"Speak.Align.Become."
From Declarations to Extraordinary Outcomes
While the world drowns in manufactured chaos, strategic disinformation and perverse manipulations, I propose looking inward and paying attention to how we think, how we feel and how we act. Just as tennis players do between points, after every single point. A mindful parenthesis in the noise—an internal signal that says: stop. realign. become.
That’s the heart of my new book: "Speak.Align.Become - Declarations for a Resonant Breakthrough Life." It’s the culmination of a journey I began more than a decade ago with The Glass Is Full and a Half, followed by From Fog to Focus. My third book about Breakthrough Design and now arrives in a form that’s part mental gym, part leadership architecture and part soulful manifesto. But above all, it’s a toolkit for the lifetime of transformation.
I'm grateful for professional race car driver Pietro Fittipaldi's foreword, in which he explains how our work on his mental toughness training from winning the World Championship in Formula V8 Renault 3.5 in 2018 to becoming a Formula 1 driver with Team Haas was based on clear, specific and systematic declarations that he uses to this day. Pietro races in ELMS, having competed in the Indy 500, 24 Hours of Le Mans and 24 Hours of Daytona, among many other prestigious races.
Let me walk you through what this book is and why it’s for anyone who’s tired of hoping for breakthrough and is ready to declare, design, and live a life that resonates from the inside out.
Why Declarations Matter
A declaration is more than a wish. It’s a deliberate alignment of identity, intention, and direction. I open the book with these three words: Speak. Align. Become. That phrase is a design principle, a formula for transformation:
Speak the declaration. Don’t think it. Say it. In your body. In your voice. To anchor it in your neural system.
Align everything—in your calendar, your habits, your decisions—with that declaration. Make resonance public through internal coherence.
Become the reflection of your declaration. Embody the truth you announced.
All transformation follows this sequence. You speak it first—before the strategy appears. You align it next—before the system shows up. And you become it last—before anyone else notices.
I vividly remember when in 1990 Dr. Jim Loehr, sport psychologist, told me in our offices at the IMG Tennis Academy in Florida that he had just had the most shocking conversation with a parent. This tall, African American man, had brought his two teenage daughters to be evaluated by the coaches. They had never competed in junior tournaments. They had no USTA rankings. He was their only coach at public courts in Compton, California. "They are not going to take them as students, I know that," he had said. "But I tell you this: my daughters will dominate women's tennis for decades to come." How did the know? Because he had proposed to their mother at a bus stop, without ever having talked to her before. "I told her that we would have wonderful children who would be tennis champions one day. She thought I was crazy, but she married me." His name was Richard Williams. His daughters' names? Venus and Serena. Speak, align and become they did. Masterfully and against all odds. For history.
At one of the private banks where I had the privilege to contribute my Leadership Performance Strategies, the leader of the business division explained to the international executives that the CEO wanted them to duplicate the assets under management within one year. The room exploded with complaints and sneers. "But I'm standing here to tell you that we will make an extra 25% - beyond the CEO's request." The room became silent. "Carlos, tell us how we are going to be able to do it." A year later, the division recorded a historic increase in assets under management, thanks to their alignment of key factors and their disciplined approach to pruning, innovating and seeking new clients. The will and the way, in sync. I don't take any credit for it. I just shared with them the science.
A Latin American entrepreneur, an immigrant to the United States, graduated as an architect in his country. When he arrived he could only work as a dishwasher and sleep with several other immigrants in precarious conditions. He persevered and managed to get accepted to do menial work for a small architectural firm. They had neither ambition nor imagination, and he got paid peanuts. Thanks to his intensive networking, he was invited to join a mid-size firm, where his creativity got recognition. Within a few years, he was working for Gensler, the largest firm in the world. When he asked me to coach him, he wanted to give shape and direction to his declaration "I will have my own firm." Two years later, he did, and he never looked back, as one of the most celebrated and recognized CEOs in his city.
In Speak.Align.Become, there are 375 original declarations, organized across five progressive parts—Invite, Compel, Reflect, Radiate, Multiply (or Imagine, Improve, Inspire, Ignite and Integrate). But more than a quote book, it’s a tool for designing your identity through language.
The Science Behind the Shift
I don’t suggest declarations because they feel warm and fuzzy. I offer them because they work—neurologically, psychologically and socially.
Neuroplasticity and Identity: Cognitive science shows that when we speak identity-based language—“I am becoming...” or "As I become..."—we activate the medial prefrontal cortex, the meaning-making hub tied to future self-concepts. Over time, the words shape the tissue: of belief, habit, and choice.
Self-Affirmation Theory: Claude Steele’s work in the 1980s demonstrated that affirmations tied to core values buffer against threat and stress. That’s why in Speak.Align.Become every declaration is keyed to values like integrity, creativity, service, abundance. As you affirm the steps you are taking, you’re fortifying your identity.
Performance Psychology and Speech: Jim Loehr, a pioneer in the field, asserts: What you say to yourself under pressure becomes your inner coach or your inner critic. You become the literal message you repeat. The declarations in this book are designed as your “inner coach” under pressure. The best coach in the world will help you become your own best coach. That's what this process entails.
Social Influence and Emotional Contagion: Harvard study after Harvard study confirms that people catch energy like bugs—and then pass it on. Your internal alignment becomes ambient in your environment. Your private practice becomes public climate.
The Five Pillars of Resonant Design
Here’s how the five parts of the book come together as a coherent framework for leaders, creators, athletes, parents—anyone engaged in meaningful work.
1) Imagine – Design from Your Future Self: This is the mind’s rehearsal studio. Borrowed from both cognitive psychology and leadership research, this stage reminds us that mindset always precedes manifestation. In The Glass Is Full and a Half, I began this journey by inviting people to see abundance through adversity. Now, I’m inviting you to speak it too: “I imagine boldly so others can live bravely.” The keyword: clarity. What you imagine with clarity becomes compelling.
2) Improve – Train the Inner Field: Following the model of sports psychologist Dr. Jim Loehr—whom I worked closely in the 90s—the second stage is about energy management, ritual, discipline. Declarations become part of your daily practice. "I manage energy, not time," you say. And then you actually schedule your rhythms, nap, lunch walk, breathing breaks—in alignment. The science? Repetition shapes neural pathways. One cognitive study even found that practicing identity-based self-talk daily builds deeper self-concept than metrics or outcomes alone.
3) Inspire – Live by Example: Most leadership programs stop at vision and skill. But human brains need resonance, not rhetoric. This stage is about embodying the work—being more than your job. Your energy precedes your speech. Your presence is felt long before your words are heard. This is where emotional contagion enters the frame, and leaders show, not tell.
4) Ignite – Multiply the Signal: Legacy is a deliberate byproduct of embodied leadership. Your next level is only as powerful as who you invite with you. When you fully live your declarations, people want to share your energy, they flip into resonance. Studies confirm that network contagion of mindsets (happiness, purpose, resilience) is real—the more embodied your practice, the more you light the path as a leader for others to follow.
5) Integrate – Practice and Scale: This is the fusion stage—where consistency becomes sustenance and design becomes default. Integration is coherent architecture. This stage builds frameworks—journals, rituals, communities—that reinforce the declaration beyond inspiration, into infrastructure. It’s the platform on which momentum scales.
What You’ll Find in the Book
Over 375 Declarations for you to hone the ritual of Positive Self-Talk.
Five structured phases to follow or dip into depending on your moment.
Reflection prompts and micro-actions to anchor the declaration in real time.
Integration practices: Mantras + declarations. Writing + action. Rituals + reality.
Guided exercises to consolidate your daily practice, for life.
It’s built for both high-volume journaling and high-impact application. The idea is simple: don’t just read it. Use it.
What You’ll Experience
If The Glass Is Full and a Half was about seeing differently, and From Fog to Focus was about seeing clearly, then Speak.Align.Become is about speaking differently, living differently, becoming differently. So, if you...
Seek clarity when your mind is fogged
Need resilience in high pressure moments
Yearn for significance in the everyday
Want to lead by who you are, not just what you know
Aim to leave a legacy of design, not desperation
This is a different kind of framework. A different kind of leadership.
If you do the work, speak the declarations, align your days, and commit to becoming—these are the outcomes I’ve seen, time and again:
Teams that build cultures where being present is the default
Leaders who model vulnerability and direction simultaneously
Individuals who use cognitive reframing to turn crisis into creativity
A personal sense of ongoing renewal—not overnight transformation
A daily relationship with purpose, not procrastination or perfectionism
Why I Wrote This Book
I started my career advising leaders on strategy and branding. But over time I realized that strategy only moves as fast as the human system that holds it. So I leaned into psychology, energy work, narrative design—tools that were often dismissed as “soft.” What I learned is that they’re not soft. They’re foundational.
This whole trilogy—The Glass…, From Fog…, Speak.Align.Become—is a story arc. From the mindset of abundance, to the clarity of focus, to the design of daily living. This latest piece wasn’t written to inspire. It was written to activate.
I want your transformation to be practical, scalable and teachable. I want you to declare the future clearly, align the jam-packed canvas of your workweek, and become through the repeated modeling of the truth you want to live.
It’s Not About Perfection—It’s About Pattern and Challenges
Every leader I’ve worked with faces the same misconception: transformation requires explosion, not iteration. The truth? Breakthrough happens in aligned patterns—not random hacks. It’s not the 3‑day binge reset that matters. It’s the daily, humble rhythm, the declarations said at 5am, the pause before the meeting, the breath before the broadcast. This is the work of lasting resonance.
Who This Book Is For
Executives shifting from control to coherence
Coaches and facilitators wanting to model what they teach
Athletes and artists commanding inner authority
Parents, educators, anyone realizing that influence starts at home
Anyone tired of juggling noise, burnout, imperfection—and ready for design
Speak, Align, Become—and Multiply
Here’s the core belief I’ve landed on: What you declare becomes your daily soundtrack (the leitmotif of your success). What you align becomes your environment. What you become becomes your legacy. The daily strategy? Speak, align, become. The lifetime strategy? Multiply what you become.
That’s why the book finishes with an invitation for expansion: how you share it, teach it, adopt it, but most of all live it. Declarations are more than words. They are the helix of design that songs build on; they are breath and blueprint. They are what you say so the day hears, what you act so the life knows, what you live so the world reflects.
If Speak.Align.Become is calling you, it’s because something inside your wants to speak, something outside wants to align, and everything in you wants to become. Your breakthrough begins when you say it, then live it—in word, in design, in life.
Your Next Steps
Read my books "The Glass is Full and a Half," "From Fog to Focus" and "Speak.Align.Become"
Explore my Leadership Performance Strategies Consulting Services
Invite me to speak at your organization on Strategies that deliver Extraordinary Outcomes
Contact me to tailor my contributions to your specific needs
[First published in “The Glass is Full and a Half” newsletter on LinkedIn on July 8, 2025]