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Month: February 2026

You Are The Standard And The Throttle

If it’s true you can only ever meet people as deeply as they’ve met themselves…

Then understand that you are both the standard and the throttle of your relationships.

You’re the standard because how deeply you’re showing up is how deeply you’d like the people you meet to show up.

You’re the throttle because if the person you meet shows up with a deeper understanding, then it won’t go as deeply as they might like to go.

If you crave more depth in your relationships… always reinvest that energy back into yourself and your inner work.

It doesn’t take long for people to gauge an estimation of the depth to which the people they’re getting to know have travelled…

My recommendation is to move quickly with getting to know more and more people…

And move more and more slowly with the ones who match or challenge your standard.

The Beautiful Messy [Poem]

I tap my screen
While urgency sleeps
Before important clocks in
As busy decompresses
During the void hours
Mostly nights; some days
To nothing; blank
…Maybe a 12:19

I’ll sometimes sigh
Maybe slouch or frown
But never visibly
Never audibly
Not even here
Will I show it
Not even here
Will it hit my ear

Your name glowing
And only your name
Urgently protruding
Importantly colored; bordered
Filling the void
Pointing my mind
Towards entropy
Away from order

I’ll sometimes crave it 
The spontaneity… the drama…
The fiery… the crazy…
The beautiful messy
The epitome
Of the nature
Of the universe
Presented perfectly

In your letters, your glow
My casual touch
Your chaos, your flow
My orderly house
Us merging; the mess
It always ends better
You send a text
And I straighten, smirk…

Though you’d never know it
Because I remember… ghost.


P.s. You can read my other poems here.

The Dialogue In Your Head

The one you have about yourself…
and who you are…
what you went through…
what you stand for…
who’s on your side…
who isn’t…
your worth…
your value…
your abilities…
your inabilities…
your cans…
your can’t’s…

Is just that…
dialogue.

And the thing about dialogue
is it can be edited…
rewritten…
updated…
expanded upon…
improved…
made more clear…

Choosing not to do this is exactly that:
a choice.

And choosing to act in accordance with an outdated…
demeaning…
belittling…
restrictive…
subdued…
incomplete…

script

…seems like a silly choice to mentally agree to
…to me.

The Only Shortcut

The only shortcut to getting where you want to be (success) is learning from those who have traveled there.

That said, important tip #1: Pick wisely where you want to go. Not every mountain peak elicits the same reward for every traveler. It’s best to listen to no one at this step… except yourself. And to nurture curiosity (especially from childhood) and build a clear understanding of your aptitudes and ambitions while simultaneously unlearning everything you were told to do/want. The picking must come solely from you.

Important tip #2: Pick wisely what path to take. There are endless ways to the summit. Some significantly better than others. This is where research matters. Don’t just take the easy route. Don’t just follow the first path you see. Meticulously measure the pros and cons of each path, challenge the information sources, and fight to understand fully.

Important tip #3: Pick wisely who you’ll listen to. The person who has never climbed? The person who speculates from afar? The person who climbed a completely different mountain? Or the person who has hiked your mountain numerous times?

These kinds of mountain people aren’t the easiest to come by either. They only have so much energy to give to others: they’re climbing mountains for god’s sake! And what they have to give outside of their inner circle is sparse.

Which is why important tip #4 is: Pick wisely what you’ll offer. These people have already climbed the mountain so they probably won’t need your resources. What they’ll need is something else… something personable… something interesting or inspiring… some meaning or calling to do so… something only you can offer…

…Something to reflect on.

THIS Should Be Your Definition Of Success

Paint a picture for me of what your ideal day looks like. I’ll start:

  • Wake up slowly; no alarm.
  • Scorching hot shower.
  • Foam rolling/ deep stretching/ mobility/ (p)rehab work.
  • Disguised exercise. Be it martial arts, sports, hike, dancing, or lifting.
  • Sauna/Steam room/rinse off finish.
  • Work that excites me.
  • Afternoon nap.
  • Scorching hot cup of black coffee.
  • Reflective/Creative; Writing/Reading; Inner Work time.
  • Meditation.
  • Work that excites me.
  • Evening spent slowly unwinding, chatting, dining, playing, and connecting with the ones I love.

You know what this now becomes?

…Your definition of success.

Not “getting six or seven figures into my bank account.”

No. Your ideal day becomes the definition that you can begin reverse engineering your way to.

It’s clear. It’s aligned. It’s priority focused.

…It’s what your life is composed of: days fulfilled or not.

And if you can successfully fill your days… how could you not have successfully filled your life?

Get One Law Really And Completely Right

Your self-declared boundaries are only as good as they are enforced.

Which is why it’s good strategy to only declare boundaries that you’re going to enforce completely. Not partially and only when you feel like it… but in an all-of-the-time kind of way.

Because the problem with being partial or mood-dependent is that the same energy seeps into other boundary areas, too. Your being soft with your intermittent fasting boundary, causes you to become soft with your exercise regiment, which trickles into being soft about your cheat days, etc.

…But, that’s also the opportunity.

Because if you can get one boundary completely correct… your other boundaries will start to absorb the same kind of energy too.

You resolve on an intermittent fasting window that’s practical and aligned with your lifestyle; this makes you feel like the kind of person who does what they say and makes you want to show up to your workouts when you say you will; which makes you more likely to stick to your cheat day(s), etc.

It’s a reminder to 1) treat your word as law, 2) be mindful and practical with what words you choose to say as law, and 3) start by getting just one law right—like really and completely right. Use the energy from that to build your others from there.

Trust Is An Asset; Fear Is A Liability

Trust is an investment into your future that becomes an asset with what you do.

When you trust, you open. You soften. You believe.

This kind of energy leads to initiative, action, opportunity.

This leads to a future filled with improved, more, better—in whatever way(s) that means to you.

Fear is a withdrawal from your future that becomes a liability because of what you take.

When you fear, you close. You harden. You doubt.

This kind of energy leads to procrastination, inaction, hiding.

This leads to a future filled with regression, less, worse—in whatever way(s) that means to you.

What you don’t gain from trust, you lose from fear.

Embody this. Envision this when you’re in the midst. It’s your future that hangs in the balance.