Life Advice

You’ve seen the formula before.

Someone stands in front of a Lamborghini, a mansion, or a private jet and explains how they discovered a secret to wealth that schools, employers, and financial institutions somehow failed to teach you. The message is always the same: they have found the shortcut, and for the right price, they’ll show it to you.

At first glance, it looks like they’re selling financial advice.

What they’re actually selling is hope.

[Read more…] about Why Those Lamborghini-Driving “Gurus” Are Full of Shit

One of the quietest forms of suffering is the belief that if you could just say the right thing, act the right way, and make the right choices, everyone would eventually approve of you.

Most people never say this out loud. Instead, they replay conversations, worry about how they came across, and take criticism as evidence that they’ve somehow failed.

Underlying all of it is the same assumption:

“If I do everything correctly, people should like me.”

[Read more…] about Not Everyone Will Like You And That’s Ok

For most of my life, I thought relationship problems were fairly straightforward.

Someone did something annoying. I got annoyed. Someone said something hurtful. I got hurt. Someone acted selfishly. I got angry.

Case closed.

The solution seemed obvious: if everyone else would stop doing irritating things, life would be much easier.

[Read more…] about The Question That Changed My Relationships

There’s a strange irony about modern life.

Human beings have never been more connected.

You can send a message across the planet in a second. You can see what your high school classmates ate for breakfast. You can watch a stranger’s wedding in Brazil, a political protest in France, and a guy teaching woodworking in Montana before lunch.

[Read more…] about Why Loneliness Hurts More Than You Think

The most important moments in parenting are usually not the happy ones.

Anybody can love a kid when they’re adorable. When they’re laughing in the backseat. When they draw you a crooked picture of a dinosaur and tell you it’s you. When they run into your arms at the end of the day like you’re the center of the universe.

That part is easy.

The real parenting happens when they’re difficult.

[Read more…] about The Most Important Thing a Child Learns Is How You Treat Them When They’re Difficult

If you wanted to raise a child who grows up confident, emotionally stable, and capable of handling life, there are some pretty obvious things you’d probably do.

You’d encourage them. You’d let them fail sometimes. You’d listen when they talk. You’d make them feel safe without making them soft.

So naturally, if you want to raise a child to be deeply insecure, you do the opposite.

[Read more…] about How to Raise a Child to Be Insecure

There’s a weird moment that happens right before an uncomfortable conversation.

Your chest tightens. Your brain starts manufacturing excuses at lightning speed.

This isn’t the right time.
Maybe I’m overreacting.
Maybe it’ll work itself out.

And then you don’t say the thing.

[Read more…] about Your Life Changes the Moment You Stop Avoiding Hard Conversations