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Category: Living Well

It Made All The Difference

Published on August 5, 2025

After an afternoon adventure, I was running a little early before needing to return to work and was faced with a choice as I closed in on my afternoon coffee time: (a) Get my coffee to go and go back in early—using caffeine and the extra minutes as the vehicle to boost my “productivity”…

Or (b) remember my experiences in Bosnia and use the coffee and extra time as the vehicle to boost my presence of mind.

…I parked my car, walked inside the café, got my coffee, sat at my seat, sipped on it for a full and hearty 30 minutes, didn’t do much else otherwise—certainly nothing traditionally considered “productive”—

…And let me tell you: it made all the difference.

When Your Body Speaks… Listen.

Published on August 1, 2025

One of the guys I play basketball with is the type who pretty much walks into the gym, dribbles and shoots a few times, and then steps into full court, full speed games.

He’s been out for a few months because of a calf injury—which likely resulted from his above “warm-up” routine.

Today, when he came back for the first time, what did he do?

…Walked into the gym, dribbled and shot a few times, and stepped into our full court, full speed game. Not a stretch in sight.

The thing you have to understand about your body is that it doesn’t communicate with you via words—it communicates with you via aches, pains, injuries, and every other unpleasant (and pleasant) type feeling.

If you don’t listen to your body, you’re bound for much more of the unpleasant than pleasant.

If you pay attention, however, and really listen… and build habits around pains… routines in repeatedly targeted areas… and rituals for when communication happens… you’d be surprised how much more pleasant it’ll be to be in your body.

Surrender > Force

Published on August 1, 2025

To force is to fight against the forces around you.

To surrender is to align with the forces around you.

The problem is that most people aren’t aware of the forces around them—because they’re too busy trying to force a schedule, force an agenda, force a relationship.

The trick is to slow down enough so as to actually feel… not only the energy coming from the forces that be… but the energy coming from the forces in your being.

A Lesson From My 90+ Year Old Neighbor

Published on July 31, 2025
My neighbor

This is my neighbor (Image link if it doesn’t show above).

I don’t know how old she is, but my guess is well into her 90s. Her spine has her hunched over almost a full 90 degrees and she’s more blind and deaf than she is seeing and hearing.

Today, she ventured over to my house and we had a quick chat. A lot of what she was saying didn’t make sense, but, I carried on with her at a decibel loud enough for all of the immediate neighbors to hear. Once finished, she turned to leave and I followed her home.

…What I found interesting is right as she turned the corner from her driveway onto her front porch walkway, she noticed out of the corner of her downward pointed gaze a flower pot and a weed. She reached into the flower pot and pruned away the dead branches… took a few more steps, grabbed the weed that was as tall as her, bent it to the ground and stomped on it until it snapped.

…And yet, just a few moments earlier, when we were talking in my driveway, she told me that if she died, her house would go to her son and daughter—which, she said as casually as she did their names—”might be tonight.”

…And yet, there she was, still tending to her garden; still bringing beauty to the world; still managing what worldly chaos she could in the best way she knew how.

Investing In Ways That’ll Make Life Fly By

Published on July 28, 2025

It’s ironic… the people you spend time with who make time go by the fastest… are the ones you should continue to invest in.

Not because you want your days, weeks, months, years, life to fly by… but, because “flying by” is one of the surest signs we have of time well spent.

On Having “300” Kids

Published on July 27, 2025

People will occasionally ask me if I have kids.

“…I have 300” I’ll sometimes jokingly say—referring to my 300ish martial arts students.

But, the more time I spend around parents—and get an *actual* look at parenting life—the more I realize how much of a joke it is to say that.

Parenting life is no joke. And I know all of the parents out there know it. But, to those who think they know it, but aren’t, let me just tell you—you don’t. There are as many different ways of parenting as there are parents.

And the thing that blows me away more than anything else is seeing parents devote everything they have (and more) to figuring out how to best educate/mold/raise their child to become a great person and community member. From the second they wake up (or maybe more properly put—get woken up) to the second they go to bed (if that ever even happens)—it’s all about that child or the children.

And what an incredible devotion it is, indeed.

This is all to say: shout out to the parents out there doing it. Devoting everything they have to the next generation even if it’s at the expense of themselves. Not all parents make the decision to parent—but if you did… and you are… thank you.

…It’s something I feel you might not hear often enough.

Letting AI Do All The Work For You

Published on July 25, 2025

I watched a video the other day of a guy in a legitimate virtual interview, answering questions with an AI app, in real time.

The interviewer would ask a question, the AI would type a response on the guy’s phone essentially instantaneously, and the interviewee would simply read verbatim what it came up with.

…And the interviewer had no idea.

But, you know when they will?

…When they meet IRL.

See I’m all for AI becoming your assistant and helping you process information, come up with ideas, and create in ways that help you better do your job.

But, when you use AI to replace yourself completely? To speak for you verbatim? To act in place of your own authenticity, uniqueness, perspective, experience, and social/emotional intelligence?

…Don’t be surprised when AI does, in fact, replace you completely.