Marc and Angel Hack Life

12 Things My Grandmother Told Me About Life Before She Died

05.07.2023 by Marc Chernoff // 31 Comments

When my grandmother, Zelda, passed away fifteen years ago at the age of ninety, she left me with a box of miscellaneous items from her house that she knew I had grown to appreciate over the years. Among these items is an old leather-bound journal that she aptly named her Inspiration Journal.

Throughout the second half of her life, she used this journal to jot down ideas, thoughts, quotes, song lyrics, and anything else that moved her. She would read excerpts from her journal to me when I was growing up, and I would listen and ask questions. I honestly credit a part of who I am now to the wisdom she bestowed on me [Read more…]

10 Things We All Hold On To (Long After It’s Time To Let Go)

05.03.2023 by Angel Chernoff // 23 Comments

Oftentimes you don’t even realize you’re blocking your own present blessings by holding on to everything so tightly. It’s time to start letting go.

Letting go is not giving up. Letting go is surrendering any obsessive attachment to particular people, outcomes, and situations. Surrender means showing up in your life with the intention to be your best self, and to do the best you know how, without [Read more…]

9 Life (Saving) Choices Too Many People Wait Too Long to Make

05.01.2023 by Marc Chernoff // 15 Comments

They always say time changes things, but oftentimes you actually have to choose to change them yourself.

Maybe it’s the life lessons I was forced to learn the hard way, or the toll of loss and failure I had recently endured, but fifteen years ago in the midst of a panic attack on my 27th birthday, I had to admit to myself right then and there that the youthful world of possibility I once felt now seemed dead inside me. I wanted to feel light and free and ambitious and passionate again, but I didn’t know how. Luckily my wise mother, who has always been a true lifesaver, gave me some good advice. She told me [Read more…]

4 Ways to Actively Practice Letting Go (When You Catch Yourself Holding On)

04.27.2023 by Angel Chernoff // 38 Comments

If you worry too much about what might be, or what might have been, you will ignore and overlook what is. Remember this. On the average day happiness is letting go of what you assume life is supposed to be like, and sincerely appreciating it for everything it is.

Over the past decade, as Marc and I have gradually worked with hundreds of our course students, coaching clients, and live event attendees, we’ve come to understand that the root cause of most human stress is simply our stubborn propensity to hold on to things. In a nutshell, we hold on tight to the [Read more…]

One Tragic Mistake Too Many People Make Every Single Day

04.25.2023 by Marc Chernoff // 28 Comments

Busyness… is an illness.

On a chilly January morning just inside the entryway to a Washington D.C. subway station, a young man took his violin out of its case and brought it up to his shoulder. He was dressed in regular clothes — just jeans and a t-shirt. And although he had a face many people found attractive, on this particular morning it was mostly obscured by a dark baseball cap and shaggy brown hair.

After plucking the strings for a couple minutes to tune his instrument, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a [Read more…]