Latest Posts
Thoughts on reinvention, clarity, work, money, and the quiet decisions that shape a life. New essays each week as we explore what it means to build a life with intention.
Six Things I Wish My 45-Year-Old Self Had Known
I went back to look at photos from June 2019. I was 45. My son was heading into high school. We had just spent 10 days in Alaska, helicopters over glaciers, sled dogs, ice calving off tidewater walls, and a bear-watching tour that produced zero bears and a family pun tradition that still runs. My wife and I stayed up past midnight somewhere in the Inside Passage, the sun refusing to set, talking about the life we were building.
I had a job I loved. A great team. I was present for the moments that mattered.
And still, looking back from 52, there are six things I wish I had known, not because I was failing, but because knowing them would have made a good season even better.
The 10-Year Window Most People Miss
The shopkeepers were washing down the sidewalks when I arrived. Paris at dawn is quieter than you'd expect. I had my fountain pen with me. I always do. I sat there for an hour, maybe longer — writing, praying, asking hard questions about the window I could feel closing. I didn't know yet what to call it. I do now.
The Four Types of Work, and the One Most People Never Reach
I sat on a Blue Ridge overlook for five hours and made a decision that changed everything. Most work hits one or two of the four circles. Here's what changes when financial independence makes all four possible.
I’m Not Leaving Yet, and Here’s Why You Might Not Want to Either
The mail boat doesn't wait. Neither does your life. A childhood memory from Lake Geneva, the art of timing the jump, and everything you need to build a well-timed exit from a career that has served you well.
The Three Paths Out of Midlife Stagnation
What does a 650-mile run across Europe for a ten-pack of tacos have to do with FI and midlife stagnation? More than you'd think — and the answer might change which direction you're heading.
Reclaiming the Part of Me I Thought I’d Lost
The strange thing about losing yourself to a career is that it usually happens while you're winning. A story about the identities we choose, the ones we lose without warning, and what the desert, or wherever you go to hear yourself think, has a way of revealing when everything else goes quiet.