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Category: Living Well

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.

Stitching Together Life Experiences

Published on January 28, 2025

Like a DJ, I love the idea of seamlessly stitching together one beat of one experience of my life to another beat of an upcoming life experience.

…How can I take what I learned and play it like music in my everyday life?

…How can I stay in touch with the people I’ve met and turn single beats into a rhythm?

…At which point in my life’s track am I—the intro, the build, the drop, the breakdown, the second build, the second drop, the second breakdown, the outro, etc—and how can I fully embrace this section of it while also planning ahead where I want the next phase to take me?

What I love about watching great DJs is that they masterfully balance being present and dancing to their sound while properly planning ahead where they want to go.

And whether you realize it or not… what you do daily shouldn’t feel so much different.

P.s. ICYMI you can read the best of what I posted to MoveMe Quotes last week, here.

Playing At Boiler Room

Published on January 23, 2025

There’s a young, up-and-coming DJ who has popped into my feed over the past few days who posts short clips of him DJing with a simple message overlay that says:

“Day 29 of posting sick transitions until I play at Boiler Room.”
“Day 30 of posting sick transitions until I play at Boiler Room.”
“Day 31 of posting sick transitions until I play at Boiler Room.”

…And so on.

I love this so much for a few reasons:

1. He’s making his goal known. To the world, yes—but, most of all, to himself.
2. He’s actively doing something that’ll lead him towards that goal—he’s not just puffing air.
3. He understands that it’s going to be a process and has committed to a daily practice that—at the very least—is going to make him into an incredible DJ… and at the very best—is going to result in him playing at Boiler Room… and more.

Inner Work Prompt: What’s one of your big goals? And what might you commit to doing daily that’ll get you there?

Keep On Playing

Published on January 21, 2025

One of my young employees told me yesterday that he’s not sure he wants to be a martial arts instructor when he gets older because he feels a pull towards science.

“…You’re 14,” I told him.

And then proceed to say something along the lines of: Of course you’re not sure what you want to do when you grow up. To think you should know what you want to do for a living at 14 is crazy. And anyone who tells you or makes you think you should know that by 14 is crazy.

…Lean into your interests. If you feel a pull, follow up. But, keep your doors open. You just don’t know how things will play out… the key, I think, is to just keep on playing.

And this is advice that I think is as true at 35 as it is at 14 as it is at 44 as it is at 76.

We aren’t carved from rocks. We’re constantly flowing as a river.

I’ve been surprising myself lately with my sudden interest in music—something I’ve never really been drawn to… and I’m 35. My current plan is to play around with it and see how it plays out.

…Advice I’d pass along to you if you’re feeling any sudden pulls in life, too.