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Category: Living Well

You’re The Expert

Published on February 9, 2025

A friend shared an experience she had in her martial arts class the other night.

She partnered up with a new student and just before they started the designated drill, the new student said, “You go first… you’re the expert. My coordination is so bad.”

My friend said that comment hit her like a ton of bricks.

…Really bad coordination was why she started.

And after just having recently gotten her black belt… to hear, “You’re the expert” felt… shocking.

From one perspective, this friend probably still feels very much like the same poorly coordinated girl who showed up to her first martial arts class all those years ago…

But from another perspective, this friend also accumulated hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of martial arts classes which has trained her body otherwise.

The reminder for me from this is a simple, but powerful one.

Day by day… nothing changes. But when you look back after a while… everything is different.

The key is to never underestimate the power of small choices made over extended periods of time.

…The decisions to eat one less treat or one more healthy item.

…The decisions to take class on days when you’re leaning towards couch cozying instead.

…The decisions to read or listen to audiobooks instead of binge watch passive entertainment.

Big sweeping changes made in a day rarely make a difference over the course of a life.

…But the little things done daily??

It’s hard to find a lasting formula that makes a greater difference.

Favorite Moments Rhyme

Published on February 8, 2025

Close your eyes and bring to mind your favorite moment from yesterday…

Now bring to mind your favorite moment from last week…

And then bring to mind your favorite moment from last month…

And keep going back for a year… maybe two… maybe ten…

It’s impossible to know for sure what your favorite moment of tomorrow will be.

Or from next week, next month, or over the next few years…

But one thing is for sure… your favorite moments from your past are excellent indicators as to what might lead to favorite moments in your future.

Maybe not in an identical way… but at the very least in a way that rhymes.

…Trust the rhythm of your life.

Grab The Sticks And Hit

Published on February 6, 2025

One of my favorite memories with Jayh was at a New Year’s Eve party.

We were at my friend Tony’s house who had a music room. There was a drum set, a keyboard, a mic, and speakers playing smooth tunes as we prepped to ring in the new year.

At one point, Tony started playing the keyboard and riffing on the mic. Jayh came up to me and said, “Matt, take the drums!”

And I told him something along the lines of, “Not a chance…” And proceeded to explain that I didn’t have a musical bone in my body.

And Jayh looked at me… almost dumfounded and said, “Bro. You grab the sticks and hit.”

And while I continued to insist against it, he went in and grabbed the sticks and hit.

Zero hesitation. All heart.

What he said that night didn’t get me to play the drums… but, it’s resonated in my head ever since.

…Just grab the sticks and hit.

Why complicate it? Everybody starts somewhere. And the more we tell ourselves we can’t or we’re not good enough or “we’re not musical enough…” the more we’re going to hold ourselves back from starting.

…And there are a bunch of really great memories that each of us have missed because of it.

Lost In The Mix

Published on February 3, 2025

One of the worst things you can do at the start of a journey of learning… is compare yourself to those who have already reached mastery.

Suddenly, you’re going to see they’ve put in 10,000+ hours and if that’s where you want to be… then tick, tock, tick, tock… the clock is going to feel like you’re biggest adversary.

Deliberate practice for that long… you’ll tell yourself… is for a younger, more independent, freer me. And you’ll start looking for and finding the reasons why mastery isn’t probable.

But, like a clock stared at while working a dreaded shift at work… it’s the perspective that becomes the greatest obstacle towards achievement—not the gap of time.

And rather than count how many hours you have to spend before you reach a certain level or count how many steps ahead of you different people are… what you really have to do is what they found a way to do for all that time that lead up to mastery…

And that’s to get lost in the steps… to get lost in the hours… to learn from the masters and to never compare… to turn off the top 1% highest achievers achieving on repeat via algorithmic feeds and to focus even just 1% of your daily energy on building your dreams…

And not to do it to beat… or prove… or impress…

But, because that’s what living looks like… lost and completely absorbed in the mix… feeling young, independent, and free.

It’s Easy To Forget

Published on February 2, 2025

There was a time not long ago when none of these streets were paved… when none of this track was laid… when none of this technology even existed in mind…

A time when people couldn’t casually fly and ride to destinations hundreds—even thousands—of miles away with a few taps on a screen… for the price of a few days of work… for no reason but to explore other pieces of land…

It’s easy to forget.

…Not only to not take it for granted, but to fully utilize what’s miraculously here. Don’t you realize what you have the opportunity to do? Don’t you realize what day and age you’re actually living in? Don’t you realize how many hundreds—even thousands—of generations had to suffer, innovate, and create to get you here?

…Or are you distracted and/or being restricted?

It’s easy to forget.

P.s. Here’s the picture that inspired this post.

Tracing The Tree

Published on February 1, 2025

Looking back, it’s easy to trace the trunk up the branches and through the endless splits to find how you got to where you are today.

Looking forward, it’s hard to know which split will take you precisely to where you want to end up tomorrow.

One thing is for sure though… knowing where you want to end up—as precisely as possible—is an excellent place to start.

P.s. Here’s the picture that inspired this post.

Daydreaming and Sleepwalking

Published on January 29, 2025

You probably won’t ever realize how many opportunities there are in the world, until you define what type of opportunities you most want to realize.

To define is to put on your radar. And to recalibrate your radar is to get alerted to what you didn’t see before.

To define is to give shape to. And to shape the world is to more easily identify what shapes fit into your mold.

To define is to manifest. And not in any kind of passive way. In the way that alerts you to when the shape that fits your mold comes onto your radar so that you can channel the courage required to act in proportion to what each opportunity requires.

…Did you catch that?

You have to know exactly what you want (and not what the world wants for you)… so you can actually see all that’s there… so you can finally act with initiative and courage and with a deliberateness that was never there before.

Until then… you can keep on daydreaming and sleepwalking.