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Category: Archives

The full collection of explorations.

Movement ≠ Work

Published on November 12, 2021

The more we associate movement to work the less likely we are to do it.

When you look at kids, movement is natural.

They run, skip, and jump without any mental resistance or worries at all—all while being told that they need to calm down and “stop,” by adults.

How ironic, that when we get old, we are told we aren’t moving enough and that we need to start running, skipping, and jumping more.

…And then end up paying huge sums of money for boot camp trainers, fitness guides, and programs that’ll hopefully, somehow, maybe retrain our brains to overcome the mental resistance and worries that were once non-existent.

Maybe, we could learn a thing or two from kids.

Maybe, if we stopped looking at exercise as an obligation and looked at it as an expression of bodily freedom, we’d more joyfully move our way to health without so many daily, mental battles and wars.

Quality Sleep > Early Rising

Published on November 11, 2021

Rather than trying desperately to wake up earlier, focus on going to bed earlier.

There’s so much advice focused around “30 minutes earlier,” “5am club,” “rising before the sun,” and while I’m not arguing that it isn’t great if you can do that—what’s not great is subtracting sleep time from already sleep-deprived souls.

Prioritize getting a full night of sleep before you try prioritizing early rising.

Bridges

Published on November 10, 2021 
The people who burn bridges
to light their way

are the same people
who complain

that they don’t have enough
bridges to cross.

You Don’t “Run Out” Of Ideas

Published on November 9, 2021

Generating ideas is not like emptying a reservoir.

You don’t tap into your idea source and then drain ideas until they’re all gone.

It works more like, well, a generator.

It requires mechanical energy in, but as a result, you get electrical energy out.

You expend energy getting into the right state, meeting up with the right people, organizing the tasks of your day, staring at enough blank screens, cataloguing through the other ideas of the world until—it happens.

Your mechanical energy is converted.

And you are no longer draining a reservoir, but rather are generating a type of electrical output that lights up your mind and charges your whole body.

The reality is, if you feel like you’re “out of ideas,” it isn’t because you’ve emptied what you had—what’s really happened is your generator needs to be looked at and fixed.

This might involve a change in how you optimize your state, changing who you spend your time with, organizing your tasks in more inspiring ways, being more patient with your process, forcing yourself to get more bored, or spending more time cataloguing other idea sources.

And if your generator isn’t broken, then, you simply need to put more mechanical energy in.

Nothing Should Come Before This

Published on November 8, 2021

Your first priority each day should be doing that which improves your state.

Because the byproduct of an improved state is more of the same. It overflows from your being. It starts a positive upward spiraling loop. Your happiness increases their happiness, which increases yours even further, which increases theirs further and so on.

Influencing others becomes a joy, they find joy in influencing you, and it’s hardly a task.

If you start from a place of lack, discontent, and busyness—then, that too, will attract more of the same. It overflows from your being. It starts a negative downward spiraling loop. Your discontent increases their discontent, which increases yours further, which increases theirs further and so on.

Influencing others positively will become a chore because it will be in direct contradiction to your own state—and it’ll hardly be a joy for anyone involved.

Start each day with a conscious series of efforts designed to improve your state. Whether that’s exercise, meditation, reading, writing, walking—it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you identify what works for you and you prioritize it each morning in a non-negotiable way.

Before It’s Taken

Published on November 7, 2021

My dog plays with her toys until she gets bored.

And then she could care less about them.

It’s only when I take one of them away that she suddenly cares again.

And cares a whole lot.

We are so much the same.

We don’t really care about what we have until it’s gone.

If only we could enjoy what we have like it was already taken, maybe we wouldn’t have to get things taken before we could truly enjoy.

Guest Appearance On ‘From The King’s Pen’

Published on November 6, 2021

I had the privilege of being interviewed by Arthur Dias on his YouTube Show: From The King’s Pen.

In it, Arthur navigates the conversation around my journey as a martial artist and how I went from apprentice to master, takes a closer look at how I dealt with challenges and built discipline along the way, and how my battles with impostor syndrome shaped me into who I am.

It’s a 55 minute conversation and you can listen on YouTube or by playing below. Enjoy!