Category: Investing In Yourself

Years ago, I exchanged martial arts private lessons for cooking lessons from a student of mine who was a chef.

I would bike to his restaurant, meet him in the basement, and act as his apprentice for a few hours each week—cutting, caramelizing, mixing, mincing, simmering, and sautéing with his direction.

And on the flip side, I would meet him at the martial arts school, teach him one-on-one lessons in forms, self-defense, and weapons.

This continued weekly-ish for about 6 months.

Fast forward to 2026, and I recently started a subscription to a food + recipe delivery service. They deliver recipes and all the groceries you’ll need for those meals. All you have to do is follow the steps and voila! …Your meals are done within a reasonable timeframe (one that you can pre-select).

…I am learning more from this latter approach than I ever did doing private lessons from a professional chef.

And in retrospect, the big reasons why include: (1) He was preparing meals for 50+ people at a time—so the quantities, portions, pot ware used, etc., was significantly inflated from what I needed to be doing for my one-stomach-self; (2) He was giving me intuitive advice—things based on taste, not recipes… and my palette wasn’t nearly as trained as his; (3) The experience gap was too great—I was simply too much of a beginner to really digest everything he would say.

This is all to say, sometimes you don’t need to learn from the best in a field… in fact, it might serve you (and your wallet) better to learn from those who are just a few steps above where you want to be.

Your body adapts to the demands of its environment.

Sit at a desk all day, take the elevator, use valet, consume passive entertainment on the couch, skip your workouts… and what you’ll effectively be telling your body is: all of that beautiful life energy you gifted me… isn’t needed.

And your body will reduce how much it produces in the future. Until you get to the point where doing even the most basic of tasks is exhausting.

Do the opposite and use it all up though? And your body will find ways to not only produce more, but increase your future stores.

The people with the most energy aren’t the ones who have saved their energy the most… they’re the ones who have used it up most consistently.

Remember this when you’re on the fence about showing up to your workout or playing with your kids outside or going for a walk around the block… because you’re tired.

…Yes, there’s a line that needs to be honored and rest could very well be the better decision if you’re truly fatigued.

But remember that what you agree to as being your energetic limit is what your body will adapt to from there. And if you’re being dishonest with yourself, then your energy stores will iteratively shrink. And if you’re being honest, then they’ll iteratively grow.

And why lie to yourself about something that can so drastically affect your life? Life energy is one of the ultimate life currencies… and the good news is that you get to spend all that your gifted each day and you’ll be fully replenished, plus some, the next!

Hope you have an exhausting day ;)

…To illustrate this, watch this video of a guy interact with his dogs at a low vibration and then at a high vibration.

The dogs have no idea what he’s saying (and neither do we)… but there’s definitely a version that both the dogs and I (and maybe you) would prefer to be around… who we’d prefer to give back to… who we’d prefer to help out and present opportunities to…

Two questions to consider: what helps you raise your vibration better than just about anything else? How can you increase the frequency of this in your life?

I’ll never forget when somebody criticized a high school friend of mine on her desire to “look good” before playing in soccer games. The criticism being around the idea that she’s going to play a sport and get dirty and sweaty and messy anyway… so why do all of that extra “look good” work before the practices and games?

She replied simply, “When I look good, I feel good. And when I feel good, I play better.”

And it really does play out like that.

When we’re feeling our outfit… we’re also feeling more confident… and our actions reflect that versus what we might’ve done if we were feeling self-conscious and awkward. And better actions, of course, lead to better results and outcomes.

I recognize a similar correlation when it comes to martial arts. The students who take the time to get their uniform right and look sharp also tend to be the students with the sharper technique. And the ones who arrive disheveled, tend to have sloppier technique.

The reminder today is simple: invest a little more time, energy, and/or effort into feeling good. Whether that’s in your appearance, your fit, your workspace, your room, your wellness routine… it’s all correlated. And by investing into the one… you’ll likely be pleasantly surprised to find some positive returns in the other aspects of your life as well.

I came across a sale to learn a new language for 60% off.

For $239, I could learn a whole new language and have lifetime access to the lessons.

A pretty killer deal if you ask me.

But, I didn’t buy it yet.

I’m reality testing my actual commitment level by creating a space for free language learning first.

It has ads and I assume it isn’t as good as the paid option.

…But, that isn’t the point.

The point is I’ve bought similar courses in the past and never finished them.

Because while it sounded great in my head, I never reality tested it to gauge my actual commitment level.

Before you take the plunge and commit to a full on sprint: create a space. Establish a bit of a pace. Test it against your reality. See if you can make adjustments on the hard days. See if it eventually sticks. Then… double down on your investment.

You’re free to log-in to Facebook—but you’re not free from its algorithmic feed.

You might log-in with the intention of checking in on friends, but what results is a firehose of content that each carefully analyzes your every touch of your finger—down to the pixel—so as to craftfully, cunningly, with an incomprehensible amount of precision… guide you into a rabbit hole… featuring content that keeps you logged in, swiping and scrolling, vegetating and droning for as long as it can manage.

See what we need to realize is that in so many cases in life, we’re free to make whatever choice(s) we want, but we’re not free from the consequences of those choices.

Logging into social media apps is a free choice, but what we get shown is no longer completely up to us.

Hanging out with certain people is a free choice, but what gets done, discussed, and experienced is no longer completely up to us.

Choosing where we spend our time is a free choice, but who we run into, the vibes of the environments, the types of experiences we’re prone to having are no longer completely up to us.

Which is why it’s more important than ever to take control of our free choices and choose to act in ways that minimize the potential downside and maximize the upside.

Rather than log-in to social media apps, maybe we choose to log-in to reading apps instead.

Rather than hang out with toxic types, we make more space for and hang out with healthy types.

Rather than choose to spend our time at bars/clubs, maybe we spend more time at gyms/cafes.

Freedom has consequences… choose wisely.