The more I learn about self-improvement, the more I understand that much of the process involves subtraction. Instead of focusing on what to do, focus on what not to do, and avoid it. Figure what’s weighing you down so that you can let go of it and move more freely. No need to be hyper-focused […]

When I was lost, stuck, broke, and hopeless, I started diving into self-improvement and kept hearing the same piece of advice — read more books. In the span of a year, I read roughly 75 books. That year shifted my trajectory because those books opened my eyes to possibilities I didn’t know existed. This is […]

About 30 is when you realize your parents will die. It starts to hit them, too. In the past few years, I’m 31, I’ve started to have more frank conversations with my parents. I started to see them in totality, including their flaws. I started to see some of the results of the things they […]

Your relationship with yourself spills into all of your relationships, period. We’ve all had moments in our life where our relationship with ourselves was more responsible for our real-world outcomes, whether or not we want to admit it. An inability to be alone can push away partners and friends because of co-dependency. We blame other […]

Picture the person I’m about to describe and make a prediction about the way his life ended up. Thief, convict, drug dealer. Known for hanging out in seedy clubs, ‘pimping’ women, getting into brawls, and even going so far as allegedly mugging people at gunpoint. With stints in and out of jail prison, he became […]

I agree with the basic criticisms of self-improvement. You don’t need any of the common goals, status markers, or achievements promoted by the industry. In reality, you don’t even want them. We think we want the goals and material items themselves, but we really want the underlying feelings they provide. It’s a tricky battle. On […]

“Investing is not the study of finance. It’s the study of how people behave with money. And behavior is hard to teach, even to really smart people. You can’t sum up behavior with formulas to memorize or spreadsheet models to follow. Behavior is inborn, varies by person, is hard to measure, changes over time, and […]

When someone asked Michaelangelo how he sculpted the statue of David, he said “I removed everything that wasn’t David.” The process of living your life on your terms often happens when you learn to let go and give certain things up so you can be free to do what you really what. Think of how […]

“The economy is rigged against the little guy.” I’ve seen a sentence like that in tons of blog post comments. When you write an article, you can’t account for every little nuance and detail in life. You understand these people come from different backgrounds and circumstances, all of which do affect their ability to succeed. […]

I’ve found the hill I want to die on. Personal responsibility, self-improvement, and mental toughness have all become counter-culture. Personally, I won’t stand for it. Even if that means I make less money because I don’t write in a way that agrees with “the narrative,” even if I’m part of a dying breed of people […]