Matt Hogan's Blog

Honest Living

Published on March 15, 2022

To believe in compassion, but to live with indifference—is dishonest.
To believe in wisdom, but to regurgitate ignorance—is dishonest.
To believe in connection, but to choose isolation—is dishonest.
To believe in health, but to purchase sickness—is dishonest.
To believe in calm, but to succumb to haste—is dishonest.
To believe in truth, but to speak in lies—is dishonest.
To believe in love, but to act in hate—is dishonest.

The more of these inner contradictions that you behold (whether you consciously realize them or not), the more uneasy and conflicted you will feel towards yourself. And the more in alignment your beliefs and actions are, the more at ease and at peace you will feel.

Honest living happens when what you do aligns with what you believe.

And the byproduct of honest living is inner peace.

Exercising Your Advice

Published on March 14, 2022

You can only help in so far as you are strong.

Those who never build their own strength remain weak—and their ability to help others remains weak, too.

Imagine a person who has never lifted a weight running around a gym, giving people 20 minute lectures on how to lift weights.

Now imagine a jacked person who is usually quietly focused in the corner walking over to you and offering you a quick, 20 second correction on your form.

Which would you prefer—the 20 minutes or the 20 seconds?

Of course you’d prefer the 20 seconds.

Because the advice is coming from a place of strength.

And in order to build that strength, what did the jacked person have to do?

Avoid running around the gym giving people 20 minute lectures on how to lift weights and focus on him/herself!

This is the oxymoron of helping others. You can only help others better when you become better. And the only way to become better is to focus on yourself—and occasionally ignore the never-ending call to help others.

Don’t run around offering help to people if you haven’t spent time helping yourself.

Quietly stay focused in your corner until you’ve reached your point of being full.

Then, pour from your full cup the full strength of your advice.

Sculpting Legacies

Published on March 13, 2022

The problems of our lives are the very material with which we get to sculpt our legacies.

The harder the problems, the harder the material.

And the harder the material, the longer our legacies have the potential to last.

When you only have to face “soft” problems and you don’t put much effort into shaping them—your life legacy is a wad of Play-Doh.

At the other end of the spectrum, if you opt to face “harder” problems and you work hard to shape them into something remarkable—your life legacy results in something more along the lines of a chiseled statue from marble.

Worth noting: this is not a call to make life as “hard” as possible.

Because without the proper tools, a huge block of marble is unsculptable—and that’s not a legacy worth aiming for either.

The goal is to stop complaining about the material we’ve been given and to start finding ways we can sculpt what we have into something we’re proud of.

Unfortunately, we can’t always change the material we’ve been given: life is wildly unfair in that sense.

Fortunately (especially if you’re reading this), we do have the ability to upgrade our tools and materials to make even harder, more exquisitely detailed sculptures.

Wisdom is the ultimate means for upgrading those tools and materials.

And your life’s legacy is worth an investment into the finest.

The “Right” Places

Published on March 12, 2022

The answers to your problems are out there.

Your health problems
Your happiness problems
Your money problems

You just haven’t looked in the right places.

Looking in the same places and expecting different answers is the strategy of the insane.

One I certainly would not recommend.

Here’s what I’ve learned: looking in the “right” places looks a lot like learning.

Opening new books
Listening to new thinkers
Experimenting with new ideas

Most people open up the same apps, talk with the same people, and buy into the same strategies (that are merely packaged differently) over and over again and expect things to suddenly start going “right.”

The reality is, if what you’re investing your time/ energy/ and attention into isn’t leading you to grow: how can you outgrow your current set of problems?

For what is solving the problems of our lives, but the act of growing?

Be It Then Become It

Published on March 11, 2022

You don’t start acting like a black belt when you get a black belt.

It’s only after you’ve acted like a black belt long enough that you finally receive one.

The same is true for any other identity you want to embody in life.

You become it by acting like it long enough.

The “becoming” doesn’t happen first.

Wait… What?

Published on March 10, 2022

Too busy for kindness?

Too rushed for manners?

Too inactive for exercise?

Too distracted for deep work?

Too preoccupied for listening?

Too stimulated for meditating?

Too overwhelmed for self-care?

Wait… what are our priorities again?

Don’t Say Forever [Poem]

Published on March 9, 2022

Don’t say forever
Like you know what that means
You’ve been here but a blink
And in but a fraction of that
You promise the rest of time
Like you know what that means.

Here's what I think you mean:
The size of my feelings
Feels like the size of forever
Squeezed into the size of this moment
And it's bursting at its seams.
If there's one thing I really want you to say
—It's exactly what you mean.

Because here's what I know:
This smallest piece
Of the greatest whole
Becomes our greatest whole
When it is no longer just a piece.
The size of what we have right here
—Is all we'll ever be able to truly give and receive.

So, before you give away
A bursting moment for an overused cliché
Package the size of your feelings
Within the size of this moment
And give this one complete gift to me
Where you're still able to feel and say
—Exactly what you mean.

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