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Matt Hogan's Blog Posts

Making It Work

Published on November 6, 2025

One of the essential mindsets in self-defense is that there’s no right and wrong—per se—there’s just works and doesn’t work.

Yes, we train to improve technique, expand awareness, and build better instinctual reactions.

But what’s so important to remember when training is that if a “mistake” is made in a real self-defense scenario—as in the student did something different than what was taught—there’s no do-overs. And if you ask your training partner to stop, rewind, and do the simulated attack again—that’s what makes the self-defense wrong.

Of course there’s a time and a place for slow, smooth, rewind-able practice… but, generally speaking, when it comes to self-defense—we want to always be in the mindset of making it work. Which means if your training partner throws a simulated attack and you react “incorrectly”—you don’t stop and ask for a rewind… you get back on track asap… in whatever way you’re able to with the training and instincts you have.

Because while, yes, technique makes a difference—mindset makes an even bigger one. And mindset needs to be trained just as much, if not more, than technique.

…And so it is with life, eh?

When life throws a hook punch your way and knocks you off balance… do you curse the hit or figure out a way to quickly rebalance and refocus? When you make a mistake at work, do you obsessively ask for a do-over or do you take responsibility and figure out how to get back on track stat?

Don’t get in the habit of trying to rewind time… get in the habit of making things work in real time.

Today Is A New Year

Published on November 6, 2025

Every afternoon, for several year, I would read one or two pages from four different books. Three of them were a-page-a-day daily insight type books and one of them was a book I finished reading that I was uploading a quote at a time from to MoveMe Quotes.

I fell off this habit about three months ago.

Partly because of travel, partly because of work bleeding into home life, partly because of laziness. But what kept me from starting it up again for so long was mostly because of the loss of momentum—I lost my streak.

The other day, I caught myself thinking: “I can’t wait to start my daily afternoon reading habit again in the New Year.”

And it made me realize that… today is a new year. Today is as good a day to start it back up as any other day in the year. I don’t need a New Year to read three pages from three books and upload one quote to my quote website. I could do that now.

And so I did.

And it’s a reminder to me, and maybe you, that your new year starts whenever you decide it does—and today is as good a day as any to make that decision.

Don’t Measure Action, Measure Overall Net Result

Published on November 4, 2025

The thing about massive positive changes in lifestyle is that they tend to have massive rippling side effects that often get overlooked and aren’t considered.

Let’s say, for example, you hit the gym and have a killer workout—after having been out of it for a while—and plan on keeping everything else in your life essentially the same.

The theory is that this will have a net-positive result and move you in the direction of stronger, healthier, and feeling better.

In reality, however, that intense workout ripples into:
– A proportionally killer appetite and eating way more than you usually do.
– Feeling exhausted from the spike in energy expenditure and unproductive and not present the rest of the day.
– Feeling painfully sore the next day and like you don’t want to move at all… making your reconsider hard workouts and resent the way they make you feel.

Incremental lifestyle change, however, allows you to maintain all other lifestyle variables while positively changing just the one.

…Like doing ten minutes of foam rolling in the morning or taking a walk around the block when you get home from work. These types of changes won’t have massive rippling effects into the other areas of your life and you’ll be able to maintain all that you’ve been doing PLUS add in this constructive action that moves your life in an overall net-positive direction.

A massive positive action that has an overall net-negative result isn’t a positive change at all. The goal—and what we should be focused on when considering lifestyle actions we could take—should always be how can I make this net-positive.

I Was Here [Poem]

Published on November 4, 2025

I took a picture
Of a mountain today
I don’t know why

To capture permanently
Light rendered
Off converged rock

To share socially
Document something
Get likes, impress, hype myself up 

Or maybe because
Everybody else was
And looking was pressured; timed

“Can you get the whole mountain, please?”
“Try one the other way.”
“Ew, the angle—get another shot.”

What does this mountain mean to me?
Will it ever mean anything to me?
…Is this even for me?

I don’t know why
I took a picture
Of a mountain today

But I guess I’ll leave it
Maybe one day I’ll remember
That at the very least

…I was here.

P.s. You can read my other poems here.

Character Review Score

Published on November 1, 2025

One of the best things you can do for a business (outside of giving them your business) is leave them a positive review.

This is one of the—if not the—top criteria people who have never been to the business use to determine whether or not to come.

Only a small percentage of people will actually leave a review… but everybody, at the least, subconsciously reviews everything all the time.

And each of those reviews adds up to what society might say is the businesses success at doing business.

Think about how this might relate to you.

While we aren’t getting physically reviewed, per se, we’re always getting, at the very least, subconsciously reviewed.

And each of those reviews adds up to what society might say is the person’s ability to contribute.

And not just from a value add perspective (like running a business that adds more societal value than what it charges)—I mean from a character perspective.

Are you averaging a high score from all of the positive interactions you’re having with all of those whom you cross paths with throughout your day? Or are you averaging a low one?

The goal with this exercise isn’t to get you thinking that every interaction should be transactional and with the goal of eliciting a great review.

The goal should be to get you thinking about how you treat those who can’t do anything for you… the overwhelming number of people you cross paths with on a daily basis whom you don’t even consciously notice… the people who trigger and irritate you, etc…

…What would you say your overall average review score is?

Streaks and “X’s” > Pounds

Published on October 30, 2025

Remember that the ultimate test of a personal development system is what you do about it on your worst days—not your best ones.

Meaning don’t measure progress in how you performed when you were feeling well rested, motivated, and excited… measure progress on whether or not you showed up when you were exhausted, irritable, and over it.

Personal development is measured better in streaks and “x’s” on a calendar over pounds on a bar or lost on a scale. Get this right… and the rest will take care of itself.

It Could Be Worse

Published on October 28, 2025

Boyyyyy… could it be worse.

But, you already know this… Here’s why I bring it up: you know that expression, “A dollar saved is a dollar earned”?

Think about your life situation in a similar lens: “A worse situation avoided is a better situation earned.”

Because when things are rough… sometimes the only thing we can control is our perspective… and if you can imagine all of the ways your situation could’ve been worse… and in fact, isn’t… then maybe—just maybe—it’ll help you make your situation feel better.

Because when you feel better—you’ll act and perform better.

…And that’s the first step towards actually making things better.

Good luck.