I write 1-minute insights daily. Below are my latest. Like? Enter your email to get updates.
I help busy people do inner work.
I write 1-minute insights daily. Below are my latest. Like? Enter your email to get updates.
I can teach you martial arts… but I can’t teach you passion.
I can teach you how to teach… but I can’t teach you humor, warmth, and initiative.
I can teach you what to say when you make a call… but I can’t teach you to care about the person on the other line.
Sure, I might be able to say a few things about passion, humor, warmth, initiative, and care… but the thing about each of those is that they aren’t learned from the outside-in… they’re learned from the inside-out.
Meaning, you have to learn for yourself what ignites your passion, what tickles your humor, what warms your compassionate side, what makes you want to go above and beyond, and what makes you actually give a damn about the work you’re doing…
Because what it is for me isn’t the same as what it’ll be for you.
Martial arts? A block is a block and a strike is a strike—for both me and you.
Teaching? Pedagogy is pedagogy and subject matter is subject matter—for both me and you.
Following scripts? Reading from scripts is reading from scripts—for both me and you.
Learning hard skills is black-and-white. And the thing about black-and-white skills is that it’s black-and-white for everybody.
But soft skills? Soft skills are a giant gray spectrum. And what can really make you stand out in today’s overpopulated, hyper competitive, AI evolving world… is a higher landing on that giant gray spectrum.
…Invest more into building soft skills.
I uploaded a quote today to MoveMe Quotes that read, “Art is a safe place to explore and express all emotions. No feeling is taboo. It’s about being sensitive to what your body is telling you, then using your art to set the emotion free.”
Without some form of an outlet… our emotions continue to pour into a type of static, stale, toxicity-prone pond within.
Art is an incredibly powerful means of creating an outlet for that pond.
And slowly, slowly… as you explore and express your art… your emotions converge into more of a river and flow through your body and out into the medium of that chosen art.
Without this type of outlet, don’t you see how the emotions can swell within? Don’t you see how all of the grief, anger, frustration, loneliness, and sadness can intermix into a type of toxic stew… contaminating the whole vessel carrying it? Don’t you see how most passive entertainment and social media and news outlets only exacerbate that toxic stew…?
…Don’t you see how important it is to have an outlet?
…Don’t you see that’s what this daily blog is for me?
…Don’t you see that it’s about time you create an outlet for the inner pond within you?
Most people are so busy with their own lives that they have no time to imagine the immense potential in others.
And so they simply live their busy life and wait for others to realize their own potential before they notice, hire, invest in, honor, or reward.
And sure, nobody should be more concerned with realizing another’s potential than their own.
But…
And this is a big but…
If you can zoom out from the busy madness of your own life and… notice, hire, invest in, honor, and reward the untapped, unrealized, unharnessed potential in those around you…?
…Not only will you create a sunlight on the buried seed of a plant effect—
…But you’ll start to see the quality and strength of the plants—people—increase around you.
Why? …Because plants (and people) grow only with and towards the sunlight.
…Having a hard time seeing the seeds around you? Of course you are—they’re buried.
Do what the sun does and shine down indiscriminately.
Double down on the ones that respond and peak through.
…Soon you’ll be surrounded by great oaks instead of buried seeds.
What’s interesting about every new relationship is that with each one, you get to look closely again at who you want to be.
It’s as though you get to look into this person’s eyes as they look back at you and paint each stroke of your character and color in your personality as they fill the blank slate that is you…
It’s as though you get to decide if you want to start telling yourself a new story… about who you are and how things have come to be… whether or not you want to invest in new ideas… fresh thought processes… in shadow work that’ll allow you to more calmly be…
It’s as though you get to more prominently feature a more evolved version of you… a more brave version… a more loving version… the version that maybe wasn’t ready or far enough down the path to count as a whole number upgrade… because maybe you were closer to a 1.1 version than a 2.0.
…What’s interesting about every new relationship?
It’s that with each one you get to meet a new—hopefully upgraded and better—version of you.
I’m learning to be more fluid… more flexible in my approach… more comfortable in the present… even when it overlaps with something I was “supposed” to do.
Because what I’m learning is that what I’m “supposed” to do—at least from an evolved perspective—is be where I am… in whatever form and shape that takes… as fluidly and as comfortably as possible.
Which is why it’s so important to be intentional and deliberate with planning and premeditating. It’s the person who isn’t aligned… isn’t where they’re supposed to be or doing what they’re supposed to be doing… who tightens up… becomes rigid… and crashes, bangs, and ricochets from one task, off the next, and into the one after that.
They aren’t able to be present because they’re never allowing themselves to be where they are. And the way that happens is by not figuring out where that is ahead of time. Which is one fault.
But a second fault, that’s just as important to consider, and is maybe more to my point, is they haven’t done enough reflection or inner work to recognize when moments of serendipity should supersede “supposed to” moments.
…Because there are definitely some moments that are made easier when they’re planned, deliberate, and thought of ahead of time… but there are also unexpected, surprising, serendipitous moments that come up throughout our day that deserve our undivided attention and full presence.
…Today’s message is just that: don’t let your “supposed to” tasks rob you of serendipity—which should always be experienced undivided and in full.
This coffee shop I’m sitting in—
…the one with the crooked neon signs, big bold sharpie-drawn posters taped to the front windows, and thrifted furniture where no two pieces are the same
…the one with Santa on the cabinet in April, that displays Amy’s soup cans for sale right across from the Pope Francis action figures, and has the dying indoor plant next to the thriving bamboo growing out of an elephant’s back
…the one with the over-baked cookies, where the smell of crushed coffee beans lingers next to the hipster Spotify tunes, and instagram QR codes are posted throughout so even when we leave their art isn’t something we just forget
—the one that reeks of human touch…
Is something I’m not so sure us humans will ever be able to program into 1s and 0s and artificially recreate.
In a world that threatens to replace humans like cogs in a machine… be so much more than 1s and 0s.
…Probably not.
Good news doesn’t sell.
Good news isn’t algorithm friendly.
Good news doesn’t bleed so it doesn’t lead.
…But here’s something to consider:
You get to choose your news sources.
You get to train your algorithms.
You get to unfollow, block, mute, and click on and turn up what you want more of in your life.
…Today’s defaults won’t serve you.
…Going with the societal flow is mostly going backwards.
…Taking no responsibility for what comes in through your senses is senselessly ruining your perspective of life.
Have you heard the good news?
If you haven’t in a while… it might be time to take a closer look at what you’re letting in.
P.s. This post was inspired by this picture.