Category: Archives

The full collection of explorations.

Personal Growth via Annoying Tasks

Published on January 7, 2024

What’s one chore you find yourself doing more than any other chore?

Laundry?
Dishes?
Landscaping?

What if I told you that inside of this mundane, annoying, hair-pulling chore lies one of your greatest personal growth opportunities?

What if, instead of feeling dread and resentment towards this unavoidable, time-consuming task… you found a way to integrate a task you’ve been wanting/meaning to do, but never seem to have the time to do?

What if laundry time suddenly became audiobook time?
What if dishes suddenly became meditative time?
What if landscaping suddenly became podcast time?

Suddenly… you just made personal growth one of your most time consuming tasks via one of your most time consuming “hair-pulling” tasks.

You might not be able to change what tasks you need to get done to keep your world spinning… but you can always change your approach to these tasks.

Life is too short to spend so much time daily in resentment and annoyance. And you only have so much hair to pull before you go bald. Might as well find ways to align life tasks and change your mind about what you can. Especially if the alternative is awful… what’s there to lose?

P.s. In case you missed it, you can read the best of what I posted to MoveMe Quotes last week, here.

Using Your Steering Wheel

Published on January 6, 2024

Life only gets in the way if you’re unable to maneuver around the obstacle(s) it puts in your path.

Once you learn how to turn your life’s steering wheel, suddenly, life doesn’t get in the way so much as it gives you opportunities to build steering skills.

What might turning your life’s steering wheel look like?

Doing a light stretching session when getting sick stops you from doing your regular workout.
Playing an audiobook during your commute because you overslept and missed your morning reading.
Practicing intermittent fasting when traveling because you know the options on the road are going to suck.
Cancelling a weekend obligation to spend more time with family when work kept you late on a weekday.
Immediately starting a rainy day fund where you save 10ish% of each check to help cover big, unexpected expenses like a broken down car, vet bill, or hospital visit.

As wonderful as the straight, unhindered path might sound—it’s the curved, obstacle-filled path that builds skillful life drivers.

P.s. Today I crossed 12,000 insights uploaded to my quote library…!

Taking A Dip Into Other Lives

Published on January 5, 2024

A great strategy for living your best life, is to habitually dip into the lives of others.

There are as many different ways of living as there are people and no one person has lived them all.

But every person has probably found a few strategies that work well for them. Things that make them feel good about their life; things that make them feel joyful; things that make them feel proud.

And if we don’t allow ourselves to dip into other worlds, other perspectives, other experiences—we’ll forever be living inside of a fish tank… completely oblivious to the possibilities of the ocean.

Here; now; with what you know—is as good (or bad) as it gets… if there’s nothing to compare it to.

But, take a dip into the life of a stranger—who you happened to sit next to on a plane and ask them questions that give you a peek into their life… and you just might walk away with a golden life nugget.

Take a dip into the life of a historical figure via a fat biography—and get acquainted with the experiences that truly shaped and guided their path… and you just might end up with insight that’ll alter your trajectory.

Take a dip into the life of a family member who’s always around, but hasn’t shared much of their story—and get a glimpse into what *actually* ends up on people’s highlight reels—and you just might adjust what you’re saving onto yours… now.

P.s. Some of the best insights I’ve ever uncovered from dips I’ve taken into other people’s lives are captured in my first guide. 18% off for a limited time ➜

Where’s Home?

Published on January 4, 2024

One thing that has been helping me with organization is, when I come across something that’s out of place, I ask myself: “Where’s this thing’s home?”

If it doesn’t have a home, then it’s no wonder that it keeps ending up all over the place.

Being organized isn’t just about making things aesthetically neat and pleasing.

It’s about giving things homes.

Places where they can continue to reside; not just temporarily get moved to.

And if you’re going to go through all of that work to clean things up anyway, you might as well do the little bit extra it takes to give them that residential spot.

And not just some arbitrary, hard to remember place—a place that makes sense, that’s close to where it usually ends up anyway, a place that feels right.

P.s. I sip on coffee while I write these. If you enjoy these posts, you can support my future work by supplying me with one of my next cups of joe here. ☕️

Picture Perfect

Published on January 3, 2024

Imagine reading a book titled, Picture Perfect.

And it was about a guy or gal who grew up in a picture perfect neighborhood with picture perfect parents who had a picture perfect education and got a picture perfect career who then married the picture perfect spouse and then settled into the picture perfect fairytale life with a big house, fast cars, luxury clothes, fancy parties, and lots of travel.

…No conflict, no challenges, no adversities, no resistance, no plot twists.

Just a straight line from birth to happily ever after.

This type of story would bore readers to tears.

It’s wildly un-relatable and in complete contradiction to the human condition.

…Which is to face a seemingly never-ending onslaught of conflict, challenge, adversity, resistance, and plot twists.

Why? …Because we’re imperfect creatures living with other imperfect creatures who are all trying to figure it out as we go in an imperfect world. Chaos is bound to ensue.

But, it also keeps things interesting.

The most captivating stories are the ones that follow humans who have overcome the most incredible odds. The ones who have faced the most adversity and yet found a way through. The ones who got punched over and over again with one challenge after the next… who still got back up to fight.

Remember this as you compare your daydreams to your reality.

You’re not unlucky; you’re not a failure; you’re not a lost cause—you’re thickening the plot.

P.s. In case you missed it, you can read the best of what I posted to MoveMe Quotes last week, here.

The Almighty Checkmark

Published on January 3, 2024

Generally speaking, I know what I need to do.

And I like to think I have a pretty good memory.

But let me tell you, I forget a whole lot less when I have a checklist.

Plus… I really like to cross things off my checklist.

And if I’m being totally honest… I’m the type who will write things onto my checklist AFTER I’ve done them JUST so I can cross them out. Yeah, I said it. Fight me.

Because of this self-awareness, I created Kaizen sheets for myself.

They’re one page documents that list everything I need to do with space to add things as they come up. I have one for work, one for personal growth, and I make custom ones for my employees.

If it’s important enough to be remembered, it’s important enough to be written down.

Don’t rely on willpower and memory to bring your goals to life—rely on fool-proof paper and ink, clear-minded task priority, and the almighty checkmark.

Holiday Hangover

Published on January 1, 2024

I have holiday hangover.

Mostly from eating more than usual and working out less than usual.

And it has me feeling self-conscious and crappy.

At a previous time in my life, I would channel all that energy into one mega intense workout to try and make up for the holiday dip.

But now, I try to do the opposite. I try not to run from it… I try to *really* feel that crappy feeling… And I try to convert it into a more sustainable source of energy. A source of energy that carries me through a month’s worth of workouts rather than one or two really intense ones.

Just like you can’t eat one healthy meal to make up for a week’s worth of crap, you can’t do one mega workout to make up for a week’s worth of inactivity.

In fact, from my experience, it tends to work proportionally in the opposite direction. One week of inactivity is made up with one month of consistent workouts. One month of crappy eating is made up with one quarter (of a year) of healthy eating.

Dont let this disappoint you.

To feel disappointment would mean you expect health and fitness to yo-yo… one week off, one week on; one month off, one month on; one year off, one year on… which would be a mistake. The goal should be 95% on and 5% off—ish. As in, 2-4 weeks per year of being off and the rest in routine, building healthy habits, and riding the wave of your momentum.

In short: Let the holiday hangover fuel you—not just for tomorrow—but for a chunk of this new year.