Matt Hogan's Blog

Routine Is Mesmerizing—Your Opportunity And Your Warning

Published on February 24, 2021

“I keep to [my] routine every day without variation. The repetition itself becomes the important thing; it’s a form of mesmerism. I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind.”
Haruki Murakami, via MoveMe Quotes

Not all routines help you reach deeper states of mind. Some routines lead to mind-numbing, rut-inducing, counter-productive states of mind. The ones that you might find yourself in when you’re waking up late, to do work you don’t want to do, to pay for things you don’t really need, surrounded by people you don’t really like, only to go to bed late to do it all over again the next day. A person in a routine like this may actually be mesmerized to avoid deeper states of mind altogether.

Take heed; for all routines mesmerize.

And I think most of us are, in fact, mesmerized whether we realize it or not. Do you spend time every night plotting out exactly what you’re going to do each morning or do you automatically just do what you do? Do you consciously map out your route to work or does routine navigate the roads for you? When you get home at night do you arbitrarily pick out evening activities or do you subconsciously flow through them?

When you take a close enough look, you might be surprised at how much of your day is actually routinized versus how much you think is spontaneous.

The bottom line: routine can be your greatest enemy or your best friend. It can mesmerize you to reach deeper states of mind or it can do precisely the opposite. It can get you working out without so much as a single thought of resistance or it can fill your head with only thoughts of resistance. It can habitualize reading and writing or it can habitualize binging and gaming.

If your going to be mesmerized by a routine, make sure it’s with a routine that you’d be happy waking up from in 5, 10, 20 years. Because sometimes, that’s how long these states of hypnosis can last. And it goes without saying that not everybody who wakes up from prolonged hypnosis is happy with how all of their time was spent.

Don’t be that person. Wake up and rework your routine. Practice an upgraded routine daily and without variation. Hypnotize yourself deliberately; not accidentally. Take control of the subconscious actions of your life—and you’ll take control of your life.

You Can’t Steer A Stationary Ship

Published on February 23, 2021

“You can’t steer a stationary ship.”
Nicolas Cole, Twitter

I remember as a kid, sitting in the driver’s seat of my parent’s car and pretending to drive. My little hands would hang on the steering wheel as I would speed down the streets and drift through turns with Fast & Furious precision. Contrast that with what was actually happening and you would’ve laughed as you saw little me making exhaust noises with my mouth and yanking on the immovable steering wheel.

Put that car in motion, however, and the steering wheel loosens right up. You could drive with your pinky fingers if you wanted to—although I would strongly advise against that. It’s motion that gives us the power to direct. Idleness is what takes that power away. And even with all of our might, child or adult, we can’t steer a parked car. Which is exactly what so many of us are trying to do with the cars of our lives: we’re living our dreams in our heads.

We plan and plot and envision and goal set and try to come up with the perfect course that will take us precisely from where we are to where we want to be. And we’re also sitting in our cars, hanging from the steering wheel, making exhaust noises with our mouths, and whipping through turns with Fast and Furious precision. We’re trying to drive a parked car. And you wonder why people giggle sometimes when they hear you?

Course correction can only happen when you’re on a course. You can’t adjust the direction of a single dot plotted on a map. You need a second dot, a plot of where the dot has moved to, in order to understand and adjust the trajectory. And so it is with all of your goals and aspirations in life. You get there by driving your car—steering your ship—in the direction of your dreams and making adjustments as you go. As you experience the world and as you get feedback from your actions.

The journey never works out to be the straight line that we envision in our heads anyways. There are always unaccounted for (and many times spontaneous) twists and turns and bumps and driving hazards that come up. Thankfully, straight isn’t the only direction forward and there’s a steering wheel that comes with the car of your life that you can use to navigate those obstacles. So long as you keep your car in drive, that is.

Finish Before You’re Done

Published on February 22, 2021

“I don’t believe in draining the reservoir, do you see? I believe in getting up from the typewriter, away from it, while I still have things to say.”
Henry Miller, via MoveMe Quotes

Finishing before you’re done is a hat-tip to the next session. It’s a gesture of goodwill passed on to your future self. It’s a recommitment to the process rather than an overcommitment to the moment. It comes from the understanding that burnout is real, overworking is counterproductive, replenishing the reservoir takes time, and overcoming the resistance to get back to work never gets easier. It’s a conscious decision to leave some fuel in the tank and to walk away before you’ve completely exhausted your resources so that the next time, you can arrive more ready.

And that’s exactly how it works for me. It happens often that I finish my daily writing and don’t feel done. I get urges to further proofread; to elaborate; to shorten; to rework analogies; to think of better opening and closing lines—and all, of course, right before I hit the publish button! But, rather than deplete all that I have, I save that excess energy for the next one. I recommit to my pace and set myself up for success the next day.

“Done,” for me, isn’t when I have nothing left to give—it’s when I have something good enough to share.

To which you might reply: the enemy of excellence is “good enough.” Be that as it may, what you also must consider is that the enemy of making progress is needing perfection. The need for a perfect writing entry; a perfect workout session; a perfect rehearsal; a perfect drawing; a perfect production—is precisely what’s going to make finishing and repeating the process impossible to do. Don’t confuse a desire for excellence with an unattainable aim at perfection.

This is why I usually stop my workouts once I’ve reached my 70% limit. It’s why I stopped trying to do too much with daily videos, pictures, and audio and decided to focus primarily on text. It’s why I’m able to walk away from my writing once I’ve crossed the threshold from crap to good enough and don’t bother trying for perfect. It’s also why I’m able to keep showing up day-in and day-out and why I usually don’t miss—because I don’t believe in draining the reservoir, do you see?

Understanding The “Compass” Of Your Life

Published on February 20, 2021

“None of us can adequately control the meteorology of other people: they’re nice, they’re nasty, they come, they go. We have no choice but to address, alter and amend the inner coordinate if we want to have a different model of reality, if we want to have more choices.”
Russell Brand, via MoveMe Quotes

We all have an internal compass. A guiding needle that points each of us uniquely forward towards our “magnetic north”: our best self; our best life; our best path forward given our circumstances. A needle that’s made up of our values, morals, principles, character, and experiences.

But, like when a strong enough magnet comes near, our inner coordinate can mistakingly lock on to another person’s coordinate and can cause our needle to turn in the wrong direction—towards someone else’s magnetic north rather than our own.

Objectively speaking, when all emotions and attractions are taken out of the picture, I think we all are in tune with the direction of our inner compass. We know what we have to do to become our best selves, lead our best lives, and what next steps we need to take to keep moving forward. But, we’re not objective.

We’re deeply emotional, easily distracted, and weak against attraction. And when the magnetic pull of another person draws us in, we succumb to the model of reality as they see it and lose control over the direction of our own lives.

But, to be fair, this isn’t something that’s always immediately obvious to us. Like when you’re following your compass and something “kind of” doesn’t feel right, but you tell yourself you’re just being paranoid.

Until, eventually, you realize that the needle has, indeed, been off the whole time because of a magnetic disturbance. It’s a slow realization.

A realization that usually starts in your gut. And if you feel that something is (or might be) off in your gut, that instinct should be honored and investigated. Because what you might find is that what’s making you feel “off” isn’t something arbitrary or random, but rather an undetected attraction in a direction that’s actually just off from your magnetic north.

How To Have More Lucky Days

Published on February 19, 2021

Step 1: Stop wishing for more lucky days.

Sure, you might get lucky and stumble upon some treasure whilst going about your everyday business. We all get lucky sometimes.

A $5 bill on the ground here. A scratch-off win there. But, “sometimes” isn’t a good model for growth. And luck isn’t a good strategy for success — at least not the arbitrary kind of luck that’s brought about by chance rather than one’s actions.

And besides, do you really want to attribute your success to luck? C’mon.

Step 2: Define what being “lucky” means to you.

Money? Fame? Luxury? Is that really it? Or is there more to it than that?

A good question to spend some time on is, what would you like to do if money were no object? As in, how would you really like to spend your time? Because here’s the thing, I don’t think a problem-free life on the beach is what we’re really after.

Focus on feelings over possessions.

Step 3: Make your own damn luck.

If I can figure out this algorithm, I’ll get lucky and appear on everybody’s searches. Versus, if I can figure out what lights up my soul, I’ll get lucky and find ways to do work that I truly enjoy.
If I can do what’s trendy before everybody else, I’ll get lucky and go viral! Versus, if I can do what’s authentic to me — what nobody else can uniquely do — I can get lucky and fulfill my purpose.
If I would just get picked, they would all see how lucky they are! Versus, if I just picked myself, I would be the luckiest person every time.

There Is A Lesson In Every Interaction

Published on February 18, 2021

“Whenever anything negative happens to you, there is a deep lesson concealed within it, although you may not see it at the time. Even a brief illness or an accident can show you what is real and unreal in your life, what ultimately matters and what doesn’t.”
Eckhart Tolle, via MoveMe Quotes

Here’s the thing, there are lessons concealed within every interaction with life—not just the negative ones.

An interaction implies an exchange and with every exchange comes new information that can be processed and applied—or ignored.

It’s not a question of whether or not the lessons are there—it’s a question of whether or not you are aware.

Of course, not all lessons impact equally.

Negative interactions with life might beget more memorable lessons because they usually draw from deeper felt emotions. Pain, sadness, regret, remorse, guilt, etc. are all felt in the roots of our being.

Positive interactions may not evoke the same deep feelings simply because these emotions: content, happy, bubbly—are usually felt on the periphery—the branches—of our being.

This is why some of the most poignant lessons in a person’s life usually stem from some of their most painful experiences and are the hardest earned.

But, don’t let this scare you away.

This is not a process to be avoided. For, this is the very foundation from which wisdom grows. And the person who avoids these interactions, in any of their forms, avoids a chance at wisdom for themself.

This is the danger with sitting on the sideline; with choosing not to try because of fear; with avoiding opportunities in favor of comfort—you opt out of a chance for wisdom.

A chance for better judgement. A chance for deeper understanding. A chance for a better, future life.

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