Tomorrow marks the yahrtzeit of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. I want to share something about why his teachings are so central to everything we're building in this community. I grew up around the Rebbe's influence. His letters, his talks, his way of guiding people. But it took me years to realize what made his approach so different from anything else I'd encountered. Most teachers I learned from gave me ideas to think about. The Rebbe gave people something to do. Not eventually. Not when you feel ready. Now. Today. Something small, something specific, something real. He didn't wait for people to figure themselves out before asking them to act. He understood that the acting itself is what changes you. There's a line that kept showing up in his letters that I've never been able to shake. He would tell people not to be overwhelmed by the size of the problem. Not because the problem wasn't real, but because the overwhelm itself was the thing stopping them from doing the one next thing they could do. I think about that constantly. How often do I let the size of what needs to change paralyze me from doing the one thing I could do right now? Tomorrow I'll share more about what this day means. But for today, I want to leave you with this: If you've never explored the Rebbe's writings, we have a full course of his letters right here in the classroom. A good place to start is "Conquering Self Before Conquering the World": https://www.skool.com/calmer/classroom/deace024?md=9b9061ebcf9943e1b8867d9a712b67eb What's one thing you've been putting off because the bigger picture feels too overwhelming?

If I could go back and tell my younger self one thing, it would be this: You don't need more knowledge. You need a way to practice what you already know. I spent years collecting insights. Books, classes, podcasts, conversations with people much wiser than me. And all of it was valuable. But none of it changed my daily life until I found a way to take what I already believed and actually make it part of how I showed up every day. The difference between people who grow and people who stay stuck isn't intelligence or willpower or access to the right teachings. It's consistency. It's having a simple practice and doing it even when you don't feel like it. That's what we're building here. Not another library of ideas. Something you can actually live. There are lots of very valuable truths that we all know. If we only integrated just a few of them into our lives, we would shift things significantly. What's one thing you've "known" for years but still haven't figured out how to consistently live?

A few years ago I was sitting at my desk after a full day of teaching and meetings, and a thought hit me that I couldn't shake. I had just given a class about patience. A really good one. People thanked me afterward. And then I got home and snapped at my kids within twenty minutes. It made me wonder, how is it possible that I genuinely believe something and still don't live it? What made it worse was that I started questioning my right to speak about such ideas when I felt like I was not authentic to them. Was I being a hypocrite? That question wouldn't leave me alone. It followed me for months. And eventually it became the foundation of everything we're building here. I don't think I'm the only one walking around with that question. I think most thoughtful people feel it and just don't talk about it. So let me ask you: Have you ever had a moment where you realized you weren't living something you deeply believe in? What was that like?

If I had a dollar for every time I told myself "I'm just going to try harder," I'd be writing this from my dream vacation. Trying harder sounds right. It feels responsible. But most of the time it just means doing the same thing with more intensity, which gets you the same result with more frustration. I spent a long time stuck in that cycle before I realized that the issue wasn't effort. It was strategy. Or more honestly, the complete lack of one. We wouldn't try to get physically stronger by just "wanting it more." We'd follow a program. We'd show up consistently. We'd build gradually. In fact, people who do try to get physically stronger by just doing more usually end up injuring themselves. But when it comes to our inner life, our character, how we actually show up as people, we somehow think sheer willpower should be enough. It isn't. And that's not a failure. It's just a fact. Have you ever been stuck in a "try harder" loop? What was it about?

Here's something I had to learn the hard way. I used to spend a lot of energy thinking about what the people around me needed to change. My spouse could be more this. My colleague should stop doing that. If only this situation were different, everything would be better. And then at some point it hit me: I was an expert on everyone else's growth and a complete amateur when it came to my own. It's one of the easiest traps to fall into because it feels productive. It feels like you're being thoughtful and caring. But really it's just a way of avoiding the harder question, which is: How am I showing up? Not how is everyone else showing up. How am I? That shift changed more in my life than any piece of advice I ever gave anyone else. Be honest: do you spend more time thinking about what the people around you should change, or what you should change?