I’m convinced genuine excitement is the key to life. Some people just have a light in their eyes. It’s an excitement for life. Not just for the highs, but also for the texture and friction of the lows. Hard to define, but you know it when you see it. Excitement is contagious.
This sentence by Dostoyevsky never fails to hit hard:
“You sensed that you should be following a different path, a more ambitious one, you felt that you were destined for other things but you had no idea how to achieve them and in your misery you began to hate everything around you.”
The older I get, the more I realize that one of the most attractive traits is genuine enthusiasm. It's energizing to spend time around people who show real excitement for life. For people, ideas, and tiny moments. It takes courage to care so openly. Enthusiasm is contagious.
I'm convinced that it’s perfectly ok to live a life that looks confusing to others. Wake up early. Do hard things. Focus deeply. Eat real foods. Go on walks. Obsess over one thing. Read old books. Avoid drama. Save money. Never gossip. Love your people. Recipe for a good life.
I will never stop shouting this from the rooftops: the most underrated skill you’ll ever develop is the ability to genuinely enjoy your own life. Not someday, when you’ve healed enough, earned enough, or finally figured everything out. NOW. Because your life isn’t waiting for you somewhere in the future—it’s being built in the way you experience this ordinary Sunday, this cup of coffee, this conversation, this sunset, this breath.
One of the worst lies you tell yourself: “I just need to gather more information.”
Carl Jung coined the archetype of Puer Aeternus (Latin for the "eternal boy") as an adult who lives in a constant state of boyhood, with a fear of commitment and an obsession with preparation for action that never comes.
The modern world has made it easier than ever to fall into the Puer Aeturnus trap. Information gathering has become sport. Research, studying, learning, planning. All of it jammed into neat little dopamine feedback loops that convince you that you're doing something productive and valuable.
You're just one piece of information away from the big breakthrough. You'll start the business when your business plan is perfected. You'll meet your partner when you've scrolled through another round of profiles. You'll get that dream job when you have one more degree in hand.
I've been there. I was Puer Aeternus. Until I realized that the world wasn't being run by a bunch of geniuses with 47 PhDs and 170 IQs. The world was being run by a bunch of normal people with abnormal bias for action.
The opportunity you seek is floating around at all times. But you have to take action to seize it. Dopamine from information gathering is a dangerous drug. Get your dopamine from action.
I’m increasingly convinced that the ultimate sign of growth is faster recovery. You still get upset. You still make mistakes. You still have bad days. But you return to center faster. Apologize faster. Reset faster. Learn faster. Fast recovery compounds.
Confidence doesn't come from believing in yourself. It comes from having done the uncomfortable thing enough times that your nervous system stops flagging it as an emergency. Because nothing is actually hard, it's just unfamiliar.
A mentor once told me this: Just be unapologetically yourself. The moment you start filtering yourself to be liked is the moment you start attracting relationships that need constant maintenance. Do you. The right ones will stick, the wrong ones will walk. That’s a blessing.