I was rereading Siddhartha this week, and some new passages jumped out at me this morning as I reached the part of the story where Siddhartha begins to shed the version of his Self that was rich, lustful, and materialistic. I won’t spoil the plot and how Siddhartha arrives at the understanding of his new Self--it’s a short and quick read that I highly recommend, but I wanted to share a few of them with you: “I praise you, Siddhartha, after so many years of foolishness, you have once again had...

What went well for you in 2025? It drives me crazy when I see posts about how “2025 was a year (not meant positively),” and it’ll drive me crazy in February when I see posts about how 2026 feels like a year, only a couple of months in. No doubt some things did not go your way in 2025, and no doubt some things will not go your way in 2026. But why do we let these define the year? I’m sure there were far more things that went RIGHT in 2025 than went wrong, if you really paid attention. And are...

From Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act: Thoughts and habits not conducive to the work: Believing you’re not good enough Feeling you don’t have the energy it takes Mistaking adopted rules for absolute truths Not wanting to do the work (laziness) Not taking the work to its highest expression (settling) Having goals so ambitious that you can’t begin Thinking you can only do your best work in certain conditions Requiring specific tools or equipment to do the work Abandoning a project as soon as it...