Friday Recap – Featuring Stanley Bronstein

What if the thing holding you back isn’t a lack of knowledge, motivation, or opportunity — but the stories you’ve been telling yourself for years?

That’s the real challenge behind this week’s conversation with Stanley Bronstein.

Stanley is an attorney, CPA, author, and systems thinker with over four decades of experience. One thing he corrected immediately:

He’s not a former attorney or CPA — he’s still both.
The difference is that now he works by choice, not necessity.
Not for money — but for meaning.

That alone should make you pause.

One of the most powerful lines from the episode:

“I knew I needed to lose weight for 42 years. I acted in year 42.”

That’s the difference between knowing and real awareness.

Real awareness requires:

• Truth
• Ownership
• Action

Knowing without acting isn’t awareness — it’s avoidance.

As Stanley put it:

“I changed my life in an instant… but it took me 42 years to be ready for that instant.”

On February 1st, 2009 — four months before his 50th birthday — Stanley asked himself a brutal question:

“Where will I be in five years if I don’t change?”

He didn’t like the answer.

So he made a decision, not a wish:

• He stopped drinking alcohol and soda
• He cut foods that didn’t serve him
• He started walking every day
• He took full personal responsibility

No blame.
No drama.
Just ownership.

Stanley didn’t rely on motivation. He changed his identity.

He didn’t ask:

• “Should I walk today?”
• “Should I eat better today?”

Those decisions were already made.

That’s what commitment does — it removes friction.

As he reframed it:

“Discipline isn’t punishment. Discipline is self-respect in action.”

Over 17 years, that identity led to:

• 70,000+ miles walked
• Nearly three times around the earth
• Sustainable health and clarity

Short-term thinking mortgages your future.
Long-term thinking invests in it.

One of Stanley’s most powerful mindset shifts:

“I don’t have to do these things. I get to do them.”

That perspective turns effort into privilege — something every entrepreneur and side hustler can relate to.

Stanley turned his entire journey into a system called The Way of Excellence — a human operating system built on:

• Awareness
• Long-term thinking
• Personal responsibility
• Discipline
• Commitment
• Integration of mind, body, and spirit

If you’ve been around the show, you’ll recognize the overlap with Prime Performance:

• Inputs determine outputs
• Systems beat motivation
• Identity drives behavior

The wild part?
Everything is free — books, videos, frameworks — no paywalls, no opt-ins.

👉 Explore it at thewayofexcellence.com