Making difficult things easier. — I meet a lot of people who are what I’ve come to think of as “industrious sadomasochists”. They’re “mentally tough”, but they’re also kind of crazy. They’re kind of addicted to pain, and they wear this pain as a badge of honor. People all over do things in the sub-optimal…

Let’s make this simple. — I’ve read a disgusting amount of self-help books. I’ve spent money on self-help courses, read all the blogs, listened to all the podcasts, and I’ve written a lot of self-help-ish stuff myself to help organize my thinking. If anything, I need to relax with the improvement thing. I have a…

What got you here won’t get you there. For the last 12 months, I’ve gotten pretty much everything I’ve wanted. I had some great BJJ comp achievements, basically tripled my monthly income, and grew my writing views by about 10x. But eventually, I plateaued in everything. Recently, I’ve been trying to figure out why I’ve been plateauing, and…

“The Way is in training.” — Miyamoto Musashi — In 2021, I wrote an ebook on learning martial arts faster. The book was downloaded more than 1000 times, it was well received, and most importantly to me, it helped to understand how I learn martial arts best. Manualizing my training methods forced me to evaluate and refine the methodology…

I hate her, but I can’t leave her. — I wouldn’t say I’m “addicted” to Instagram, but I definitely don’t have a healthy relationship with it. We definitely don’t get along. It’s definitely not good for my mental health. I know I need a break. I know this is bad. There’s just one problem: I can’t take a break. …

A short guide to overcoming boredom. — The year was 2017. I was 20, unemployed and uneducated, living with my parents, and my friends at the time thought I was insane. The closest thing I had to a job at the time was doing DoorDash one night a week, and the closest thing I had to an…

Lesson 1: Write everything down. — My love for fitness didn’t start as a love. It started as an obligation. When I was 10, my school had a fitness test, and despite my best efforts, I couldn’t do any pull-ups on the pull-up test. My thinner and fitter friends could do 10 or more, but I…

Channel your inner 10-year-old. — For the last 20 months, I’ve been a kid's martial arts teacher. I designed lesson plans, herded children like cattle, and worked hard to figure out the best ways to help tiny people learn Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. One of the biggest problems that my kid students have (and adults have this…

If you’re not stronger than your dad, that’s a problem. — I’ve been fat, strong, skinny, and weak, and I’ll tell you this: Being strong is best, every single time. The problem is, there’s a lot of crap out there when it comes to learning what you have to do to become strong. People say you have to do weird things…