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Month: June 2025

Invest In Courage And Spirit

Published on June 14, 2025

Some of the strongest people I know are the ones who have been through the most in their lives.

The idea being, of course, that strength is found in proportion to the number of adversity/challenges/obstacles faced and moved forward through.

Which means, if you want to be a strong person, it would be in your best interest to develop your courage so as to better face the adversity/challenges/obstacles of your life and then to invest in your spirit which is essentially the horse that pulls the carriage (you) forward and through whichever of the above mentioned experiences you’re facing.

If you want to develop your courage, remember that it feels the same as fear—you’re just choosing to make a different decision in spite of that feeling.

And if you want to develop your spirit, remember it feels similar to faith—you’re not sure exactly how it will all turn out, just that forward and through will lead to a better turn out than running from and away.

Without courage, you’ll never even face the correct direction (towards strength). And without spirit, you’ll be an abandoned carriage without its horse—moving exactly nowhere.

If you want to be strong, remember this and invest in courage and spirit.

I’m No Longer Reading Before Bed

Published on June 12, 2025

A change in my life caused me to stop reading before bed.

And before bed was my time to read… established into my lifestyle for years.

But, I simply couldn’t do it with this new life change…

So I’m training myself to become an afternoon reader.

I’m cutting as much afternoon social media time as I can—at mostly zero as of late—and am replacing it with 20-40 minutes of reading time. Outdoors, too, when it’s nice enough outside.

It has taken me a couple of months to get to this point, but I can feel it starting to take hold.

Today’s reminder is to be diligent about making time and space for the things that are important to you in your life.

Life will always challenge you with distractions and by shuffling up priorities.

It’s up to you to keep everything straight in your mind and matched appropriately with the amount of energy and effort you put in.

Can You Hear What I’m Not Saying?

Published on June 11, 2025

I have a student who will often say she’s lazy.

Yet, she shows up consistently to class and works hard while she’s training.

She’ll frequently talk about how she’s “not good.”

Yet, she has close to full splits, is quite strong, and is getting better and better martial coordination after each class.

She’ll even bring up times when she “failed” or talk about her struggles to illustrate her points.

Yet, she competes in most tournaments, completes every belt test with stand out performances, and gets extra training in whenever she can.

It’s in situations like these that you have to listen to what the student is really saying.

…Because her words aren’t saying it.

If you pay close enough attention, what you might realize is that with all people, what they do and how they act speaks way louder than anything they say.

If It Ain’t Broke…

Published on June 10, 2025

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

But, at the same time, if it can break, don’t forget to maintain it.

Too many of us live reactively in the world. Running from one broken situation to the next, exhausted and frustrated. Possibly because ain’t nothing wrong with any of it until of course… something is…

But, if we spent a little more time living proactively… and walking mindfully in our houses, businesses, and amongst our belongings and relationships… looking for things that are vulnerable, weak, or susceptible to getting damaged or broken… we might be able to prevent so many more “brokens” in our life.

Because here’s the thing: just because it ain’t broke, doesn’t mean we should ignore it.

When in fact, a little maintenance is precisely how we keep things from ever getting broken in the first place.

Your Body’s Check Engine Light

Published on June 9, 2025

A bad mood is like your car’s check engine light.

They both say: something is off.

Instead of plugging in a device to run a diagnostic as to what’s wrong, however… you have to plug in your awareness to your inner state to gain clarity.

And sometimes, this takes time. But, after enough dedicated diagnostic analysis, lo and behold, your reading will appear.

Unplug too soon, as it is with the device that plugs into your car, and you’ll leave with no more information than you had before.

Stay patient and committed, however, and the reading can come out just as clear as it would on the machine.

Without this information, all efforts will be guess work and may even make the problem worse.

With this information, all efforts can be pointed and deliberately focused on doing precisely what will help.

Too many people skip this diagnostic/ inner work step and then wonder why things only seem to be getting worse the more they continue to “drive their car.”

Want to save time, energy, and effort in your life? Get in the habit of not skipping step 1 in solving inner world problems and do your due diligence in obtaining diagnostic information.

Step 2 becomes exponentially easier when you do.

Brisk Walk Black Belt

Published on June 8, 2025

Today, the Martial arts school I teach at hosted a black belt and higher degree test.

At the end of the test, one of the spectators said, “that wasn’t as hard as I remember them being… “

And what I said to them in response was, “they’re only ever as hard as the candidate makes them…. “

Martial arts tests are very much like sprints… If you engage with the test at a pace that’s equivalent to a brisk walk or light jog… of course it’s not gonna be as hard as it could be…

But, if you engage with the test at a pace that’s equivalent of a sprint and you put your whole life force into each and every move… How could it not be one of the hardest things you’ve had to do?

I’ll tell you one thing… The people who put their whole life force into the belt test put on a very different black belt/higher degree than those who give their brisk walk effort.

…And the same is true with how we engage with life.

Do It Heavy

Published on June 7, 2025

Because of sickness and some prolonged constipation issues, I went about a week without working out.

Yesterday, I had my first lifting session back and man… everything felt heavy. The weights felt heavy, my body felt heavy, even my thinking felt heavy. It was just a slog of a workout.

Today, I had my first basketball session back and sheesh… more of the same. My breathing felt heavy, my arms and lets—heavy, even the ball felt heavy when I would dribble or shoot.

…Did I curse? Did I quit in frustration? Did I try and force myself to do more than I was capable of doing?

Nope.

I just did both heavy. I let my body feel how it felt and I kept my mind focused on doing what I could in each given moment. What more was there to do?

Don’t force it. Move mindfully forward as you are and do what you will. Much better than doing nothing at all.