Skip to content

Category: Living Well

Lie For Me?

Published on December 8, 2023

Somebody asked me if I would lie for them today.

When I explained that I wouldn’t and why, I also included the following line to serve as a reminder/ forewarning… a line that didn’t come from some picture quote post I saw somewhere on the internet… but from a place of experience learned the hard way. I said:

Telling a lie now moves difficulty into your future; telling the truth now moves difficulty into your past.

Whenever you find yourself on the fence about whether or not you should tell the truth or lie… keep this in mind. And if that’s not enough, remember that the future difficulty compounds vs the now difficulty because of the accumulating guilt, lie remembering, performing/acting, and follow up questioning.

…Sometimes—oftentimes—difficult now is actually the much easier option.

Honoring Imagination

Published on December 1, 2023

One benefit of having an active imagination that you honor and hold space for is you get to see things before they happen. And the more vividly you see things before they happen, the more real the feelings about these happenings can be. And the more real the feelings are, the more you stand to learn from the experience… before it ever happens.

…Which allows you to apply these visualized learnings to your life minus all the painful trial and error.

Some examples where this is particularly useful:

  • Vividly imagining a presentation so that you can experience the feelings and flow and make the necessary adjustments before the actual one.
  • Vividly imagining how various life paths might unfold so you can better navigate your day-to-day decision making before “life happens.”
  • Vividly imagining death so the reality of how fleeting and short life is can once again come to life in your being.

Do you have a space that you honor that’s for your imagination to roam and explore the possibilities of the future? If not… you might be experiencing more error from your trials than you need to.

Borrowing Energy From… Tomorrow?

Published on November 30, 2023

We only have so much energy we can utilize in one day.

And because of the productivity-obsessed, it’s-never-enough, hustle-based culture we live in, many of us are inclined (brainwashed) to try and squeeze every last drop of energy from our being every single day.

And while in theory this sound logical—after all, YOLO—the problem arises when we start borrowing energy from tomorrow.

See, what so many of us do in our modern world, is squeeze every last drop of energy we have… and then take substances (e.g. caffeine) that give us a few drops more… and then stay up late even though we’re utterly exhausted to squeeze a few drops more… and then try to wake up earlier to preemptively squeeze a few more (because, you know, 5am club)… and so on.

Until, of course, we’re so exhausted of drops that there’s hardly any left to give. Imagine an orange pressed through the juicing machine on it’s 30th consecutive press…

That’s you on your 30th consecutive press of energy without giving yourself the proper recovery and recharge that allows you to switch out the orange altogether.

…Hardly worth the effort.

Rather than obsess over how you can squeeze every single last drop of juice from the orange of our day… What if we focused on squeezing the 70% best juice of our day and then… here’s a radical idea… we stopped squeezing.

What if we left 30% juice in the tank for the next day?

What if… instead of obsessing on 100% squeeze today… we focused on 70% squeeze, every day, for a decade?

What if… starting today… you squeezed smarter instead of being so obsessed with harder?

Interesting Little Problems

Published on November 26, 2023

I have never taken a web design class.

Nor have I ever taken a coding or branding class.

Yet, here I was, spending 6+ hours this weekend doing all of the above for MoveMe Quotes.

I revamped the whole website and feel like I did a pretty damn good job of it.

It all started with a curiosity back in 2010: “I wonder if I could build a website that could house all of my favorite quotes?” Which eventually became: “I wonder how I can make this website cooler?” Which quickly turned into: “I wonder how I can speed this site up?” Which then made me think about: “I wonder how I can improve its SEO?” Which today is essentially a compilation of all those thoughts rolled up into one.

And I can’t even begin to list all of the skills exploring this one initial curiosity has helped me develop.

All almost completely unbeknownst to me as any kind of formal educational endeavor.

All just interesting little problems I get to solve while building something I think is cool and useful.

Learning works so much better this way. Don’t use “I haven’t taken a class / course on that yet” as an excuse to not explore a curiosity. Everything you need is readily available and but a few finger taps away.

You just need to do it.

Two Boys and An 8k

Published on November 23, 2023

While running the Turkey Trot this morning (an 8k run in Buffalo to support the YMCA), I happened to pass two kids in conversation right as we were all passing the one mile marker.

“One mile down!” The maybe-eight-year-old kid said to his friend.

“One mile done already?!” The maybe-seven-year-old kid said in response.

“Pfffft! That was easy!” He continued.

“Oh yeah it was!” The maybe-eight-year-old shouted assuringly.

And then half a beat passed where neither of them said anything.

To which the maybe-seven-year-old said:

“Do you want to… like… walk for a little bit?”

“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.” The maybe-eight-year-old said quickly as he released the effort from his trot.

“Yeah, we’ll like run for a mile, then walk for a bit, then….” The maybe seven-year-old was saying as the rest of their conversation faded into the background while I continued my run.

And while I found it to be a hilarious exchange between two young boys who were undoubtedly still exploring what their capabilities and limits were… I also found it to be inspiring.

Here they were… running together in an 8k… at maybe-seven and maybe-eight-years-old… trying to push each other and keep a positive mindset… while also being mindful of their state along the way…

I don’t know if they finished the run.

But, one thing I know for sure: They won by being there.

Morning Mindset Investment

Published on November 22, 2023

An attitude of gratitude is something earned—not given.

Too many people wake up and submit to whatever mood their mind just so happens to be in and lazily and hastily deploy from that headspace for the entire rest of their day.

And what a waste on precious moments this can be.

Mindset investment, especially first thing in the morning, is one of the most crucial investments in your day.

Think about it.

Bad mood x All of the moments of your day = A ton of counterproductive, close-minded, lost opportunity minutes.

But, Bad mood x 20 Minutes of mindset investment = Better mood (maybe not great mood, but better for sure). And Better mood x All of the moments of your day = many more productive, open-minded, gained opportunity minutes.

See, you have to change your mind about not having 20 minutes in the morning for your mind.

When every other moment of your day depends on the mood / perception of your mind, you have to make up your mind that you can’t not have 20 minutes in the morning for your mind.

The entire rest of your day depends on it.

P.s. Looking for mindset investment mood boosters? Here’s a great exercise; a great picture; a great story; a great daily mental-primer, and a great list.

Always Just Beginning

Published on November 21, 2023

Things you’re never “done” with:

  • Books
  • Health
  • Legacy
  • Art/Creations
  • Relationships

…So stop tricking yourself into thinking that after you’ve:

  • Read the book…
  • Finished that 30-day fitness challenge…
  • Retired from your career…
  • Shipped that one creation…
  • Married the person you love…

…That you’re “done.”

No.

You’re *always* just beginning.