I loved the feeling of connection and flow I experienced from writing and it became everything to me. I became determined to build my life around doing things like writing. Things that mattered to me. Things that brought me alive. No matter what.

By taking a break and learning to follow their interests, people start to ask new questions, ones that plant the seeds for a much bigger vision of life.

Now, I treat that energy like an endurance athlete: carefully pacing myself so that I can continue on this path. If

that everyone has two selves: Self 1, the “Teller,” and Self 2, the “Doer." The relationship between the Teller and Doer determines a player's level of improvement.⁠1 The Teller is the inner voice that says, “You can’t do that,” or “That was not good enough,” or "You should be doing this instead.” This voice compares us to others and hold

To override this impulse, I try to jump to that imagined future state when everything will be “okay” and ask myself how I can embody that state, right now.

“why not consider the savings a gift from your former self?” Hmm. That was interesting. I could be grateful to “achiever Paul” for making this money and giving me the chance to reinvent myself.

out how to escape the nonsense, exploit the system, or extract as much money from the company as possible.

“greatness results from the joyful exercise of agency.”

less. You repurpose your inherent creativity to figure