It would be easy for me to say to myself: “I should care more about business opportunities. I should double down on my StrategyU business.” or “I should push harder with promoting my book, I should do whatever possible to land on the top podcasts.”

But when I look at how I spend my time, I don’t want either of those things. Instead, I’m spending... See more

A couple of months ago I pursued a new habit. Every night I pulled out a pad of paper and filled a blank page with answers to the question “What do I want in life?” (This is an exercise based on Jim O’Shaughnessy’s excellent six-part Thinker & Prover thread.) Unearthing my desires was painstaking work.

But what if you’re under the influence of bad systems? What if we all are? What if we take a minute to laugh at how hard we defend our right to want things when we can barely explain why we want them in the first place, beyond “I like this”? Can we deconstruct those wants in a non-judgy but curious sort of way? Or maybe delight in the absurdity of... See more