Barton Quigley
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A Practice in Clarity
It’s one thing to read a quote and nod along.
It’s another thing entirely to live it.
When I write, I’m not trying to sound wise.
I’m trying to see clearly.
If an idea doesn’t hold up in my real life…
if it doesn’t align with who I actually am…
it won’t last.
So this space is where I slow down.
Where I question what I believe.
Where I explore what feels true — and what doesn’t.
Not to arrive at perfect answers.
But to spend my energy on what actually matters.
And trust myself when something needs to change.
Key to Life: Know Your Operating System
We experience everything in life through our minds, yet most of us don’t even know the basics of our operating system. However, when we do, we can train our minds to create new code and new storylines that serve the life we want to live, rather than keeping us stuck in the life we’ve known. The Basics The mind is primarily built for one thing – your survival. It cares about you first and foremost. It’s [...]
May 6: Reclaim You Spark Workshop
Feeling Heavy? If you're feeling heavy, even completely overwhelmed at times, you're not alone. The world is loud and chaotic right now. But you don't have to wait for things to get better before living a full, joyful life again. How would you like to empower yourself by learning practical, tangible tools that will help you stay centered through the noise? And lead your life from a place of enlivened intention rather than shrinking into [...]
Adaptive Meditation App: Balance
After I felt more comfortable meditating, I branched out to other apps. The one that suited me best next was Balance, which I still use often. What I like about this app is, as described on their site, it adapts to my preferences based on feedback I give after each session. Plus, I love the wide variety of techniques, especially breath work, for when my mind is super busy.
Great Beginner Meditation App: Headspace
I used this app when I started meditating. I found it to be very approachable. The founder, Andy Puddicombe, does a fantastic job of speaking plainly when conveying concepts that can seem woo-woo to novices. Plus, he's got a great voice that is easy on the ears. Headspace is loaded with a variety of topics and techniques that helped me make meditation a daily practice.
Favorite Journal: Moleskine
I’ve used a journal since I was in my late 20’s. The benefits of journaling have been well-documented by scientists, medical professionals, and experts in mental health. I’ve tried many different types, but my absolute favorite is the Moleskine 5×8.25″ hardcover (especially the Harry Potter limited edition series, because I'm such a massive Harry Potter nerd).
Where Am I Holding Back?
Living authentically is liberating but can be a challenge for most people. This exercise is intended to help you identify where you’re not living honestly with your heart and imagine your life if you did. You’ll explore best and worst-case scenarios, test the waters, and objectively observe the outcomes. Instructions: Grab paper and a pen, preferably a journal or a notepad. (When we physically write down our thoughts, we create distance, and it’s easier [...]
Vision Board: My Personal Take
Vision boards are powerful tools for training your mind to keep its attention and energy on goals you want to achieve. Repeated visualization has been proven to “enhance motivation, increase confidence and self-efficacy, improve motor performance, prime your brain for success, and increase states of flow” (A.J. Adams, Master’s in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania). To shift your state of mind towards something new, physically showing your mind a visual representation of this [...]
Stream of Consciousness Exercise
This is a powerful tool to help you dig deeper into questions and discover your truth by overriding the surface-level consciousness and tapping into your wiser subconscious, your intuition. I discovered the stream of consciousness exercise from a fantastic book I read many years ago called “How To Think Like Leonardo DaVinci.” And I have since used this tool many times to help me gain clarity on questions when there were no answers or when there [...]
My Learning Process: Audiobooks, Podcasts, Videos
When I find an audiobook, podcast, or video that resonates with me, I want to fully understand the concepts that the author or speaker presents. Years ago, I discovered that I do not retain information with just one pass. For instance, when I listened to Essentialism for the first time, I would excitedly try to relay Greg McKeown’s concepts to my wife, only to discover that I hadn’t quite grasped them. So I went through the [...]
Habit Building: Tracking List
Tracking is essential for building any habit, and I find physical tracking works much better than digital. And why not make it colorful? Color creates more significant psychological and physiological responses in our nervous system versus plain black and white. According to an article by Greg Moon in Scientific American, "Psychologists have found that colors enhance an individual's visual memory." Creating a new habit is, after all, training the brain to adopt a new memory, a new normal. [...]
How We Can Eat Our Landscapes: Pam Warhurst
We can make the most impactful changes right where we are, rather than hundreds of miles away. What we can literally do in our own backyard can have a reverberating effect on those around us. Humans are wired to watch each other, and if we see our neighbors making a positive impact in the community it can be quite infectious! Pam Warhurst along with her co-founder Mary Clear are two of my role models for many [...]
How To Fix A Broken School: Linda Cliatt-Wayman
This is one of the most powerful TED Talks I have ever watched. Linda Cliatt-Wayman, a principal at a very challenging underserved school in Philadelphia, faced incredible adversity and a severe lack of resources when she took over. However, she stepped firmly into a leadership role rather than join the chorus of staff who had resigned to hopelessness. She did so with compassion and by seeing the opportunity to make a real difference by betting on [...]
Hackschooling Makes Me Happy: Logan LaPlante
This 13-year-old speaker has a better grasp on what's essential than most adults. I am so impressed with this young man. His and his parents' take on what is wrong with our school system is spot on. We are not teaching children how to learn or to be happy; we are teaching them how to pass classes and graduate. Watch the entire TED Talk for full context, which can be found here. My 3 Favorite Quotes: [...]
A Guerrilla Gardener In South Central LA: Ron Finley
Ron Finley is a hero of mine. He is on a mission to improve his community’s mental and physical health through local gardening. Community gardening is a concept I have long believed would bring people together in unity by being a contribution to the greater good. Ron Finley is proving this idea to be true. His TED Talk is a source of inspiration I often return to when feeling down about humanity. Making an effort to [...]
Tony Robbins Podcast: A Historic Conversation for Healing and Unity
This is a critically important conversation that I believe every American, especially white Americans, should listen to. I found it profoundly moving, enlightening, heartbreaking, enraging, and yet inspirational in the end. Every minute of this three-hour podcast is worth the time, and I truly feel it can help lead to a more open, honest dialogue about our nation’s racist past and present, and move us toward a more inclusive, equal future. As a caucasian male, I [...]
The Tim Ferriss Show – #100 – Brené Brown on Vulnerability and Home Run TED Talks
This conversation is so meaningful and powerful because it dives deep into shame and vulnerability, which affects nearly every single one of us. Many people I have had open conversations with express, much as I felt for most of my life, that something is wrong with them, that they have not become the person they want to be, and that there is always something to work on. Striving for excellence is lovely, but when we carry [...]
The Doctor’s Farmacy – Gabe Brown: How Regenerative Agriculture Can Fix Our Health, Our Food System, And Our Planet
We are living out of balance with nature. It is causing harm to our mental and physical health and the interconnected ecosystem we depend upon for survival. Industrial farming claims to be the only way to provide the food needed for the growing population. But as you will hear in this deep, thorough conversation with guest farmer Gabe Brown and host Dr. Mark Hyman, (a) it is not true, (b) the consequences of industrial farming are [...]
Modern Wisdom – #464 Dr. Christian Busch – The Science of Creating Good Luck
Yes, you can create more luck in your life, and this researcher and doctor discusses how. Modern Wisdom is a fantastic podcast, one of my frequent go-to’s, and this episode is one example of why. I have listened to it at least three times because the conversation covers so much about having the right mindset when engaging in life. And that is what it’s all about. Is life happening to you? Or are you happening to [...]
Aubrey Marcus Podcast – How To Practice Self-Love with Kamal Ravikant – #239
This podcast episode is one of the most transformative podcasts I have ever listened to. I talk about it in my blog post, Ultimate Superpower: Self-Love, where I realized that I did not love myself upon hearing this episode. It was pretty surprising and earth-shattering but also a pivotal moment in my healing and growth. That was when I decided to love myself unconditionally and without judgment, a practice that would take time and commitment to [...]
Awareness
Anthony de Mello, an Indian Jesuit Priest, and psychotherapist has such eye-opening takes on the human condition that I had to listen to this book several times to grasp his teachings. This book is firmly in my top 3 of all time and something I return to over and over. I have gifted this to others so often because it is such a profound read and offers many ways to liberate our confined, stodgy, rigid way [...]
The Art of Possibility
Rosamund and Benjamin Zander provide a wealth of mindframe-resetting stories, anecdotes, and exercises, that helped broaden the horizon of my life’s storylines – about who I am, who I could be, and how told the world works. Rosamund is a family therapist, and Benjamin is the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. The stories and perspectives they share are from their personal and professional lives, covering so many facets of human behavior, both as individuals and [...]
GuRu
RuPaul serves up some white-hot realness with the life lessons he shares and the gorgeous drag he creates. RuPaul is a hero of mine, and I have long been a fan of his artistic creations and soulful messaging. Even though the print version of this book is breathtaking with its stunning images, listening to the audio version still delivers a ton of magic. I return to GuRu anytime I feel less than the incredible being of [...]
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
Essentialism is a book I cannot recommend enough. I have listened to it 14 times and counting and have gifted it to others at least 15 times thus far. I even created a document in Evernote to write down my laundry list of favorite quotes, then explored how these concepts could be applied to my own life. I revisit these quotes often to help me continually refine what matters most and create a framework to realize [...]
Ride Your Own Ride
“Ride your own ride” is a mantra told to the bicyclists participating in the 7-day, 545-mile AIDS Lifecycle event. It’s meant to keep each cyclist riding safely within their physical ability and not risk fatigue and injury because their ego is compelled to keep up with faster cyclists. This mantra also asks stronger cyclists to remain patient and kind to those who are slower than they are. Basically, “you do you, boo, and let others do [...]
Visualize Your Goals Into Reality
I’ve used visualizations of all types to help me launch my first business, create healthy habits, pay off debts, uncover my deepest passions (including this very brand), and help my wife and I discover our dream relocation destination. When I create a fully fleshed-out visual representation of a goal, I am training my brain to help by bringing intense awareness and attention. Visualization Trains Your Brain To Achieve Goals As the old saying goes, “Where you [...]
Passion + Contribution Unlocks My Full Potential
When I learned how to clearly identify and articulate my deepest passions and combine them in contribution to others, I discovered my path in life. Every fiber of my being began to row in the same direction, magnetized, connecting me with the resources to realize my vision. The Challenge: Defining What REALLY Lights You Up If you’re like me, you have a ton of interests, activities, and pursuits that get you excited. And you also suffer [...]
Stay connected.
Sometimes the next step is simply staying close to the ideas that land for you.
I send regular reflections on alignment, self-trust, and making meaningful change (as well as invitations to workshops and events when they’re offered).
Join the list at your own pace.