Category: Living Well

The Biggest Lie In The Health/Fitness Industry

Published on October 18, 2023

The biggest lie in the health/fitness industry is: I can get your body if I do exactly what you do.

Here’s the thing: even if I eat exactly what you eat… not eat exactly when you don’t eat… exercise exactly as you exercise… sleep exactly as you sleep… step exactly as you step…

…I’ll still only ever have different versions of my body.

Which isn’t meant to be disheartening; it’s meant to be liberating.

This whole copy-paste attractive people routines in order to look like them is not only misleading… but wildly unmotivating. Why? Because we never arrive exactly to what we see.

Time and time again, we see posts that promise quick fixes, fast results, and hard work hacks with the unsaid promise being: and you’ll get to where I am.

But the reality is: that person is built differently. And so are you. And to follow these quick fix routines, hustle through fast tracks, and hack away over and over again only to end up right back where you started… said plainly: sucks.

The liberating part of this post is this: so stop feeding those ideas into your mind.

Purge your feeds. Delete the apps. Unfollow the copy-and-paste-to-become-me-fluencers.

And focus on you. Where you are. Where you’re heading. And how you can do a little better today than you did yesterday. Not in inches, pounds, or calories. But, in time invested, effort given, and days in a row.

See, a beautiful thing happens when you stop feeding your mind misleading ideas… you get to begin the truthful journey forward minus the yo-yo-ing. And that’s the journey that’ll carry you forward for life.

Using “Miss You” As A Compass

Published on October 16, 2023

Since my websites have been infected and broken, I’ve received a handful of “Miss your writing” notes—via email, text, and in person.

I can’t tell you how meaningful these notes are.

Knowing that all of this extracurricular work I’m doing—that I certainly don’t have to do—is something that is missed when it’s gone is an excellent sign that it’s work worth continuing.

And it’s precisely the inner work question I’d encourage you to reflect on today:

“What’s the work that I’m doing now that will be most missed when it’s gone?”

Regardless of how you answer, follow it up with: “How can I incorporate more work into my life that’s missed when it’s gone?”

Use these questions as a compass to gain a better sense of what’s actually making an impact in your life—because not all work is equally impactful.

And if you’re wondering what work like that even looks like…

Think gift giving. Building, creating, initiating gifts that are given to the world—your world—in an attempt to brighten, uplift, encourage—make better—the people who receive it.

For me, this is an insight a day—emailed as a gift; quotes curated into digestible lists—freely published and shared as a gift; mini speeches given at the end of my live martial arts classes—offering food for thought as a gift… to name a few.

The question for you to reflect on is: What will your gift(s) be?

The Size Of Dread

Published on October 12, 2023

A martial arts student of mine called the other day and said he was thinking of quitting.

The context was this:

His academic work left him with very little down time (7am – 3pm school, 3pm – 4:30pm work study, and advanced math on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6-9pm… plus homework time).
Because he was so bombarded with work and exhausted, he was noticing a dread that came up when he thought about coming into class.
And it was the dread that was making him want to quit.

My response was this:

It’s obvious that your mental growth is being highly prioritized—what are you doing by way of physical growth? His reply was: attend gym class. Which was two times per week and only one time every third week—so not much. I told him all growth areas are intertwined. Our mental growth will get throttled without appropriate physical growth and the same with spiritual growth. Growth in one leads to growth in the others and regression in one causes regression in the others. It’s balanced growth—across all domains—that leads to truly realized potential.
Then, we talked about being exhausted—of which, I had no doubt. When I listened to him explain his perception of the martial arts classes, he described them as being really intense and challenging. I gave him permission to take it easier in class and told him to make the classes less intimidating in his mind… knowing, of course, that what we reduce in intensity, we gain in longevity.
He agreed to it and said he never thought of trying to change the size of his dread… And said he’d see me in class Thursday.

Being Future Serious… Now

Published on October 11, 2023

If you’re serious about making something happen in your future, the realization of that thing should be made a serious priority in your present.

If your goal is to own your own business one day… but you’re not doing anything about that today (e.g. building a side hustle, writing a business plan, prototyping products, etc)… the reality is: you’re not serious about wanting to own a business one day—you’re fantasizing.

If your goal is to get into the best shape of your life… but you’re not doing anything about that today (e.g. exercising, eating healthy, sleeping properly, etc)… the reality is: you’re not serious about wanting to get into the best shape of your life—you’re fantasizing.

If your goal is to build a beautiful, happy family… but you’re not doing anything about that today (e.g. investing time into relationships, putting yourself into fresh social situations (if you’re single), reading up on love/ parenting/ relationship building, etc)… the reality is: you’re not serious about wanting to build a beautiful, happy family—you’re fantasizing.

Making your future goals actionable today is how you prove to yourself that you’re serious.

And making future goals a reality always starts with choosing to be serious about them today.

P.s. Need help becoming future serious? My guide will help.

Celebrating 13 Years of MoveMe

Published on October 10, 2023

13 Years ago TODAY, I uploaded my first quote to MoveMeQuotes.com.

Since then I’ve hand-picked, personally typed, and shared:

✓ 6,682 Quotes
✓ 4,287 Picture Quotes
✓ 638 Blogs (Lists, Stories, Excerpts, etc)
✓ 99 Books Quoted From
✓ 49 Poems

All tagged, indexed, and organized to help people easily find what they need to keep moving forward in their lives.

The lesson, in this case, isn’t found inside the 11,755 resources I’ve published and shared over the past 13 years, though. It’s found, instead, on that magical day when I went from zero to one.

…On the day when I went from don’t have a quote website to have a quote website.

…On the day when I could’ve easily said, “What’s the point—there are hundreds of quote websites with thousands of published quotes already…” but, found a way to silence my inner critic and made a point to do it anyway.

…On the day when I could’ve easily been overwhelmed by the millions of options that came with website creation including: hosting, domain name, security, theme, plug-ins, SEO, speed, font families, colors, tag lines, copyright, tagging, categories, logo, etc, etc, etc… Not to mention the millions of options that came with choosing where the hell to start when it came to posting individual quotes… and just picked things that made sense at the time.

THIS is the lesson: the starting... the beginning of something that’ll grow with you, somewhere manageable, and in whatever way works for now.

…And trusting in yourself to figure out the rest along the way. :)

Zero isn’t a foundation that anything can be built on…

…But one? One is an excellent place to start.

Happy birthday, MoveMe!

Progress During Plateaus

Published on October 8, 2023

One of the most frustrating things about plateaus is the lack of growth… the hair-pulling stagnation… the continued effort minus the measurable results.

And it’s so easy to quit during times of plateau because where you once had progress—one of life’s biggest motivators—you now seem to only have effort. Which, I’ll go ahead and say for the both of us, is a sucky trade.

But, what if I told you you were missing an entire dimension of progress measuring?

See, in today’s society, progress of body and mind are measured almost exclusively.

For body, think: weight lifted, distance travelled, rounds completed, inches around the waist, scales that measure weight, body fat %, BMI charts, and so forth. For mind, think: grades in school, standardized tests, certifications, courses, books read, problems solved, connections made, diplomas earned, and so on.

But, how does one measure the progress of their spirit?

…Not so easily defined, eh?

You might say: ability to meditate or how long a person can endure a cold shower…

But, what about: by measuring how long a person can carry forward when they’ve hit a plateau?

…By doing the work even when it’s hard. By showing up even when the efforts aren’t yielding the same incremental results. By continuing to try their best even when—especially when—it’s easy to quit.

What if effort in spite of progress is precisely how progress is made in the realm of the spirit?

P.s. Looking for a more specific guide on how you can carry forward—even when forward is tough? My NEW guide will help.

Showing Up (Too)

Published on October 8, 2023

At the martial arts conference I’m attending, there was a Tai Chi class being offered for all attendees at 6:30am.

Out of 100+ attendees, only three showed up.

Why? Who knows…

Too early…? Too slow…? Not “sexy” enough…?

That’s all besides the point.

The point is that these sessions are usually PACKED…

I knew it… and the other two people who showed up knew it…

But, the instructor—who had to have known it (being an attendee at the same conference since before I was born)—didn’t miss a single beat.

He didn’t give one care to the audience size. Not one huff and not one puff. Not one feeling of awkwardness, frustration, or upset was expressed or sensed from me as a student.

In fact, it was all the contrary.

He was genuinely happy we—all three of us—were there. He was completely present with us during the entirety of the session. He was interesting, methodical, and deliberate. He was a great story teller. And he was evidently having a ton of fun.

This is all to say, he didn’t show up with expectations; he showed up with love.

And love lights the way for whomever and however many care enough to do their part and show up, too.