Michael Chernow overcame drug and alcohol addiction to become a thriving restaurateur, fitness competitor, and prolific entrepreneur. And with his new “Kreatures of Habit” platform, Michael’s goal is to give people the power to change their lives by harnessing healthy habits from wake-up to wind-down.

Emerging from his rock-bottom moment:

“There’s a lot of reasons, I think, why I did what I did. I don’t have any excuses for why I did what I did when I was living life as an active addict and alcoholic. But I was lucky enough to find a little moment of grace when I was 23 years old and ask for help and change my habits from terrible to fantastic.”

The importance of building great habits:

“The things that we do consistently define who we are. Period. Done. It’s not who we want to be, it’s not who we say we are, it’s not who we think we are. It’s the decisions we make, on a consistent basis, day in and day out, that define who we are and how the world sees us.”

His “seize the day” mentality:

“I think I’ve thrown my flag in the ground as a human being that really does believe that life is a day. It’s all you get. Yesterday’s gone, and tomorrow is not guaranteed. So, our life is literally lived in a day. You get to put numbers on the board today. You cannot do it yesterday and you certainly can’t do it tomorrow. So, we have to live our lives like this is what we get.”

Why it’s so important to ask for help:

“Ask for as much help as possible. More, way more, than you’re comfortable asking for. And, asking for help for me has been the catalyst to my success and happiness. I ask for an ungodly amount of help, and I have no shame around it. I used to feel really insecure about asking for help …  and the truth of the matter is, that gets you nowhere. Noone ever won a war alone.”

A strong support system is everything:

“Everything I’ve done in my life … over the past 15 years … I owe to the people I surround myself with. I’m not saying that I don’t have a big role in those things. But I just know that they wouldn’t have come to fruition had I not brought them along on the ride with me. So, the successes of the businesses that I’ve founded, the fitness challenges and competitions that I’ve done, my ability to be in my mid-forties and sustain a physique of a 22-year-old, all those things have come from my comfort and ability to ask for help.”

His morning routine:

“I call it ‘prayer, pushups, and poses.’ Every single morning, I get on my knees and pray. I ask God for help, and I have a whole prayer that I say that I’ve been saying for a long time. Right after my prayer, I go right into 50 pushups, and then right after those 50 pushups I do yoga poses. And it takes me about 10 minutes every morning. Nonnegotiable – that’s what I do.  And that gives me a little neutralization from the intensity of my life.”

You can start living your best life RIGHT NOW:

“Anybody can change at any time. Period. Your past does not have to predict the present or the future. It can definitely do it if you allow it to, though.  But it doesn’t have to. And I know that to be absolutely 100% true, without a doubt. Because I’m a living, breathing example of that.”