Sleepwalking through life

Missed last edition? — catch up on the archive here

Hey Reader,

I just got back from spending two weeks in Greece.

We went for our honeymoon, and it was epic. I realized on the plane that it was my first real trip overseas in about eight years.

But what I keep thinking about from this trip isn’t the views or food (which was stupid good).

It’s a random street at 5 am.

When we landed I couldn’t sleep. There’s like a 10-hour time difference from Arizona.

Plus I’m one of those people who physically cannot sleep on a plane no matter what. It also doesn't help that I’m too cheap to fly anything but coach. My wife hates that I’d make us suffer nine hours to save two grand… but see you in row 41!

Anyway, I’m up early wandering around looking for a coffee shop that’s open. And I’m standing there staring at everything as if I’ve never seen a street before.

Why are there 7 ATMs on one block?

Why do they make license plates like that?

And where'd all these stray cats come from?

All the important questions.

And it’s just some forgettable street that's probably the most boring walk to work for whoever lives there. But I’m standing in the middle of it at 5 am like I've stumbled onto something.

I think I just hadn’t looked at anything that closely in a long time.

And I don't consider my life boring, I actually love my life right now.

But you do the same routine enough times, you stop seeing things. Your brain kinda goes “been there done that” and switches off.

And this brings me to the insight I felt worth sharing with you this week.

When you stop becoming aware... everything starts to blur. Life stops becoming about living and starts becoming about something to get through.

I’ve talked about this a lot on YouTube the last couple of years...

the idea of sleepwalking through life.

The trip woke me up from my own version of sleepwalking because everything was new again.

And even though I'm home now writing this newsletter to you from the same desk I always do... I’m trying to do this practice where I tune into things with full awareness, as if I've never seen it before.

So that’s the one word I’m sitting with Reader.

Awareness.

Not in a woo-woo way.

Literally something as simple as just paying attention again.

The question I’ll leave you with is this:

Where have you stopped looking?

I don’t have a fix for it or some 3-step thing. I just know I went somewhere new and remembered what looking with fresh eyes feels like, and now I’m trying not to forget again.

Quote I'm journaling on:

"The greatest burden a child must bear is the unlived life of its parents."

Carl G. Jung

My latest video

Highlighting my favorite books from the 400+ I've read. Broken into eight categories, so it's sort of a 'choose your own adventure' guide for you to find your next read that will help you the most.