Category: Thinking Clearly

Learning To Un-Hide Your True Self

Published on April 3, 2025

What’s a moment from your childhood that taught you to hide your true self?

…For me?

I think back to times when I got my feelings hurt and started crying and was made fun of… which taught me to hide moments of embarrassment and pain…

Or times when I would eagerly answer a question in school or get a higher grade on a test or assignment than my friends and get made fun of for being a goodie goodie… which taught me to answer less questions and be less of that.

Or times when I was made fun of for being chubby… which taught me to hide behind certain kinds of clothes and styles and avoid certain situations—like going to the pool or beach—where my “true” self would be on full display.

Part of growing up and maturing is recognizing these learned behaviors for what they are… innocent behaviors adopted to please others… to fit in better… to avoid being made fun of and improve social status…

…And taking actions that’ll help us realign with our true self once again.

To unlearn the behavior of suppressing emotion and learning how to feel all of it once again.

To unlearn the behavior of holding ourselves back or watering ourselves down and learning how to push ourselves to unleash our full potential once again.

To unlearn the behavior of hiding behind clothes and feeling shame about our bodies and learning how to live with less self-consciousness and more joy once again.

…What are moments from your childhood and what behaviors is it time for you to unlearn?

Making Sense… Easier.

Published on March 31, 2025

I made a very deliberate choice to publish these daily writings with no images.

It streamlines the process and challenges me to make my words the art.

But sometimes, you come across an image that’s so good, you start to question whether there is any possible way to explain the idea better with only words…

And the below image (link here if it’s not showing) felt like one of those ideas:

The power of writing things down. By Janis Ozolins / ozo.art

…This is what this daily writing practice is about.

…This is what having some kind of reflective / therapeutic practice is all about.

…This is what inner work is about.

It’s about taking everything that’s floating around nonsensically and non-linearly in our head—out of our head—and laying it all flat on paper, canvas, or screen… and making sense of it all and giving it some kind of linear understanding.

The people who don’t make time for reflective type inner work… experience a harder type of existence. Not because their existence is inherently harder… but because they haven’t done the smart work required to make it easier.

…Yet.

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

What Is Your Biggest Accomplishment?

Published on March 24, 2025

One of my associates asked me over dinner the other night, “What is your biggest accomplishment?”

To which I replied, “…In my whole life?!”

To which he said, “Yes” and a long, carefully reflective pause… I answered, “Two things…”

Number one, I answered, was getting to run the martial arts school I got my white belt in. It has been the privilege and pleasure of my life so far to do something I love doing so much day in and day out and I can’t imagine my life or doing work without it. My life has been so deeply enriched by the community, challenge, and creative outlet provided by that school and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Number two was the two websites I’ve created and built: MoveMe Quotes and this blog. MoveMe Quotes has reached millions of people online—and I’ve uploaded upwards of 13,300+ quotes and resources, by hand, that people can access for free. And this blog you’re reading now has a few hundred daily readers who are impacted by the words I take careful time to arrange and email each day.

My greatest accomplishment(s) in life weren’t the college degree, or the six foot martial arts trophies, or long distance runs that I completed…

My greatest accomplishment(s) in life were the things I helped build that helped build myself and others. For if it wasn’t for the school I run… or the websites that completely reshaped my mental landscape… none of those other things would’ve happened. And if my top accomplishment(s) only served me… they’d be pretty shallow accomplishments, indeed.

Inner Work Prompt: How about you? What is your life’s biggest accomplishment?

3 Ways To Help You Get More Creative / Inner Work Done

Published on March 21, 2025

1. A little bit daily. I don’t think many of us have a lot of time daily to do creative/inner work. And that’s okay. Deliberately carving out a little bit of time every day can have an “a lot of time” effect. Plus, the consistency and ritual of doing the same thing every day can make it easier and easier to actually do the thing the longer you do it—and your mind will start to anticipate your sessions and get into productive work states quicker and quicker. Aligning this with your morning or evening ritual can be an excellent place to start.

2. A respectable chunk weekly. If your daily grind is too crazy, (a) try to change that, but (b) until you can… reserving an hour or two within a week can be an excellent alternative. For example, maybe on Sunday you have a slow morning followed by a deliberate weekly reflection. The distinct benefit with this medium-length time is that you don’t have to spend extra time getting focused—whereas within the “little bit daily” sessions, some time will undoubtedly be spent getting into the right headspace.

3. A whole itinerary monthly or quarterly. This could be good for the person who rarely can find time for themself. Look at the month or quarter ahead and find the one or two days when you have the least going on. Block that whole time and create a creative/inner-work/self-care itinerary. Take this seriously and don’t waste it on social media timelines. Do not disturb mode; blank canvas; boredom; deep thinking; careful creation.

You’re not too busy to get creative/inner work done. You’re just not taking it seriously enough.

If This Isn’t Magic… I Don’t Know What Is.

Published on March 18, 2025

A few months ago, I had the privilege of seeing David Blaine live.

To my surprise, about 90% of what he did during his magic show, I had seen him do online.

To his credit, I’m a bit of fanboy and have done deep dives into his content so it wasn’t like he was being lazy with his show or promotion. He’s a hulluva performer and will blow your mind any and every time you see him perform—regardless of whether it’s live or online.

What I found this to be a good reminder of, though, is the power of the internet.

The answer(s) you’re looking for in your life… are out there. Readily available. Just waiting to be uncovered with the right search, frame of mind, and dose of action. All free.

Some people neatly collect the answers and package them behind a price tag. But generally speaking, the majority of people who produce content are extremely generous and share what they learn and know for free.

What’s stopping most of us isn’t access to the answers…

What’s stopping most of us is distraction—we set out to follow one curiosity and get sucked down a rabbit hole digression. Or, said differently, boredom aversion. It’s only after we’ve sat with the problem(s) long enough, without distraction, that we’re able to bring clarity to our path forward, to clearly illustrate our circumstances, and to formulate action plans.

But, because most of us are so bored averse… we allow ourselves to get sucked down rabbit holes instead. And the magic problem solving power of the internet gets lost just as fast as a card from David Blaine’s hands.

…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.

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.