The SPOT link landed in my WhatsApp. I was no longer watching. The Moment I Entered the Experience A friend invited me to my first hike-and-fly competition in Pancas, Espírito Santo. I went to observe, and for the first couple of days, that is exactly what I did. I watched pilots study the sky and the mountains. I listened as they discussed wind, clouds, possible routes, and changing conditions. I watched wings spread across the ramp, fill with air, and carry people away from

As I write this, I'm in Petrópolis. It is the sort of place that slows your neck. You find yourself looking upward more than forward. Cornices. Stonework. Windows framed by another century. Roofs built by people who assumed someone, someday, would still be looking. I had every intention of learning the city. There were museums marked on the map. Historic houses. Imperial stories. Architects whose names I had already forgotten before I pronounced them correctly. It felt import

A reflection on staying playful, teachable, and free enough to begin again. At the end, this is not really about being bad at something. It is about staying free enough to be new. Why adults stop playing Most adults do not lose play because life gets too serious. They lose it because they become competent. They learn which rooms make them look useful, capable, respected, and in control. Then someone invites them into a dance class, a language exchange, a new game, a song, a k

The clipboard is useful until you begin carrying it through your whole life. On a walk, Chico and Bento can turn a perfectly straight path into a map only they can read. Their noses drop to the ground. Their bodies begin moving from side to side. A pile of leaves becomes important. Then a tree root. Then a patch of grass where, apparently, an international incident took place sometime before breakfast. Their tails wave behind them like two small flags announcing that the inve

I want to get there. And in my determination to get there, I sometimes miss that I am here. Last week, I wrote about how I keep recreating the same circumstances in my life. Apparently, I enjoy field-testing my own material. As I write this, I am six months into owning a chácara, a small farm in Brazil. I have just bulk-purchased nearly all the lighting fixtures. I am two weeks away from hosting my first Fourth of July Festa Julina, an event I hope will become a tradition. Th

I thought I needed a different life. What I needed was a different agreement with the life I already had. About seven years ago, I started looking for the exit. People I respected were getting sick. Cancer. Heart attacks. Stress-related illnesses that seemed less accidental the longer I watched. They were capable people. Responsible people. People who had carried the load for years. People like me. I did not know exactly when the bill would arrive, but I understood the arrang

The work stops feeling special right before it becomes yours. That is where most people get suspicious. Not when it is hard. Hard can still feel dramatic. Hard can still make you feel chosen. Hard can still give you a story to tell. The real test comes later, when the work becomes ordinary. When the walk is just a walk. When the practice is just practice. When the sentence is just the next sentence. When the better choice does not come with a trumpet sound. At some point, the

Growth gets dangerous when it stops feeling like news. You can stop feeling excited by real progress. Then you may assume progress has stopped. I know because Spanish became boring. That is often when the work is finally becoming yours. The first warning sign is usually quiet Class starts. The material looks simple. Your hand slows down when writing. Your mouth knows more than your grammar can prove. You correct the same mistake again. Nobody applauds. You return anyway. At s

Momentum feels like proof. That is why it fools people. Momentum feels great. That is why people confuse it with the system. When things are working, everything feels obvious. You have energy. You have rhythm. You know what to do next. The behavior starts carrying itself. That part is real. It is also not the whole truth. Because momentum disappears. · You get sick. · You travel. · Family needs something. · Work interrupts the rhythm. · The weath

You do not always need a new life. Sometimes you just need to spend more time in a room where your future already feels normal. Your Environment Votes Your environment is not neutral. It votes. It tells you what matters. It tells you what is strange. It tells you what is expected. It tells you what you can get away with. And slowly, if you are not paying attention, it teaches you what to accept. That is why change feels so hard when you are trying to do it alone. You are not

Your life can change before your identity believes it. Sometimes your life moves first. Your routines shift. Your standards shift. Your environment starts changing. And still, somewhere inside, you keep relating to yourself like the old version of you. That creates friction. Not external friction. Internal friction. You accomplish something, and it does not fully register. You improve and still talk to yourself as if you have not. You enter a new room, but some part of you is

You don’t lose to effort. You lose to what surrounds your effort. You’re doing the right things. You’ve started. You’re showing up. You’re taking steps that used to feel out of reach. And still… It feels harder than it should. Slower than it should. Like you’re pushing uphill. This isn’t a discipline problem. It’s an environment problem. Every environment has a baseline: What’s normal What’s expected What’s ignored You don’t notice it when you match it. You feel it immediate

You’re waiting for it to make sense. That’s the problem. You want the plan to feel clear. You want the steps to line up. You want to understand what you’re doing before you begin. That sounds reasonable. It isn’t. Most things only make sense after you’re already inside them. Not before. From the outside, everything looks disconnected. Too many unknowns. Too many gaps. Too many reasons to wait. So you hold. You think. You try to map it out. And nothing moves. Then you step in.

You’re not avoiding hard things. You’re avoiding being seen doing them badly. Hard is fine. You’ll work hard all day if it looks clean. If you understand the system. If you can move without exposing yourself. That’s not where you get stuck. You get stuck the moment you don’t look like yourself anymore. I’ve run into this head-on in Brazil. I know how to fix things. Rebuild things. Diagnose problems quickly. That identity is real. Then I got here. Same categories. Complete

The life you want is often hiding behind something mildly inconvenient. That’s the trick. Most people think they’re waiting on clarity, motivation, or the right season. Usually, they’re just stepping around one uncomfortable thing. Not a catastrophe. Not some massive life obstacle. Just friction. The message you don’t send. The workout you postpone. The lesson you keep meaning to book. The conversation you keep softening in your own head. None of these feel important in the m

You can’t get there if you don’t even get close. It always seems impossible at first. Back when I was working corporate, I always looked forward to Patrick coming to town. He lived and worked in Auckland, always on some special project, always traveling. That was what I wanted. So, one day I asked him how he did it. I was expecting something structured. A roadmap. A strategy. Instead, he said, “I don’t know Glen… you just do it.” At the time it felt like a non-answer. It wasn

You don’t need a new life. You need a new baseline. What You’ve Been Calling Normal Most people don’t feel stuck. They feel normal. Low energy. Background tension that parks on your neck and shoulders. A quiet sense of being slightly behind. It doesn’t register as a problem anymore. It registers as life. And that’s the trap. Once something feels normal, you stop questioning it. You stop testing alternatives. You stop noticing what’s draining you. Half the world treats exhaust

If it doesn’t hurt, you don’t think it’s real. Raúl didn’t look like he worked very hard. Which made me question if he would finish at all. I kept checking instead of trusting the result. That’s what happens when you expect effort to look like strain. _____________________________ Raúl came recommended by a high-end builder I trusted. He worked for him full-time and took on a few side jobs. When he showed up, his truck carried neatly folded tarps. When he left, those same tar

The habits you repeat every day quietly decide what your life considers normal. Your baseline feels normal. It isn’t. I helped build mine. Normal is something we trained. Is Normal Really Neutral? Baselines are trained through repetition. Whether we notice it or not. Habits Quietly Train Expectations Most people assume their normal is neutral. It isn’t. Daily routines train what the body expects. Work changes. Movement disappears. Meals stay the same. The system adjusts. Slow

Allowed to leave. Not everything you’re carrying is broken. Some things have simply stayed longer than they needed to. Before Anything Happens, Something in You Stays Leaned Forward The shoulders stay slightly forward. One small thing still running in the background. Nothing urgent. Nothing finished. The mind keeps checking it. Nothing Is Wrong. And Still, It Stays on Your Mind You probably know the feeling. Nothing is actually wrong. The system works. You answer the group c