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Category: Thinking Clearly

Stop Making Little Things Big

Published on August 22, 2025

Know what’s a little thing?

…That argument you’re having with your family member.

Know what’s a big thing?

…That both you and your family member are alive and healthy enough to argue.

Know what’s a little thing?

…The “L” you took at work, in sport, or anywhere otherwise.

Know what’s a big thing?

…That you’re conscious, coherent, and have the ability to improve.

Know what’s a small thing?

…Haters saying hateful things online or in person.

Know what’s a big thing?

…Gratitude expressed, grace given, and love felt.

It’s easy to let the small things take over your perspective. Which is, in fact, what makes them feel so big. But we have to remember what’s REALLY the big thing(s) and worth taking over our perspective.

Otherwise, small things will consume our lives until it’s too late to do anything about the big things…

I Lost My Voice

Published on August 11, 2025

I went to a music festival this past weekend and lost my voice yelling and screaming.

…Makes things kind of tough when you come back to work as a teacher.

But, what was interesting is that it made me perceive all of my daily communication challenges differently—a forced perspective change if you will.

And so rather than greet everybody with an over the top volume… today, I greeted everybody with claps and a whisper.

Rather than communicate with my instructors and staff in one broad stroke of my voice… I met each of them where they were and communicated individually.

…Which, interestingly enough, made me do the same with the students. Rather than ask the class questions, I asked each student individually. Rather than delegate after class helping, I spent a little extra time whispering answers to the ones who asked. And rather than control the whole dialogue of the class, I delegated and had students and other staff members get involved.

Having no voice as a teacher can undoubtedly be a challenge… but it doesn’t have to be a problem.

Inner Work Prompt: What are you looking at as a problem that might be better percieved as a challenge?

Mudded By Default

Published on August 6, 2025

Time spent thinking… about what to write… about how to say something… about how you feel… about what’s right and what’s wrong… about what’s even just going on in your mind…

…Even if it amounts to nothing tangible or ends with no evidential outcomes or progress—

—Is never time wasted.

The mind is unavoidably mudded by default in our modern world.

…And each stone not thrown into the pond—for whatever duration of time it can be sustained—is an inaction that leads precisely to what a mudded-by-default kind of world needs more than anything else:

…Clarity.

Never underestimate the power (or benefit) of sitting and doing boring thinking.

On Being Spontaneous

Published on August 4, 2025

Not being able to be spontaneous isn’t about your need for a plan or your desire for control… it’s about not being able to trust yourself.

Because it’s not about what happens in each moment… it’s about what you bring to each moment…

And if you don’t think you can let go of the future (plans) and bring great energy and perspective to the present (one moment at a time)… then maybe it isn’t the plans you need to work on…

Too Busy To Exercise…?? (Part 2)

Published on July 24, 2025

My frustration from yesterday’s post wasn’t with the college student who quit.

What was disheartening was the fact that she felt she couldn’t devote 1.7% of her waking hours to something as life-changing, useful, and important as exercise.

…My frustration was with Med School.

My frustration was/is that there isn’t more of an emphasis on mental health and exercise from the department heads/teachers/colleges themselves.

…How can they train people to be doctors when they’re literally training people to build such unhealthy and debilitating habits? …I can only imagine how much caffeine, crappy food, and unmentionable things med students feel like they need to consume just to keep up with the workload.

And then after 4-8 years of consuming ungodly amounts of said items, not exercising, disregarding their mental health… they’re supposed to what? …All of a sudden start exercising, eating healthy, and prioritizing their inner world?

…Because being busy is going to all of a sudden stop?

…Yeah, right.

There should never be a time when you’re too busy to eat right, exercise, and prioritize your mental health. Except maybe for extenuating circumstances when you have to care for / prioritize dependents.

But, even so… we can only give to others what we have. We can only build in those around us what we’ve built in ourselves. And if what we’re building in our doctors—the people who are literally supposed to be the epitome of health and wellness—is a disregard for healthy eating and exercise when busy and dependency on caffeine and other drugs to get by…

…What are they going to (continue to) build into us?

…Too Busy To Exercise??

Published on July 23, 2025

I had a disheartening conversation with a martial arts student yesterday.

She asked if we could cancel her membership because Med School was becoming too much for her to handle.

The classwork and labs and studying had become so much that she couldn’t devote the two hours per week required for training.

I spoke to her about the benefits formal exercise can have in the studying/learning process—of which there are numerous!

I spoke to her about time management and we talked about how two hours per week is only 1-2% of her available weekly waking hours (24 hours per day – 8 hours for sleep = 16 waking hours per day; 16 waking hours x 7 days per week = 112 hours; 2 hours of exercise / 112 hours = .017 or 1.7%)

I even spoke to her about the importance of leading by example and keeping exercise as a priority even when she was busy so that when she was a medical professional telling busy people to prioritize exercise—she had a foundation of experience she could reference.

And she politely smiled and nodded throughout, listening carefully to each of my points.

And then said she agreed and thanked me for what I said, but that she still needed to cancel because it just wasn’t possible with Med School.

And that was that.

Current State vs Future State Thinking

Published on July 22, 2025

I remember one of my ex-staff members reaching out to me saying they might be interested in coming back to take on a full-time role after college at the martial arts school I ran.

And I remember thinking to myself how tough it would be to hire another full-time employee with the current state of the school at that time.

When speaking to my associate and boss about it, they answered completely differently and with an unhesitating, “Yes.”

…Because they weren’t thinking about how they would make it work with the current state of the school—they were thinking about the future state of the school once this person added that much value to the business—if not more.

And this is a mindset I’ve tried to hold close ever since—especially when it comes to teaming up with people who can potentially add tons of value.

Don’t think in terms of current state… think in terms of future state.

…All I had to do was make sure the culture, training, and systems were in place so as to pave a clear way.

In what ways might you benefit from thinking future state vs current state?