Earlier today, it occurred to me that it would be a valuable growth exercise to list the 20 things I love most about life.
In the spirit of sharing and your inspiration, I offer each item below. And then encourage you to make your list too.
Let’s go…
1. The opportunity to use each day to incrementally and steadily grow into more of who I’m meant to be. Because a life without growth is a half-lived life.
2. Evening chats at the farmhouse with Elle, about our days, the books we’re reading and the life we’re sharing. So simple. So special.
3. Art gallery visits with my son Colby and tennis photos of my daughter Bianca’s tennis game. My kids are my treasures.
4. Working on a new book. Hard and deeply challenging as it is, it’s also staggeringly satisfying. A friend told me a few years ago: “you didn’t just write your book, your book wrote you.” [My next book will be published in January of 2027].
5. Rising at 4 am, doing my MVP practice (meditation, visualization and prayer) and then hopping onto my favorite treadmill at 5 am to exercise in the dark, while listening to a podcast or an audiobook. Yes, to me, this ritual is fun.
6. Having a conversation about geopolitics with my 88 year-old father. He’s my hero.
7. Doing my morning “Wonder Walk” on the farm with my small dog who thinks she’s a big dog Holly. She’s my pal.
8. Chatting with my incredibly optimistic mother.
9. Riding my mountain bike on a sunny autumn day through woods rich with colors, scents and streams. Oh how it makes my soul sing!
10. Buying new books from a great old bookshop and reading pages from each once I arrive home. Buying more books than you’ll ever read is such a precious practice.
11. Getting onto a plane to step onto a stage to share my insights and practices to build a world-class company, with leaders from across the planet.
12. Making people I don’t know really well feel seen, heard and significant.
13. Walking the streets of Rome alone (or with my best friend Luigi) when few people are on the streets. Midnight is best.
14. Being stopped by a reader in an airport or on a tour and hearing how one of my books has altered their path. Grateful. Humbled.
15. Being still.
16. Painting and drawing after the farmhouse has gone quiet—and all are asleep, while one of my country or classical ot trip hop playlists plays softly. Here’s a recent drawing:
