I heard an analogy from a YouTuber that really resonated strongly. The concept was that we are all building our own cage and spending time and resources decorating it, knowing, understanding that our true desires lie elsewhere. Understanding an exit plan with a true direction to move towards is essential. Oftentimes, we run from something with no clear direction. It's been said, "If you have no destination, then any path will get you there." Building a clear exit with intention, direction, purpose, and fulfillment is what lights my fire. Onward to the exit!

Four hours from Edinburgh into the Highlands today. First time driving on the left. First time shifting with my left hand. Forty-two years of doing it the other way, and every one of those years was working against me. Here is what nobody tells you. The problem is not the road. The problem is that you already know how to drive. You have a fully built, deeply grooved, completely automatic system, and it is now wrong. Every instinct fires correctly and lands in the wrong place. Reach right for the shifter, hit the door. Check the mirror that is not there. Come out of a roundabout and your whole body wants the right lane. You are not learning something new. You are overwriting something old. That is a different and much harder job. Add rain. Add twilight. Add single-track roads with stone on one side and nothing on the other. By hour two, something changed. Not competence exactly. More like I stopped fighting the old pattern and started letting the new one take reps. The mistake I almost made in the first thirty minutes was assuming difficulty meant I was doing it wrong. It did not. Difficulty meant I was doing it at all. That is the thing worth sitting with, because most of you are in a version of that car right now. The work you spent twenty years automating is being repriced. The instincts that made you fast are firing correctly into the wrong lane. AI is not asking you to learn a tool. It is asking you to overwrite a system that has been running without conscious thought since your thirties. It feels bad. It is supposed to feel bad. Overwriting always costs more than installing. Three things carried me to Fort William in one piece. Slow down before you think you need to. Speed is what turns a wrong instinct into a wreck. Narrate the thing you used to do automatically out loud if you have to. Automatic is the enemy right now. Take the reps in low-stakes before you need them in high-stakes. Empty road at 2 pm, not a roundabout at dusk. Your brain will rewire. It is built for it, at 55 as much as at 25. It just will not do it quietly, and it will not do it on your preferred timeline.

After running 5 star AirBNBs, we are selling the business. Looking for a new chapter and a new city. Excited to connect with others in this group.

Travel is rewarding in its own rite, but the ability to generate output and client satisfaction is critical. I carve out intentional time blocks for deep work at home and while traveling.

I've been a chef for 20 years and also teach yoga. Love to travel and currently wrapping up a 3 mo gig helping a friend open a new restaurant. Next stop? No clue yet but the universe seems to conspire to help me when I listen closely.