by Owen | Feb 28, 2020 | Articles
We often overlook the value of books. They can be the most valuable source of reflection we have. The framework of experiences and practices they provide is essential to our self-improvement.
But where do we start? There are thousands of books in the self-help section alone. Below I detail the 5 books I recommend to anyone looking to make a change or improve their lives. The list includes a range of topics, from habit development to creativity, to philosophy. I recommend you read all of them and maybe even the deeper recommendations within. I’m sure at least one will have a profound effect on your life and personal progress.
What’s stopping you from writing that story, or auditioning for that part? Who’s that voice in your head telling you your work is no good? Pressfield calls it “Resistance.” As artists, we engage with Resistance every day. This is a profile of that enemy. It is an absolute must-read for anyone invested in making a change in their life. Whether you want to start a business, begin a creative career, or even conquer your lousy diet. The War of Art shows you how to overcome all of this. Its a kick in the ass to be sure. But one we all need
If you enjoy this book, I recommend going right into Pressfield’s follow up: Turning Pro. And, for even more creative energy, Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, and Steal Like and Artist by Austin Kleon.
Life is a lot more like poker than chess. And poker, unlike chess, requires us to make and bet on decisions when we don’t have all of the information. So how do we know the right choice to make? Where in life do we place our bets? This is the central question of Duke’s book: how to make better decisions in the half-blind game of life. Combining her years of championship poker experience with thorough research, Duke reveals the tools and tips we need to be better decision-makers. This book will have value for anyone, regardless of occupation or lifestyle.
If you want to dig more into this topic and its implications, there’s no better place to go than Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow and Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink.
One of the most challenging things to find in ourselves is our fundamental purpose or clarity. Often times, we don’t know what we are in search of or why we are doing the things we are doing. The result is chaos and an endless fog of disillusionment. This fog clouds every decision we make and every path in front of us. The first and most crucial step to self-improvement is a “why.” This is the subject of Sinek’s book. Drawing on the likes of Apple and Southwest, Sinek dissects the importance of our why and how that inner clarity permeates everything we do. In helping us to find our why, Sinek shows us how to set a course for ourselves. This course informs every decision we make and the practice we put in place. It is the first step in the long journey of creative, entrepreneurial, and personal development.
If you want more, this book is best supported by its companion: Find Your Why.
How often do you get to read the journals of one of the most influential people in the world? The Meditations are just that. Serving as the Emperor of Rome from 161 to 180AD, Aurelius is known as the last of the Five Good Emperors, promoting peace and stability over the greatest empire of all time. His journals give us a window into his life and ruling philosophies. The entries have incredible relevance throughout time, even today. His struggles with desire, depression, and getting out of bed in the morning seem as if we wrote them ourselves. This book will key you into the ancient philosophy of stoicism. This philosophy has been the cornerstone mindset for some of the greatest leaders and creators in history — and it can be the same for you.
If you find yourself drawn to the ideas of Stoicism, It is essential that you also read Seneca the Younger’s Letters from A Stoic and Epictetus’ Enchiridion, or handbook to start. For a look at Stoicism in modern life, I recommend the works of Ryan Holiday: Ego is the Enemy, The Obstacle is the Way, Stillness is the Key, and The Daily Stoic (book and newsletter).
Willpower is overrated. If you’ve ever tried to quit sugar or go to the gym, you know that it’s nearly impossible to simply will yourself into action (or inaction). When we want to kick a bad habit and start a better one, we can’t rely on brute-force alone. In his book, James Clear, easily and accessibly, breaks down the most critical factors in habit development, from research to practice. You’ll learn how to develop intrinsic motivation, bend the enviornment to your favor, and more to crush your bad habits. This is easily one of the most important books in our toolkit.
If you are looking for positive habits to implement with these tools, try out Brendon Buchard’s High-Performance Habits.
Happy Reading!
Hopefully you will find something worth grabbing onto in the pages of these books. Let these books be the steepingstone you need to get started. And don’t forget to keep reading. It’s vital to our progress.
Looking for more book recommendations? Why not sign up for my newsletter. In addition to post updates and exclusive emails, I send out a monthy reading roundup of all of my reads and recommendations for the month.
by Owen | Feb 14, 2020 | Articles, Practices
When we are just starting down the path of self-improvement, it can be hard to find the things worth focusing on. We all have grand visions of the future, but we often have no idea how to get there. While it’s great to have those kinds of goals, the only way to get there is one day at a time. The road to fulfillment starts with a fulfilling day.
So what makes for a fulfilling day? I believe there are seven areas we can all improve and reflect on every day: intention, creativity, health, productivity, communication, presence, and courage. Each of these qualities creates the framework we need to achieve each of our individual goals and, when practiced every day, lead to a better life. Every day, we can reflect on how to improve ourselves in each of these small ways.
Every night, I write down each point and reflect on how they played a role in my day. Did I work to improve on them? How can I do better tomorrow? This simple practice of clarity and reflection is the foundation of a positive day. I hope a quick breakdown of these qualities can help you as well.
Intention
Our intention is the fuse that starts the chain reaction of a good day. When we practice intention, we develop a deep understanding of how and why we make the decisions we do or devote ourselves to specific activities or practices. It helps us to refine what it is we truly want and, more importantly, what things we are willing to let go of. It comes from a deep sense of personal clarity and purpose.
The important thing to keep in mind when setting an intention for your day is what you deem to be your inner drive. Take time to reflect on what you are devoting yourself to, either that day or in life. Whenever you are faced with a decision, refer back to that purpose. How does what you are doing right now apply? If not, why are you doing it? What is the personal reason for making this decision? Simply taking the time to pause and consider the paths in front of you can make all the difference.
Developing an inner sense of purpose may sound daunting to some. One of the best ways to develop this is by working backward from your intention. At the end of every day, look back at the activities and big decisions you focused on. Which ones did you feel good about? Which ones did you not enjoy? What was it about the positives that made them exciting? What might they all have in common? The more you deconstruct your daily interests, the more you can define what it is you truly want. As this intention becomes clearer, you can more actively apply it and keep yourself accountable.
Health
Did you eat well today? Excersize? How did you sleep? Making sure we are healthy is the foundation of a good day. When we take the time to treat ourselves right, we set ourselves up to focus and cultivate good experiences. I’m sure we can all think of a time where lack of sleep has made us lash out at a co-worker or make a wrong decision. If we don’t take the time to treat our minds and bodies well, how can we expect to use them well?
We don’t need to go on a crash diet, eat pounds of carrots, or hit the gym for 3 hours every morning to work towards being healthy. Start the morning with some stretching or a short jog, add a piece of fruit to your lunch or go to bed an hour early. Small steps make a huge difference when it comes to our health and can make all the difference in determining a good or bad day.
Creativity
Regardless of who you are, or how creative you think you may be, we must take some time to be creative every day. It could be something as simple as sketching for 30 minutes during your lunch break, or a few minutes of free writing. Don’t focus on whether its good or bad. Your creativity is just for you. Try, if you can, to make this time separate form any work you have to do. Even if you are an artist or creative already, it’s just as important to try out a new medium or make something just for fun. The goal here is to channel your artistic sense in new ways and take time away from work or stress.
Taking just a few minutes to be creative each day can be one of the essential practices of our day. Its often in these times of creativity we find the answers to problems we were blind to before. It also opens us up to new ways of thinking. Giving our minds free creative time reminds us that we are not locked into patterns or rules.
Productivity
Productivity is often considered the most measurable quality in judging a good day. Did we get all of our work done? Did we use our time effectively? But, we need to be careful. Often productivity becomes workaholism with a dangerous focus on efficiency. But, productivity is often more concerned with limitations and good choices. The key is choosing to focus on what matters when it matters. It’s not about working hard on everything, but working deliberately on what matters now — not tomorrow, not next week, not next year.
One way to keep your productivity on track is to write down three things you want to focus on completing today, no more and no less. This process forces you to limit yourself to what is important. It also creates a sense of balance. Perhaps once those three tasks are completed, you allow yourself to move onto something else, or, use the rest of your day to take a break. As you implement this practice, you will get a better idea of what kind of tasks you can handle in a day. Sometimes those three tasks might be biting off more than you can chew and force you to take a step back tomorrow. Over time you will find the productive sweet spot of a good day.
Connection
We can fight against it all we want, but its important to connect with others, yes, even for us introverts. I don’t expect us to engage with every uber driver or waiter we encounter, but finding one or two people to connect with personally makes all the difference.
Connecting with others helps to keep us out of our heads and consider everyone else. It reminds us that we have a responsibility not just to ourselves but to others. I think it’s very easy to forget that the work we devote ourselves to is seldom for ourselves, and that requires vulnerability. We are all here to serve others through our work, so take the time to connect with those people. Try to make their day just a little bit better. Listen and give meaningful responses. Give and take. Even a small favor or a few words of support go a long way.
Start by introducing yourself to a new person at work. Share an article or funny post with an old friend. We don’t need to become extroverts. All we need is a little consideration and a willingness to be vulnerable.
Presence
Presence is perhaps the most challenging thing to cultivate. Amongst smartphones and social media, we rarely have any space in our day. Our minds jump from one hit to the next with never a moment in between. I’m not going to beat around the bush, its an addiction, one we all suffer from, and one we need to step back from. The problem is that we have lost the space to think and be present in the moment. These moments of space are vital to self-improvement and a positive day. It is in the moments of presence we consider the world around us and the real consequences of our actions. No space means no reflection. No reflection means no growth.
We don’t need to be hermits to cultivate presence in our lives. Taking a few opportunities a day to step away from it all is a great first step. Try going for a walk around the neighborhood and leave the phone behind. Or, try a short meditation practice each morning. I like to go out into nature to sit, think, and observe. Find what works for you and stick to it. You’ll quickly see how a few minutes of space can clear up any anxieties or problems you cant find your way through.
Courage
The only way to improve is to try something new, experiment. It often involves doing something we would never have considered before — and that takes courage. Courage is the linchpin of the fulfilled day. Acting courageous means putting aside regrets or wants and taking a leap. Maybe it’s bringing a new idea to your boss or sharing your first blog post online. At some point, if we want to improve, the only thing left to do is jump.
At the beginning of every day, write down one scary or vulnerable act you can complete. Start simple. Maybe it’s trying to small talk with a new person, or sending that resume out. Whatever it is, make sure it’s actionable. There needs to be some sense that you are overcoming fear and putting yourself out there. Over time these small steps will help to build your confidence, and you can take on bigger and bigger challenges. Think of it as a game. The more you play, the better you get, and the more fulfilled you get to feel when you’ve done it.
Spend some time considering how you can apply these practices to your everyday life. Even a small step in a few places will show heaps of improvement.
What will you try to work on? Are there other qualities you think are important?
by Owen | Jan 31, 2020 | Articles, Philosophy, Practices
The first time I remember finding it was New Year’s Eve 2013, at a place my friends called “The Jacks.” The Jacks, as I would come to learn (and love), was a sort of concrete pier down at the harbor. Over twenty feet wide, It jutted out into the water, extending from the nearby shore. Together with its twin, another blockade opposite, they enclosed a portion beach next to the main docks. A small inlet separated the two piers, just wide enough for a boat to pass through. The Jacks, the pier’s namesake, were 12-foot wide molds of the children’s toy, blown up to a giant’s scale and coated in thick concrete. Two people might just barely get their arms around the thick spikes. Held together only by friction, the concrete stars piled on each other from the floor of the ocean to well above my head, surrounding an inner walkway. The hoard of jacks, placed almost haphazardly, created caverns and archways between their thick arms. The adventuring teenager could spend hours climbing and exploring the entanglement. Which, of course, was why we had come.
Clambering up to the walkway, it was a straight walk out into the water. Crisscrossing paths running up and down the pier created a grid of deep pockets dotting the walkway. I had to be careful in the dark not to fall in and twist an ankle — a mistake made on a future trip. As we made out way towards the end of the pier, the walkway suddenly dropped off. A flat wall fell down onto a path circling a hole down into concrete caverns and the ocean below. Just on the other side of the opening stood a small structure, about the size of an outhouse. Above it, a little red light guided the amateur sailor or paddler through the mouth, and out into open water.
After exploring for a bit with my friends, I went off on my own. Waiting for the fireworks to start. Climbing out onto the last of the jacks, beyond the end of the walkway, I sat alone and took in the view. To my right was the harbor, the beach, and the neighborhoods extending up the hill and into a valley. On the left was the open ocean, reaching far out into the horizon, black and calm. Up from the expanse came the stars, scoffing at the dim lights of the town below, no light pollution to blot them out here. Gazing out onto this sight, listening to the water lapping at the concrete below, I felt an utter calm. Clarity of mind and a feeling of connectedness rushed over me. Everything else was falling away. What became prominent at that moment was my relationship to the world around me. For the first time, I was experiencing the necessity and power of being still.
The ancient Stoics called this feeling Sympatheia. A deep and unwavering connection between nature and ourselves. It rests on the idea that we are a part of nature, that everyone and everything together moves as a single organism. It sounds a little melodramatic, but it was in these moments of connection that the philosophers centered themselves and found fulfillment in their place and life.
Stillness and the concept of Sympathiea go hand in hand. The connectedness and the clarity we seek, often unconsciously, can only be found when we have a clear mind. Put another way, our identity is hinged on how we relate to the world. What, after all, are we putting ourselves to work for? In those moments of stillness, we discover the more profound, intrinsic reasons for our work and our passion. But often, especially in the high energy, breakneck pace of today, this stillness and the clarity behind it, become lost in the superficial rush.
To regain that fulfillment, we need to step away from the distractions: the phone, social media, even our own ego. All of these things that take up our time and mental energy only hold us back. We have tricked ourselves into believing that the superficial connections of today will give rise to the fulfillment we are after. Or, even worse, we have forgotten or forsaken our clarity of purpose to serve our ego, our bank account, or whatever other vain measurements we hide behind. The only way to seek meaning and clarity is to dig deeper into ourselves. We won’t find it in our phones or superficial pursuits. To search ourselves, we must create space for stillness. When we clean the house and clear away the mess of thoughts, we have a chance to find the clarity of purpose and true connectedness we actually want deep down.
Stillness, then, is something that must be cultivated. We must find the moments when we can step back from the distractions, or, step out into nature. As Marcus Aurelius wrote in his Meditations, “Meditate often on the interconnectedness and mutual interdependence of all things in the universe. For in a sense, all things are mutually woven together and therefore have an affinity for each other.” As with all things in life, the art of stillness is not one of concept but of choice and action. Go for a walk. Take out the headphones. Put the phone away. Meditate. Practice being here. Practice non-action and presence. It might not be easy at first. Stillness is the most difficult thing for me to face and I struggle with it every day. But as Ryan Holiday, author of stillness is the Key, reminds us, “Be here. Be all of you. Be present. And if you’ve had trouble with this in the past? That’s okay. That’s the nice thing about the present. It keeps showing up to give you a second chance.”
Clear ideas, clear thoughts, clear actions can only be found by a clear mind. By the connected mind. To forgo the chance at stillness, to give in to distraction is to forget ourselves, and worse, ignore the impact we can have on others.
By the morning of New Years Day 2014, I had almost completely forgotten about the feeling I had stumbled on the night before. I hadn’t grasped what was behind that feeling of stillness. So it slipped way. Swallowed up by a career path, I desperately chased after, not fully understanding why. I couldn’t see then, how important it was to take time to be still. I didn’t know that the clarity I was after was behind it all.
This past October, with some spare time before work, I went for a walk. Aimlessly wandering, lost in the cacophony of my head, I found myself sitting under a tree in Boston’s Public Gardens, looking out over the pond. To my left, under the next tree over, a musician played the trombone, improvising over a jazz tune playing softly from his phone. To my right, a family sat at the edge of the pond. The father was taking a picture of mother and son. In a rush, I felt it. The stillness I had left behind. Forgotten, or traded for distraction and purposeless ambition.
After a few moments, I took out my journal and wrote.
‘I’m sitting in the gardens under a tree. There are people everywhere, enjoying the fall. Families taking pictures. There’s a boy softly playing the trombone under the tree next to me.
I didn’t know I needed this. How long has it been since I’ve just been here? I didn’t know I had been starved of stillness.’
Seek stillness, crave it, and practice it. The cost of losing ourselves is too high to let it go.
by Owen | Dec 31, 2019 | Articles, Habits, Practices
Everything we’ve talked about so far: Identity, Environment, Accountability, and Measurement. It all means nothing if we don’t show up — one way or another, we have to take action.
It doesn’t need to be perfect, or well-planned, and it doesn’t need to be a feat of strength either. That comes along the way. Whatever you want to achieve, getting healthier, reading more, writing more, chasing your creative vision, at some point, the only thing left to do is start. It’s the most straightforward part, but also the most difficult to overcome.
You may not feel like doing it some times. “The exercise is too hard,” or “the book too difficult.” “I don’t have any ideas for my next piece,” you say. But it’s worth it to prove yourself wrong. Every time you conquer that fear and take a step, it becomes easier. You are better than you know, and the only way to see that is to show up and try. Every attempt, no matter how small, pushes us closer to our goals. And that change you seek? It will come. Not all at once, or right away, but eventually, you will see it. I can promise you that.
So, tomorrow we begin our journey. Are you willing to show up and make the change you want to see in yourself? We have prepared. We are ready. The only thing left to do is leap.
Whatever your resolutions this year, let’s hit the ground running. Tomorrow, its time to show up.
by Owen | Dec 27, 2019 | Articles, Habits, Practices
Measuring your progress has the potential to be a valuable tool. It can be a great way to keep yourself accountable or to provide insight. But without a deeper understanding of how that data affects us, we are bound to get wrapped up in self-judgment. However, If we take a careful and eagled-eyed approach to measurement we can help ourselves to make more informed decisions on our journey.
Measuring Optimal
I am 16. I stare in the floor to ceiling mirror across from me, turning to one side and then the other, my face contorting with each turn, distress, panic, sorrow. Shifting from one enemy to the next, I step on my scale. For a moment, I see my self-loathing, held in its glass case, balanced by the idealized number in my mind, a fraction in either direction determining its banishment or its freedom. Of course, it is not my prisoner. This simple ritual proves that.
Numbers and data haunted me. I would compare my numerical proportions to others like stats on trading cards, ranking myself among my peers. I defined myself by the numbers. I determined my self-worth by my distance from what I believed to be “optimal.”
My relationship with my scale, of course, would become one of the most robust roots of my body dysmorphia. Today I am still tentative in approaching my weight and body measurements. The long term effects follow me every day. I recently admitted to friends, to some unease, another one of my methods: counting calories. It became so ingrained over the years that it is involuntary. I can look at a portion of food and guess within 100 calories how much it’s worth. It’s a neat party trick.
From the outsider perspective, it’s easy to see how insane this is. Why hinge your self-worth on a measurement? But we make this kind of value judgment all of the time — the difference between scoring a 95 or a 92 on an exam, being able to read 90 pages a day of one book but only 30 of another. Each of these comparisons contributes to how we value ourselves and our habits.
Intrinsically we know the size or numbers mean nothing. 72 is smaller than 160, but I wouldn’t feel any better measuring myself in Kilos. The urge to compare and cast judgment exists no matter the scale. What this shows us that we are contributing something else. It is something we can’t always control. It took another approach, another idea, to change how I viewed my weight and my calorie counting. Our unconscious contrast creates a story. And in the story lies the problem.
Overcoming The Narrative Fallacy
When we look at a set of facts or numbers, we, by nature, start to craft a story around them. Stories, unlike statements and data, are abstract, they ignore pieces of context or rationale to form a cohesive narrative. In some areas, this can be valuable. The consistency and approachability of stories help us to learn, remember, and internalize the ideas they contain. But this can often be a trap when it comes to personal narratives. When trying to change ourselves for the better and develop our resolutions, we need to be able to see the field as clearly as possible. We have to understand our faults and our environment without abstraction to see where we might make adjustments. The mask of personal narration clouds neutral judgment, placing unfounded value on facts that are nothing more than information.
The narrative of the “ideal body” clouded how I judged myself and put undue importance on my measurements. The negative associations with calorie counting made my friends uneasy. There is a story in every statement.
The Narrative Fallacy is something we will encounter every day. Acknowledging its presence does not rid us of it. We can, however, begin to notice its presence and counteract it. Or at the very least steer it in our favor. When we see ourselves drawing useless or irrational comparisons, we can start to form a new story around the clearer and more positive ideals.
Point the stories in the direction of our identity, and they will serve us all the better. I began counting calories around the idea of restriction and weight loss. Shifting the narrative, I took to observing nutritional value to learn what it means to be healthy. The first narrative focuses on the arbitrary, the latter on the identity. It wasn’t until I shifted the story that I understood the real value of the junk I was eating — using that I could make better decisions about how to be healthy, not just eat less. Only when we have precise data can we fully experiment with change.
The goal is to use measurement as a point of reflection. The comparison and narrative are inevitable. So make it work in our favor. Data can help to steer us in unfamiliar waters. Understanding the outcomes of our decisions and habits is the only way to refine them.
When we use our tools of measurement to clear the fog instead of creating it, we create a chart of our journey. We can better predict the waters while leaving a clear path for us to follow when the tides come to push us back.
Moving Forward
We are days away from the new year. By now, we have loaded up our toolkit with everything we need to set off. The only thing left to do is start.
by Owen | Dec 20, 2019 | Articles, Habits, Practices
The New AA
Throughout my journey with habit development, I have relied on many sources of accountability. Perhaps the most crucial source of accountability came from a cohort of friends we referred to as “Artists Accountability” or “The New AA.” We would meet weekly or bi-weekly to discuss our lives and the struggles we had been facing in our development as creatives. This group became a playground for developing our identities and establishing the habits and developments we wanted to see in ourselves.
The most crucial aspect of this group was the development of personal challenges. Every week we would meet to discuss the things we wanted to try or change. Perhaps to try a new routine or work to rid ourselves of a specific pattern or mindset. One by one, we would propose the goal we wanted to set for ourselves and why we thought it would be useful and meaningful to our lives. The rest of the group served to pick apart these challenges, point out flaws or potential roadblocks, all to better prepare and tailor the week ahead for the participant. With our challenges settled, we would develop a group goal for everyone to follow, a collective master goal we would all participate in together. Examples of various objectives, personal or collective, might be experimenting with routines like daily meditation, journaling, or abstaining from all television or media. Simple, measurable, and meaningful.
The challenges were tracked and updated in a running document. Week to week, we could see the progress, successes, and failures of everyone in the group. If we faltered or failed, we were honest with the group, and in turn, we could encourage each other and offer insight or propose a new angle. At the end of the week, we met once again to discuss and reflect. At the end of the meeting, we would grade our success on a scale of emojis from the classic smiling poop to a shining sun. The emoji branded next to our name until the following week’s results. I regret to say that I had the honor of wearing the poop emoji more than once.
By the time the group had dissolved, we had become masters of accountability and experimentation. We formed a deep bond and a genuine passion and care for how each of us fared. However, without the group, my source of accountability dwindled. Trying to hold onto the challenge tracking idea, I began to track six daily habits, including the meditation, exercise, and journaling practices I developed in the group.
What I didn’t expect was for this simple act of checking a box every day to turn into a source of accountability. As the daily checks began to grow, a larger and larger streak started to form in my practices. It became like a game. By the time I had checked off two continuous weeks, I had become obsessed with keeping this streak alive. I felt compelled to make sure every streak kept going up and up and up. First 30 days, then 50, then 100, then 150. I couldn’t bring myself to let the numbers I had worked so hard to go back to zero. Six months later and the checks are still going. No more poop emojis here.
Though they are just numbers, they indicate meaning in my practice. My streaks are a record of my consistency, proof of change, and progress. They represent my new identity in physical form. To watch them grow is to watch myself become more in tune with the person I want to be.
Investment
What I now realize is that both the tracking and the group contained the same source of accountability. We often think of accountability as a surface level exchange. Its sort of deal between friends or system. The more profound and perhaps more important aspect, however, is the investment.
The common link between the group and the tracking was that both required and insisted on a personal investment. The only difference between the two is that the group needed a two-way investment over the single point idea of streaks.
This investment cost is what makes accountability so unique and essential in habit formation. All other aspects of resolutions require a minimal personal cost. Even our fundamental purpose is easily dismissable on our worst days. However, when we take the time to stake our claims on an external relationship, whether that be a group, a tracker, or even a self-imposed punishment, we are forced to consider real and tangible effects outside of ourselves.
If we can find something worth investing in personally, we give ourselves accountable incentives to keep pursuing our goals. A habit or resolution requires a sunk-cost, the more personal and responsible we are for that payment, the more we will get out of our experience.
Moving Forward
As we continue to look forward to the new year and the better selves we want to create, let’s find something significant we can invest in. Perhaps we can find a group of friends we can help and support. Maybe we impose deadlines for progress with a reward and punishment system. Whatever it is, we need to remember that it is a cost we must be accountable for, and that will genuinely affect us on a personal level. Take the time to consider the things that inspire you or motivate you, use them to your advantage. Investing at the surface level guarantees nothing. Driving ourselves at the fundamental level requires a profoundly personal and meaningful investment.
