Matt Hogan's Blog

Becoming An Emotional River

Published on April 5, 2022

If we don’t give poignant emotions space to move, they collect and become static—like a lake.

This is a problem because lakes have no means of filtration. They just collect and hold—trash, toxicity, diseases, and all. This isn’t a good formula for life.

Life is movement. Death is no movement.

The problem escalates, of course, when what opens up into our lake is a sewage drain that pours in more toxicity via news, media, gossip, drama, and hate.

…And then we wonder why we can become so overwhelmingly anxious, irritable, and befuddled inside?!

The solution, then, is to become an emotional river instead.

Rather than allowing what’s emotionally swelling to be suppressed, we should find ways we can give those feelings space to move.

Space that doesn’t come from distraction (anything that pulls our attention away from our emotional awareness is a distraction), but space that comes from a place of careful inward mindfulness.

Writing, meditating, therapeutic conversations, etc—are all great examples.

And just a few minutes a day can give emotions the space they need to keep flowing through (and eventually out from) our systems.

Cap Your News

Published on April 4, 2022

We could easily consume news from the second we wake up until the second we go to bed and STILL not be completely filled in.

What’s worse is that most of that info we consume will be outdated by the very next day.

That’s why I consume less than 10 minutes of news per day and focus the rest of my time on building/ bettering myself and the world around me.

If you don’t put a cap on your news, the influx of information will slowly drown out every precious minute of your day it can.

Give your minutes space to breathe. Air them out from the influx. Put up some damns and focus more of your time on doing work that’s important to you.

Heck—create your own damn news.

Carving Doorways

Published on April 3, 2022

One of the most beautiful things you can do when you’re overly emotional is carefully describe what it is you’re feeling.

Not only does this practice help you, but your account may carve a doorway where, for another, existed nothing but walls.

Realize This

Published on April 2, 2022

Something you should know about fear:

The bigger it is, the more ignorant it is to your strength.

Fear subsides in proportion to the size of your *known* inner strength.

Something you should know about inner strength:

You have way more of it than you realize.

Love, Like Death [Poem]

Published on April 1, 2022

The size of your love for another
Isn’t equal to the size of love
the other receives

The most beautiful love letter ever written
Pales in comparison
to a simple hug from the one that’s right

If there’s anything I’ve learned from love in this life
It’s that love, like death,
isn’t something you get to decide

Discipline Doesn’t Have To Be Hard

Published on March 31, 2022

The reason most people have a hard time with discipline is because they choose not to take small, easy, confidence-building steps.

They choose to sprint.
They choose to rush the process.
They choose to jump the high hurdles because they want results NOW.

THIS is what makes discipline hard.

You choosing a 60-minute body-destroyer workout vs. a 20-minute moderately intense one.
You choosing an insanely strict zero-sugar diet vs. choosing to adopt one new, healthy habit.
You choosing to hustle deep into the night at the expense of sleep vs. choosing to build in small, intentional steps each day.

If you want to make discipline easy—you have to make the daily steps easy.

Otherwise, doing the tasks that require discipline will always look gigantic, daunting, and intimidating.

This isn’t the path to a disciplined life.

Just Add Mindfulness

Published on March 30, 2022

Want to improve everything in your life?

Add mindfulness to it.

This came to me while lifting weights.

When I’m mindless, I’m focused on vanity metrics (e.g. how heavy can I go).

When I’m mindful, I’m focused on real metrics (e.g. how clean can I perform the move).

And being focused on clean form will result in far more benefit than being focused on sheer weight. Because the problem with “heavy as possible” is that, in most cases, the result is “cheating the reps.”

Either range of motion is shortened, momentum is counterproductively used, or bodily adjustments are made to make the movement “easier” by incorporating more muscle groups (that aren’t designed to be involved in the lifts).

Mindfulness makes us aware of these cheating tactics and reminds us to use lighter weights so that we can use full range of motion that’s free of momentum and is focused exclusively on the muscle groups that are being specifically targeted.

So, too, are the benefits of mindfulness evident in every other area of life:

Mindless mouth-stuffing becomes savory eating.
Mindless busywork becomes focused task completion.
Mindless word-gabbing becomes curious conversation.
Mindless weight lifting becomes deliberate strengthening.
Mindless media-scrolling becomes intentional consuming.

Mindfulness brings full presence to each task. And if the task is worth doing, you might as well do it right. Otherwise, why do it at all?

Matt Hogan's Blog Posts