Getting curious about ourselves and realizing that no question is not worth asking is a fundamental skill toward attaining more self awareness over time. It may sound obvious (and to be fair, it is) but in being honest with ourselves and assessing how good we are at asking ourselves these questions, we may quickly realize we have some work to do. Not just when we fuck up or when we have a really difficult decision ahead of us, but all the other times we do automatic shit that ends up sucking the life out of us.

Deliberate work on ourselves is the key to growing, developing, and becoming better human beings. I feel like I continue to stress that point. What I haven’t stressed yet is how much more challenging that work becomes when our body isn’t operating efficiently. I didn’t realize this explicitly 10 years ago, but there aren’t many things I am more grateful for than the decision to be deliberate about eating well and moving regularly.

When I talk about presence, I am referring to the attention, time, focus, and energy you give to yourself, an activity you are doing, or to someone else. It is rare, make no mistake about it. My guess is that you THINK you are present for self, thing, or other when the truth is that you’re really only giving half or probably even less than half of what is possible.