Month: September 2024

Awfully Busy

Published on September 18, 2024

This type of busy is meant to describe being so busy… that it’s awful.

Being busy is tough enough… it relentlessly sucks you out of the present moment (where life is lived), can fill you with anxiety (about how you’re going to get everything done), and makes it really hard to get important work done (because the urgent stuff keeps nagging for your attention).

But, there’s another perspective to busy.

…Being busy can also be a blessing.

It means you’ve filled your day with tasks and activities that you get to do—versus being left homeless on the street with no family, no connections, no resources, and no life options…

And rather than being awfully busy—eliciting a type of misery that follows you throughout your day into and out of every task… what if you tried being happily busy instead?

All those tasks you have to do for your family…? You get to do.

All those chores you have to do at home…? You get to do.

All those projects you have to finish at work…? You get to do.

All you have to do now is slow down, add a little deliberate to your day, and fill yourself with gratitude along the way.

Happily busy is an exponentially more beautiful place to be.

Stepping Into Our Higher Power

Published on September 17, 2024

One of the most exciting things about our path is that we can choose to change it at any given moment. It only takes one proper decision.

There’s an adult student in the martial arts school I teach at, for example, who just a few months ago was only that—a martial arts student.

Today, I just had a conversation with an associate of mine about potentially hiring this student to become an employee.

What caused this drastic shift in their (and our) path?

…A decision this student made to become a leader.

…Followed by another decision to come in early and stay late.

…Followed by another decision to ask to help other martial arts classes.

…Followed by another decision to ask for a job.

…Followed by another decision to earn it.

If it were up to our comfort zone, we would keep running back the same type of day over and over again. We would do the least we needed to do, we would settle for less, and we would rush to get it all done as fast as possible so we could get back to doing more settling and less.

But, if we can keep our highest version in mind… and we can channel the type of thinking that that version of ourself would hold… we can deliberately choose to take a different path… and step into our higher power instead.

When’s The Last Time You Felt A Deep Sense Of Accomplishment?

Published on September 16, 2024

…I got this question emailed to me a few days ago and I’ve been thinking about it on and off ever since.

I can tell you that I feel a general sense of accomplishment at the end of most of my days. I’ll usually have exercised, published one of these short articles, taught some martial arts classes, interacted with great people, and have read a little bit before bed… give or take.

…But, a deep sense of accomplishment?

At least for me, this doesn’t really come from the daily grind tasks… it comes from things that required more from me than I was used to giving. And as I reflected on it, the realization was that the more the thing required, the deeper the accompanying sense of accomplishment.

Which makes sense.

…And brings about an important realization for living life: if we want to feel a deep sense of accomplishment, we must do hard things. Things that require more from us than we’re used to giving… not all of the time (burnout city)… but certainly some of the time.

Because those occasional deep pushes become life highlight reels that you quickly share with people when they’re wondering about your life—when you’re wondering about your life.

And so when was it for you?

…When’s the last time you felt a deep sense of accomplishment?

And how can you get more of that from your life?

Smothering Passion(s) With Dollar Signs

Published on September 15, 2024

My aunt loves sewing.

She loves it so much that she bought a ~$10,000 sewing machine.

And she uses it for every penny she invested into it.

She’ll quilt. She’ll create apparel and gifts. She’ll even create quilted artwork.

When I asked her if she wanted to earn some side hustle money by helping sew patches onto students’ uniforms for the martial arts school I work at… she quickly (and graciously) turned the idea down.

“As soon as I start doing it as a job, I’m going to hate it.” She explained.

And so she doesn’t.

Instead, she follows her curiosities. She challenges herself with interesting projects. She even finds ways to use her unique set of skills to help better the world around her.

Just today, she gave me container with 20 hand made toiletry bags that she wants to fill with toiletries and give to those at local women’s shelters.

Here’s the thing: turning our skills and passion-projects into side hustles can be great… but it can also ruin the thing that lights you up.

Like my aunt, tread that line carefully and dutifully check in with yourself to ensure you’re always fanning the flames of your inner fire—never smothering them with dollar signs or anything else.

Lost Phone

Published on September 14, 2024

One of the parents from the Martial Arts school I teach at got rear ended today.

Everyone was okay, but in the midst of the crash, damage assessment, conversation, information exchange, and chaos from those stressful moments—she lost her phone.

And so she came to the school to use the school’s phone to contact loved ones and cancel all of her credit cards.

She commented, “It’s so sad that in today’s world I have to do this. Everything was on my phone. And if I don’t make these calls now, someone will probably find it and capture all of my sensitive information. It’s so sad.”

And just after she finished cancelling her last card… with the most mysterious / serendipitous timing… her husband called the school and said, “Hey! We found her phone. It was turned into the police station by a good samaritan.”

It was almost as though the universe was giving us a little nudge and was saying… there are a ton of great-intentioned people out there, too.

Living With Ease 101

Published on September 13, 2024

Man. It can be tempting to just throw your hands into the air, curse your circumstances, and blame everyone and the world for not teaching you this or preparing you for that.

Anxiety. Addiction. Discipline. Depression. Relationships. Kids. Property. Taxes. Insurance. Medications. Death. Disease. Loneliness… Each curveball feels like it comes with avengeance, always from new angles, and only with increased intensity.

And you know what?

Nobody is coming to change that.

Nobody is coming to save you.

Nobody is coming to knock on your door and offer you the Living With Ease 101 Guidebook.

And while this might sound grim or deflating… you know what?

At least it will get you out of the mindset of waiting.

Because too many of us are waiting for somebody to come along and do exactly those things… change our frustrating circumstances for the better… save us from curveballs of life… knock on our door and give us the answers to all of our current problems.

The sooner we can acknowledge that we’re waiting to be saved… the sooner we can snap out of it and begin saving ourselves.

Because while, sure, you hopefully have people in your life who are helping you out… ultimately, they have their own curveballs to figure out. And waiting for them to figure out theirs and then figure out yours, too, isn’t a good long-term strategy.

The long-term strategy that works is taking ownership, taking action, learning from errors, and repeating forever onward.

It’ll take just as much time as waiting.

…And return a helluva lot more on your time invested.

Your Dream?

Published on September 12, 2024

What is your dream and where does it come from?

…Does it come from your parents?

…Does it come from your associates/friends?

…Does it come from your social media feeds?

…Does it come from jealousy or resentment?

…Does it come from a feeling of lack or unworthiness?

…Does it come from insights as to what makes you feel alive?

…Does it come deeply and authentically, from you?

Most people’s dreams are infiltrated with ideas that actually aren’t in alignment with their innermost self’s ideas.

…And if you never sit with the question and do some honest inner work, you’ll never know which ideas are whose.