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Matt Hogan's Blog Posts

Intentional Space

Published on May 27, 2026

One of the reasons my work office got so cluttered and messy was because there were so many things that didn’t have a “home.”

I would be given beautiful cards, thoughtful gifts, art pieces, timeless pictures, and sentimental trinkets… and I would have to shove them into one of the limited places I had any open space at all.

And having worked in the same martial arts school for 20+ years… you can only imagine the amount of stuff I had crammed around.

One of my major goals this past weekend, when renovating and redesigning my work office was to give everything an intentional space—both for the things I was already given, and the things that would come.

I spent hours and hours going through it all, organizing it, imagining the appropriate space for it, shopping for the right pieces, and building/designing it—with my sister’s help, of course.

And it turned out beautifully. I’m very proud of the space and feel not only lighter from having removed all of the clutter and mess, but more joyful because so much of what was buried in a tiny drawer is now being featured on the walls and has space to breathe.

A bunch of a good thing shoved into a tiny drawer doesn’t do you or anybody else any good. And sometimes, that’s what’s making us feel bad—whether consciously or not. And all we have to do is give all of the amazingly good things we’ve already been given a home where we can see it, feel it, and experience it on a regular basis—rather than just always wishing for more and more.

What Does Your Design Say About You?

Published on May 25, 2026

What an interesting question to contemplate: “What does this space (that I’ve designed) say about me?”

And maybe more interesting—a question I’ve been contemplating all weekend: “How can I redesign this space so that it speaks to the person I have evolved into and most want to become?”

I Felt Out Of Place

Published on May 24, 2026

I’ve been working out of the same office for almost two decades.

And not once have I given it a full design update.

What I’ve done throughout the years is simply add.

I’ve added more and more art to the walls, shoved more and more files into my one cabinet, pinned more and more pictures to the more and more cork boards that I would buy…

And over the past few months, for the first time in those almost two decades… I felt out of place.

…Like where I was working, my office, was no longer accurately depicting who I was, what I was about, and what I wanted the impression to be.

And so this weekend, I gutted it. And I’m re-designing and re-organizing it from the ground up (with my sister’s help). After the work I put in tomorrow, I’ll have invested upwards of 24 hours into this project.

And you know what, I can’t wait to get back in there and keep working on it. Because what I’m doing isn’t work… what I’m doing is evolving in real time.

…And it’s finally rippling outward from just me and into my workspace in a way it never has.

Nobody Is Coming To Push You

Published on May 21, 2026

You don’t get amazing people into your life via boring living.

You attract amazing people into your life via exciting living.

And I don’t mean this by anyone else’s definition of “boring” or “exciting” than yours.

You know when you’re living well within your comfort zone, as your unrealized self, doing nothing but consuming behind closed doors.

And equally so, you know when you’re living outside of your comfort zone, as your evolving self, creating and sharing and connecting in the vast landscapes of the world.

The thing is, people want somebody amazing to come into their life to push them into that “exciting” lifestyle. But what we have to realize is, nobody is coming to push us… we have to start living our most exciting lifestyle and, by and by, we’ll attract—we’ll pull—amazing people in.

Not because they saw somebody living in a boring way and made it their mission to make it exciting for them…

…But because they saw somebody living in an exciting way and wanted to join them.

Bowl-Size

Published on May 21, 2026

Like fish, we typically grow in proportion to the size of our environment.

Put into a bowl, and we’ll grow bowl-size.

Put into the ocean, and we’ll grow ocean-size.

If you find yourself feeling stuck at “bowl-size,” try swimming into bigger environments. Or focus so much on growing yourself that the bowl-size simply is no longer a good fit.

There’s a whole ocean out there. For all of us. In every field and life dimension.

The question is… what size feels Goldilocks right to you?

A Walk By The Water

Published on May 19, 2026

“You should take him on a vacation… so that he can best enjoy the time he has left.”

“…Why? So we can forget and drink beers on the beach? …No. No. I’m not doing that. I’m not letting him give up. I’m not giving up. I’ll take him for a walk by the water… so we can talk. I think that’s what he needs most—what he wants most right now. I’ll even help him change is lifestyle so that all the crap gets cut. But quitting isn’t what I want on either of our minds.”

—After hearing a mutual friend’s cancer metastasized and there was nothing more the doctors could do.

“How Do You Go Back To Regular Life After This?!”

Published on May 19, 2026

…Is often a question I’ll ask myself after an incredible music show.

But, the answer—as it is for most things in life—is that too much of a good thing can turn even that incredible thing into a bad thing.

If I was to go to music shows multiple times a week or even every weekend—I’d stop appreciating them as much.

It’s an observation I even made last night when listening to that legendary 2-hour set by two of the world’s best DJs: what makes them so great wasn’t just the banger after banger after banger song choice… it was the tension they expertly built throughout the show.

They knew how to build your excitement and anticipation… hold you in that peaked state… leave you levitating and wondering and anxious for what’s next… and then drop the banger of a track that gave you that euphoric release.

…And then they do it again.

But without the build… you don’t get the same feeling because there’s not really a drop.

And that’s what the space in between does for you in life: it allows your excitement, anticipation, and curiosity to build.

So that when you reach that peaked state and are levitating and just on the brink of being able to experience whatever it is in full… you are properly primed for a completely satisfying drop.