Skip to content

Matt Hogan's Blog Posts

E(motional)-Mail

Published on December 22, 2022

Emotional turbulence doesn’t usually come about all at once. It’s usually the result of an ongoing accumulation of emotional messages that get overlooked and ignored until they pile into an overwhelming mountain of unread messages—which, then, triggers inner turbulence.

…It happens when we say we don’t have time, we’re too busy, or when we keep ourselves blindly distracted. Yet, we have time to incessantly check email and swipe every notification that pops up on our phone?

Maybe, if we took some of that incessant energy that’s pointed towards “productivity” and “networking” and used it to read even just a small portion of the emotional messaging our body sends us… we’d be a helluva lot less turbulent and anxious.

And, heck, we’d probably be a helluva lot more productive and present for proper networking, too.

Matching Words To Actions (and Actions To Words)

Published on December 21, 2022

What letter grade would you give yourself for actually doing the things you say you’re going to do? A-? B? …F?

If you are failing in follow through—in matching your actions to your words—everything in your life will be affected.

Fix this by making smaller promises/ announcements/ goals and remembering not to agree to things you don’t seriously think you’ll be able to do.

Refocus your efforts from trying to capture HUGE word-to-action matchings and start accumulating mountains of small matchings instead. For example, instead of telling yourself that you’re going to lose 30 pounds in 30 days!—tell yourself that you’re going to show up to the gym for 15 of the next 30 days.

The house of trust is built one brick at a time.

The wrecking ball of mistrust slams against those bricks every time you don’t follow through on your word.

Build patiently. Commit consciously. Do everything you can to NOT slam that wrecking ball into your walls. It’s much harder to build than it is to destroy. And until we build a house of trust with ourselves, we won’t have a roof we can house our best lives in.

Life Changing Results

Published on December 20, 2022

Exercising regularly is one of the hardest things in the world for some people.

Which is why it’s SO important to not make it any harder than it needs to be.

I will be the first to admit that I take an easy route that ends with me under the bar each day:

  • I have an at-home gym
  • I have my clothes ready the night before
  • I take a long, hot shower
  • I drink a big glass of water with creatine
  • I foam roll for 15 minutes
  • I write my workout down for 5 minutes
  • I do workout specific stretches for 5 minutes
  • I play loud, vibed up music

…And THEN I’ll get my workout started.

Even after 20 years of working out religiously, the workouts themselves haven’t gotten any easier—I’ve just gotten better at showing up and tricking myself into doing the work.

I learned long ago that wake-up -> bar isn’t the path that works for me. The resistance (misery) eventually becomes too much and leads me to stray from the path. I’m the type that needs to ease myself in. This is what keeps me on the path.

Hard, misery-inducing workouts coupled with misery-inducing steps leading up to the workouts are glorified in today’s world and it’s no wonder regular exercise is so damn hard for so many.

Don’t feel pressured to go this route.

While it’s undoubtedly true that massive action will lead to massive results… it’s the consistent action that’ll lead to the life-changing results.

Dream People

Published on December 19, 2022

Do our dream people find us… or do we find them?

…Both.

I think the point is to be open to the infinite possibilities of the world and to constantly expose ourselves to others while simultaneously engaging with those who curiously cross our paths—both directly and subtly.

Waiting to be found isn’t a good strategy.

And neither is desperately searching.

Somewhere in the middle though? …I think is where the real magic of connection happens.

Grades Are Not Forever

Published on December 18, 2022

“Sleep is temporary. Grades are forever.”

Was said to me in a joking way the other day. Jokes aside, this is a truth that far too many people believe to their core. And let me be the first to say that this couldn’t be more backwards.

It’s the sleep that leads to a better forever and this twisted emphasis on grades that couldn’t be more temporary.

P.s. In case you missed it, you can read the best of what I posted to MoveMe Quotes last week, here.

The Actual Goal

Published on December 17, 2022

What I’m ACTUALLY trying to get people to realize when I teach/ train/ coach:

The reward of doing 1 hour of hard work >>>>> 1000 moments of media-based dopamine hits.

2023 Will Rhyme

Published on December 16, 2022

Before you start mega-phoning your New Year’s resolutions and lining up at your January 1st start line to sprint towards a new reality… it’s imperative you take a look back.

How did things play out for you from 2022? 2021? 2020? Etc. Can you dig up a record (or three) of what your goals and action strategies were from then? How they played out? What you were experiencing as you went?

This exploration will give you trends and insight that could be essential to playing out 2023 differently… more strategically… better.

Side note: if you don’t have a record like this, and you think having a record like this now would be valuable, maybe it’s something you could start this year?

Main train: One of the first quotes that I remember feeling deeply impacted by, as cliché as it sounds to me now, was: “If you keep on doing what you’ve been doing, you’ll keep on getting what you’ve been getting.”

History may not repeat itself exactly—but, have no doubt: history rhymes.

And 2023 will rhyme with all of your other years and resolution attempts.

So, don’t forget to look back before you floor it forward. You might learn something about yourself that’ll impact your pace, direction, ambition, accountability, strategy, etc. that you hadn’t quite internalized before.

And maybe it’s that one realization that’ll actually make 2023 your best year ever.