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Matt Hogan's Blog Posts

Self-Made (Or Not)

Published on May 25, 2022

It’s easy to look at the current state of your life and claim it’s self-made—after the fact and when things fit together nicely.

But, none of us are self-made.

Remember each of the influences who gave you pieces to your life’s puzzle and showed you how they might fit together along the way.

You may have put piece to puzzle; but, you certainly didn’t make every single piece or do all of the thinking alone.

Honor those who helped you piece together your life and pay forward what you’ve pieced together into the lives of others.

Solving massive life puzzles is much easier when you’re not doing it alone.

For When You’re Feeling Overwhelmed:

Published on May 24, 2022
  1. Breathe.
  2. Brain dump—write out why. Don’t worry about being neat, orderly, or proper. Just write. This will help you gain clarity. Include lingering thoughts that seem to keep reoccurring. Do this even if you think you already inherently know why. Most of the time, there’s a lot more to it than you think.
  3. Breathe again.
  4. Prioritize—mental health comes first. In all cases, you must take care of yourself before you can properly get anything else done that’s on your list. Once you feel solid, sort tasks so you know what’s top priority and what’s not.
  5. Breathe more.
  6. Make moves—don’t focus on the whole list. Focus on the first top task. Block out distractions. Get started. Don’t overthink this step—just make your inertia-breaking move.
  7. Keep breathing deeply.
  8. Use momentum—to help you get the next task done. Doing is easier once you’ve started. Maintain your momentum from one task to the next for as long as you can sustain it.
  9. Finish this stretch of work with some, you guessed it, deep breathing.
  10. Relish in the feeling of having gotten tasks done. Give yourself some credit. Remind yourself that your work will never be done. And let grace fill you up so you can mentally check-out and enjoy the next part of your day overwhelm and stress-free. After all, life is short and there’s PLENTY to be grateful for.
  11. BONUS: More breathing.

Note: Don’t just gloss over breathing like it’s a non-step. Breathing is fundamental to managing our physiology. And if we can take some quality time to breathe deeply and consciously, it will help us calm our state which, in turn, will only help us perform better.

Juicing Experiences

Published on May 22, 2022

You either win or you lose.

—Eh, we can do better…

You either win or you learn.

—Better. But, not as good as it could be…

You either learn or you don’t learn.

—That feels pretty solid.

Because if you don’t learn when you win you’re doing it wrong.

And learning from failures is talked about so much it’s essentially cliché at this point.

It’s worth remembering that what’s required to maximally squeeze the sweet learning juice from every experience isn’t what’s natural. Reacting emotionally to wins and losses is what’s natural.

Wins lead to celebration parties and losses lead to pity parties—and both tend to distract us from our work (and its improvement).

If maximally learning from every experience is important to us then we need to consistently prioritize a dedicated chunk of time to “juicing” each one.

Time when we can carefully reflect on what went well, what we could’ve done better, and how we can promptly implement our learnings into our lives.

Because the reality is this: experience is not the best teacher—learned from experience is.

If you’re winning and losing and not learning—you’re losing.

If you’re learning and learning and not letting winning and losing discourage or distract you from continuing to try—you’re winning.

Energy Boundaries

Published on May 21, 2022

The energy you give is the energy you get in return.

…Not always.

Sure, it’s often the case that positive energy begets reciprocated positive energy. And negative energy, negative.

But, what about when an incredibly positive energy attracts the opposite?

Like the type of energy that’s toxic, manipulative, and control-seeking.

Sometimes, people who give off that luscious, positive, radiant energy are the most desired targets of energy sucking negatives.

This is why we must have boundaries.

We have to be ready at all times to filter IN the reciprocated (positive) energy that’s attracted to us while simultaneously filtering OUT the unwelcomed (negative) energy that’s looking to suck the life from us.

Don’t take this lightly either.

Energy is life currency.

Be relentless in protecting it.

Investing In Your Story

Published on May 20, 2022

Experiences are investments.

Don’t put them in the same category as material purchases.

Material items (that aren’t investments) should be purchased scarcely and with heed—for they often weigh us down and limit our ability to invest.

Experiential investments should be made generously and often—for they become the very foundation of the story of our lives.