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Category: Archives

The full collection of explorations.

“Love Yourself”

Published on March 19, 2023

Saying to someone “love yourself” is about as helpful as saying to someone “become healthy.”

Like becoming healthy, self-love is a multi-faceted challenge that requires careful introspection, a profound determination or desire, and an extensive life-long commitment—it isn’t something that is just “fixed.”

Maybe, instead of telling people to arbitrarily love themselves, we can be an example for them or encourage them to do more of the things where the byproduct is self-love.

Things like exercise, healthy eating, meditating, reading, writing, therapy, joining supportive and uplifting communities, etc.

When I think back to the people who have inspired me the most in my life… I think of the ones who were modeling a way of life that I wanted to live… not merely talking about one.

So, before you go telling other people to love themselves… consider the idea that loving yourself fully might be the most impactful thing you might ever do for them anyhow.

Not to mention, of course, that the byproduct of this method is that you get to (re)focus your energy into loving yourself fully—which is the ultimate win in-and-of itself.

P.s. MoveMe Quotes got an update. I increased the font size/ readability, removed a bunch of unnecessary meta text, refreshed the look of the blog pages and articles, and more… enjoy :)

Nuggets From The People I Work With

Published on March 18, 2023

Tonight I gave a speech featuring the many things I have learned from the people I get to work with on a regular basis.

What follows isn’t that, but a brief list of nuggets or “isms” from that speech that I thought were worth sharing—even to the reader who has never met them. Enjoy :)

  • Kindness is always in fashion.
  • Adventures are the real currency in life.
  • Always have something to look forward to.
  • Try to keep a night saved for the girls… or the boys.
  • Any day that consists of “went to the gym” is a great day.
  • The real benefit of ‘more’ is that we get to give back more.
  • Taking things seriously is important—but so is taking things lightly.
  • Work just as hard when there’s 2 in the room as you would when there’s 40.
  • Sometimes the claps from one, true fan can ring louder than the standing ovation received from a thousand spectators.
  • The best way to start a conversation, no matter how hard, is to walk directly up to the person, sometimes cornering them, and dive right in.
  • Always bet on yourself—the path might not always be clear, but the inner resolve and grit that’s guided us safely before will do so again.
  • Being honest upfront and well in advance of what might require honesty—saves everybody (mostly ourselves) time and headache.
  • Taking pictures at each step of the way makes for an incredible look back at a journey you didn’t even realize you were exponentially changing on.
  • The time it takes to construct a funny, witty, random, outrageous, where-in-the-heck-did-that-come-from text or comment… is worth every minute of invested time.

The Comparison Sweet Spot

Published on March 17, 2023

First of all, I’m in camp: comparison is at the root of all unhappiness.

However, there is a comparison sweet spot that can be healthy and motivational.

The modern day dilemma is that most of the comparison that happens in our digital, ever-connected lives is with people who are in completely different leagues than us.

Why? Because it’s the best in the game—across all domains—who get the most view time on media platforms.

It’s the most fit athletes, the most attractive influencers, the most witty entertainers, the most successful business people, the most risky stunts people, etc. who capture and keep the most attention.

It only makes sense.

What we need to be conscious of is when it doesn’t make sense for us and our mental health.

And when it doesn’t make sense is when we’re aspiring to be more fit and we’re comparing ourselves to the million follower athlete. Or when we’re an aspiring side hustler and we’re comparing ourselves to the full-time, six-figure, media-empire-content-creator. Or when we’re an aspiring writer and we’re comparing ourselves to Stephen King.

See, nothing squashes motivation faster than putting yourself up against somebody who you know you don’t stand a chance against.

Where the motivation scales tip in our favor, however, is when we compare ourselves to people who are only a few steps ahead of us; people who we feel we have a chance against; people who, with a little more work, we might catch.

We don’t become a pro right out of the gate. We get really good at the amateur level and work our way up—slowly. The same should be strictly followed in our digital lives, too.

Lead With Your Heart

Published on March 16, 2023

Lead with your heart and utilize the power of your mind to figure out the rest.

Leading with your mind and trying to utilize the power of the heart doesn’t work out so well.

Why? Because the heart isn’t one to be utilized.

The heart is who you are; the mind is composed of all the tools that you could ever need to utilize and shape that identity.

Force your mind to build an identity that is in conflict with your heart and the heart will inevitably rebel. Many of us get pigeon-holed into this trap because our minds are so damn loud and constantly connected to the damn loud minds of others.

That is why we must quiet our mind; why we must turn down the noise of what’s “practical” “lucrative” and “respectable;” why we must return to stillness.

Because it’s only there… where we’re quiet and thinking as ourselves—not as others would have us think—that we’re able to truly hear what our heart has to say.

So that from there… we can begin to truly lead.

Too busy for self-care?

Published on March 15, 2023

Think again.

Here are 9 creative ways you can intertwine self-care into your routine:

No 20-minute meditation block?

  • Meditate while waiting.
  • Meditate while eating.
  • Meditate while commuting. Commit to no podcasts, music, or phone use of any kind. Just drive mindfully, focus on your breath, and notice all that’s filling your senses in the world around you.

No 40-minute reading block?

  • Try audiobooks instead. “Read” while driving, while doing chores, while exercising, etc.
  • Try the 5-page rule. Read no more and no less than 5 pages in the morning, afternoon, and at night… and inside any other pockets of time you can swing throughout the day.
  • Read from your phone. Instead of obsessively checking social media throughout the day, download a reading app that allows you to consume books as you would social media. I average ~2 hours of screen time per day… imagine if all of that was devoted to reading…

No 1-hour exercise block? 

  • Focus on getting 10k+ steps. Park further away everywhere you go. Do a lap around the office/ neighborhood a few times throughout the day. Take the family/ dog out on a longer than usual walk.
  • Exercise in pockets. Pick a bodyweight exercise and do 3-5 max-ish sets throughout the day. Push-ups every 3 hours. Lunges every 4 hours. Sit-ups whenever you enter or leave the house.
  • Do an abbreviated workout. You don’t need 1 hour to get an excellent workout. Do 2 exercises every minute on the minute for whatever time you have (e.g. 5 push-ups, 10 squats, done each minute for 10 minutes). Go for a 15 minute run around your block. Do as many burpees as you can in 5 minutes.

The Excuse That’s Needed

Published on March 14, 2023

Yesterday, my website broke.

And as anyone who has ever built websites knows… there’s a million things that could’ve caused it.

Fortunately, it was still functional, just all of my theme settings were seemingly erased or there was some major facelift that messed everything up.

Now for context, my previous settings were in place for several years. And, as the saying goes, it wasn’t broke… so I didn’t fix it.

But, once it did break… rather than wreak havoc on everybody and anybody who could’ve been involved or spend a handful of hours trying to troubleshoot the exact (sometimes ridiculously minor) issue… I simply looked at it as a signal for it being time…

…Time to take a fresh look. Time to upgrade from where it was several years ago. Time to question everything about the user experience and re-create new settings from scratch.

Because while the pain of having things break is that you have to fix them… sometimes that’s the excuse you needed (and didn’t know you were waiting for) anyway.

P.s. How To Stay Calm When Things Break – A Buddhist Teaching.

Non-Negotiable

Published on March 13, 2023

My best piece of advice for anyone living “all-in” in the digital world is to take frequent, deliberate, non-negotiable breaks away from all things digital.

P.s. Tweet this.