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The full collection of explorations.

Refreshing Reminders

Published on December 8, 2024

I have four sticky notes posted on the bottom of my computer screen.

One that has my 2024 goals.

Two that each have a question on them.

And one that has a short list of six things I wanted to remind myself to keep doing.

…I put them there to remind me daily of my direction and to help me stay on track.

And while reflecting on them today, I realized I’ve outgrown each of them.

My goals have changed, the reminder list has become irrelevant, and the questions don’t serve me how they used to.

…It’s time to update the sticky notes.

And for everything you have posted as a reminder for you in your life, take some time to reflect on each and ask yourself the same question: is this still serving me?

Because if it isn’t, it’s time to refresh it with something that will.

P.s. I also published 9 Brian Tracy Quotes from No Excuses! and How To Lead A More Self-Disciplined Life today.

Don’t Let The Tame Ones Tell You How To Live [Poster Now Available…!]

Published on December 8, 2024

Some of the best advice I ever got was: don’t take life advice from people who aren’t living a life you want to live and don’t take criticism from people you wouldn’t go to for advice.

These two expressions have been really helpful for me when the firehose of information does what it does and smacks you in the face relentlessly with opinions, viewpoints, and unsolicited advice that oftentimes feels wrong, confusing, polarized, contradictory, and/or overwhelming.

Which is why I’m thrilled to introduce this beautiful poster reminder I created:

Featuring an impressive sketch of an explorer hiking in the mountains outdoors with text in the shape of a sun that reads, “Don’t let the tame ones tell you how to live.”

This poster will remind you to listen more closely to your role models and less closely to your critics, trolls, and tamed comfort zone huggers.

It’s also a perfect gift for the outdoor adventurer, travel enthusiast, or solo explorer (or soon to be) who lives the anti-tame lifestyle and wants to beautifully illustrate it on the walls of their home (that they’ll rarely be there to see ;)

It’s available to be purchased as a print (available in three sizes) or digital download so you can get a physical copy shipped to your house or you can instantly download a complete file set and get it displayed however you’d like!

To get your copy CLICK HERE.

And thank you, as always, for your ongoing support. I hope you love this poster as much as I do :)

P.s. Purchase by Sunday, December 8th at midnight and get 25% off + FREE Shipping…! Simply click “Redeem” in store header. Buy Now ➜

Concentration Follows Interest

Published on December 6, 2024

Think about how much time you can spend staring unflinchingly at a screen that’s displaying an algorithmic refined series of “interesting” media.

Contrast this with how hard it is for you to concentrate for even a few minutes on a project you don’t give two cares about and it’d appear as though you were inspecting two completely different concentrations from two completely different people.

…Looking purely at their faces without any knowledge of which task they were engaged in and you’d say one had ADHD and the other was some kind of focus machine.

Which illustrates an important point to understand about us humans.

Concentration isn’t so much a measure of a person’s skill or ability to concentrate… it’s a measure of how aligned they are with something that’s interesting to them.

Because while, yes, algorithms are excellent at endlessly displaying an onslaught of personalized interests designed specifically to maintain our attention… there’s another tool that’s even more powerful.

One that’s backed by the most complex object in the known Universe.

Can you guess what it is?

…The human imagination backed by the human brain.

Within which there are approximately 1 million billion synapses (the links between nerve cells). Hard to grasp, I know. But if you were to count these synapses one per second, it would take about 32 million years to complete.

This is what’s between your ears right now. And all it takes to unleash the unfathomable power of this gift are the correct keys that are the interests of your life. Discover these and the superficial value that most algorithms produce will quickly become obsolete.

…Discover these and you’ll never have a concentration problem again.

The No Excuses Lifestyle

Published on December 5, 2024

When boiled down, living a life of “no excuses” is living a life of self-discipline. And living a life of self-discipline doesn’t have to be as hard as you might think (or have been led to believe).

When I think about modern media examples of living a life with no excuses, I hear Jocko Willink yelling in his Navy SEAL voice something along the lines of, “Pain is weakness leaving the body! Stop being weak, get up, and get after it!”

Or Eric Thomas screaming in a YouTube video, “Sleep? I don’t sleep – you thought that was it? It goes deeper than going without sleep because you might miss the opportunity to succeed. No, no, no—it’s about no days off. No weekends. No holidays. No birthdays. Listen to me: No Days Off! No half days, no holidays, no snow days.”

Or maybe more simply, Shia LaBeouf looking deep into my soul and shouting, “JUST DO ITTTTTTT.“

But these messages, while certainly not short in motivational kick, usually don’t last very long. Why? Because how we feel in any given moment doesn’t last very long. It’s simply an unavoidable reality that we are forever changing and constantly in flux beings.

Which is why when we talk about self-discipline what we need to be talking about are systems we can put into place, that meet us where we are, that help us move slightly forward from that place, that can be repeated day-in and day-out, regardless of mood or emotions, that are built for the long run.

Anything else is a temporary kick that’ll be gone just as fast as it was brought up.

P.s. More on how to *actually* do this here.

This Again

Published on December 4, 2024

I woke up today and saw nothing but white as I looked out my bedroom window—about a foot of snow blanketed my neighborhood overnight for the first time this season—and my first thought was, “Damn. This again.” And I dragged my feet as I thought about unpacking all my snow tools, shoveling, ice scraping, salting, layering, slipping, sliding, shivering, etc.

And not even an hour later I got a text from one of my co-workers saying, “I can’t come into work. It’s snowing and the elves have summoned me. It’s Christmas.” Followed shortly thereafter with another that said, “I brought the kids to school and then came home and laid down in the snow. I’m in heaven.” And another that said, “It was a miracle that we arrived to school on time. I just love this time of year and I love snow so much. It makes me feel like a kid again and reminds me to slow down.”

…Damn.

Same snow. Radically different reality.

And since there’s no changing the snow… maybe it’s a good time to try changing how I (we?) see it.

P.s. The above post has nothing to do with snow.

The Opportunity In The Fray

Published on December 3, 2024

One of my students set up a self-defense class at a local women’s shelter for those who were victims of violence/abuse.

Being a women who had been in a women’s shelter before, it was something this student felt strongly about.

Being a man, it was something I couldn’t take the lead on because men aren’t allowed in the shelters.

And after reaching out to my female instructors, we came to find out that none of them were available to run it on the day and time requested.

And so rather than cancel, an opportunity presented itself.

…An opportunity for student to step into the role of instructor. An opportunity for student to lean into a topic they felt passionately about and start taking initiative in how that energy can be manifested. An opportunity to alchemize a traumatic experience into an incredibly powerful healing and educational experience that could be shared with others.

Sometimes things don’t line up the way you want them to or play out how you imagined them playing out… and oftentimes, it’s simply because there’s another opportunity in the mix that simply wouldn’t have come up without things unfolding exactly how they did.

Be You, With Us

Published on December 2, 2024

Last night, while watching the Buffalo Bills Football game, quarterback Josh Allen commented on how the team has been able to come together and play as well as they have—despite having lost as many experienced leaders as they had.

He said, “Coach McDermott talks about ‘Be you, with us,’ and that’s what I’m trying to do.”

He elaborated by saying he likes to joke around and be funny—that he enjoys doing things that’ll get the coaches and players to lighten up and laugh. But he also said, “…there’s times where there doesn’t need to be joking around. Time to get serious. Over the years, I’ve found when that is the most critical.”

What’s working well, it would seem, is an aligned energy with players and coaches where, between jokes and seriousness, one compliments the other and the other compliments the one. The jokes aren’t hindering the team energy or targeting/ostracizing anybody on it and the seriousness isn’t making the process miserable or becoming an unbearable weight on any one player’s shoulders.

Ultimately, those four words seem to capture the ideal recipe for engaging as an individual when you’re a part of a team. Be you—yes. To ask you to be anybody else would not only be cruel, but counterproductive. It wouldn’t be long before the person not allowed to be themself would start resenting the people around them. But also, and just as important, do so: with us. To be cruel, ostracize people, be overly critical, spread hate, or otherwise demean people around you—even jokingly—dismantles a team. Which, in effect, dismantles you—because you’re a part of it.