Sometimes we think we know what’s most important. We charge through the days as prioritized souls. All is well . Until, someone we love experiences deep loss.

All at once, the eyes fragment and recalibrate, priorities now seem glaringly out of order, all of life is both confusing and yet completely logical, every emotion is sharp yet dull.

Our new role is comforter.

The worst we can do as comforters is offer up platitudes too quickly. Those are useful much later in the process.

They’re rarely helpful when grief is raw.

In the beginning, we must let the grieving simply feel. Whatever that means to them is what’s allowed. Our only job as comforters is to walk alongside them as they feel.

We’re to protect their space and time from distractions, misguided counsel, self-destructive behaviors.

There are invaluable gifts that come from walking through grief. We can’t allow our grieving...

It can be fun to think years ahead. To imagine a life without the shortcomings of the one you currently own. To imagine a life filled with the things that will help you enjoy your time down here on earth.

Personally, I see lots of seats to Chicago Bulls games. Because, in my future, I have a lifestyle that allows me to attend as many Chicago basketball games as I want. Even though I live 1,000 miles away.

Visualization is key to earning what you want. But only if it’s just a peek.

Too much time in the future can keep you from right now. And right now…there’s work to do. This daily work is what earns you a future.

If you can be that 1 or 2 percent that’s actually right here in the present while everyone else is in their time machine, you’re going to succeed. Because everyone else is away and you’re right here. – How to deal with your fear of failure, with James Altucher

It’s easy to mistake change for progress. Trump getting elected points to this. Using a new productivity tool when your current workflow is mostly effective also backs the idea. Moving to another city because you’re unhappy is another example (I’ve done this).

At some point you have to look inside yourself and find where progress is getting bottle-necked. Your eyes will have to turn inwards instead of “out there” to find what’s stifling you. That’s scary.

To stare at your internal roadblocks, fears, and insecurities is to admit that you don’t have it all together. But it’s crucial. Roadblocks can’t be dismantled until you know where they are and how they’re constructed.

But there’s an interesting wrinkle that arises when you employ change for a progress role. On a long enough timeline, the misguided change can become fertile soil for compounded progress that otherwise wouldn’t have...

The brilliant people from Silicon Valley know what we want. They see how we salivate over notifications. Just a few pixels with numbers inside. Those pixels give us significance. Our minds drift towards them when we’d rather give our spouse, art, book 100% of us.

“Just a quick look”, while waiting in the checkout line. Do we ever consider the boring checkout line to be fertile soil for new ideas or insightful observations?

The brain channels must be clear. They must be easy for potential ideas to travel through. Social timelines are good at clogging up the channels. Some ideas will still make it through to the “aha!” center. Others will drown.

Our attention is what they want. It’s what they sell.

Time is paid for with attention dollars.

Why throw dollar bills at something that, quite honestly, rarely pays off?

If you’re feeling uninspired, blocked up, anxious, insignificant, try...

Ambitious people have a tendency to bite off more than we can chew. We start any new goal with the highest of expectations. We’re all or nothing people.

For instance, here’s what we do when deciding to lose weight. Broken down into blocks:

Block 1: We buy expensive paleo groceries. We sign a mental contract that says just 1 eating slip-up renders us a complete failure.
Block 2: We find the most intense (borderline dangerous) fitness routines. We tell ourselves we’ll be at the gym 6 days a week.
Block 3: We purchase brand new workout clothes. We tell ourselves we deserve these new clothes.

Most of us will fail within a month. Why? Because few people can make that many sudden changes to their lives without getting overwhelmed. Not to mention the new workout clothes start to taunt us. Reminders of another failed attempt.

Why not break each block of the weight loss goal into even smaller...

I think a lot. Who doesn’t? It’s strange to say you’re a “thinker” or that you “do a lot of thinking”. Everyone thinks. All of the time.

Supposedly we have 70,000 thoughts per day.

I only know 1 person who doesn’t seem to think a lot. He’s probably the happiest person I know.

Many of my thoughts are experiments. I like to try and see the future.

So I often ask myself, “what would happen if…?”

Just like this…

What would happen if you left social media for a year?

Less distraction. More focus. Getting more ideas. Executing more ideas. More valuable brain connections. More quiet. More boredom (that’s good). Less anxiety. Less FOMO. Less curation. More deep work.

None of that happens just because you leaves social media. Social media is entertainment. Just like Netflix, Us Weekly, Playstation, slot machines.

What if you increased your Netflix time in place of social media? That’s...

You’ve got skills.
You’ve got talent.
You’ve even got intelligence.

You grasp new concepts quickly.
You teach yourself anything and everything.

You have the grit to work for hours and hours on complex problems.
You have the discipline to say “no” to a party and “yes” to a side project.

You dream up big ideas.
You dream up bigger ambitions.

None of that means a damn thing if you can’t help other people feel significant.

I can always count on exactly 2 email subscribers whenever I launch projects: my wife and my mom.

Sometimes the lists stall out right there at 2. Other times I’ve very slowly reached 10, even 20.

But there was this one time I got 56 subscribers in a weekend. That may not seem like a huge number to you. But it was for me.

Since then, I’ve launched new lists for various projects and none of them have even come close to 56 subscribers that quickly.

What’s interesting about this is these days I have more followers, improved skills, and more experience. I’ve got more of everything that one typically needs to build a list.

But the numbers don’t correlate the way you’d expect.

So naturally. This makes me curious. What was it about that 56-subscriber list that just worked? What about it struck a chord with 56 people in just 48 hours?

It was likely a combination of things: the subject...

I’ve been away for 5 years. Midland to Austin to Santa Fe. But in mid-December, I’ll finally trek back to root down in Amarillo, TX.

My home.

This is what I’ll take with me: fresh ideas, new knowledge, increased maturity, big goals, valuable skills, laser focus, organized priorities.

When I left 5 years ago I was aimless, temperamental, and entitled. Maybe I’m still those things at times. Depends on how hungry I am.

It’s true the city has its shortcomings (Trump votes come to mind). But everywhere has shortcomings. And for some reason, I’m not afraid of them anymore.

I believe I’m in a unique position to help shape the city into something important. Changes are already happening there. All brought about by a young, forward-thinking generation. Every time I visit I see something new that impresses me.

The ground is fertile for progress.

If you passed through Amarillo today, you’d...