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Matt Hogan's Blog Posts

An Inner Work Lesson From The Movie Up (2009)

Published on March 10, 2025

In the opening scene of the movie Up, we’re immersed in a five minute recap of the life and love shared between the two main characters of the story: Carl and Ellie Fredricksen.

If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s must watch animation. Here’s a link.

For whatever reason, this scene popped into my mind today as I was thinking about life and love and relationships (once you’ve seen it, you’ll understand) and it got me thinking about Carl and Ellie’s dynamic.

The above link doesn’t show it, but essentially Ellie comes crashing into Carl’s life when they’re kids and just lights up his world. She’s talkative, energetic, and filled with a contagious sense of adventure. Carl doesn’t talk much, is portrayed to be a little awkward, and seemingly defaults to routine and what’s comfortable.

…Inside each of us is both a “Carl” and an “Ellie,” eh?

What I got to thinking about as I replayed this dynamic is how important it is to try and nurture the “Ellie” that’s inside. Not that there’s anything wrong with the “Carl,” but waiting for an “Ellie” to come crashing into and light up your life simply isn’t a good strategy.

The one that tends to show up is simply the one we choose to feed with the nourishment of our attention and energy. There was a point in my life, for example, when I could distinctly identify as being mostly “Carl.” But, since I’ve started nourishing my inner “Ellie”… I’ve made so many new connections and experienced countless incredible adventures.

Which is all to say… being the “Ellie” who does the crashing and lighting up… my friend… is an excellent strategy.

…Why Doesn’t This Make You Mad More Often?

Published on March 9, 2025

Daylight Savings Time—the day in the United States when, each spring, we lose one hour in our day because we turn the clocks one hour ahead to make better use of the longer daylight in our days.

…It’s also the day when everybody whines and complains and kicks up a storm about only have 23 hours in their day.

Which is understandable, of course. It’s hard enough to get everything done we need to get done in 24 hours let alone 23…

But, what about the hours we lose on the daily from time… wasted? Why don’t we whine, complain, and kick up a storm about those hours? Why aren’t we more upset about the hours we willfully flush down the drain… or maybe better said… the hours we’re manipulated into flushing? The hours algorithms are designed to consume and swallow from our lives… never to be returned.

Maybe if we took as much offense to the hours we get robbed of on the daily as we did during Daylight Savings Time… we’d start making more changes in our lives and lifestyles that left us with an actual 24… and not 23, 22, 20, or… gulp… less.

P.s. ICYMI you can read the best of what I posted to MoveMe Quotes last week here.

I Have A Headache

Published on March 9, 2025

I am writing to you today with a pretty intense headache.

And I know exactly why I have it.

I’ve been drinking coffee at 3pm-ish every day since I was 14 (which is when I’m usually getting ready to teach Martial Arts for the rest of the evening).

…But, today, like I do every now and again, I didn’t.

Now, I could have poured a cup or popped a pill to make it go away… but, working through this experience is also a part of the inner work journey.

I want to truly feel what my body feels when it doesn’t get that substance… I want to learn how to receive the pain and keep moving forward… I want to learn how to think with clarity even when there’s a throbbing pulse blanketing the circumference of my head.

I’m not going to cold turkey coffee and I’m not advising you to skip taking substances in your life per se.

I’m simply reminding you that not all pain needs to be erratically avoided. Sometimes it’s the pain we’re so avidly trying to avoid that we need to learn how to lean into before we can (finally) grow what strength is required for our next evolved version.

Beautiful Alignment

Published on March 7, 2025

A friend of mine was telling me today how his wife just recently went mega viral on IG.

After decades of doing it in her kindergarden classrooms, she decided to start documenting and sharing how she takes her kids on imaginary travel adventures each Friday during the school year.

…And these aren’t just any run-of-the-mill, close your eyes and let’s imagine some travel adventures.

This women goes the extra mile… literally.

She’ll travel the globe during her summer vacation months and document videos addressed to her classroom that she’ll play for them at that specific “trip” the following year…

She’ll transform the entire classroom into an airport and airplane so the kids can learn how to navigate an airport, what passports are for, what to do with luggage… and she even invites flight attendants to make guest appearances…

And while she’s playing the videos back from her worldly travels, she’ll have first-hand things the kids can interact with… she’ll teach them about cultural differences and appropriate ways to behave… she’ll even have them do imaginary camel rides, cliff jumps, and mud masks.

And all I could think while my buddy was telling me this was… yes.

…Just yes.

How many teachers out there are miserable because they’re too busy daydreaming about travel…? And then while they’re finally traveling, they’re miserable because they’re thinking about going back to work…? How many of us non-teachers do the same thing?!

What this women has done is found a way to bring both into beautiful alignment.

And with a little reflection… initiative… and creative problem-solving… maybe you can too?

P.s. This is her IG.

Who Are You Entrusting With Your Irreversible Decisions?

Published on March 6, 2025

I spent a few hours today brainstorming expansions for my tattoo sleeve.

Even though he’s the artist and I’m certainly not… I want to do as much of the legwork as possible before I present my ideas to him.

Because one of the realities of our world is that nobody will (should) care more about the (mostly) irreversible decisions in your life than you.

When I reach out to my tattoo artist for sketches, ideas, etc… he’s on the clock. He’s thinking about his own irreversible life decisions and accounting a fraction of his time to a project like mine.

…But me? I have a vision of how I want this thing to turn out and I’m willing to invest however many hours it takes to get it just right.

And that’s exactly the kind of energy you need to be investing into decisions at that calibre.

Don’t outsource irreversible.

Never Settle

Published on March 5, 2025

A friend of mine just recently broke up with her boyfriend.

And as we were talking about it, there was one line I said to her that I thought was worth passing on:

“We tend to get what we settle for in life… and by refusing to settle for coldness, mistreatment, and emotional cheating… you’re moving more of the opposite into your future. Believe that.”

This is what we mean when we say, “Never settle.”

It’s not a motion to never settle per se.

It’s a reminder to never settle for anything less than what you truly deserve. And by knowing what that is and moving away from anything that ain’t it… you’re allowing your future self to finally settle with someone who knows how to treat you for all that you’re worth.

The Precursor To Becoming Great

Published on March 4, 2025

A martial art student I occasional work with texted me the other day some frustrations she’s having in competition.

She said, “I’ve been feeling kind of lost currently with my fighting, I just don’t feel like me in the ring so just frustrated with that…”

And what I said to her was something along the lines of, sometimes our path makes us humble before it allows us to become great. This way we can truly appreciate everything that comes with greatness… because we know *truly* what it’s like to struggle… to lose… to be incredibly frustrated.

And what I told her to do with that frustration was channel it into a ball of constructive energy and use it to train harder, to train smarter, and to train more purposefully.

…What she’s going through now is the exact same thing all the greats go through. The question of whether or not you’ll become great comes down to how you manage these pivotal moments over the course of weeks, months, years, and on.