1. high respect; great esteem

2. adherence to what is right or to a conventional standard of conduct

I am indebted to many people who have really influenced my life for the better. From every small interaction, to those who I work with and see everyday. My life is richer simply because I am surrounded by others. I feel an immense sense of gratitude, but also responsibility to all of these people.

I've been thinking about the moments where I feel most proud of those I love. And it's usually when I see them learning. Progressing to the next state. Holding themselves accountable, trying hard to be a different, better, version of themselves. Trying.

And I thought, if I really care for these people, I ought to do the same for them.

I've come to learn that one of the greatest gifts you can offer to those who care about you is to flourish yourself.

Who am I to disrespect their efforts, after all they have done for me? Who am I to skip out on discipline and discomfort, when they are embracing it head on, right in front of me?

Do not live for fame, ego, wealth, gluttony, sex – do not even live for love or meaning.

None of these are destinations. And even if they were, they'd be better if the journey wasn't just about getting there.

Meaning seems to be a lagging indicator of what you choose to do with your finite time here.

Hold yourself with high respect, great esteem. Adhere to what you believe is right, to the standards that you set for yourself and the world.

The greatest gift we can give to the world is to simply hold ourselves to a higher standard.

We are not promised tomorrow.

The timelines we set are likely to be the timelines that become true.

If we do not imagine when something should be achieved, accomplished, acquired, then it becomes very likely that it might never happen.

If you want it, act like it. Be urgent about it. Create a plan. Define what it is. Get serious about it.

I think it's important to have some sense of this, because we can get caught up in the day to day. Even these days, when I feel so incredibly busy, getting carried away by the motions, I still need frequent check-ins. I still need more honesty. I still need to be way more effective, if I want to pursue the life that I want to pursue.

I need to challenge myself to think that maybe, just maybe, I am capable of becoming a new person today. And I need to challenge myself to think that everyday.

What is this new version of me capable of? What is this new version of me going to do better than the old version of me? How is the new version of me going to address the problems that the old version left behind?

I don't have much time here.

I want to be a good son, brother, friend, co-founder. I want to be braver. I want to love more. I want to climb and run more. I want to walk slower and have quiet mornings to myself. There's so much more that I want to do.

I don't think I'll be able to do any of these things if I don't live with a greater sense of urgency.

I feel the ceiling of my ability everyday. I feel every single wall that restricts my movement. Everyday I am pressing on these walls to see if they budge. Some days I am being forced into the wall by others. Some days I am punching my head through. I can sense that I am only at the beginning.

I feel that the more I learn, the more I realize there is to learn.

But this tunnel vision isn't sustainable. In fact, it can be detrimental and counter-productive to getting us to where we want to be. It's important that we lift our heads out of the water every now and then, and to catch a breath.

See how far we've come. Take stock of who lent a hand and helped us get here. Assess if there's anyone that we can bring along.

Recount all of the challenges and roadblocks we overcame. Recognize that there is still much of the journey left.

I think it is very important to be able to hold both truths at the same time; that we have a long ways to go – but we have also come a long way to get here.

I think when you allow yourself to kind of stand in the wind and get pushed and pulled in many different directions, you end up wasting a lot of time and energy.

Passive behaviour in a neutral direction is arguably more dangerous than active behaviour towards the wrong direction, because the stillness implies that there is no growth. There is a higher probability that growth occurs if you are able to move, gather data, process the data, and use that information to inform the next movement.

And so having conviction towards things (even if they aren't the "correct" things in hindsight) makes you not only agentic, but literally makes you an agent of action! Someone who goes out into the world and interacts with it, learns, and adapts.

I think this is the true essence of being human.

But despite this, a strong feeling compels me to communicate it and explore it anyways despite knowing I don't have the best articulation and that I've said the same thing over and over and over again.

I think I'll just spend the rest of my lifetime doing this, never knowing if I'll hit the mark or really get it all out, but I guess it's worth trying while I'm here.

I'm curious about being someone who is swallowed whole by the world around them. I wonder what kind of individual comes out of that process.

The idea of being lukewarm makes me more and more uncomfortable everyday.

I wonder what it's like to not know anything else.

If you let it cling too tightly, it will blind you from what tomorrow can bring.

If you carry it for too long, it will extinguish any possibility of you believing that you could be anything else today.

Don't waste any more time than you have to playing halfsies. You're either in or you're out.

Commit to an experiment. Outline the parameters, go test against a hypothesis, do it for whatever reason, do it out of love, do it out of spite – do it even if the reason is to just simply find out.

I write this to myself because I know that without the reminder, I will inevitably end up floating around without the necessary amount of conviction to do anything meaningful with myself.

I really do think we are capable of so much, and I think in order to prove that, I have to move fast. I have to move faster.

Condense the timelines. What you think will take you 1 year, entertain the idea that it could just take a day. What you think will take a day, entertain the idea that it could just take 5 minutes.

How fast can you go? Where is the ceiling? What is the true limit?

Limit test. Investigate what you are actually capable of. Find out how fast you can move.

Take your essence and everything that you are made of – your routines, what you consume, who you surround yourself with, what you do for work, what you do for leisure, the thoughts you have when you are truly by yourself – place it all under a microscope, take a real close and honest look, and really ask yourself,

"Is this it?"

Somehow, I always find a way to surprise myself.

I want to understand my purpose and how I can contribute to the world. I believe that I can achieve that by completing a large volume of work and then by continuously analyzing said work.