Category: Thinking Clearly

Who I Would Take Martial Arts Classes From… And Who I Wouldn’t

Published on October 6, 2025

After spending a weekend with martial arts school owners from all across the United States… so that we could talk about how we might improve our schools as a collective… without actually training martial arts with the vast majority of them… I can tell you whose school I would attend and whose school I wouldn’t.

…Just from brief and basic interactions I had with them.

Because when it comes to investing in my educational future, I’m investing in the teacher as much—if not more—than the actual content of the classes. In fact, throughout my entire educational carrer, my favorite subjects weren’t always the same… they tended to be the ones that had my favorite teachers teaching them.

It’s a powerful reminder that my school’s success is directly tied to my personal success. The more I invest in myself, the more I invest in my school. Many people think working in the business is how you improve the business… and that might be true… but only ever to a certain extent. Working on yourself and improving the overall quality of what you can bring to the table… will always extend that “extent” out further and further.

Take The When Comparisons Out Of The Picture

Published on October 3, 2025

What’s the difference between a workout done at 6am and the same workout done at 10pm?

…Besides the time? …Nothing.

Don’t let the 6am club-ers, early-bird-gets-the-worm-ers, finish-before-the-sun-comes-up-ers make you think otherwise.

What matters isn’t what time… what matters is that (you get it in).

And if 10pm aligns better with your lifestyle, then get it in at 10pm without even an ounce of hesitation or shame.

But on the same note, what’s the difference between a workout done at 6am and a workout skipped at 10pm?

…Everything.

The point is to do things at the time that’s most aligned for you… so that you get the most (important) things done.

Take the when comparisons out of the picture.

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.

You Should Thank Your Perfectionism

Published on September 20, 2025

A martial arts student of mine tested for her new belt the other night.

She made some mistakes and blamed her perfectionism for it. She said she was “too much in her head” and the obsessing over the details messed up her flow and ability to perform.

What I told her is that perfectionism is as much a strength as it is a weakness—like most things in life. And it isn’t something that should be blamed, but something she should seek to better understand.

See perfectionism is really just a close attention to detail and a desire to get things right. This is an excellent virtue to have. Heck, without details, martial arts would stop being an art and would become arbitrary movement. And without a desire to get things right, what the heck are we even doing?

Where perfectionism goes wrong is when we expect ourselves to be perfect… and react to mistakes in destructive, unhealthy, or unproductive ways. What we have to understand is that to be human is to be imperfect—it is wired into our very nature.

And rather than blaming perfectionism for our mistakes… we should thank our perfectionism for making us care about the details… and use it as fuel to get back to our training in an even more deliberate, healthy, and productive way.

This is what she was missing.

See it wasn’t the perfectionism… it was the expectations and lack of practice. Get those two things right and suddenly perfectionism becomes the best thing to ever happened to you.

…I know it feels that way to me.

On Solving Problems You’re Used To Other People Solving For You

Published on September 16, 2025

The very first time my Burning Man RV-mate went to ride his bike, after just having purchased it the day before, the tire went flat.

He didn’t even get one pedal in when he sat on the bike and watched the rim sink into the ground.

Seeing this, my first reaction was to recommend he take it to one of the bike camps and have them fix it—stemming from the same learned helplessness I mentioned yesterday.

But, he had a much different, “This is no big deal” and “It’ll only take five minutes” type of attitude that had him already gathering supplies before I could even finish my thought about which camp to take it to.

…And it was maybe a total of fifteen minutes later when he was riding off on his completely repaired bike, well before any of the bike camps would’ve been able to do anything about it.

Watching him do this and working with my other campmate on fixing her bike gave me a confidence in not only working with bikes, but as I mentioned yesterday, in trusting myself and my own problem-solving skills.

…Skills I realized grow not only with formal teaching, but with experimentation and time invested—something I knew cranially but knew better viscerally after getting down and dirty and actually having done it myself.

Because at the end of the week, on the biggest night of Burning Man—the night of the man burn—as I hopped on my bike to join the camp squad going, guess who got a flat tire?

That’s right.

…And guess who fixed it in about 20 minutes and still made it in time?

That’s right.

Fighting Back Against Learned Helplessness

Published on September 14, 2025

Walking towards the camp’s lounge one morning at Burning Man, I found one of my campmates curiously squatted close to her upside down bike.

Asking her if everything was alright, she distractedly replied that her outfit got stuck in the chain, was entangled into the derailleur, and bent some of the wheel spokes into the bike mechanics the previous night.

My immediate impression was that it was a complete mess and that it should be taken to a person who knew what they were doing and have them fix it.

…But that wasn’t even a thought in this campmate’s mind.

She had the derailleur completely taken apart, was balancing about ten pieces, three tools, and an entire bicycle in two hopeful hands… and was… remarkably focused… patient… and determined.

After a minute or two of watching the scene… my hands turned hopeful too and I squatted next to her.

We put it back together… wrong… and took it back apart.

Put it back together again… wrong… and took it all apart again.

Tried it a few more times… wrong… and repeated a few more times after that.

Until finally, after about an hour of trial, error, and head scratching: We finally got it.

And let me tell you… it was an incredibly rewarding victory. Not just because we fixed the damn bike… but, because we fought back against a learned helplessness that runs rampant in modern society. A feeling I was guilty of at the outset of this process.

And what this campmate reminded me is that we’re far more clever and resourceful than we think—we just have to give ourselves more credit… more time… and particularly: more trust.

Keep Your Eye On The Ball(s)

Published on September 9, 2025

A lot happens throughout the day.

And a lot of what happens isn’t given enough time to be fully processed, addressed, or resolved.

Taking 5-15 minutes at the end of your day to just sit and actively replay all of the happenings that unfolded can be an excellent strategy.

Maybe not to fully process, address, or resolve every single thing that comes / came up…

…But to at least plan it into your schedule or calendar to be addressed at the appropriate later time.

Because when tomorrow comes and a lot more happens throughout the day… guess what’s going to get pushed further into the background of your mind?

…You guessed it: everything you haven’t given enough time to either process, address, resolve—or schedule and later prioritize.

If you want to prevent that feeling of having “dropped the ball”—this active replaying is an excellent way to keep your eye on all of the balls that came your way throughout your day.