Morning friends,

I trust you're well and hope you're fully immersed into Autumn. I'll sprinkle in some pictures from recent walks into today's letter for you.

What if you were given everything you ever wanted but you didn't realise it? The melancholy would be overbearing. The regret and disappointment in ourselves would haunt us for eternity. And yet most of the time, we are presented with opportunities to take and my letter today is to encourage you to do so.

People need to be braver in owning the choices they make. The ultimate courage comes from stepping away from the crowd and doing what feels right to you. You don't ever have to justify it. You just go with it and own it with your actions rather than your words. The purest life experiences with come from this. The trust of intuition and knowing it'll look after you long-term is a type of boldness everyone needs to embrace.

It's a type of person who is to be admired. It's not for money, winning or status. It's for you. But it's a hero others can use to emulate. We can waste so much of life trying to be things we ultimately don't want to be. We find peace in things that don't matter rather than having that constant flow of peace go through us day to day from pride in our own existence.

My overriding point today being: what's the point if you don't enjoy it?

Even any aspect of it? From the satisfaction of pursuit to the endurance of pain. Everything we're given in life is a question of whether we enjoy it or not. Sometimes, people who commit their entire life to their careers are either lauded or demonised. Yet, it's their life to live. Nobody else's. As long as you enjoy it and are at peace with the decision you've made then why not?

Enjoying things comes down to every last detail: rather than optimise our time, why don't we fill it with things that we love? Rather than trying to be the best and being in main character mode, why don't we just push ourselves a bit in areas that excite us? Rather than overthink our lives, why don't we just bask in all the glory we have right in front of us.

The sad thing is we can program ourselves into misery. We choose things to focus our attention on and let it control our entire life. If we choose something that is missing in our life, we'll live a terrible existence. There will always be things missing. Yet, if you choose to focus on the good things in your life, no one can touch you. It usually takes an override of the brain but leads to bliss.

It seems ridiculous to even say because we've never lived in a better time to be a human. The quality of life for humans is the best it's ever been and more people than ever have access to it. Yet, we can still be despondent with day-to-day life.

This is where a real sense of grasp over our life is required. It sounds simple but why on earth wouldn't we choose to be happy with our existence? Especially when we can have more control than we realise? The best form of discipline you can have in your life is shutting out all the negative noise. Honing in on 2 things can make all the difference to the quality of your existence:

• Pay more attention to all the great things you currently have
• Look at all the things you could have in your life if you just narrow in on what you want and go and get it.

There is a bonus point too - just go with it. Revel in it. Truly live it. We get caught up overthinking all the bad things that happen whilst over-celebrating the good things. We turn meaningful achievements into materialistic events. Just go with it. Enjoy the ups and downs whilst knowing you're not special nor immune to them. Doesn't mean you shouldn't miss out on living though right?

I've thoroughly enjoyed writing this. I've spent all week coming back to it, editing it and trying to improve it. That isn't me saying it's good by the way! But it is an invitation for you to write. Write for yourself. Put it out into the world for everyone. You never know who might enjoy nor need to hear what you think.

Otherwise, have a cracking Sunday! See you all on the other side!

Lawrence

PS. I may mention this on the podcast but I'm finding myself leaning into and realising more how the podcast is a creative outlet rather than something I turn up for each week. As much as it pains me to say it, I feel like it may not be as consistent as it has been over the last 4 and 1/2 years but it's not going anywhere. This is half apology for those who have become used to expecting it on Mondays and half update that when I do release new episodes, they'll be pure self-improvement updates from the soul.

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