Matt Hogan's Blog

Don’t Answer Yet

Published on August 7, 2022

Before you answer the question, make sure it’s the best possible version of the question you can ask.

“Why me?” or “What good can come from this?”
“Why can’t I get this right?” or “What can I do right now to improve?”
“Why is this so hard for me?” or “What would this look like if it were easy?”

Certain questions leave no room for good answers.

In fact, many of the questions we ask ourselves beget demeaning/ self-limiting/ hateful answers—and we’re better off not answering them at all.

Want to level up your life? You’ll need better answers for that.

And nothing will lead to better answers faster than asking better questions.

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

Inner vs Outer Healing

Published on August 6, 2022

Surface level cuts might only require time to heal.

Deeper cuts will require more than that.

Ointment/ Prescription medications
Band aids/ Gauze/ Stitches
Surgery

As it is with inner healing.

Some surface level pains may only need time.

But, the deeper pains will require more active solutions.

Meditation / Time Away / Soul Searching
Prescriptive Reading / Introspective Writing
Group/Individual Therapy

Give your deep cuts only time to heal and they will likely become infected (and worsen).

By matching the proper prognosis to the severity of the (inner) pain, you’ll maximize your ability (and minimize the time it takes) to heal.

This starts by being completely honest with yourself or, better yet, getting an objective perspective about the severity of your inner pains; understanding the prognosis for each; and finding a way to take the proper actions in spite of the resistance you’re bound to face.

As hard as inner healing might be… it always beats infected inner wounds that you’re forced to face because of their un-ignorable severity. This is never a better route.

The Reality Of 1% Gains

Published on August 5, 2022

1% gains is the philosophy that guides my life.

Each day, I try to:

Improve my workout numbers by 1%
Eat 1% cleaner
Sleep 1% better
Etc.

But, I don’t always reach this goal.

Sometimes, what 1% gains ACTUALLY looks like is:

-2% on my workout numbers
-3% on how clean I ate
-5% on the amount of sleep I got

While 1% might feel infinitely achievable… the reality is, we’re imperfect creatures immersed in an imperfect world and we have to account for the ebb and flow of life.

There will be days when you’re feeling it and crush your daily tasks (maybe even with 2-5% gains)… and there will be days when you’re not feeling it and you dip into the negatives.

Don’t let this discourage you—stay the path.

Keep investing in yourself like you would your retirement investment account. Continue to reinvest with the goal of the overall average being a 1% increase rather than the actual increase being 1% every single day.

The real power of the gains come from the long-term compounding of regular reinvestments. Just ask your financial advisor. Trying to get a forever positive return on any stock/fund in the market simply isn’t practical. And neither is a forever positive return on any task you undertake in life.

You don’t get 1% returns each and every single day.

You get 1% returns on average over the course of years and years of regular investing.

THAT is how you get the real 10/15/30% gains and that is how you get the most out of your personal development habits in life.

Stay. The. Path.

The Self-Belief Producing Business

Published on August 4, 2022

It’s hard to take action of any kind when you don’t believe in yourself.

Just like it’s hard to start a business of any kind when you don’t have the resources yourself.

One strategy that has helped countless people start their businesses, however, is borrowing resources from others (like a bank) and paying them back later.

We can do the same thing with belief.

We can borrow belief from others, like a loan of sorts, that gives us the boost we need to take the action; to get the results (and hopefully successes); to build the confidence; to start the self-belief generating process on our own.

The absolute key to doing this is to surround ourselves with people who believe in the human potential. Growth-minded individuals who know that with alignment, action, effort, guidance, and reflection—great things are possible (no matter how inept a person might seem). People who will be there for us in victory AND defeat—because defeat is inevitable on the journey upward and teaches us lessons that victory never could.

Find your people and use their belief in you (or the human spirit) until you’re able to create your own self-sustaining self-belief producing business.

Then, pay off your loan (with gratitude and belief back into others), continue on the path, and let your belief “profits” give you the inner resources you need to chase whole-heartedly your wildest dreams.

I sip on coffee while I write these. If you enjoy these posts, you can support my future work by supplying me with one of my next cups of joe here. ☕️

Imperfect Help

Published on August 3, 2022

There are no perfect people helping imperfect people.

Only imperfect people helping other imperfect people.

Don’t let perfectionism hold you back from helping—it’s a lie.

You’ll always be imperfect and now is always a good time to help—no matter how imperfect you may feel.

Today’s post was inspired by this tweet from Jeremy Ginn. Thank you.

Sunny/ Seventy Is The Way

Published on August 2, 2022

The ‘inner weather’ of our mind directly impacts how we get to travel in life.

A sunny/ seventy kind of mentality = full speed ahead.

An overcast/ foggy kind of mentality = which way is even forward?

In life, mental clarity is the sunny day that allows us to unleash our full energy and potential into the journey that lies ahead.

Mental cloudiness is what throttles all of our efforts to that creeping, hazard lights pace that makes the prospect of the journey seem so daunting, confusing, and un-accomplishable.

The good news with our “inner weather” vs the “outer weather” is that we can actually influence our inner weather.

Which is excellent news for the person who is driving 25mph forward on a road that they’re not even sure is correct.

How do we influence/ change our inner weather? By incorporating more of the tasks that lead to mental clarity and removing more of the tasks the lead to mental cloudiness.

Some tasks that lead to mental clarity:

Writing
Therapy
Meditation

Some tasks that lead to mental cloudiness:

Click-bait topics
Superficial Gossip
Busy, distraction-based work

Mental cloudiness is typically the byproduct of passive, modern day living. Click bait bombards you at every turn, superficial gossip is the comfortable/easy form of communication, and busy is essentially society’s status update.

Mental clarity is typically the byproduct of active, rebellious type living. Writing when click bait is buzzing… Therapy when superficial is literally calling your name… Meditation when busy is ingrained into your state of being…

If you want to unleash all of what’s inside, you need to rebel; you need to make space for clarity; you need to clear the fog that’s inside.

Becoming More

Published on August 1, 2022

When things are easy… less of you is required.

And if you only do what’s required… you’ll end up becoming less.

Less than what your god-given potential is capable of becoming.

Want to become more?

Well… Remember this when things get hard.

We’ll see how badly you really want it.