My life audits are a mental challenge, and it requires me to learn to approach virtually everything from a different perspective and point of view. I show you how I do this and how you can too.

Essay 34

Constructing a life that is full of meaning and purpose, well aligned with your Dharma, means deconstructing other things that now give you the comfort of “familiarity.”

Essay 33

There are two kinds of “purpose.” Do you understand the difference?  It is commonly understood that each of us as human beings is unique. There has already been a lot written by many people about finding one’s purpose and meaning in life. I’ve not read a fraction of what has been written on this, but I think much of that writing often fails to make an important distinction. One of the things I said last time was: “When I ask someone why they are ‘here,’ what is their ‘purpose,’ most can’t tell me.” I think the question, though, is actually not ideal, because an explanation is probably needed around the word purpose.

Essay 32

Recently, I wrote an essay entitled “This Is Not About Retirement.” The metrics said readers found this valuable, and what we inferred after a bit of discussion was that there seem to be a lot of people who have progressed far enough in their vocational career that they have discovered that there needs to be more to life than work. Many have become suspicious that retirement is not the answer, but that it may simply cause dissatisfaction to appear in new ways.

And they are right.

Essay 31

Whether you are a business owner, a mid-level manager, a stay-at-home Mom, or pretty much anyone in between, if you are growing and trying to wake up, then imposter syndrome is something that most have to contend with.

Essay 30

In the famous book, “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, Steven Covey wrote, “If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster.” This statement requires no explanation. But ever since I read this book (a long time ago), I’ve been troubled by two things. First, nobody intentionally sets out to climb the wrong ladder. Second, a lot of times we don’t discover we are on the wrong ladder till we get to the top.

Essay 29

I am writing about this because I have a good friend right now who is hurting, and when we’ve talked and I’ve mentioned the value of dreaming, she indicated that she really doesn’t have time to dream. We’ve all been there, I know I sure have. But I think she is both typical and atypical in this. She is atypical because she does recognize the value and importance of dreaming and most people don’t. She is typical because she isn’t engaging in it.

Essay 28

In my work, one characteristic that everyone is aware of is that I can be very direct and blunt. Yet, I apparently rarely offend those with whom I am working because they know me and they know I care. And it is because they know I care that my comments are accepted and valued. In this particular newsletter, I am very aware that I am going to say some things that some may, um, “dislike” a little, or a lot. It is not my intention to offend anyone, but I do intend to be direct about a few things. You get to decide how you want to respond. So much for the disclaimer!

Essay 27

There are perhaps many examples of that in my life, but the one I am focused on here is this: My vocation is not simply a place for me to earn money. It is first and foremost a place for me to grow. I pick vocations that intrigue and inspire me… and generally also stretch me. When the inspiration or stretching (or both) are gone, when I am spending way too much time just “going through the motions,” when all I am getting from my vocation is money, it is time to make a change.

Essay 26

Somewhere along the way, we stopped seeing dreaming as wisdom and started seeing it as indulgence. We started treating imagination like a reckless teenager that needed to be disciplined, when it was our greatest teacher. We were taught to distrust the very thing that once made us come alive. We learned to confuse “being responsible” with “being reasonable.” And the price of that confusion is enormous. Dreaming is not childish.

Essay 25

I’m, well, I’m pissed! At myself. As I’ve probably mentioned previously, I have taken on the “project’ of learning to write as a challenge because I don’t know how to do it. I’m a good public speaker. It now comes very naturally to me. But I also know exactly what my topic will be and, almost always, I am a subject matter expert in it. In fact, I was in a meeting last month and somebody challenged me to do a presentation on such a topic at the next meeting, and I just, spontaneously, did the presentation right then and there. It doesn’t work that way with the writing.

Essay 24

Retirement, as we’ve been taught to understand it, is a broken idea. We’ve accepted a cultural script that asks people to trade their best energy and deepest effort for a paycheck—year after year—until the tank is empty. Many don’t retire because they’re ready to rest. They retire because they’ve quietly run out of meaning and purpose.

Essay 23

For those of you who have read the previous issue and are coming into this with an expectation, this is what I promised. It may not be what you were expecting!

Essay 22

Well-known marketing expert, Seth Godin, is reported to have said: “Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from.”

I love that but let’s be clear, however, we all need a change of scenery periodically. We perhaps need to make more time to spend with our children or our spouse. We have a healthy desire to see the world. All those things can be and often are important. But Seth isn’t talking about not taking a vacation; he is talking about building a life in which a vacation isn’t something to necessarily be looked forward to more than what you were doing in the weeks before or in the weeks after.

Essay 21

It’s often difficult to really process something because of all the attendant noise that accompanies the thinking. What I know I want and, I suspect, what others want is less noise and more clarity. If only there were a way to quiet the noise. Well, what I’ve discovered is that there is…

Essay 20

I am starting the draft of this newsletter in July of 2025. (No idea if/when it will be published.. I am on what has become my annual summer trip to Boulder, Colorado, for an extended stay. When this started four years ago, the purpose of the trip was to (A) spend time with my spiritual teacher, (B) ride my bike in the mountains (C) work on learning to cook. (It has been explained to me that I do not “cook”, but I “heat things”…

Essay 19

Simple. Yes. Easy. Probably not. But it starts with a decision. Whether you are the owner of a company or an employee with lots of constraints (real or imagined), whether you feel boxed in by expectations or adrift without direction, it starts with a decision: to stop assuming you’re stuck and nothing can be done. The only thing that is truly stuck is your thinking. So, in that regard, yes, it really is simple.

Essay 18

If you’ve spent any time on my website, you’ve likely heard me talk about this before…this thing that won’t leave me alone. But it won’t leave me alone. It seems that behind everything I do, it is lurking. It may be influencing everything I do, but I don’t sense that. However, I am sure it is the driving factor behind at least some of the things I do and think about.

Essay 17

For any regular readers, this may be a different sort of newsletter. It is a bit of a peek behind the curtain into Greg’s life.

Essay 16

Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi was born in the early 1200s and is known today for having been a deeply spiritual being and a mystical poet. I confess that I’ve never been much for most poetry (which I think is a reflection of my shallow thinking, left brain oriented mind), but Rumi is credited with a quote that I have always found instructive and profound. (And, perhaps, a little unsettling!)

“What you seek is seeking you.”

Essay 15