Thinking Clearly Archives · Page 14 of 59

Using Your Steering Wheel

Published on January 6, 2024

Life only gets in the way if you’re unable to maneuver around the obstacle(s) it puts in your path.

Once you learn how to turn your life’s steering wheel, suddenly, life doesn’t get in the way so much as it gives you opportunities to build steering skills.

What might turning your life’s steering wheel look like?

Doing a light stretching session when getting sick stops you from doing your regular workout.
Playing an audiobook during your commute because you overslept and missed your morning reading.
Practicing intermittent fasting when traveling because you know the options on the road are going to suck.
Cancelling a weekend obligation to spend more time with family when work kept you late on a weekday.
Immediately starting a rainy day fund where you save 10ish% of each check to help cover big, unexpected expenses like a broken down car, vet bill, or hospital visit.

As wonderful as the straight, unhindered path might sound—it’s the curved, obstacle-filled path that builds skillful life drivers.

P.s. Today I crossed 12,000 insights uploaded to my quote library…!

Where’s Home?

Published on January 4, 2024

One thing that has been helping me with organization is, when I come across something that’s out of place, I ask myself: “Where’s this thing’s home?”

If it doesn’t have a home, then it’s no wonder that it keeps ending up all over the place.

Being organized isn’t just about making things aesthetically neat and pleasing.

It’s about giving things homes.

Places where they can continue to reside; not just temporarily get moved to.

And if you’re going to go through all of that work to clean things up anyway, you might as well do the little bit extra it takes to give them that residential spot.

And not just some arbitrary, hard to remember place—a place that makes sense, that’s close to where it usually ends up anyway, a place that feels right.

P.s. I sip on coffee while I write these. If you enjoy these posts, you can support my future work by supplying me with one of my next cups of joe here. ☕️

Picture Perfect

Published on January 3, 2024

Imagine reading a book titled, Picture Perfect.

And it was about a guy or gal who grew up in a picture perfect neighborhood with picture perfect parents who had a picture perfect education and got a picture perfect career who then married the picture perfect spouse and then settled into the picture perfect fairytale life with a big house, fast cars, luxury clothes, fancy parties, and lots of travel.

…No conflict, no challenges, no adversities, no resistance, no plot twists.

Just a straight line from birth to happily ever after.

This type of story would bore readers to tears.

It’s wildly un-relatable and in complete contradiction to the human condition.

…Which is to face a seemingly never-ending onslaught of conflict, challenge, adversity, resistance, and plot twists.

Why? …Because we’re imperfect creatures living with other imperfect creatures who are all trying to figure it out as we go in an imperfect world. Chaos is bound to ensue.

But, it also keeps things interesting.

The most captivating stories are the ones that follow humans who have overcome the most incredible odds. The ones who have faced the most adversity and yet found a way through. The ones who got punched over and over again with one challenge after the next… who still got back up to fight.

Remember this as you compare your daydreams to your reality.

You’re not unlucky; you’re not a failure; you’re not a lost cause—you’re thickening the plot.

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

The Almighty Checkmark

Published on January 3, 2024

Generally speaking, I know what I need to do.

And I like to think I have a pretty good memory.

But let me tell you, I forget a whole lot less when I have a checklist.

Plus… I really like to cross things off my checklist.

And if I’m being totally honest… I’m the type who will write things onto my checklist AFTER I’ve done them JUST so I can cross them out. Yeah, I said it. Fight me.

Because of this self-awareness, I created Kaizen sheets for myself.

They’re one page documents that list everything I need to do with space to add things as they come up. I have one for work, one for personal growth, and I make custom ones for my employees.

If it’s important enough to be remembered, it’s important enough to be written down.

Don’t rely on willpower and memory to bring your goals to life—rely on fool-proof paper and ink, clear-minded task priority, and the almighty checkmark.

7 Big Lessons From 2023

Published on December 30, 2023

Today, I published 50 of the Most Impactful Lessons I Learned From 2023. Below are seven of my favorites—my 1-minute version if you will. Enjoy :)

1. Making your future goals actionable today is how you prove to yourself that you’re serious about them. Not doing anything about them in the present means they’re still fantasies.

2. There is no easy-only option… only hard now and compounded hard later. Remember this when you’re on the fence about exercising, meditating, writing, being honest, doing inner work, etc.

3. Thumb taps and mouse clicks drastically change lives. Be ruthless in how you curate the media that you allow to reach your eyes and ears. Do NOT underestimate your role in this.

4. Pay yourself in time/energy/attention FIRST. Then, when full, give extra or what you have left over to others. You will never be able to give others enough of your time/energy/attention — they’ll always gladly demand and accept more.

5. What gets measured, gets managed. And what gets managed gets your time. And what gets your time… gets your life. Measure the moments that make you feel alive; time spent with loved ones; the depth of your self-understanding… Measure what really matters.

6. Solitude is a necessary ingredient for great work. And if you’re serious about wanting to produce great work, then get serious about prioritizing solitude into your days.

7. The inner work we choose to avoid becomes the outer suffering we can’t seem to escape. As hard as it might seem upfront, it’s the easiest it’ll ever be to confront right then and there. The things we carry with us only get heavier the longer we carry them.

…Read the rest here.

Coming In 2024…

Published on December 26, 2023

There are five things that I’m seriously considering pursuing in 2024.

A Poster Store. I have the words. I’ve been having a great time generating AI Art. I want to combine and share them in inspiring ways.
A Podcast. I’ve been toying with the idea for years. I have my questions and I know who I’d ask… it’s only a matter of doing it.
Video Courses. My digital guides are the syllabus’. Next I would turn them into self-paced courses that would provide significantly more guidance than a simple .pdf file.
Live Workshops. My vision is to keep them small. Five to ten people max. Everybody participates and works together to answer challenging, hard-to-face alone, inner work related questions.
More Digital Products. I have shipped two. I have ten more outlined that I want to produce for The Art of Forward Series. And I have a slew of other digital products that I want to create outside of that series. Including Kaizen templates to help guide daily action, the Ultimate Kindness/ Pay-It-Forward Party, and Poetry books.

I’m sharing this because I’m sure you, too, have a bunch that you want to do in 2024. My recommendation is don’t make it your goal to do it all. Start by writing and feeling them all out—yes.

But then, pick one thing to focus 100% of your energy on. None of it ever works out to be as easy as it seems in your mind. Try to do too much and you’ll fail at it all. Get an A+ in one and you’ll be well on your way to properly conquering them all.

Don’t Forget To Bring… The Spirit

Published on December 24, 2023

Out doing some last minute shopping today for the holidays, I saw:

Cars fighting over parking spots.
Shopping carts left carelessly all around parking lots.
People evidently stressed out on the phone talking with people about gifts.

And towards the end of it all, I had a refreshing encounter with a woman who asked me for advice on a gift she was considering. She was calm, warm, and present. And after I gave her my advice, I asked her if she was ready for it all.

She said, “Honestly, yes. I’m not worried about it because even if I’m short a gift or missing something, I know that gifts aren’t what the holidays are about. So I’m going to celebrate the day as it should be celebrated and be present, helpful, and as joyous as I can be.”

And I think she nailed it.

Don’t miss the forest for the trees this holiday season.

It’s the spirit we bring with us to each of our encounters that counts—not the material gifts.