PinnedMy Most Viewed Articles On MediumUpdated 6/29/2022 — Writing1 min readPhoto via my InstagramMy Most Viewed Articles On MediumUpdated 6/29/2022----1
Published in Mind Cafe·20 hours agoThe 5 Decisions That Determine the Quality of Your 20sMost people don’t think about these things till it’s too late. — When I was 21, battling severe anxiety, and completely lost when it came to what I was going to do with my life, I used to spend a lot of time watching those Gary Vaynerchuk videos on Instagram and YouTube. They were motivational. They were inspiring. They were a relief…Life5 min read
2 days agoThoughts On Chicago, Freedom, and the 4th of JulyWhere are we going? — This 4th of July, there’s only one thing I’m certain of: I don’t know what freedom is anymore. What I do know is that it isn’t what I was taught in school. In America, we make a big fuss about having “freedom”, but we still use smartphones that basically listen…Society4 min read
Published in Writers’ Blokke·2 days ago5 Writing Lessons That Helped Me Get My First 8 Million Views OnlineI turned my hobby into a career — quickly. — Most writing advice on the internet is overly simplistic. This isn’t because writing is easy, it’s because writing is hard. Writing is hard to do, but even harder to teach. Writing is so hard to teach that for whatever reason, most people want to be paid to teach it. Most…Writing Tips5 min read
Published in ILLUMINATION·2 days agoI Studied How the Top Writers On the Internet Deal With Their HatersI’ve been doing this all wrong. — The other day, someone I’ve never met told me on Quora that I was “never going to be successful as a martial artist or a writer” (ouch). Earlier this year, someone called me a “whiny pussy” (double ouch). Last fall, someone called me “an anxiety-ridden man who can’t cope with…Mental Health5 min read
5 days agoHalfway Through 2022: Reflections and Goals For the Next 6 MonthsIf you had told me in January. — I don’t usually feel great about reminiscing over the past, but the past 6 months have been crazy. At the beginning of this year, I’d never competed against a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu. …5 min read
Published in Curious·Jun 30How to End Self-ImprovementA solution to the philosophical dilemma of improving yourself. — Self-improvement is a dirty word. Someone called me a “self-improvement writer” the other day, and honestly, it made me feel icky. Self-improvement is a community (although, that’s putting it loosely) of people who are investing time, money, and other resources in their lives in the name of becoming “better”. However…Self Improvement5 min read
Published in The Writing Cooperative·Jun 29Why You Should Approach Writing Like a Soviet WrestlerCreating the perfect writer from the perfect athlete. — Recently, I was listening to an old podcast with MIT scientist Lex Fridman and legendary wrestler Dan Gable. If you don’t know much about Gable, the first thing I’ll say is that he was my hero when I started wrestling in the 7th grade. Dan Gable was one of the…Creativity5 min read
Jun 2910 Habits That Will Help You Improve Ridiculously Fast In Everything You DoPeople kept asking: “Who the hell is this guy?” — In November of 2021, I competed in and lost in the second round of the ADCC Trials (a qualifier for the most important submission grappling tournament in the world) in a division that had more than 150 athletes. At the time, this was the largest submission grappling tournament I had…Self Improvement5 min read
Published in ILLUMINATION·Jun 27What I Learned and Earned From One Year Of Writing On SubstackAn email address is worth far more than a follower — Technically, I’m about 6 weeks late on this article. I started writing my newsletter on Substack on the last Friday in April of 2021. However, that little buffer has given me some time to reflect adequately on everything I have learned in my first year on Substack. Substack is a…Blogging5 min read
