Month: December 2024

Angry Texts

Published on December 10, 2024

I really wanted to send an angry text.

I was angry. But, it was also almost 11pm.

And if there’s anything I’ve learned from sending angry texts, it’s that sending them when you’re at peak anger is rarely a good idea.

Do it at or around 11pm and you might as well set up studio speakers on either side of your pillows and blast screamo music all night because that’s what your mind will be doing all night after you hit “send” anyway.

It’s best to send angry texts when you’re calm.

…When the noise of the loudest emotions have been given time to settle and quiet. When the clarity of your thoughts have been given time to emerge. When the tone of your voice has gone from screamo to “I’m just disappointed because…”

Not to mention the fact that right before bed is the point at which you’re the lowest on energy than at any other point throughout the day and angry conversations likely require more energy than any other conversation you’ve had up until that point.

Better might be to just leave it alone for the night.

…To grab a book and get lost in the life of another.

…To read until your eyes unwillingly shut, to get as good of a sleep as you’re able, and to revisit the situation in the morning when you’re seeing things afresh and have renewed energy to engage in complicated matters like anger.

Heck… what you might even realize is that the text isn’t worth sending at all because your inner peace is better than most of the replies you could ever hope to get from an angry text anyway.

I Was Being Selfish

Published on December 9, 2024

There’s a major martial arts tournament happening this upcoming weekend in Toronto, Canada.

And one of the biggest draws for this tournament is that they’re offering around 15-20 full one hour seminars with the best of the best in the sports martial arts world—that are all FREE for competitors.

Recognizing the unbelievable value in this, I immediately started to make plans where I could go for the seminars and have my instructors cover for me (teaching classes at our martial arts school), and then come back to run the school and cover for them while they went down to compete.

But, the more I thought about it, the more I realized… I was being selfish.

I wanted to go to the seminars so that I could come back and teach them all that I learned—and be the bearer of knowledge.

When really, I should be taking myself out as the middle man and allowing them to go and get the information first hand. They’re the ones who are competing and they’re the ones who are on the “come up” part of their journey.

I’ve had my time to compete in these tournaments and attend these types of seminars. It’s time for me to check my ego and humbly step aside so they can experience what I fell in love with first hand.

And besides, even if I retaught every seminar verbatim when I got back, it still wouldn’t be anything like the original experience. First hand learning will always blow second hand learning out of the water.

…And if I (we) really cared about our team’s growth, we’d be willing to make some sacrifices to prove it.

Refreshing Reminders

Published on December 8, 2024

I have four sticky notes posted on the bottom of my computer screen.

One that has my 2024 goals.

Two that each have a question on them.

And one that has a short list of six things I wanted to remind myself to keep doing.

…I put them there to remind me daily of my direction and to help me stay on track.

And while reflecting on them today, I realized I’ve outgrown each of them.

My goals have changed, the reminder list has become irrelevant, and the questions don’t serve me how they used to.

…It’s time to update the sticky notes.

And for everything you have posted as a reminder for you in your life, take some time to reflect on each and ask yourself the same question: is this still serving me?

Because if it isn’t, it’s time to refresh it with something that will.

P.s. I also published 9 Brian Tracy Quotes from No Excuses! and How To Lead A More Self-Disciplined Life today.

Don’t Let The Tame Ones Tell You How To Live [Poster Now Available…!]

Published on December 8, 2024

Some of the best advice I ever got was: don’t take life advice from people who aren’t living a life you want to live and don’t take criticism from people you wouldn’t go to for advice.

These two expressions have been really helpful for me when the firehose of information does what it does and smacks you in the face relentlessly with opinions, viewpoints, and unsolicited advice that oftentimes feels wrong, confusing, polarized, contradictory, and/or overwhelming.

Which is why I’m thrilled to introduce this beautiful poster reminder I created:

Featuring an impressive sketch of an explorer hiking in the mountains outdoors with text in the shape of a sun that reads, “Don’t let the tame ones tell you how to live.”

This poster will remind you to listen more closely to your role models and less closely to your critics, trolls, and tamed comfort zone huggers.

It’s also a perfect gift for the outdoor adventurer, travel enthusiast, or solo explorer (or soon to be) who lives the anti-tame lifestyle and wants to beautifully illustrate it on the walls of their home (that they’ll rarely be there to see ;)

It’s available to be purchased as a print (available in three sizes) or digital download so you can get a physical copy shipped to your house or you can instantly download a complete file set and get it displayed however you’d like!

To get your copy CLICK HERE.

And thank you, as always, for your ongoing support. I hope you love this poster as much as I do :)

P.s. Purchase by Sunday, December 8th at midnight and get 25% off + FREE Shipping…! Simply click “Redeem” in store header. Buy Now ➜

Concentration Follows Interest

Published on December 6, 2024

Think about how much time you can spend staring unflinchingly at a screen that’s displaying an algorithmic refined series of “interesting” media.

Contrast this with how hard it is for you to concentrate for even a few minutes on a project you don’t give two cares about and it’d appear as though you were inspecting two completely different concentrations from two completely different people.

…Looking purely at their faces without any knowledge of which task they were engaged in and you’d say one had ADHD and the other was some kind of focus machine.

Which illustrates an important point to understand about us humans.

Concentration isn’t so much a measure of a person’s skill or ability to concentrate… it’s a measure of how aligned they are with something that’s interesting to them.

Because while, yes, algorithms are excellent at endlessly displaying an onslaught of personalized interests designed specifically to maintain our attention… there’s another tool that’s even more powerful.

One that’s backed by the most complex object in the known Universe.

Can you guess what it is?

…The human imagination backed by the human brain.

Within which there are approximately 1 million billion synapses (the links between nerve cells). Hard to grasp, I know. But if you were to count these synapses one per second, it would take about 32 million years to complete.

This is what’s between your ears right now. And all it takes to unleash the unfathomable power of this gift are the correct keys that are the interests of your life. Discover these and the superficial value that most algorithms produce will quickly become obsolete.

…Discover these and you’ll never have a concentration problem again.

The No Excuses Lifestyle

Published on December 5, 2024

When boiled down, living a life of “no excuses” is living a life of self-discipline. And living a life of self-discipline doesn’t have to be as hard as you might think (or have been led to believe).

When I think about modern media examples of living a life with no excuses, I hear Jocko Willink yelling in his Navy SEAL voice something along the lines of, “Pain is weakness leaving the body! Stop being weak, get up, and get after it!”

Or Eric Thomas screaming in a YouTube video, “Sleep? I don’t sleep – you thought that was it? It goes deeper than going without sleep because you might miss the opportunity to succeed. No, no, no—it’s about no days off. No weekends. No holidays. No birthdays. Listen to me: No Days Off! No half days, no holidays, no snow days.”

Or maybe more simply, Shia LaBeouf looking deep into my soul and shouting, “JUST DO ITTTTTTT.“

But these messages, while certainly not short in motivational kick, usually don’t last very long. Why? Because how we feel in any given moment doesn’t last very long. It’s simply an unavoidable reality that we are forever changing and constantly in flux beings.

Which is why when we talk about self-discipline what we need to be talking about are systems we can put into place, that meet us where we are, that help us move slightly forward from that place, that can be repeated day-in and day-out, regardless of mood or emotions, that are built for the long run.

Anything else is a temporary kick that’ll be gone just as fast as it was brought up.

P.s. More on how to *actually* do this here.

This Again

Published on December 4, 2024

I woke up today and saw nothing but white as I looked out my bedroom window—about a foot of snow blanketed my neighborhood overnight for the first time this season—and my first thought was, “Damn. This again.” And I dragged my feet as I thought about unpacking all my snow tools, shoveling, ice scraping, salting, layering, slipping, sliding, shivering, etc.

And not even an hour later I got a text from one of my co-workers saying, “I can’t come into work. It’s snowing and the elves have summoned me. It’s Christmas.” Followed shortly thereafter with another that said, “I brought the kids to school and then came home and laid down in the snow. I’m in heaven.” And another that said, “It was a miracle that we arrived to school on time. I just love this time of year and I love snow so much. It makes me feel like a kid again and reminds me to slow down.”

…Damn.

Same snow. Radically different reality.

And since there’s no changing the snow… maybe it’s a good time to try changing how I (we?) see it.

P.s. The above post has nothing to do with snow.