Matt Hogan's Blog

Little Swaps For The Win

Published on October 2, 2025

Little swaps that have made a huge long-term impact in my life (in no particular order):

Swapped video games with building a website.
Swapped pops/juices for flavored seltzer water.
Swapped dairy milk with almond/coconut/flax milk.
Swapped running around the block for playing basketball.
Swapped double cream, double sugar coffee for black coffee.
Swapped regular peanut butter for no sugar added peanut butter.
Swapped buying coffee to-go with brewing coffee at home and work.
Swapped news consumption with asking Claude carefully crafted questions about whatever I’m curious about.
Swapped heavily processed, high-sugar protein drinks/bars for real ingredient, no sugar added protein drinks/bars.
Swapped eating my dinner calories at night to eating them during my breakfast and lunch times (to intermittently fast).

…Not all at once, of course, but slowly and over the course of years. Once one is automatic, I try to add/adjust something else. Most recently, I’ve swapped Nutella/jelly for chocolate date spread. It’s much healthier and still has a pretty fantastic taste. Multiply these benefits over the course of years, decades, and even a lifetime and you can see the exponential power of this concept.

This is the way.

…A whole lot done over the course of a week? …Is next to nothing compared to the span of a lifetime. Even a month is a hardly noticeable speck.

The real change happens when things are done for years.

…And the best way to commit to something for that amount of time… is to make a change that’s small… aligned… yet mighty.

Turning Good States Into Good Karma

Published on October 2, 2025

When you’re feeling strong, remember what it was like to feel weak. For using your strength to help the weak is one of the best uses of strength.

When you’re feeling calm, remember what it was like to feel anxious. For using your calm to help the anxious is one of the best uses of calm.

When you’re feeling joyous, remember what it was like to feel upset. For using your joy to help the upset is one of the best uses of joy.

When you’re feeling outgoing, remember what it was like to feel lonely. For using initiative to help the lonely is one of the best uses of outgoing.

When you’re feeling fulfilled, remember what it was like to feel empty. For using fulfillment to pour into the empty is one of the best uses of fullness.

What I want you to read in the above statements is that we have all experienced all of the above. Not in permanent ways, but in fleeting ways. And so it will continue.

The best thing we can do within the fleeting moments of our days is (1) do things that have the best chance of resulting in the more desired states, (2) be mindful enough to recognize these states when they arrive, (3) be more deliberate in how we pay these desired states forward.

…Because it won’t be long until you find yourself in one of the lesser desired states once again. And intentionally circulating good karma is an excellent strategy for helping not only others… but your future self, too.

Half-Hearted Mixed With Resentment

Published on September 30, 2025

One of my martial arts instructors asked me what my thoughts were on another instructor’s decreased presence because of an increased presence elsewhere and outside of the academy.

…He was concerned this instructor may choose to walk a different career path and very much wanted him to choose martial arts as his career path.

My response was simple… “Let him.”

I’ve worked with high performers my whole professional life and I know that high performers within the academy are most likely high performers elsewhere as well—and this is a beautiful thing.

The mentality should never be to stop them from exploring other areas of interest or guilt them into making martial arts the exclusive focus in their life.

The mentality should be to make our art and career so appealing and exciting that they choose us over the alternatives willingly and full-heartedly.

Because if they don’t choose us willingly, then they’re going to build up resentment. And half-hearted mixed with resentment is a bad formula for any kind of a long term partnership.

…And I’m not just talking about jobs.

Take Control Of The Message

Published on September 29, 2025

A few days ago I wrote about Meditating On Death.

Here’s a response I got from a reader, “This is interesting because it reminds me of this audiobook I was listening to a while ago, A Guide to the Good Life where it talks about Negative Visualization… picturing what’s the worse that can happen. I was chuckling because I realized I do this a lot to myself but always assumed I was just making myself feel anxiety or worry because that’s what was familiar/comfortable, but understood the value of it after listening to that chapter, so I began doing so with more intention, like you talk about. I guess I’ll add my own death to my list of things to visualize [lol].”

And this insight is crucial to understand.

Because when it comes to visualization, the intuitive understanding is that we should fill our minds with best possible outcomes, life-expanding goals being realized, our potential being unleashed in full, and so on. To do negative visualization sounds so counterintuitive and like it’d have precisely that effect on our life. But, the key here is, “…with more intention” as the reader states above.

See instead of letting negative visualizations lead to anxiety and worry and lesser desired emotional states... we take control of the message and intend for it to result in gratitude and appreciation and an urgency to do great things while we still have the chance.

It’s within our power to do this.

And what an incredibly impressive power this is!

…Anxiety traded for gratitude?! Worry traded for appreciation?! Lesser desired emotional states for higher ones and an urgency to live fully?!

I hope you’ll try this today.

Spending Days On Nothing But A “Gist”

Published on September 29, 2025

Being spontaneous can be quite stressful on people.

Generally speaking, people like to know where they’re going, how they’re getting there, what to expect, how to prepare, what they’ll need, and who they might run into or see.

…But knowing all of that defeats the point of spontaneity.

Spontaneity is about trusting yourself and your intuition, your experience, and your capabilities… and leaning into the day with only a whiff of a direction or a gist of a goal.

And today, not only was I able to flex that spontaneity muscle, but I was able to do it with someone who was equally trusting.

He had complete faith in the process, carried zero worries with him throughout the day, and simply focused on contributing fully to the moments we found ourselves in.

Whether you’re being the spontaneous one or find yourself in the accompanying role… learning to trust yourself and how to contribute more fully to the overall process can lead to significantly more enjoyable days.

“Students, This Is How You Bow”

Published on September 28, 2025

I love the story of how Vince Lombardi—one of the best football coaches of all-time—would, on the first day of practice, hold up a football and say, “Gentlemen, this is a football.” And would continue by coaching topics and ideas from the ground up… assuming nothing and ensuring players were fundamentally rock solid.

Today, I began the first black belt training practice for a group of students eligible this December of 2025, teaching them how to bow properly. This is something they obviously knew—much like how the above professional football athletes very much knew what a football was. But, it wasn’t about what they knew… it was about what they thought they knew that they had actually forgotten or built bad habits around.

It’s an excellent reminder that what’s on top always balances on what’s below. And if you want to have top level performances, it always starts with elite level fundamentals. Revisit your foundation often. Take it for granted long enough, and you might one day look closer and realize it’s precisely what’s preventing you from building any higher up in your life.

Meditating On Death

Published on September 25, 2025

Sometimes, I’ll do a death meditation where I’ll find a comfortable seated position, close my eyes, calm my breath and body… and imagine different scenarios that lead to my death.

I know it sounds crazy, but stay with me here for a minute.

A family member told me today that he got diagnosed with diabetes. And rather than default to meds, he decided he was going to revolutionize his lifestyle and use exercise and a proper diet to fight back. And he’s been fighting back successfully, indeed.

See… it was the IRL diagnosis that lead to the seriousness that lead to the change.

When I open my eyes from those sometimes very serious death meditations—it’s like I’ve taken on a new lease on life—without needing the IRL near death experience.

…And if you can find a way to take very real situations that people face in their very real lives as seriously as they have to—without needing to actually confront the very real situation yourself—you just might prevent that very real situation from making a very real impact on your life altogether.

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