Category: Living Well

Warm and Kind and Opinionated Doesn’t Always Mean Friend

Published on March 15, 2026

Inside each of us are two selves engaged in ongoing negotiations about how to spend the available resources of the day.

The One is loud, about the now, and loves quick dopamine hits.

The Other is quiet, long-term oriented, and loves compounding returns from investments.

The One says, “You’re too old,” “You’re too weak,” “You’re too tired,” “You’re too late,” “You’re too busy…”—Let’s hit up TikTok instead.

The Other whispers, “You’ll do what you can,” “You’ll get stronger,” “You’ll give only what energy you have,” “You’ll be happy you went anyway,” “You’ll make time for what’s important—let’s take away from screentime instead.”

And the reason The One is so cunning and conniving is because it never presents as the enemy… it always presents as your friend.

And rather than gear up for battle against a full fledged, sword drawn, lion roaring enemy who’s charging at you from the other side of a battle field… you sit there with this “friend” who’s giving you warm tea and a blanket and whispering “Relax” and “It’s no big deal” and “It’s just this time” and “You’ve already been so good” and “You’ll look silly” and “You’ve got so many other things to do…” and a million other excuses that are oftentimes—quite hard to refute.

This is where WE need to get clever and strategic.

And in the same way we might politely say “Thank you” or smile and nod or rebut back with whispers of our own—and get up, excuse ourself out, and move forward with our life in real life—it’s good to remember that warm and kind and opinionated doesn’t always mean friend.

Finding The Infinite In The .01%

Published on March 5, 2026

There are moments, oh so brief and fleeting, during everyday happenings, that connect us to the infinite.

It’s right at peak extension of our morning stretch and just as we scratch the precise location of a butt itch.

It’s the moment when the temperature of our shower hits just the right degree and just as we exhale calmly from feeling most refreshed.

It’s that first sip of coffee, brewed exactly to our liking, and the moment our nose catches its aroma as we close our eyes and carefully breathe it in.

It’s our hands cupping warm ceramic in frigid air or the feel of cool water moving mouth to throat to stomach on a sweltering hot day.

It’s that moment during a hug when we’re pulled in tighter or the moment during a kiss when you both decide to lean back in.

Rather than rush through these moments in an effort to get more quickly to the next… What if we lingered there instead?

What if instead of taking these moments for granted because they’re less than .01% of our day… we made them something we appreciated with as close to 100% of our attention while we’re there?

Maybe our days wouldn’t feel like such a blur. Maybe the moments wouldn’t all vanish behind the off putting comment, criticism, or some kind of fear.

Maybe what’s happening in the .01% is really the only thing that ever is happening?

…Maybe it’s just about us being there.

Pursuit Of Happiness Or Happiness Of Pursuit?

Published on March 3, 2026

Sitting around, knowing you’re entitled to the pursuit of happiness isn’t going to do much for you.

But understand that there is a real happiness that comes from pursuit.

When your eyes and mind are fixed on a goal and you’re problem solving, critically thinking, collaborating, exploring, trial-and-error-ing, iterating, building, growing…

You unlock a type of whole being happiness… one that isn’t in vain like a temporary pleasure… but one that activates almost every part of you—mind, body, spirit—and renews itself again and again and again…

Just don’t get so caught up in pursuit that you never give yourself any time to feel the happiness that’s present at each step along the way.

The View At The Top

Published on February 26, 2026

To understand 10,000 things… understand one really well.

There are 10,000 ways to the summit of a mountain… yet they all converge to one singular point.

Which path you choose to take isn’t as important as having chosen a path.

There will be challenges, adversities, confusion, problem solving, victories, scenic points, and more on each.

Each path will have at least 10,000 things to teach you.

If you always give up too soon, however, and climb back down, change your mind, or double back… You’ll never get past even the first 10 lessons of the mountain.

And you’ll end up repeating the same lessons at the beginning of each different path over and over and over again.

This isn’t to say you should never switch paths. Some paths will certainly be more wise and more aligned to take than others.

It’s simply to say, the path isn’t always “clearer” on the other side. At some point you have to fully commit. Give it a full send. Utilize the resources at your disposal in their entirety.

The view at the top is the view at the top is the view at the top.

Balancing On The Edge Of A Razor

Published on February 25, 2026

There’s an infinitely small sliver that’s smack in between past and future.

And it’s on the edge of that razor that one of life’s great paradoxes is found… eternity.

Because eternity isn’t really about time times infinity… it’s about bringing infinity into the span of a single moment of time—the vastness of it all, balanced on the smallest of lines.

See you never really touch the past—yet it expands infinitely behind us…

And you never really touch the future—yet it expands infinitely in front of us… both as vast as the universe itself.

…But here? Right on this tiniest of slivers that we stand on in-between these two infinitely expanding timelines?

This is where eternity lies. In the constantly renewing string of nows… again and again and again… the only place where infinitely expanding timelines don’t survive.

The trick is to keep balanced on the sliver. Because slipping into the depths of the past and falling forward into a bed of daydreams of the future is impossible to avoid altogether.

But those who can learn to balance on the sliver more often… get more.

More fully received experiences. More fully present moments. More tastes of eternity…

The Tree Method vs The Flowers Method

Published on February 19, 2026

Two ways to make change: (1) The Tree Method and (2) The Flowers Method.

The tree method is singularly focused. It demands most of your time, energy, and attention. It’s here to grow and here to stay long-term.

The flowers method is diverse in focus. It’s being generous with your time, energy, and attention. It’s planted relatively quickly and lasts maybe a season or two.

The tree method is parenting. The flowers method is teaching.

The tree method is marrying. The flowers method is dating.

The tree method is career building. The flowers method is side-hustling/ flipping.

And so on.

Nether is better than the other. It’ll always be a matter of perspective. But it’s useful to understand which you’re doing so you don’t try to grow a flower into a tree and don’t try to grow trees in your garden.

If you have kids, raise them into the strongest damn trees you can and focus less on the flowers.

If you’re married, invest more into the relationship than the total of what you invest outside of it.

If you’re employed, become a tree the organization can depend on instead of an unsure / hesitant plant.

And on the flip side, if you don’t have kids, give the energy you would normally invest into a family, into all of the flowers in your life.

If you’re not married, spread love to all of those who need it… be like the sun… unconditionally warm and bright.

If you’re not employed, explore! Build, create, experiment, and make sure you’re planting plenty of seeds of opportunity along the way.

…At least until one of the seeds turns out to be a tree instead.

One Of The Most Powerful Tools During Nefarious Times

Published on February 16, 2026

I’m currently half-way through All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.

It’s a literary fiction about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.

The chapters are short—between 2-4(ish) pages each and the author alternates between the two perspectives per chapter. This way, the reader gets to live and experience each life for him/herself.

We get to experience the horror of living during a time of invasion, occupation, and death—from both the side of the occupied and occupiers. And how each gets into the positions they do… what they’re lead to believe… and how morals and values gray during nefarious times.

…And I say “get to” with intention.

Because it’s a privilege to be able to step into the life of another and experience the brutal harshness of their experience from the warmth and comfort of our couch or bed.

And it is through this privileged opportunity that we are able to develop one of our most powerful tools for combating the nefarious forces of any time: empathy.

See sympathy is widespread and mostly useless… it’s feeling bad for others and returning to the good of life.

Empathy, however, is understanding and doing… it’s having lived the bad (actually or fictionally), imagining what you wished others would do, and becoming that person for them.

And when I look on Goodreads and see 1,989,000 ratings… I feel hope. Hope that there are empathetic people out there. People who know what it’s like and what’s worth their fight.

Because fight is what we need more of our empaths to do.