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Month: June 2025

Interrupt Annoying Thinking

Published on June 20, 2025

Sitting down to write today, I stared at my screen for around thirty minutes.

…Not a single word typed.

My mind wandered… thinking of people, chores, tasks… and seemed to keep coming back to a task I was dreading that I’d have to do later in the day.

Thirty minutes of thinking about it was enough.

So I reminded myself that, if I wanted to have different, higher quality outputs (in thinking), I needed to interrupt that pattern with new, fresh inputs.

So I read through a few pages of a few books and finished a few thought provoking emails…

And no sooner than when I read those last few words, the idea for this post popped to mind.

Sick of an output? Change the inputs.

Buy For Time Instead

Published on June 19, 2025

Many people like to express their wealth in space—by buying large houses with gigantic rooms on huge plots of land.

But space without time is wasteful.

Real wealth is expressed in time—by having freedom over your calendar to spend large chunks of time doing as you please (in the space you’ve afforded).

Before you buy space… and negatively effect your available time (larger overhead, more maintenance, excessive fees, etc)… maybe you should find ways to buy for time instead.

Sitting First Class Daily

Published on June 18, 2025

People will pay thousands and thousands of dollars for a comfortable seat in an airplane. And, generally speaking, will cherish every moment of it when they think about what they might’ve had to sit in in comparison.

What if you could channel that same appreciation when you sit in a comfortable seat in your house or at work? Generally speaking, the seats you sit in daily are probably more comfortable than even the nicest ones on some airlines…

Appreciation is an attitude. It’s a mindset. It’s a perspective. And you don’t have to pay thousands and thousands of dollars to obtain it. Generally speaking, all you need to do is… change your mind.

My Toilet Is Broken

Published on June 17, 2025

Speaking of gratitude, my toilet is broken.

It won’t stop running and YouTube wasn’t helping, so I’m manually opening and closing the stop valve after each use—which is now leaking when open—and my plumber won’t be here until Friday.

It’s incredible how much we can get used to modern miracles and how removed they can get from our consciousness day-in and day-out.

Like, I can’t tell you the last time I stopped and felt gratitude for having a working toilet.

Imagine how different the day might be if we were able to notice and actually appreciate even 10% of the modern miracles we’ve unknowingly been taking for granted?

…Imagine how different the day might be if that percent jumped to 20? Or 30?

Imagine if you replaced 10-30% of your anxious or worrisome thoughts with gratitude and presence instead…

Might be worth trying to do throughout this very day.

Don’t Take These Two Things For Granted…

Published on June 17, 2025

I experienced a powerful moment of gratitude today after having spoken to two parents in the martial arts school I teach at.

One of them was telling me that after finally getting his medications correct, he was able to take a deep breath for the first time in about a month and a half.

…A month and a half.

And another one, who was sitting next to him, was telling me about her foot surgery and how her plans of halving the estimated recovery time, was actually looking more like it was going to be double what was estimated… and that, after getting her other foot done, she wouldn’t be able to walk normally again until around summer next year.

…Summer next year.

We’re talking about breathing and walking here.

Two things I know I take for granted more than I’d like to admit.

But, at least in that moment and maybe this one right now, I didn’t.

I walked a little more mindfully and took a deliberate and fulfilling couple of deep breaths.

…Something maybe you can try and do throughout your day today, too.

Rhyming What You’re Inexplicably Attracted To

Published on June 16, 2025

One of my friends brought two of his daughters to basketball this morning.

Both were about eight years old.

One of them had a basketball in her hands for essentially the entire three hours we were playing. She was dribbling, watching the game, and shooting on a kids hoop. She even started counting how many makes she got and finished with around two hundred…!

The other daughter, however, couldn’t have cared less about basketball. She was completely uninterested in the available basketballs, didn’t watch any of the game, and certainly didn’t try to see how many shots she could make.

There are certain things that we’re inexplicably attracted to and things we just… aren’t. It’s nature’s way. Sure, you could try to nurture that other daughter into liking basketball and it might even work…

But, one thing is for sure… the one who is inexplicably attracted to it and tries to make 200+ shots—just because… is probably going to be able to take it further (and have more fun along the way).

Think back to what you were inexplicably attracted to as a kid. Back when there were no incentives, no pressure, and no ends in mind to the means… back when you did things just because…

These are clues as to how you might best spend your time, energy, and efforts as an adult. It may not look identical… but, it almost certainly will rhyme.

A 30 Second Tournament?

Published on June 14, 2025

A friend was telling me about his son’s first Jiu-Jitsu tournament.

He went against a kid who was way better than him, got tapped three times in less than 10 seconds each, and that was it. Over and done.

Sure, a good coach can find plenty of coachable moments buried within that sub-30 second competition that could very well lead to hours and hours of pointed, high quality training.

But, as facilitators of experiences for kids, we should also be asking ourselves if this is the best we can do for our next generation?

Whether you’re a parent or not, a teacher or not, a coach or not… adults have an innate responsibility to pave a way forward for our next generation—in the same way the generation before did for us… and the one before them.

And what we should be asking ourselves is how can we maximize the experiential learning buried within each opportunity taken? How can we increase the reps, the time on stage, the effort required… so as to expand the amount of raw experience our kids can dissect (and learn) from? How can we make the IRL experiences as exciting and rewarding (and even as time consuming) as the damn video game experiences that are competing for their attention day-in and day-out?

As an adult reading this right now, I hope you’ll at least consider this question for the sake of the kids who could be impacted by the efforts and energy of your life…