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Category: Miscellaneous

Gone to Burning Man!

Published on August 25, 2024

From Saturday (8/24/24) to Wednesday (9/4/24), I’ll be off grid.

That means, you won’t get daily emails from me until I get back on the grid on Thursday (9/5/24)-ish.

Rest assured, I’ll still be writing daily—it’ll just take on a more primitive form (that’s right folks… pen and paper).

And when I get back, I’ll share what words made it to paper during what I’m expecting to be a wild, curious, mysterious, serendipitous, and nothing-short-of-inspirational week.

Don’t know what Burning Man is? I can barely explain it. But, this video does a pretty solid job.

Thank you to each of you for your ongoing support. I look forward to reconnecting when I get back. ♥

P.s. If you’re feeling generous, you can send a little love via coffee here. This trip will definitely require copious amounts of caffeine. Cheers 🙂

One Lesson From 35 Years…

Published on August 18, 2024

Today, my dad asked me what I’ve learned from 35 years of life.

After thinking about it more, and to keep it concise, I’d say what’s become more and more clear to me—in these modern times—is that the path forward almost always goes against the current of society.

The current of society is pushing with increasing intensity each day towards:

  • Screens… swim against it and aim to keep your screen time to an absolute minimum.
  • Social media… swim against it. Spend more time IRL. Minimize comparisons. Reclaim your attention. The attention you bring to your moments become the building blocks you use to define your life.
  • Comfort… swim against it. Maybe not all of the time—it’s good to spend an appropriate amount of time relaxing. But, for a good chunk of your day? Aim for uncomfortable. Exercise… learn… experiment… meditate… fail… etc.
  • Hate… swim against it. Divisive media that elicits reactions gets pushed to the top of timelines—push love instead. Modern news is war, crime, death, collapse, fear, and so on… spend your time consuming the opposite instead.
  • Busyness… swim against it. Intentionally slow down. Intentionally free up time. Intentionally stop looking at/thinking about everything you need to do and just focus on one thing at a time. Not being in a hurry is an EXCELLENT sign that you’re enjoying the process. And not enjoying the process, let’s not forget, is not enjoying your life.

I could go on and on with this analogy, but as I mentioned above… concise.

Swimming against the current has become a sort of mantra and guiding light for my life. One that I’d encourage you to think about for yours.

I Got My First Ever Tattoo Today…

Published on March 28, 2024

…Permanently inking onto my body three images that symbolically represent three deeply meaningful concepts to me. They are:

1) A tree with exposed roots: symbolically reminding me that the branches of happiness can only ever reach as high as the roots of sadness go deep. It’s a reminder that down is often the means to higher up. And that inner work—work that looks at the darker, heavier, maybe less desirable emotions—is often the means to the lighter, warmer, maybe more desirable emotions.

2) A reading warrior: symbolically representing mind/body balance. That the ultimate virtue—the path that’ll lead to the greatest realization of our potential—is the harmonistic continued development of both mind and body. That one without the other leads to more throttling than gains.

…And more pointedly, that mental readiness for battle (literal and metaphorical) is just as important as physical readiness.

3) An enso circle shaped as a sun in the background: symbolically representing the deep connection between presence and warmth. The enso itself is traditionally drawn in a single brushstroke as an expression of the moment and is a reminder for me to always come back to the here and now. Because it’s here, and only here, that we can each ever truly express the warmth that we were born to share.

…And why not just make this my phone screensaver or framed picture in my house? …I guess, for me, it’s because it shows a different level of seriousness. It demonstrates my resolve. It shows a level of determination to live by these principles that a picture or a screensaver doesn’t quite match.

The Most Surprising Realization I’ve Had From 1,500 Days Of Daily Writing

Published on February 11, 2024

One of the most surprising realizations I’ve had from 1,500 days of daily writing is that daily writing makes me better… at everything.

It makes me better at:

  • Speaking
  • Listening
  • Coaching
  • Reading
  • Relating
  • Being (Present)
  • Strategizing
  • Healing
  • Helping
  • Meditating
  • Sleeping
  • Exercising
  • Taking Risks
  • Taking Ownership
  • Taking Aim
  • Building
  • Breaking Things Down
  • Solving Problems
  • Prioritizing
  • Relaxing
  • Simplifying
  • Optimizing
  • Living… My best life…

And these were just the things that came to the top of my mind in a matter of minutes…

…I simply can’t think of a single area of my life that hasn’t been improved from daily writing.

And maybe… if improving every aspect of your life sounds like a good thing… you could try it, too?

P.s. Hat tip to Craig for inspiring this post. Thanks for all of your support.

Day 1,500

Published on February 9, 2024

Today marks day 1,500 of daily writing…!

And in honor of this huge milestone, here are some pivotal moments that shaped this journey:

January 1, 2020: Day 1. The day I overcame imposter syndrome. The day I took a quote, wrote a few paragraphs, numbered the bottom: (1/365), and posted it to FB. The post that eventually became this article.

January 3, 2020: Knowing I didn’t want these posts to be owned by FB, I created “Beyond the Quote” where they could be housed for peace of mind. Here’s Day 3’s post. This carried on through Day 414.

December 10, 2020: Throughout year 1, I felt like I had something to prove… and the length of my posts showed it. Here’s an example of the length I was trying to crank out each day… it was mentally exhausting.

December 24, 2020: I took a road trip that completely changed my perspective. It helped me realize I had nothing to prove and marks the day I started writing drastically shorter posts.

January 1, 2021: Day 365/365…! Mission complete! …And my thoughts.

February 3, 2021: Created a FB group so that readers could get notifications. Posted there from Day 400 – Day 1,092.

February 18, 2021: (Day 414) Created https://matthogan.blog. Felt like the words I was sharing deserved their own house and audience outside of MoveMe Quotes.

November 2021-ish: Gave myself a formal constraint: No more than 280 words allowed.

January 1, 2022: 2 Year mark… and my biggest takeaway.

October 30, 2022: Day 1,000… and the 25 biggest lessons I learned up until that point.

February 9, 2024: Day 1,500… systems in place… pace established… and no signs of fatigue in sight.

The Quarter Freezer Trick

Published on January 14, 2024

Take a plastic cup of water and let it freeze in your freezer.

Then, put a quarter on top of the frozen water.

If you ever lose power, this little trick will show you whether the food in your freezer is still good or not.

…If the quarter is still on top or has only partially sunk—your food is likely still okay.

…If the quarter has sunk to the bottom, it means your food likely thawed to room or close to room temperature and should likely be tossed.

This was a fun little tip that I learned today that I thought would be fun to pass along to you.

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

My 2024 Goals

Published on December 30, 2023

I wrote the other day about five things I’m seriously considering pursuing in 2024.

As I mentioned at the end of that post, I know it’s not a good idea to try and accomplish all five. It’d be better to focus on one and give it 100%. And after careful reflection, here’s where I landed:

1. My number one goal for 2024 is to publish one long-form post every week. The reason is because I want to be able to share my writing with more people without having to do the social media dance. There’s no doubt that it’s an invaluable tool, but I’ve decided to take an alternate route. One that’s focused on (1) Article SEO—so people can find me via search engines and (2) Submitting pieces to magazine-like brands who have readers interested in the things I might write about. In short, the goal is to grow my audience with minimal social.

2. My second major goal is to complete my next two digital guides. They’re already mapped out, I just need to get them done. This will complete my first series of lessons on how people can come into alignment with their life—one of the main focuses of my coaching, teaching, and writing.

3. Once those are complete, my final big goal for 2024 (that I’ll only start after the two guides are done) is to create a self-paced video course that uses those guides as the syllabus. It’ll be an incredibly powerful tool that’ll bring all of the written lessons to life and provide added context, community interaction, and more.

…Let’s do this.

P.s. What are your goals for 2024? Shoot me a reply :)