Month: October 2023

Celebrating 13 Years of MoveMe

Published on October 10, 2023

13 Years ago TODAY, I uploaded my first quote to MoveMeQuotes.com.

Since then I’ve hand-picked, personally typed, and shared:

✓ 6,682 Quotes
✓ 4,287 Picture Quotes
✓ 638 Blogs (Lists, Stories, Excerpts, etc)
✓ 99 Books Quoted From
✓ 49 Poems

All tagged, indexed, and organized to help people easily find what they need to keep moving forward in their lives.

The lesson, in this case, isn’t found inside the 11,755 resources I’ve published and shared over the past 13 years, though. It’s found, instead, on that magical day when I went from zero to one.

…On the day when I went from don’t have a quote website to have a quote website.

…On the day when I could’ve easily said, “What’s the point—there are hundreds of quote websites with thousands of published quotes already…” but, found a way to silence my inner critic and made a point to do it anyway.

…On the day when I could’ve easily been overwhelmed by the millions of options that came with website creation including: hosting, domain name, security, theme, plug-ins, SEO, speed, font families, colors, tag lines, copyright, tagging, categories, logo, etc, etc, etc… Not to mention the millions of options that came with choosing where the hell to start when it came to posting individual quotes… and just picked things that made sense at the time.

THIS is the lesson: the starting... the beginning of something that’ll grow with you, somewhere manageable, and in whatever way works for now.

…And trusting in yourself to figure out the rest along the way. :)

Zero isn’t a foundation that anything can be built on…

…But one? One is an excellent place to start.

Happy birthday, MoveMe!

Become. Behave. Believe. Belong.

Published on October 9, 2023

This is a formula I was taught that could be used for moving an inquiring person to a committed member inside a community. It’s something I found to be interesting from both the community organizer perspective and the prospect-looking-to-join-a-community perspective. Let’s break each component down:

Become: First, do something that affects identity. How can you get them to go from “I am not… [a martial artist]” to “I am… [a martial artist].” In the context of martial arts, maybe that’s giving them a uniform or shirt… something that allows them to start seeing themselves as a person who does the thing.

Behave: Second, encourage them to start doing the things that people who identify that way do. For martial arts, that’s taking classes—it’s kicking, punching, blocking, and so on. It’s one thing to dress like a martial artist… it’s a whole ‘nother thing to act like a martial artist. And the more they act it, the more they’ll believe it.

Believe: Third, get them to behave as a person in that community would for long enough and to the point where they believe it themselves. Again, it’s one thing to act like a martial artist for a week or two… and it’s a whole ‘nother thing to act like a martial artist for a year/decade or two. Believing happens by doing for a long enough period of time.

Belong: Finally, once the person truly believes in the identity they started off trying to become, the integration into the community of like-minded, equally-believing members is a matter of connection opportunities. How often do members get to interact? Work together? Share stories? Attend events? Share experiences? …Belonging happens after sufficient connecting.

Progress During Plateaus

Published on October 8, 2023

One of the most frustrating things about plateaus is the lack of growth… the hair-pulling stagnation… the continued effort minus the measurable results.

And it’s so easy to quit during times of plateau because where you once had progress—one of life’s biggest motivators—you now seem to only have effort. Which, I’ll go ahead and say for the both of us, is a sucky trade.

But, what if I told you you were missing an entire dimension of progress measuring?

See, in today’s society, progress of body and mind are measured almost exclusively.

For body, think: weight lifted, distance travelled, rounds completed, inches around the waist, scales that measure weight, body fat %, BMI charts, and so forth. For mind, think: grades in school, standardized tests, certifications, courses, books read, problems solved, connections made, diplomas earned, and so on.

But, how does one measure the progress of their spirit?

…Not so easily defined, eh?

You might say: ability to meditate or how long a person can endure a cold shower…

But, what about: by measuring how long a person can carry forward when they’ve hit a plateau?

…By doing the work even when it’s hard. By showing up even when the efforts aren’t yielding the same incremental results. By continuing to try their best even when—especially when—it’s easy to quit.

What if effort in spite of progress is precisely how progress is made in the realm of the spirit?

P.s. Looking for a more specific guide on how you can carry forward—even when forward is tough? My NEW guide will help.

Showing Up (Too)

Published on October 8, 2023

At the martial arts conference I’m attending, there was a Tai Chi class being offered for all attendees at 6:30am.

Out of 100+ attendees, only three showed up.

Why? Who knows…

Too early…? Too slow…? Not “sexy” enough…?

That’s all besides the point.

The point is that these sessions are usually PACKED…

I knew it… and the other two people who showed up knew it…

But, the instructor—who had to have known it (being an attendee at the same conference since before I was born)—didn’t miss a single beat.

He didn’t give one care to the audience size. Not one huff and not one puff. Not one feeling of awkwardness, frustration, or upset was expressed or sensed from me as a student.

In fact, it was all the contrary.

He was genuinely happy we—all three of us—were there. He was completely present with us during the entirety of the session. He was interesting, methodical, and deliberate. He was a great story teller. And he was evidently having a ton of fun.

This is all to say, he didn’t show up with expectations; he showed up with love.

And love lights the way for whomever and however many care enough to do their part and show up, too.

Moral Code

Published on October 7, 2023

I’m at a Martial Arts Conference this weekend and one of the presenters said the following:

“When my daughter, 14 years old, starts dating—in 23 years (said only half-jokingly)—the person who takes her out better be able to articulate a moral code. Because if they can’t, that’s because there probably is no code.”

Regardless of whether or not you’re dating, married, single… if I asked you right now to articulate your moral code… could you?

As in, could you articulate to me, right now, what you stand for… what you value… what you believe… what guides you… what keeps your moral compass calibrated… what “forward” on your moral compass looks like…

Because if you can’t articulate it… what you have to ask yourself is—with full honestly—is there one there?

P.s. If you’re looking for help calibrating “forward” on your compass, this guide will help.

Skipping Thinking

Published on October 5, 2023

Thoughts that we try to remember end up throttling our brains—like a skipping record that’s stuck playing the same beat.

Here’s how I imagine it going down:

Average thought
Average thought
Average thought
Average thought
Average thought
GREAT IDEA
REMEMBER
REMEMBER
Aver—REMEMBER
Averag—REMEMBER
Avera—REMEMBER
Ave—REMEMBER
GRE—REMEMBER

Essentially all further thoughts get halted as our brains try and remember the one.

We need to write down/record the random thoughts/creative ideas we have so as to free up our minds for smooth, continued thinking.

The more we try to remember, the fewer total ideas we’ll have.

And the fewer ideas we have, the lower the chances we’ll come across (allow) our best ones.

P.s. I use the notes app on my phone for this. It’s simple and easy. Don’t complicate this. You just need an easily accessible place where you can brain dump on the fly.

The Pulls

Published on October 4, 2023

I aim to upload 2-5ish quotes to MoveMe Quotes (here) every day.

This afternoon, I noticed in myself a real trouble focusing while reading. I felt my mind going a mile-a-minute and felt that modern day pull towards screens and dopamine hits.

I wanted to share posts.

I wanted to check email.

I wanted to refresh and see what I missed.

So, rather than entertain each and every pull, I made a paper and pen list instead.

This strategy has helped me on many occasions by freeing my mind from the “pulling” thought (writing it down means my brain doesn’t have to remember it any longer) and has kept me from rabbit holing—which is precisely what email, social media, and websites are designed to do… keep you there. Even when you only intend to be there for a quick moment.

The next time you’re trying to do screen-free work and you feel a similar type pull, rather than do the digital thing right away, try writing it down with good ol’ fashion pen and paper instead. Create an ongoing list, stay committed to the non-screen task, and finish the written down task(s) later—when it can all be done in one fell swoop.

Non-screen type tasks get increasingly easier the longer you stay away from screens and get increasingly harder the more you give in to the pulls—regardless of how “quick” they end up being.

Push yourself to resist the pulls.

P.s. My website is fixed. My landing page is no longer an incredibly frustrating “404 Error Page.” My apologies to those who landed there.