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Category: Living Well

Martial Arts At 63…

Published on October 7, 2024

I had a 63 year old women sign up for Martial Arts classes last week on Monday.

Today, she came back in and told me that it took her until Friday to fully recover from that Monday’s training session. Not because it was inappropriately intense or without proper modifications for her level… but because she had been taking care of a sick family member for years and hadn’t really exercised or stretched or done anything for herself throughout that time.

When I asked her how she felt about the coming class and if there was anything I could do to make it better for her she shook her head and said plainly that her new goal was to recover by Thursday after taking a Monday session.

And y’all… I cried a little bit inside.

P.s. I also published: The 10 Rules of Ikigai (for a Longer and Happier Life) + 6 Bonus Quotes from The Book

It’s The Effort That Counts

Published on October 4, 2024

One of my employees just turned 18… and I texted him happy birthday and added a bunch of exclamation points and emojis.

…His mom ordered him a *singing telegram* (a person dressed up in a frog suit who would show up in person and sing happy birthday to him), made an array of homemade cupcakes for him and his coworkers, and got him a stuffed frog as a gift so he could always remember the moment.

Sure, it’s the thought that counts.

But, it’s the effort that gets remembered.

(Re)Aligning Actions With Direction

Published on September 30, 2024

Some questions to reflect on as we close out the third quarter of 2024 and enter the final quarter…

Start by bringing to mind your goals/resolutions/intentions for 2024.

1. In what ways have you succeeded? What do these successes reveal to you about yourself?

2. In what ways have you failed/deviated? What does this reveal to you about yourself?

3. With this insight in mind, how will you either modify those original goals/resolutions/intentions or change them so you can better align your actions with your direction and close out 2024 strong?

For me, writing new long-form articles each week and creating two new Art of Forward Guides were two of my big goals.

I succeeded in drafting one guide and creating maybe five new articles. I failed at producing as much as I aimed simply because I didn’t budget dedicated times to those tasks.

My thought was I would do the long form writing and guide creating AFTER I finished my daily writing and quote curating. But, this rarely left me with any decent chunks of time at all. It takes at least an hour of dedicated time to work on longer form projects like the ones I wanted to create and I was mostly left with twenty minutes (if that…!) on a regular basis.

And so the adjustment I’m making is precisely that: adding in a dedicated hour on Thursdays and Saturdays to get this done. It almost sounds silly sharing this because of how obvious this is… but, oftentimes, it’s the simple—almost silly—adjustments that make the biggest difference.

…How about you?

Greatness Minus Fun

Published on September 30, 2024

I spoke to a very talented martial artist yesterday who quit competing and training altogether five years ago—when she was at her peak—because her coach was too hard on her and the process stopped being fun.

What a shame.

And what a great reminder to both coaches and competitors alike: winning isn’t everything. Because you can train your ass off, push your limits, and finish each session absolutely spent—in the name of the pursuit of greatness… but if it leads to you quitting… is there any bigger loss?

Now, can you achieve greatness without a healthy dose of the above mentioned items? Probably not. But, you know what else you can’t achieve greatness without? A healthy dose of fun and enjoyment for the process.

P.s. In case you missed it, you can read the best of what I posted to MoveMe Quotes last week, here.

The Wisdom In Anger

Published on September 26, 2024

During a martial arts endurance/spirit test, a student of mine had to step out and take a knee.

He was only out and recovering for a minute or two and then came back and finished the test performing the best he could.

The next morning, I got a text from him saying that he never slept that night. That he stared at the ceiling enraged at his performance. And that he kept replaying the situation over and over again.

Shortly after receiving that text, as I was doing my daily quote curating for MMQ, I just so happened to stumble upon a line that I felt was meant for his eyes that just so happened to turn up in front of mine. It was: “Stay open to the wisdom of anger.”

And this is exactly what I based my reply off of.

I said, “There are no bad emotions. Only signals from inside hinting to you how you might move forward. Beating yourself up and punishing yourself isn’t going to do that. There is a wisdom in this anger that’s waiting to be tapped into. Channel it. Focus it. And use it as rocket fuel to help you take your next steps.”

Ultimately, the point of an endurance/spirit test isn’t to push yourself until you pass out. It’s to expose you to something really hard so that you’re forced to look into the mirror at your inner self.

…Because easy never gets you past superficial. It’s only when you push towards those outer limits—physically and mentally—that you get to see what you’re really made of… and can then (and only then) start to do something about it.

Stepping Into Our Higher Power

Published on September 17, 2024

One of the most exciting things about our path is that we can choose to change it at any given moment. It only takes one proper decision.

There’s an adult student in the martial arts school I teach at, for example, who just a few months ago was only that—a martial arts student.

Today, I just had a conversation with an associate of mine about potentially hiring this student to become an employee.

What caused this drastic shift in their (and our) path?

…A decision this student made to become a leader.

…Followed by another decision to come in early and stay late.

…Followed by another decision to ask to help other martial arts classes.

…Followed by another decision to ask for a job.

…Followed by another decision to earn it.

If it were up to our comfort zone, we would keep running back the same type of day over and over again. We would do the least we needed to do, we would settle for less, and we would rush to get it all done as fast as possible so we could get back to doing more settling and less.

But, if we can keep our highest version in mind… and we can channel the type of thinking that that version of ourself would hold… we can deliberately choose to take a different path… and step into our higher power instead.

When’s The Last Time You Felt A Deep Sense Of Accomplishment?

Published on September 16, 2024

…I got this question emailed to me a few days ago and I’ve been thinking about it on and off ever since.

I can tell you that I feel a general sense of accomplishment at the end of most of my days. I’ll usually have exercised, published one of these short articles, taught some martial arts classes, interacted with great people, and have read a little bit before bed… give or take.

…But, a deep sense of accomplishment?

At least for me, this doesn’t really come from the daily grind tasks… it comes from things that required more from me than I was used to giving. And as I reflected on it, the realization was that the more the thing required, the deeper the accompanying sense of accomplishment.

Which makes sense.

…And brings about an important realization for living life: if we want to feel a deep sense of accomplishment, we must do hard things. Things that require more from us than we’re used to giving… not all of the time (burnout city)… but certainly some of the time.

Because those occasional deep pushes become life highlight reels that you quickly share with people when they’re wondering about your life—when you’re wondering about your life.

And so when was it for you?

…When’s the last time you felt a deep sense of accomplishment?

And how can you get more of that from your life?