Wrestling with the hard things

This week I opened the doors for the January 2023 cohort of?The Conspiracy?- my membership community of awesome humans working on Worthy Goals.

We open our doors three times / year and this opening we are welcoming up to 100 new members. Until TODAY at 3pm ET, the early bird pricing is available ($197 every four months or $447 for a year). After that, the doors remain open until December 15th (or we fill all the spots), but at the full price ($247 every four months or $597 for a year).

In order to qualify to join us, you must?own the How to Begin course.

The Conspiracy?is packed with incredible humans, events, resources, and tools to set you up for a supported, connected, and dream-achieving 2023.

I’d love to see you in there.

What sort of choice is that?

"Too much choice undermines real freedom.

You start believing that your choice of coffee

is what makes you different."

Michael McGirr, Ideas to Save Your Life

It turns out my identity is more entangled in my coffee choice than I’d realized.

I’m a doppio sort of guy: a double espresso, no milk, no sugar, no fussing, just good crema and that dark chocolate taste. You may not have realized that this indicates my European-esque sophistication, my writer’s temperament, a certain Mediterranean handsomeness, and my general love of la dolce vitae. You did pick up all of that signaling, right?

McGirr’s quote has me thinking of the balance in our choices between those that confirm past choices about who we are (“doppio, please”), and those that disrupt that sense of familiarity and that might unlock the next version of you..

It’s why I wrestle with the idea of “being authentic.” That can presume there’s some essential quality that’s there to be uncovered, the true You-ness of you. Chipping away at the marble to find the angel within.

But we’re not a Michelangelo statue; we’re evolving human beings. And putting aside psychology for a moment,? even biologically, the idea of authenticity doesn’t work. I heard on this podcast the startling fact that there are only enough human cells in you to constitute just one of your legs. The rest of you is … all sorts of stuff; parasites mostly. (I KNOW!)

How to Begin is built out from this phrase:: we unlock our greatness by working on the hard things. You can, of course, stick to familiar coffee choices. (That’s what I plan to do).

But if you’re looking to keep growing and evolving, you want to be making choices that nudge you towards the intriguing edges of your known self.

What’s the most important choice you’re facing right now?

What crossroads are you at?

This article is an excerpt from my free weekly newsletter The Works. Each edition shares an insight, tool or story that will help you be a force for change, written by me, MBS - recognized as the #1 thought leader on #coaching in the world. Subscribe to get the full impact delivered straight to your inbox.