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Matt Hogan's Blog Posts

Want Something Out Of Your Mind?

Published on September 24, 2021

“Out of sight, out of mind” can be an excellent model for improving the overall quality of your life.

Put what you want IN your mind, IN sight.

Take what you DON’T want in your mind, OUT of sight.

As obvious as this might sound, I can’t tell you how many people keep what they don’t want in their mind in sight and keep what they do want in their mind out of sight.

Look closely at what you allow to stay in (and out of) sight for the entire duration of a typical day and adjust accordingly.

And not just physically—digitally, too.

Don’t underestimate this.

Create A New Life Event Today

Published on September 23, 2021

If you want to have better evenings, take better care of your mornings.

And if you want to have better mornings, well, take better care of your evenings.

This is to simply say: everything in your day is interconnected.

Morning to night, night to morning; task one to task two, task two back to task one again.

Once you recognize this, you’ll see why now is as good a time as any for improvement.

Where you start improvement in the timeline of your day is irrelevant. THAT you start is what matters. Waiting for the “right moment” or a more “convenient time” (like, New Years) is merely an excuse to not have to change or do the work.

The idea that the future will be better for improvement in some way is simply false. You know when the best time for improvement is? Yeah… NOW!

Because how you handle this moment will be directly correlated to how your next moment will feel. And, mind-bogglingly enough, how all of your future moments will feel, too.

Because just like we’re only six degrees of separation away from each other, so, too, are the events of our lives only a few degrees of separation apart.

Think about it: you could probably trace the key events that happened in your life, that led you to the feel of this exact moment, on your fingers.

So why not create a new event today that will position the future you in a better place?

After all, further delay on improvement will only continue to delay your improvement.

And why on earth would you want to do that?

If Momentum Is Not Your Friend, You’re Foolish

Published on September 22, 2021

Momentum is either your greatest ally or your greatest foe.

Learn how to use momentum in your favor and the tasks of your day will topple over seamlessly, one to the next, like a perfectly aligned series of dominoes.

One push and momentum will take care of the rest.

Ignore momentum and the tasks of your day will topple and stop erratically, requiring you to keep re-pushing the next series of dominoes again and again and again.

For me, getting out of bed in the morning is the initial push of my dominoes which hits:

  • Shower—which hits,
  • Workout—which hits,
  • Breakfast—which hits,
  • Reading—which hits,
  • Driving to work.

The dominoes are beautifully ordered and adequately spaced. All I have to do is get out of bed at the right time and the rest feels automatic.

There’s no guessing. No setting up dominoes as I go. No reshuffling the dominoes after I’ve already tipped the first one… It’s all premeditated, sequential, and intentional.

And once I arrive to work, of course, the next chain of dominoes gets pushed—and so forth, as the day goes on.

Where most people run into momentum issues, is when they don’t take the time to properly set up their dominoes (tasks) ahead of time and/or don’t have them properly spaced out (time management).

If you look at your day in this way, I suspect you’ll find where the missing “dominoes” and irregular spacings lie. Adjust accordingly.

Having momentum as a foe, to be frank, is a stupid waste of time, energy, and effort.

Starting from stopped is always harder than keeping the momentum going.

Momentum, meet reader. Reader, meet momentum.

Now, be friends.

Feelings > Possessions (Part 2)

Published on September 21, 2021

The feelings we crave the most are connected to the feelings that hurt us the most.

The desire to feel:

  • Cool is connected to feeling uncool
  • Admired is connected to feeling un-admirable
  • Impressive is connected to feeling unimpressive

The feelings that pain us are like emotional wounds and the opposite feelings act like the remedy.

Possessions are like band-aids—they only temporarily cover up wounds. And they do nothing to address the pain itself.

If we want to truly heal, then we need to do the same kind of work that our body would when wounded. We need to:

  1. Clot the area and stop picking scabs: The first step is always: don’t make it worse. We need to stop feeding our minds toxic, belittling, hateful information.
  2. Send white blood cells to fight infection: Just like the body can become infected, so, too, can the mind. Every positive, healthy, healing thought and action we can facilitate is like a white blood cell being sent out to fight infection. The more the better.
  3. Create collagen to form new tissue: As the worsening stops, infection is steadily fought, and healing actions continue—pain will subside and new thought processes will form.
  4. Let scars heal: The scar might itch and demand more picking at first, but stay disciplined—eventually it will fade. After a few years, the scar may even disappear completely.

The bottom line: the intensity of our desire for pleasurable feelings is proportional to the intensity of our painful feelings. The more we heal our pains, the less we will need those remedies disguised as opposing feelings.

And we’ll finally be able to rip all the band-aids off.

Feelings > Possessions

Published on September 20, 2021

Why do people really want the possessions they do?

I can tell you straight away it isn’t because of the possessions themselves.

In fact, in most cases, what people really want is to feel a certain kind of way.

And getting that possession, in their mind, is how they feel it.

People want to feel impressive so they buy the new iPhone.

People want to feel cool so they buy the Gucci slides.

People want to feel admired so they buy the BMW.

The problem, of course, with buying things in order to acquire feelings is two fold:

  • One, what’s impressive/cool/admired today, won’t be tomorrow. You’ll be stuck in a never ending loop of always needing to upgrade in order to keep reaching forever fleeting feelings.
  • Two, the people who make you feel impressive/cool/admired because of possessions and not innate characteristics, won’t be there tomorrow either. They will be just as fleeting as the possessions themselves.

That’s why, the real game isn’t about acquiring the most expensive possessions.

The real game is about learning how to acquire the feelings in spite of the expensive possessions.

Because while band-aids have their role, they should never be prioritized over the main goal: healing—so that band-aids are no longer needed at all.

Ignoring Conflict Doesn’t Lead To Peace

Published on September 19, 2021

Here’s a thought: want to cultivate inner peace? Stop avoiding inner conflict.

What happens when a fight breaks out and nobody does anything about it? It continues.

And in many cases: it escalates.

It takes the brave bystander to step in before things start to settle; the courageous cop to heave themselves into the middle of a barrage of fists; the over-worked and under-rested parent to draw the line and invoke discipline before the family feuds finally dissipate.

It’s the willingness to confront conflict that leads to peace.

Not the willingness to peacefully ignore conflict in hope that it resolves itself.

Buy For Your Brain

Published on September 18, 2021

To grow richer, seek new experiences, not new things.

For new experiences beget new information.

And new information begets new connections within the brain.

And a more diversely connected brain is a brain that’s more apt to solve a more diverse array of problems.

And a brain that can solve more problems—better problems—is a brain that will more easily solve richness problems.

The key is to simply continue investing in the brain rather than in items that have no ROI.

For while items may give you temporary feelings of power, status, and appeal—investments give you a forever returning feeling of better, more insightful, more valuable—problem-solving skills.

AKA: Life living skills.