Category: Archives

The full collection of explorations.

Recharge Intensity

Published on July 28, 2024

Yesterday, I had an intense non-stop day.

The martial arts school I teach at crossed 35 years in business and we hosted an open house event to celebrate. This involved a ton of setup, nonstop social interactions, and of course, lots of martial arts instruction. The team and I had to get there extra early and stay extra late.

Immediately afterwards, I was hosting a going away party for two of my martial arts instructors who are leaving to college. I had about 20 people over to my house and literally repeated the same thing from the morning. A ton of setup, nonstop social interactions, and—rather than dynamic martial arts instruction—a bunch of food prep, cooking, and cleaning took its place.

When it was all said and done, the day went from 7am – 11pm.

…Which was when I had to go to the computer to write my daily post for you beautiful people—which took me until after midnight.

…In no way am I complaining about any of this—it was a phenomenal day.

It’s simply a reminder to myself and to maybe a handful of you that when planning intense busyness, you mustn’t forget to plan proportionally intense recharging.

This picture quote I uploaded to MoveMe Quotes this week acted as a foreshadowing and personal reminder for what was to come this weekend.

Because today, it was a whole bunch of nothing. A day when I could recharge in proportion to how much I worked yesterday. A day when I can do as I please… relax or move as I wish… refuel, recover, and prepare for whatever will come tomorrow.

Are You Invested In These?

Published on July 28, 2024

Sometimes it can be hard enough just keeping track of yourself and your own damn life.

But, when you can become a person who pays attention to other peoples’ lives and can do something about helping them live theirs…

You’ll likely notice your own life becomes easier.

…Which from a surface level sounds counterintuitive because time and energy spent helping others is time and energy you can no longer spend on yourself.

But the catch is that time and energy spent on others isn’t ever really spent… it’s invested.

And the ROI is the time and energy that person might want to invest back into you… multiplied by the number of times they choose to do so throughout the rest of your lives.

Let that sink in for a second.

…Not every investment will give a positive ROI, though.

Which is why boundaries, inner work, and having standards are so important.

But, when they do yield a positive ROI… boy, do they.

Never underestimate or be selfish about these almighty and powerful investments.

There’s So Much Already Here

Published on July 27, 2024

The more I learn, the more I also need to remember.

And my memory definitely isn’t all that and a bag of chips.

I can’t tell you how many times I learned something new from something I already read before. Or how many times I resurfaced an idea that I knew, but just hadn’t thought about in a long time.

It’s a mistake to think that once you’ve learned something it’s there forever and you can move on.

The more we learn, the more space we need to create for those new files, and the deeper those other files need to go into storage. We only have so much short-term memory space.

Taking time to resurface those files can be just as valuable, if not more so, than writing new ones.

Be humble in your approach to ongoing education. Never assume you know. Especially in today’s world where there are endless files being written into our brain’s storage every waking moment of every single day. Reread old books. Retake classes & seminars. Listen more carefully to the people you feel you’ve already learned plenty from…

There’s so much to resurface that’s already there.

The Signal Of The Pain

Published on July 25, 2024

In reply to my recent post on pain, a reader asked, “I think you were talking more about metaphorical pain, but in regards to physical pain I’m curious what your thoughts are. If I play basketball and my feet hurt, as long as it’s within reason, the solution is to play more basketball. What do you think? Is the pain the solution?”

My response: It might not always be as simple as keep playing basketball—although it could be.

I look at physical pain as a signal. A signal that’s trying to show me something about either my body or the thing I exposed my body to.

When I would run, I would often get spasms in my neck/shoulder area. That was a signal that my neck/shoulders needed more stretching—both before the run and as an ongoing preventive measure.

If I would workout and it caused excessive soreness… it was a signal that the muscle was intensely challenged and needed more attention/reps to be built up.

If an exercise caused injury, however, then a deeper exploration was needed. Deadlift, for example, is an exercise I had to remove from my routine altogether. I would repeatedly throw out my back regardless of how clean my technique was. This was a signal that I just had an injury-prone lower back and deadlift wasn’t appropriate for me. So, I opted for bodyweight and light/moderate resistance exercises instead.

And so, yes, I would still say the cure for the pain is in the pain—not to say we keep doing the same things blindly—but because it’s only by exploring and interpreting the signal of the pain that we can determine the appropriate path forward.

The Speed of Good Business

Published on July 24, 2024

Ever since this interaction I had with a random mechanic (and several other similar interactions I’ve had in the past), I’ve been quite skeptical of going to anyone new.

To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with my current mechanic and I feel very lucky to have found him, there are simply some things he can’t do… like body work and dent/scratch repairs.

This past weekend, lo and behold, my car got backed into and got a dent and scratches that need repair.

And so, rather than go to the closest mechanic to my home/work or even look at reviews online… I asked the mechanic I trust who he would trust to get this type of work done…

And he gave me a shop name and a number and told me to tell them he sent me.

Done.

There’s a speed that comes with trust that can be invaluable for getting things done in life.

And if you’re like mechanic #1 in the interaction I linked to above… you’re gonna find yourself climbing some uphill battles throughout your time.

But, when you prioritize trust over bottom line, suddenly the climb levels out and sometimes even turns downhill. Because while bottom line focus might get you some short turn dollars, it usually ends there or shortly thereafter. Whereas if you focus on trust… you’ll create a bond that’ll last much, much longer—maybe even for life.

And as a mentor of mine says, the best way to build a good business is to build a good business.

And being a good person who cares about doing good for other people is an excellent strategy to do exactly that.

Lean Into It

Published on July 23, 2024

I shared a quote the other day to MoveMe Quotes that said, “The cure for pain is in the pain” by Rumi and commented, “Lean into it.”

To which someone replied, “What a load o shite. Lean into it? Really? Pain ain’t a Tug o war team. For some, it’s unbearable. Don’t lean into it. Get help!”

To which I replied, “Getting help nicely aligns with leaning into it. The point is simply not to avoid it/ suppress it/ run from it/ drown it in distractions, drugs, desires, etc.”

“Lean into it” is an expression I’m quite fond of in regards to this topic.

It implies a humble and aligned confrontation with the uncomfortable that isn’t forced, rash, or too intense.

It implies a calm courage that’s ready deal with whatever has been causing the pain… without haste—which further implies a willingness to persevere for the long haul (not being in a hurry is an excellent sign that you’re committed to the process).

…Because pain isn’t something that’s just cured and then gone from your life. Pain is something you have to keep leaning into. Something you keep confronting. Something you keep displaying a calm courage towards… not with the expectation of curing or solving it… but, with the expectation of understanding it, better managing it, and not exasperating it.

The cure for pain is in the pain.

…But maybe not all at once. Maybe by just a little bit after each session.

P.s. Have these 1-minute insights impacted you? You can support the efforts here :)

Dishing Off Problems

Published on July 22, 2024

Today, the credit card machine at the school I teach at started printing blank receipts.

It’s a problem I’ve never solved before and my instinct was to pass it off to the person who set the machines up in the first place.

…That person, however, is out of town.

And we obviously can’t take credit card transactions without being able to print receipts, so back into my court the problem came.

My initial troubleshooting resulted in me not even knowing how to open the damn thing. So, needless to say, I was off to a blazing start.

Fortunately, there was a support number. So, I called and she walked me through the process of getting it fixed, which, of course, was hair-pullingly simple.

But you know what? Now I know.

And it’s a good reminder that time invested into solving problems—even when they’re not yours—are exactly that: investments.

…Investments into building skillsets and knowledge that save you time long-run and make people very much appreciate having someone like you around.

…Before you go dishing off problems onto someone else’s lap… ask yourself, is there an opportunity for investment that you actually might prefer to have versus just giving it to someone else?