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Category: Defining Success

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?

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.

Learning To Unlearn

Published on March 2, 2025

They will try and plaster propaganda on the walls of your mind.

They will spray paint hate and lies and criticisms on any and all un-patrolled surfaces.

They will try and define beauty, happiness, and success in ways that always leave you coming up short… so you’ll keep spending more.

The process of unlearning is recognizing, accepting, and strategically acting in reverse of this.

It’s about taking an honest look at what’s plastered on the walls of your mind and tearing down what’s leading you astray.

It’s about turning spray paint into art and alchemizing hate, lies, and criticisms into love, truths, and clarity.

It’s about deleting all that you’ve been told is beauty, all that you’ve been brainwashed into believing will lead to happiness, and everything everyone else has told you about what will make you successful.

…And it’s about getting back to that place where your walls are blank canvas; where the art that’s being hung is uniquely your own; where beauty, happiness, and success are defined from within… from experiential learning… from inner work… from living confident and free.

P.s. Here’s the picture I took that inspired this post.

The “Two Minute Thirty Second” Experience

Published on February 23, 2025

When the martial arts association I’m a part of runs tournaments, we typically offer two or three divisions that students can choose to compete in: forms, sparring, and some type of specialty theme (i.e. board breaking, weapons, synchronized forms, etc).

Most students do the standard forms and sparring.

A form is a pattern of moves, traditionally taught as a means to practice self-defense without needing a partner, that typically takes around 30 seconds to complete.

Our style of sparring is point-based where students use martial arts techniques to strike target areas to accrue more points than their opponent… it’s single round elimination, bracket style, and one match lasts around two minutes.

When meeting with the judges today, one concept we—as an association—really wanted to communicate was let’s make sure none of our students have a “two minute and thirty second” experience.

In other words, let’s make sure nobody gets a bare minimum experience.

…Because it often happens where a student will arrive, do their form (30 seconds-ish), spar and lose their first match (2 minutes), and be… done.

Our goal was to be proactive in how we upped the students’ time and experience while at our event. This includes time spent with students warming up, checking forms, practicing sparring prior to their division start as well as giving them specific feedback, drilling certain concepts, and consoling those who needed it afterwards.

I felt like this was worth sharing today because it applies to so many aspects of life.

…In what domains are you only giving the bare minimum experience?

How can you be more proactive and up the time spent and value added in those domains?

The Ego Loves To Win

Published on February 21, 2025

Winning is great. The ego loves it.

But, imagine getting to a place where you no longer feel the need to win…

A place where you can still challenge yourself… still push the boundaries of your potential… still create art and express yourself fully… still succeed in building a life you’re proud of… still explore the depths of what it means to be human…

But, in a way where you don’t have to (or feel the need to) beat others in the process.

…Maybe winning is about more than getting first place.

If You’re Going To Rep… Rep Right.

Published on February 21, 2025

While helping my students get ready for a tournament this weekend, we spent some time talking about the difference between reps and visualization reps.

They are NOT the same thing.

A rep is mindless… it’s intention-less… it’s muscles being moved around by signals from a distracted brain.

A visualization rep is the opposite.

A visualization rep is mindful… it’s completely intentional… it’s your whole being moving through a sequence that you can see in your mind, feel in your body, and connect to with your soul.

The time it takes to actually do each of these reps is identical. But the ROI is exponentially in favor of the visualization rep.

The only difference… is the minor investment required up front to connect to the future moment… The moment when the rep will be used in its most desired way… to unlock a feeling that only that well performed rep can unlock… to realize an untapped side of your potential that only that well executed rep can realize.

And what does the minor investment upfront entail? Exactly what it sounds like… careful visualization.

Visualization of the environment… the people… the sounds… the smells… the textures… the feelings. And then the moment when the rep is about to be called upon… the moment when the heart beats fast, the palms get sweaty, and the thinking clouds up… And then the moment when the decision is made to take a deep breath… and do it.

A rep done from THIS headspace is NOT equal to a rep done while thinking about what’s for dinner.

The mindset is this: If you’re going to do it… do it right.

Genuinely Caring

Published on February 15, 2025

While eating out tonight, my waiter asked me towards the end of my meal if I had ever eaten at that restaurant before.

I told him I hadn’t.

He replied simply, “Well… you’re always welcome here.”

And what surprised me about this, I guess, is that not only did I feel like he really meant it… but he couldn’t have been any older than 17 years old.

…Obviously I’m welcome to come in and spend money at the for-profit business he works at.

But, you know… what most business owners don’t realize… is that us customers… we can sniff out whether you mean what you say or not pretty damn quickly.

And it’s the business “hack” that too many people ignore… genuinely caring.