I've been noticing how many people live in a state of constant reaction now. Every ping gets answered the moment it lands. Every question gets handled on the spot. Someone brings something up at dinner and the phone comes out, the call gets made, right then. The reason is almost always some version of the same thing. I just want to get it done so it's out of my head. And in the next breath, the same people wonder why they're so exhausted all the time.

Most of the people I work with don't come to me knowing what they want. They come to me saying the opposite.

"I don't know what I want."

It usually comes with a little embarrassment, because they feel like they should know by now. These are accomplished people. They've built businesses, raised families, led teams. They're the ones everyone…

There’s a line in The Art of Possibility that always makes me smile (and exhale):

“Don’t take yourself so goddamn seriously.”

I used to joke that I had Serious Disease. Not that I had a serious disease, but the habit of taking life—and myself—a little too seriously.

So when I came across Rule #6 in Rosamund and Benjamin Zander’s book, I laughed out loud. It gave me a fresh,