I hope you had a great weekend; if you're here in the States (so cool that this is an international publication now) I hope you had a safe and family-filled Fourth of July holiday weekend.

Ours was very low-key.

Tons of time in the pool.
World Cup on the TV or iPad to watch outside.
Cooking out.
And sadly, the boys were off doing their own things — Leo at Indiana University for soccer camp, Roman hanging out with his friends, and Silas even bailed on us for a few hours on the Fourth to be with his neighborhood friends.

All in all, it was a great weekend.

The AlignedLife Community

We've been spending a lot of time planning the AlignedLife Community, and I wanted to share one of the ideas we're running with for the beginning of the New Year--I've gotten a lot of great feedback as I've shared it with people.

In January, when the community reopens after the Founding Member period in Q4, we will be doing Julia Cameron's 12-week creative program to reconnect with our inner Creators. I've never made it all the way through the 12 weeks, so I'm excited to do it alongside others.

I'm really proud of the foundation we are building for the AlignedLife Community and the intention behind it all--a past version of my Self would have already launched the community and it would have suffered without the thoughtful planning we've been doing.

I'll be sharing more as we get closer to the Founding Member opening that will begin October 1st--we'll have a couple of Zoom Q&A sessions, I'll record some videos, and Ang and I are going to record a podcast episode to share more of the vision and the why.

If you're interested in learning more and staying up to date on all the details, you can reply to this email or visit the website to sign up for email updates.​

Ok, let's get to this week's Notes...

📝 this week's Daily Notes

6.29.26 #1239 win by not quitting​

6.30.26 #1240 what's your story?​

7.01.26 #1241 halfway check-in​

7.03.26 #1242 eleven​

7.05.26 #1243 make room for pleasure​

📺 The Five on AlignedLife: "Before You Knew Better"

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Listen

​Apple Podcasts​

​Spotify​

Every week on The Five, we find one headline and one deeper idea across all five pillars of aligned living — Spirit, Mind, Body, Money, and Creativity — and ask what they mean for the life you're actually trying to build.

This week, one thread ran through every pillar before we went looking for it: the things you gave up in the process of becoming competent.

In Spirit, the science of awe — why the emotion that makes you feel small might be one of the most important things you can regularly experience, and what happens when you stop letting yourself be stopped.

In Mind, the case for boredom — new research confirms that the idle hour isn't wasted time, it's where your best thinking actually happens, and most of us have engineered it out of our lives. In Body, we get into Zone 2 cardio — the slow, unglamorous training that fitness culture ignores and the longevity science says you can't skip.

In Money, the financial shame loop — why anxiety about money is rarely a math problem, and how avoidance makes it worse — plus the latest on the Fed's rate decision under Warsh, May CPI, the jobs report, and where the market stands.

And in Creativity, we look at the research on adult play — what Dr. Stuart Brown found across 6,000 life histories, why the opposite of play is depression, and what your eight-year-old self might still be trying to tell you.

Five pillars. Five conversations. This is The Five.

📝 Omens

​The Physical World's Lag "Trust in your Authentic Life, and if it has guided you to where you find your Self, the world will eventually catch up. The alignment of whatever you are creating, or whoever you are becoming, is all the validation you really need."

​Neurographica "It might just look like some squiggly lines and a few circles, but by creating this, my guide helped me access my subconscious and find the clarity and answers I needed from within. Like the work I do with AlignedLife+, Neurographica is a tool to help you go within to find the answers you seek because it is within that all of the answers to your important questions are found."

📺 The Authentic Life On Other Shows and What I've Been Consuming

From time to time, I listen to a conversation, and all I can hear is other people talking about the Authentic Life.

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What else I Read/Watched/Listened To

📝 The Hour Is Later Than You Think​

📝 Why You Should Live An Ethical Life by Manoj Dias​

📝 Not Everybody's Gonna To Make It by Carl Paoli​

See you next week (or tomorrow) and keep pursuing,

JC