thousand daily acts of courage and care.
Pages: 210 | ASIN : B0G7R9JQW7
DO THE HARD THINGS: The Key to a Fulfilling Life
Garnet Morris’s Do the Hard Things is a personal and practical guide to building a life you can feel good about living. Its central idea is easy to grasp: the choices that help us grow often involve discomfort, and learning to make those choices deliberately can change how we work, love, and care for ourselves. Morris brings decades of business experience and personal reflection to that argument, moving through subjects such as discipline, honesty, resilience, parenting, and aging. What holds everything together is his emphasis on values. He asks readers to get clear about what matters to them, then consider whether their everyday behavior supports it. That gives the book a useful focus and makes its advice feel connected to actual decisions.
I think the strongest parts are where Morris lets his own experience carry the discussion. He writes candidly about mistakes, difficult emotions, and the work of understanding himself, which gives his voice the familiarity of a mentor speaking across a table. There’s confidence in his delivery, but there’s also a willingness to acknowledge how much he’s learned from other people. His attention to coaching, counseling, and honest conversation adds warmth to a book with a demanding title. I especially appreciated the space he gives to recovery and respecting limits. Within his philosophy, strength includes knowing when to rest, ask for help, or change course. The chapters on relationships bring that same care to listening, boundaries, and presence, showing how personal growth affects the people closest to us.
The structure makes the book easy to use. Short sections, clear headings, and questions at the end of every chapter give readers plenty of places to pause and examine their own habits. You could spend a few days with a single chapter and have something concrete to work on. Morris draws from psychology, business writing, philosophy, and several spiritual traditions, giving his ideas a broad range of reference points. Those discussions are brief and accessible, though some would benefit from more detail. The prose also relies heavily on repeated phrases, emphatic statements, and lists. That repetition reinforces the message, but it can make consecutive chapters feel familiar, especially when the same personal examples return. I found the book most engaging when a specific experience or thoughtful question gave its larger claims more texture.
I recommend Do the Hard Things to entrepreneurs, leaders, and readers in midlife who are reconsidering what success should look like. People who’ve achieved professional goals and still feel restless will likely recognize the questions Morris keeps asking about health, relationships, integrity, and contribution. Readers navigating a transition may also appreciate his view that reinvention is something we can keep practicing as we age. His voice will suit anyone who enjoys direct encouragement and is willing to stop reading long enough to write an honest answer to an uncomfortable question. The book’s appeal comes from that combination of personal candor and practical reflection. It leaves you with useful ways to examine the choices you’re making now and the kind of person those choices are helping you become.
Pages: 293 | ASIN : B0H3WPM4JH
Elite Training Principles
The Disciplined Executive draws on your athletic, corporate, and nonprofit experience to show how deliberate practice builds accountable, supportive, and sustainable leadership. Why was this an important book for you to write?
I wrote The Disciplined Executive to codify operational models and leadership lessons gathered across two decades in high-performance environments and show how elite training principles apply directly to modern executive leadership. The book bridges the gap between abstract strategy and observable daily behavior, offering managers a practical operating manual built on progressive overload, structured drills, and daily conditioning. Furthermore, donating 100% of proceeds to Junior Chamber International (JCI) and Athletes Soul anchors the project in community impact and a joint commitment to developing future leaders.
Which lessons from elite Taekwondo proved most useful in developing leadership judgment, and where did you find the athletic analogy needed qualification?
The most valuable athletic principle is preparation and conditioning. Leadership judgment doesn’t develop overnight; it builds over time through repetition, learning from high-pressure situations, and adapting under ambiguity, much like training and competing in elite sports. In leadership, true skills are tested when situations are challenging, and outcomes are uncertain. This is where neutral thinking and real-time adjustment become essential, mirroring how a competitor adjusts strategy when a fight or a race shifts unexpectedly.
However, the athletic analogy needs qualification when moving from individual sports to team environments. While sports have clear scoreboards and single-elimination matches, leadership involves complex organizational structures, shifting market dynamics, and cross-functional teams. Athletic discipline builds conditioning and resilience, but effective leadership needs empathy, translation, and shared alignment.
How did leading volunteers change your understanding of motivation and earned commitment, and how did those lessons reshape your approach to leadership?
Taking on leadership roles within nonprofit organizations like Junior Chamber International (JCI) fundamentally reframed how authority and motivation operate. While traditional professional environments rely on structural hierarchy and incentives, leading volunteer organizations highlights a purer form of leadership where commitment can’t be commanded through a title or compliance; it must be earned through vision, purpose, and trust.
When people choose to show up because they believe in a shared mission, top-down mechanics matter less. This experience reinforces essential leadership fundamentals across any organization: working closely with people, helping them learn and grow, giving them genuine autonomy, promoting ownership while driving accountability, ensuring people buy into values and believe in the mission, and leading by example.
How can leaders apply your emphasis on recovery and pacing when modern professional expectations reward constant availability, and what boundaries have you found effective?
High-performance business environments can push for constant availability, leaving leaders vulnerable to unpaced output and burnout. In sports, an athlete’s training program alternates between stress and rest using structured periodization to maximize peak performance and avoid injury.
In professional life, maintaining that rhythm requires focus and intention: sustainable high performance depends on balancing stress with recovery, building skills over time, and enabling peak performance. Leaders must take responsibility for listening to their energy levels and identifying the early signs of unpaced output. To protect cognitive performance and sustained excellence, effective boundaries can include scheduling non-negotiable deep work blocks, creating clear transition rituals between execution and recovery, and empowering team autonomy so leaders don’t become 24/7 operational bottlenecks.
In The Disciplined Executive, Jani Hirvonen—former world-class athlete turned global business leader—shares the disciplines and mindset shifts that separate successful executives from the rest. As a Taekwondo Champion and Ironman athlete, Jani offers a unique, results-driven perspective on executive discipline and sustained high performance. With lessons drawn from elite sports, corporate leadership, and coaching leaders worldwide, this book equips you with the tools to thrive in uncertainty, inspire teams, and deliver results.
Inside, you’ll discover how to:
Lead without authority and earn influence through action.
Build adaptability as your greatest leadership strength.
Develop emotional intelligence as a superpower.
Make courageous decisions with confidence—even under pressure.
Unlock your team’s full potential by focusing on trust, recognition, and growth.
Treat leadership as a muscle: train it daily, strengthen it through practice, and grow through challenges.
This is not theory—it’s a practical playbook for anyone serious about leading with discipline, resilience, and integrity.
If you want to stop waiting for permission, step into leadership with confidence, and create lasting impact in your career and organization, The Disciplined Executive is your guide.
Grab this copy today and start your journey toward becoming the disciplined leader others choose to follow. 100% of author proceeds are pledged to support Athletes Soul and Junior Chamber International.
You Are Capable Of More: A No-Excuses Guide to Becoming Your Best Self
Chris Sund’s You Are Capable of More is a personal development book built around a straightforward idea: the way you handle everyday decisions shapes the person you become. Across ten chapters, Sund explores responsibility, time, discomfort, self-talk, feedback, persistence, and leadership, connecting each subject to experiences from his working and family life. His voice is direct and conversational, with the energy of a coach who expects you to participate. He regularly asks you to examine the gap between what you say matters and what your habits reveal. That approach gives the book a clear purpose, and its manageable chapters make it easy to read a section, sit with it, and consider where it applies.
Sund writes openly about uncertainty, embarrassment, and the pressure of having people depend on him, which gives his advice a human foundation. His willingness to examine his own behavior makes the sections on leadership and receiving feedback especially engaging. He treats leadership as something you practice through preparation, listening, and keeping commitments, whether you have a formal title or you’re simply trying to show up better for others. I also appreciated how much attention he gives to relationships. Family, friendship, and helping other people develop are central to his definition of a worthwhile life. Those concerns give the book warmth and make its emphasis on ambition feel connected to people you actually care about.
The practical structure helps turn that message into something readers can use. The accompanying playbook revisits each chapter through reminders, reflection questions, decisions, and actions, giving you a way to work through the ideas after reading. You could easily use those prompts for journaling or a conversation with a team. Sund’s suggestion that confidence develops through experience is particularly useful, as is his emphasis on making adjustments when your habits slip. The writing relies heavily on short statements, everyday comparisons, and repeated encouragement. That repetition reinforces the central lessons, though the chapters on discomfort, persistence, and leading yourself cover some similar ground. The book draws much of its persuasive force from Sund’s experiences and coaching observations, so your connection with his voice will shape how much you take from it.
I’d recommend You Are Capable of More to new managers, aspiring entrepreneurs, and readers who’ve been postponing a goal they already know matters to them. It’s especially suited to people who appreciate direct questions, clear expectations, and exercises that ask for an immediate next step. Parents balancing work and family may also find plenty to recognize in its attention to presence and priorities. If you enjoy reading with a pen nearby and applying one idea at a time, the format gives you several useful places to begin. Sund’s combination of candor, practical prompts, and concern for other people makes this an encouraging read. Its most appealing invitation is to build trust in yourself through small commitments while becoming someone the people around you can count on.
Pages: 173 | ASIN : B0HDFW53CK
The Restoration of Man-A Journey to Healing, Identity, and God-Anchored Masculinity
The Restoration of Man is a Christian discipleship book that asks men to examine the emotional wounds, habits, and expectations shaping their lives. It brings together personal reflections, biblical teaching, prayer, and practical exercises, with a particular interest in the gap between looking dependable and feeling connected to your own life. The author writes from a conviction that healing begins with honesty before God and grows through a relationship with Jesus. That belief gives the book its direction and its warmth. Its central invitation is to receive an identity rooted in being loved by God, then let that understanding influence how you work, relate to others, and handle responsibility.
What I appreciated most is the attention it gives to everyday expressions of growth. Listening carefully, putting down your phone, asking for help, and answering a simple question honestly all receive serious consideration. Those details give the spiritual themes a practical footing. The book also treats vulnerability as something men can practice in trusted relationships, which adds a welcome sense of companionship to its emphasis on personal reflection. Its recurring chapter structure includes journal questions, weekly assignments, and prayers that encourage readers to pause and participate. You’re asked to notice your own responses, make specific choices, and return to the work over time. That structure makes the book especially useful for someone who enjoys reading with a notebook nearby and wants a clear way to put the material into practice.
The writing has the rhythm of a pastor speaking directly to a congregation: short sentences, repeated phrases, and firm encouragement. That style gives many passages energy and makes the author’s concern for his readers easy to feel. His personal reflections help the teaching feel grounded in someone’s real experience. Across the full book, though, the repetition becomes noticeable, especially as closely related ideas about presence, calling, and legacy receive similar treatment. Some chapters would carry more weight with tighter wording and more distinct examples. The broad statements about men’s inner lives also leave limited room for differences in temperament and experience. Even so, the steady emphasis on patient growth and daily choices gives the book an encouraging tone that suits its devotional purpose.
I’d recommend The Restoration of Man to Christian men who are carrying plenty of responsibility while feeling emotionally tired, distant, or unsure how to speak about what’s happening inside them. Husbands, fathers, and men involved in church leadership may find its attention to presence and influence especially relevant, while younger men could appreciate its invitation to build habits of honesty early. Pastors, mentors, and men’s small groups would also have plenty to discuss, particularly if they allow time for the exercises and thoughtful conversation. The book rewards a slow pace and a willingness to engage personally with its explicitly Christian outlook. Its most appealing quality is the care it brings to the question of how a man can become more attentive, open, and faithful in the life he already has.
