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Category: Living Well

Balancing Prep And Go

Published on February 26, 2025

One trap I’ve fallen into in the past is spending too much time preparing and planning—and not enough time experimenting and doing.

I recognized this in myself very early into my DJing journey.

I was spending SO. MUCH. TIME. downloading music, filling in meta data, setting hot cues and memory points, and creating playlists…

So much so that I was barely doing any actual DJing.

So I’m trying to more mindfully walk this balance between prep and go. Because, yes, too much go and not enough prep leaves you confused, disjointed, and without a coherent sound… but too much prep and not enough go leaves you just as confused and disjointed as you come face to face with the decks.

So much of life is about finding the balance between these two.

…About sorting through the infinite information that’s available and acting on what’s chosen.

…About building book smarts, but also street smarts.

…About picking a direction and just as importantly… walking the path picked.

How are you doing with this balancing act?

Relationships Are Like Social Media Feeds

Published on February 19, 2025

The relationship you have today will not be the relationship you have tomorrow.

Not with your spouse, your girlfriend/boyfriend, your parents, your siblings, or yourself.

Relationships change as quickly as your social media feed.

And like your social media feed… what direction your feed goes depends entirely on how you interact with your feed today.

…Not in how you intend to interact with your feed or how you plan to, hope to, or want to interact with your feed… but in how you actually interact with it.

Invest in better content, connect with better people, better utilize block/mute/unfollow… grow. Do the opposite… regress.

Invest in better experiences with people, take more initiative in surrounding yourself with better influences, better enforce your boundaries and prioritize your mental health… grow. Do the opposite… regress.

Nothing ever stays the same. Remember this as you’re deciding how you want to actually act today.

Hardening Your Mind

Published on February 17, 2025

When I lift weights… time crawls.

When I train martial arts or play a sport… time flies.

Some people will tell you to only do the things that make time fly.

…After all, why suffer your way through exercise, for example, when you could be getting it in in a fun way?

And while there’s absolutely nothing wrong with choosing the fun route… there is something to be said about learning how to discipline yourself to endure the type of temporary suffering that leads to lasting benefits/rewards, too.

Because once you can learn to do it for, again, weight lifting as an example… not only will you be hardening your body… but, you’ll be hardening your mind.

And a hardened mind isn’t only useful for lifting weights…

It’s one of the most useful tools for every single other endeavor you ever come across in life.

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.

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.

How To Get Ahead Of Most

Published on February 10, 2025

Seth Godin said something to me years ago that has lingered in my mind ever since.

When helping him set up for a presentation he was about to give, we got to talking about creative work and creative projects… and he said something along the lines of, “If you’re not watching TV, you’re way ahead of most.”

In the past few years of my life, I got in the habit of watching TV on weekends for a few hours on Friday, Saturday, and sometimes Sunday.

Lately, I’ve replaced just about all of my passive TV time with active music time.

And it’s incredible how much more life I feel I get from my day with that one simple switch. Even if you cut just a few hours from how much TV you watch in a month… I think you’d be surprised how worth it it feels upon reflection… especially when you find something that makes the time go by just as fast.

…Never stop searching and experimenting for that thing.