What Do You Want?

Hello friends and welcome back to Life Reimagined, a free weekly elixir designed to make you feel good and live better.

I’ve started writing essays again after a long hiatus. It’s harder and more fun than I remembered. This week, I’m excited to share a piece that attempts to help you answer the most important question of adulthood: What do you want?

You can read it here or check out the teaser with more info below. If you give it a read, I’d love to hear what you think. I’ll be writing more essays and am approaching the craft with fresh eyes. So I’m open to any and all thoughts.

🧐 I. What Do You Want?

My friend is thinking about quitting his job, and here’s the rub.

He’s paid well, has a kind boss and smart peers, and takes enough vacation. But he’s felt unfulfilled for some time. Something is off, and he asked me what to do.

I told him what he already knows: “The job sounds great on paper, but it’s not working out. It seems sensible to quit. What’s stopping you?”

The money is good. He’s not sure if he can get another job like this one. His colleagues may think he gave up. He feels he should be grateful for having a job when people are struggling.

“Those are fine considerations,” I said. “But what do you want?”

After a long pause, he said, “Hmm, I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about that.”

And that’s when it hit me. My friend wants to make an important life decision. He’s paralyzed by doubt and hoping that someone else can give him the answer. But even the wisest friend can’t bring him any closer to an answer because he’s asking the wrong questions.

He’s focused on how he should feel about his job, how his career move might be perceived by others, and how he may never be able to have this level of money or prestige again.

But he’s not confronting the only question that matters: What do you want?

👉 In my latest essay, I attempt to help my friend and you learn how to answer the central question of adulthood: What Do You Want?

🎙️ II. SYDLIS is Back!

The Sh*t You Don’t Learn in School Podcast with me and Steph Smith is back! 🥳 If you’re new here and don’t know what the pod is about, it’s basically a fun series of conversations about how to make adulthood more enjoyable.

Our previous pods have explored topics like how to find a life partner, deciding where to live, creating money rules in relationships, and deep dives into business opportunities and the promise and perils of technology.

What I love most about the podcast though is that it’s a medium through which I can let loose, have fun, and explore ideas in an unfettered way. Whereas my writing can be somewhat serious and focused, the pod is more dynamic and covers a much wider set of topics.

In our first week back, we released an episode about our recent and surprising move to San Francisco. You can listen to the latest episode here.

Moving forward, our plan is to release a new episode every Saturday morning. If you want to avoid missing out, make sure to subscribe in your podcast player of choice to get notified when new episodes drop.

And if you have any topics you want us to cover, you can always send me an email with your ideas.

🧠 III. Something I’m Thinking About

That's all for now. See you next Sunday.

— Cal

🌎️ Three other things you might enjoy

1. Doing Time Right: Everyone wants to get more done in less time. This course will show you exactly how to do that with the eliminate, automate, delegate, and iterate framework.

2. Foundations. Looking for good books to read? Check out Foundations, a growing digital notebook with notes & lessons from 100+ timeless books.

3. Listen to the Podcast: Feel like school didn't prepare you for adulthood? The Sh*t You Don't Learn in School podcast exists to help make up for this societal failure.