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Matt Hogan's Blog Posts

Follow The Pain

Published on June 14, 2022

Confidence comes from the pain.

  • The pain of trial
  • The pain of error
  • The pain of persistence

Until eventually, the pain results in a success.

This success shouldn’t mark an end (to pain), but rather a new beginning.

For hiding from pain is the path towards atrophy—the antithesis of success.

Confronting the pain is the path towards hypertrophy—the best friend of success.

And as it is with exercise, working your muscles to hypertrophy once (one success) will have little long-term benefit.

It’s the repeated exposure to the pain (of exercise) that leads to the noteworthy gains in muscular size and ability.

And if you want to increase the “size” and “ability” of your life, you have to treat your confidence “muscles” the same.

…And follow the pain.

No Weakness

Published on June 11, 2022

We don’t succeed because we have no weaknesses.

We succeed because we fully utilize our few strengths.

Trying to eliminate all weakness is a waste of time when you could be using all of that time to massively improve upon your strengths.

Hold Less; Have More

Published on June 10, 2022

The brain is for having ideas—not holding ideas.

Find an app or a paper to do the holding.

And allow your brain to keep firing.

Applying The 4 Noble Truths (from Buddhism)

Published on June 9, 2022

The First Noble Truth: life is suffering.

  • Childhood trauma
  • Diseases/ illnesses/ disorders
  • Heartbreak/ back-stabbing/ hate

The reality of life that we have to accept is that there will always be suffering present in some way/ shape/ form.

The Second Noble Truth: we can identify the causes of our suffering.

When your heart is broken or you’re diagnosed with a disease or illness, identifying the source of your suffering is relatively straightforward.

When we’re children, however, we tend to bury or distract ourselves from the pain because we don’t know how to properly manage it. And this behavior often carries over into adulthood.

It isn’t always obvious from where our pain originates. But, with patience, grace and care—we can identify our pain’s root causes.

The Third Noble Truth: we can put an end to our suffering and healing is possible.

Healing is possible.

The key is to mindfully sort through what’s outside of our control (what happened in our past) and to act on what’s within our control (our choices today).

The Fourth Noble Truth: there are paths to free us from suffering.

These paths are different for each of us. But, many of them contain the following:

  • Meditation
  • Introspective writing
  • Reading for healing
  • Self-care skill building
  • Vulnerable, authentic conversation
  • Therapy

And just like healing is possible, so is perpetual suffering.

If we don’t accept the second noble truth, we won’t reach the third. And without the third, we won’t reach the fourth.

Take your journey towards healing at your own pace—but, keep moving forward on the path. Think tortoise—not hare.

And transform your suffering into a new, better reality—one deliberate, brave choice at a time.

Getting Ahead

Published on June 8, 2022

One of the greatest time and energy killers is in-the-moment self-negotiation.

  • I shouldn’t eat the donut. Buttt, I have been pretty good lately…
  • I should workout. Buttt, I do have a ton to do today…
  • I should read. Buttt, that new TV series though…

Those who plan their day ahead—get ahead.

Not necessarily because of what they plan (we all have a pretty good grasp on what we should be doing daily) but because of the fact that they planned and there will be less time/ energy wasted on figuring things out as they go.

As trivial as this might sound—even one good decision and a couple of minutes saved every day adds up! …I’ll take 365 minutes of my time back per year thank you very much.

Never leave your important decision making to the moment—it’s an awful time and energy sucking guide.

Do your figuring out ahead of time and focus all of your time/ energy on executing what’s ahead.

…And get ahead.