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Category: Archives

The full collection of explorations.

Balancing Passive Learning With Active Experimentation

Published on February 17, 2025

I’m learning how to DJ.

It started with an admiration… turned into a curiosity… lead me down many rabbit holes… resulted in several purchases… and has evolved into a new creative outlet.

Being a complete beginner in something again reminds me of the importance of balancing theory with experimentation.

Before I made any purchases and when I was going deep down YouTube rabbit holes, I felt like I was understanding pretty well what I was watching.

…Like I could do pretty easily what I was watching people—who made it look easy—do.

…And then I got a DJ controller and realized I didn’t have a clue.

It’s one thing to watch and learn passively from the comfort of your couch while you stare at a screen.

…It’s a whole ‘nother thing to experiment and learn actively from the uncomfortable position of trying and failing and having to dust yourself off and try again.

Here’s the thing though: we learn best with a solid balance of both.

All passive learning and no active experimentation leads to “book smarts” and no “street smarts.”

All active experimentation and no passive learning leads to “street smarts” and no “book smarts.”

The people who uncover the most of their potential in any learning domain in life are the ones who do both—and prioritize time, energy, and effort to both well.

P.s. ICYMI you can read the best of what I posted to MoveMe Quotes last week here.

Living With Dead Potential

Published on February 16, 2025

If you look at motivation as something that happens to you… something you wait for to arrive… something like lightning that strikes when it strikes…

…Then you’re going to live with so much unrealized potential.

Motivation isn’t something you should expect to happen to you anymore than you should expect a charge to happen to your phone.

Wait for lightning to strike a charge into your phone and you’re going to live with a dead phone.

…Which is what so many of us are doing: living with dead potential.

And not because we don’t care… I think we all want to realize our potential… but, mostly because we don’t know how to activate and grow our potential.

The motivation required to do the things that help us realize our potential is something we make happen to ourselves… it’s something we actively seek out… it’s something that simply requires a (re)charge…

And rather than wait for motivation to strike:

  • We create a space for our creative work… and we honor it—through boredom, busyness, and curveballs.
  • We team up with people who can hold us accountable, challenge us to grow, and be there to support us when we’re down and want out.
  • We watch videos, listen to podcasts, read books, etc., of people who get us charged up rather than mindlessly consume passive entertainment on the socials.
  • We can commit to a daily habit and start a streak. Momentum is an undeniably powerful thing, and if we can lean into its power, we can start a process forward that becomes self-sustaining.

…What else? What gets you charged up? How can you actively incorporate these ideas into your daily practice?

Stop waiting.

Genuinely Caring

Published on February 15, 2025

While eating out tonight, my waiter asked me towards the end of my meal if I had ever eaten at that restaurant before.

I told him I hadn’t.

He replied simply, “Well… you’re always welcome here.”

And what surprised me about this, I guess, is that not only did I feel like he really meant it… but he couldn’t have been any older than 17 years old.

…Obviously I’m welcome to come in and spend money at the for-profit business he works at.

But, you know… what most business owners don’t realize… is that us customers… we can sniff out whether you mean what you say or not pretty damn quickly.

And it’s the business “hack” that too many people ignore… genuinely caring.

Learn From Those Later To The Game Than You

Published on February 13, 2025

When learning something new, don’t look at who has already mastered whatever it is you’re trying to learn that’s your age or younger…

…Look at who has mastered it that’s five or ten or twenty or even thirty years older than you.

Our ability to learn never dies.

Our decision that we’re “too old” or “too far behind” or “too late to the game” will, however, kill our ability to learn long before we ever die.

P.s. There is definitely somebody out there who’s doing the thing you’re interested in learning who started LONG after you did. Believe it (and stop making excuses).

What’s Your Storm Mentality?

Published on February 12, 2025

I uploaded a quote today that said, “When fisherman cannot go to sea, they repair their nets. When the sea is too rough to sail, the smart ones don’t wait—they get to work. They mend their nets, sharpen their tools, and prepare for the moment the storm breaks. Because even in stillness, there’s progress…“

When you cannot go to the gym… what do you do?

…What about when you cannot prepare the healthy dinner you had planned?

…Or when you cannot devote as much time to your project that you originally intended/needed to?

…What do you do when the storm hits? Do you have a plan? Or do you just throw your hands up in the air and use it as an excuse to cozy up to your comfort zone self? …To revert back to a lower version of yourself? …To turn stillness into regress?

One thing is for sure… the storms will come.

The question for you to reflect on today is… what will be your mentality (and action steps) when it does?

P.s. ICYMI you can read the best of what I posted to MoveMe Quotes last week, here.

Two Simple Ways To Better Utilize Your Limited Daily Energy Allowance

Published on February 11, 2025

Two ways to better utilize the limited amount of energy you get each day:

1. Daisy chain tasks—physics says it’s easier to keep a body in motion than it is to start a stopped body… So, daisy chain tasks one to the next to the next so that you can keep momentum on your side and reduce the energy suck that comes from having to start back up after coming to a full stop.

2. That said, plug yourself back in strategically—we humans don’t recharge very well while our bodies are in motion. That happens best when we come to a full stop… like our phones when we plug them back into the wall. Sure, there’s coffee and other stimulants that we can take on the go, but nothing beats rest. Too many rest breaks, however, can mess with idea #1… and actually make rest a counterproductive effort to our day.

So the art, then, comes from figuring out how to optimize your tasks so that you’re daisy chaining everything together that can be daisy chained while mindfully making time for full stop rests.

…And not letting full stops turn into a counter productive daisy chain of full stopped tasks that last way longer than they’re supposed to (i.e. taking a power nap, which leads to social media scrolling, which leads to TV viewing, etc).

Ask yourself: where are the full stops in my day? Can I daisy chain tasks in their place instead? Can I combine my full stops into one strategic full stop that’s placed at my most needed time? And how can I make it easy to start back up after that full stop?

Ice and Movement

Published on February 10, 2025

I went to swat the ball out of another player’s hands while playing basketball the other day and I either bent my pointer finger in a way it shouldn’t have or jammed it real good (or both)… because it was immediately very painful after that swat.

After finishing the game (and when the adrenaline was wearing off and it started to swell), I quickly got it on ice and rotated back and forth between that and movement for about an hour… and then just kept moving it as much as I could after that.

The idea was simple: ice constricts blood vessels which reduces swelling. Movement keeps things, well, moving in the area so that, again, there’s less swelling (pooling) and fresh cells can continue to make their way in to heal and repair (no traffic jams).

When you get hit with emotional type pain in life (or do the hitting which results in pain) following a similar type of response can be helpful.

We ice emotions (cool off) to constrict overwhelmingly unnecessary responses… so we can choose other than a regretful, knee-jerk response… so we can prevent any unnecessary life swelling that might happen when we allow ourselves to act when fully heated up.

We then keep the emotions moving so that we can prevent pooling which can turn suppressed emotions toxic… so that we can create space for other emotions to arrive (healing and repairing type emotions)… so that we can fully feel (and eventually fully release) what’s meant to be felt.

And we do this with space… with journaling… with meditation… with walks… with inner work…

And when we don’t… we get badly swollen and bruised instead.