How To Enjoy The Process

Accomplishing goals is not success. How much you expand in the process is.

In 1997, at the age of 27, Matt Damon won his first Academy Award for Best Screenplay ( Good Will Hunting ). After Damon won the Oscar, he went home, sat down on his sofa, and looked at the award. As he looked at it, he was suddenly overwhelmed by a heartbreaking thought: “I remember very clearly looking at that award and thinking, ‘Imagine chasing... See more

What I call temporal curiosity is the practice of actively directing our curiosity across time – past, present, future – to gain a deeper understanding of ourselves, others, and the world around us.

Past curiosity. Directing our curiosity towards the past can help us understand our origins and learn from history. By exploring past experiences from... See more

Cultivate a Portfolio of Meaning: Some people work to live. Others live to work. I get meaning from both domains. That means I will be less enlightened than some and less impactful than others. I’ve come to peace with this tradeoff.

How are you reading this email right now?

There’s likely a more pleasurable way to experience it. Perhaps it’s being less rushed, or noticing the sensations in your body and feeling how each word lands in your system.

Transformation from the gut is all about our capacity to enjoy pleasure.

When I say pleasure, I don’t mean getting a massage or doing

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Painter and visual artist Chuck Close on inspiration:

"The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who'll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are... See more

“To make living itself an art, that is the goal.”

– Henry Miller

“I’m looking for a practice and a journey, not a quick hit.” - Seth Godin