My parents dragged me to a fancy dinner party in 1999. I was 13-years-old: at the end of the night, the adults ask to see a magic trick. I grab a dinner roll and a napkin from the table, cover the roll with the napkin, pretend to concentrate really hard, and, low and behold –Read More

May, 2009: It was advice I didn’t want to hear. I was trying to start a business and busy dreaming of a comfortable life – one with a nice apartment, vacations in Costa Rica and an exotic sports car. J*, a trusted mentor, turned to me said, “You know Jason, if you do become successful,Read More

August 2018: It’s been months since the last wild night with the boys, ambitious project at work, or whirlwind romance. Given that pretending to be a rock star is one of my favorite pastimes, this is a dramatic change of pace for me. I feel… boring. And yet, despite the boredom, happiness keeps sneaking upRead More

For years, thought leaders and pop-psychologists have been telling us that gratitude is the long lost secret to happiness, success, harmonious relationships, wild sex, financial abundance, world peace, and the perfect brownie recipe with crispy edges and gooey middles. There’s even a bunch of quasi-compelling science to support gratitude’s transformational power. When I first startedRead More

Note: this is the second installment in a two-part series on getting out of a rut. The first part, which can be found here, is on emotional spring-cleaning. One subtle characteristic of being in a rut is that we become self-obsessed. We ruminate over the past and where we went wrong. We scornfully replay allRead More

Summer, 2018, during a brutal silent meditation retreat: It’s been two days since I’ve had significant human contact. Worse still, my thoughts are dominating me. There’s no corner of my mind that isn’t overrun by fears about work, love, loss, the past, the future, and… everything. I’ve given up attempting to sit still, and IRead More

Modernity is filled with false gods. How many of us have chased – and even achieved – success, only to find that it didn’t fill the void we hoped it would? How many times have we felt even more isolated after getting exactly what we thought we wanted? Of course, success isn’t the only falseRead More

Right now life feels particularly unstable. Long time readers know that I endured a decent amount of turbulence this year, and to the best of my ability, I used it as an invitation to build a better life. As I write, I’m raising capital for my next business and exploring a new relationship. I’ve also startedRead More