Build a Life That Feels Like Yours Again
by choosing the hard action when your brain is screaming for the easy one
Morning Resistance
This morning wasn’t one of change.
My routine felt dreadful and the bed was warmer than usual.
3 more mins became 5, then 15... then 20.
My phone brightens up with a priority notification reminding me I’m training a client in 45 min.
Some mornings test your strength but I have to remember that purpose is a calling but action is a choice.
The Cost of Freedom
When you get older, you realize your choices come with a cost.
No one is there to hold you accountable.
But no one is also there to bail you out.
A fake illness that used to mean a day home from school now means a lighter paycheck.
But short term the cost isn’t apparent.
Here’s what I’ve noticed: For my generation (Gen Z) it is easier than ever to take shortcuts, cut corners, and barely show up.
Jobs are unionized.
Mental health is prioritized.
And if we struggle financially, debt is abundant.
But purpose remains untapped.
The Silver Twine
As I look throughout my life I’ve felt the silver twine of calling.
The twine guided my intuition and directed me through my life.
It directed the jobs that I took.
It strengthened the relationships I initiated.
It ate at my soul when I tugged against it.
However, every day that passes reminds me that I can pull against it.
I could sleep in when I needed to get up.
I could consume when I needed to create.
I could rest when I needed to train.
This is the tension we all live in: Purpose is our calling. But action is our choice.
The Paradox of Choice
God gives us an abundance of paths that we can take in our life.
We are given the gift to be the captains of our fates and the masters of our souls.
We can indulge in the pleasures of the world. Or we can abstain and indulge in the pleasure of abstinence.
Yet all things under the sun are vanity.
Joy is found through the enjoyment of our toil—not in the toil itself, but in choosing it when we could choose otherwise.
Food that can be enjoyed in one moment can make us sick in the next.
Pleasure that focuses the mind can empty our bank account.
Where Meaning Lives
It’s hard to live a life with meaning.
Because meaning isn’t injected by us.
Inherently meaning is engraved through our actions.
The actions that we have to choose daily.
The actions that move us towards our purpose.
All else is vanity.
We don’t feel joy in skipping what must be done.
But we feel joy in doing what we don’t want to do.
This is the dichotomy of discipline.
What To Do Tomorrow Morning
As you go through the next few days remember that the stars aren’t made to align.
You choose the actions that make you better.
You choose to train when you’re tired.
You choose to fast when the mind wants to binge.
You choose to love when the brain wants to run.
It’s through this cycle that you realize that the stars were already aligned.
You were simply looking at too few of them at a time.
So tomorrow morning when that alarm goes off and the bed feels warmer than usual, I want you to do this: Count backwards from 5 and stand up before you reach 1. Don’t negotiate. Don’t calculate. Just move. That single action—that one choice against comfort—will remind you that you’re not a passive observer of your purpose. You’re building it, one unglamorous morning at a time.