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Category: Thinking Clearly

Day 1,500

Published on February 9, 2024

Today marks day 1,500 of daily writing…!

And in honor of this huge milestone, here are some pivotal moments that shaped this journey:

January 1, 2020: Day 1. The day I overcame imposter syndrome. The day I took a quote, wrote a few paragraphs, numbered the bottom: (1/365), and posted it to FB. The post that eventually became this article.

January 3, 2020: Knowing I didn’t want these posts to be owned by FB, I created “Beyond the Quote” where they could be housed for peace of mind. Here’s Day 3’s post. This carried on through Day 414.

December 10, 2020: Throughout year 1, I felt like I had something to prove… and the length of my posts showed it. Here’s an example of the length I was trying to crank out each day… it was mentally exhausting.

December 24, 2020: I took a road trip that completely changed my perspective. It helped me realize I had nothing to prove and marks the day I started writing drastically shorter posts.

January 1, 2021: Day 365/365…! Mission complete! …And my thoughts.

February 3, 2021: Created a FB group so that readers could get notifications. Posted there from Day 400 – Day 1,092.

February 18, 2021: (Day 414) Created https://matthogan.blog. Felt like the words I was sharing deserved their own house and audience outside of MoveMe Quotes.

November 2021-ish: Gave myself a formal constraint: No more than 280 words allowed.

January 1, 2022: 2 Year mark… and my biggest takeaway.

October 30, 2022: Day 1,000… and the 25 biggest lessons I learned up until that point.

February 9, 2024: Day 1,500… systems in place… pace established… and no signs of fatigue in sight.

“What’s Wrong With Me?!”

Published on February 8, 2024

…A student of mine exclaimed frustratingly while trying to coordinate her body to do some martial arts moves that she kept confusing.

To which I replied with something along the lines of: “Nothing is wrong with you. You’re learning. Slow down and stop thinking that anything is wrong with you. You’re on precisely the right path. It’s the rushing—your desire to get it correct now—that’s causing the confusion. Calm your mind and take it slow; patience is required for growth.”

So many times in life, what’s wrong with us is the fact that we think something is wrong with us.

And it’s precisely those beliefs that become the self-fulfilling prophecies that (continue to) make things go wrong.

What if—now stay with me here on this—nothing was wrong with you?

What if you were precisely where you were meant to be, as you are?

What if all of the people and things that were telling you that something was wrong with you were in fact… the ones and things that were wrong?

…What if you lived your life thinking you were… just right?

P.s. 48 Brianna Wiest Quotes from The Mountain Is You on Self-Sabotage and Healing

Mechanic #1 vs Mechanic #2

Published on February 7, 2024

I asked two mechanics the same question today: “My check engine light came on for no apparent reason… everything seems to be working fine… could you do a diagnostic check to see what’s causing it?”

Mechanic #1 quickly said, “For $135 an hour I can. And it’s not as simple as just plugging in a diagnostic device—it could take one to four hours.”

Mechanic #2 said, “Sure. Can you bring it in Friday? It should only take us a few minutes to figure out what’s causing the light to turn on and we can decide how to proceed from there.”

…Guess which mechanic I’m choosing?

Not just for this time around… but for all my future time arounds?

And I bet if I wiped all of Mechanic #1’s car knowledge and he was in the same boat I was in… he’d choose Mechanic #2, too.

When you’re in business… you’re there to do business—I get it.

But, when you treat customers like numbers and not people who would like to be treated just like you would if you were in the same situation… I suspect it won’t be long until there won’t be too many “numbers” left for you to do business with.

What You See Is What You Look For

Published on February 4, 2024

Walking into Target today, I had a thought that I’d try to commit as many random acts of kindness as I could.

…Boy did that change the shopping experience from what it could’ve been/usually is.

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

Binge Reel Watching

Published on February 3, 2024

I kind of beat myself up today after spending an hour and a half watching reels after a long work week.

Then I remembered how I’ve essentially eliminated binge-reel-watching altogether for every other day of my week—for over a month now.

And I reminded myself that, like with food, it’s okay to have a cheat day. The goal isn’t perfection… it’s healthy.

And one cheat day doesn’t offset six healthy days. In fact, it helps keep the mind balanced… sane… satiated.

And so, like with cheat days, maybe you can try aiming for a six-to-one ratio with mindless media.

…It’s the daily cheats that turn into habits that turn into huge time sucks and mind melting that really cause the big problems.

But, one cheat per week keeps time in your pocket, discipline built, and mental resources available for higher level priorities.

…Without sucking the joy and pleasure that comes from the occasional binge.

Making vs Copy-Pasting

Published on February 2, 2024

Being the manager of a business, a big part of what I do is sales.

Fortunately for me, I’m wholeheartedly in love with what I sell.

Also fortunately for me, I’ve been able to learn from great salesmen who are also wholeheartedly in love with what they sell.

Many years ago, however, when I was first moving into sales from a teaching role, I made the mistake of thinking salesmen had to look a certain way, talk a certain way, and had to have a certain personality flair about them that was… in my mind… largely innate.

And in my mind, if my identity didn’t match that identity type… I couldn’t do it. After all, they were great, they looked the part, they were able to walk that innate walk… Who was I in comparison? …And it was that self-limiting belief that made me lack major confidence.

But, after enough training, trial-and-error, and growth… I slowly started to settle into my own style. I took what I liked from the greats, discarded what I didn’t, added my own unique takes, mixed in thoughts from other greats, and eventually landed on a style that I’m super comfortable and confident with.

This is the learning curve when it comes to developing any new skill.

As I reflect on this, the big takeaway for me is to avoid at all costs trying to copy and paste exactly what you see in another. This will only drain precious life energy that you could otherwise be using to invest in the real game-changing task: making the thing your own.

Lighten Your Load

Published on January 31, 2024

We spend so much of our time collecting, gathering, purchasing… hoarding.

It’s no wonder life feels heavy at times.

…What might life look like if we spent more of our time donating, gifting, selling… detaching?

Lighter is a highly underrated, not talked about enough strategy for living.

What most of us are doing is rucking through life, exhausting ourselves, and rather than looking for ways to lighten our loads—we counterproductively and somewhat obsessively look for ways we can add more weight to what we’re already carrying.

…Often disguised as luxury goods, status upgrades, hyper convenience, even more comfortable, and retail therapy.

I’m convinced there’s a direct connection between the amount of stuff we have / are responsible for and the weight we feel on our shoulders.

Maybe if we shifted our focus from what we can add that’ll make our load feel lighter… to what we might remove from what we’re already carrying… we might actually get to ruck… lighter.

P.s. 12 Minimalist Quotes from Everything That Remains by The Minimalists