I think acceptance is the toughest part. Or maybe I mean recognition.

I remember sitting in a gray cubicle in Omaha, Nebraska. I was 23, and something felt very wrong. I didn’t know that I hated my job. I didn’t accept that I hated living in Nebraska.

Everyone around me would try to put templates on my life: buy a house, get married, etc.. It didn’t make sense to me, but I couldn’t accept — couldn’t recognize—that something had to change.

I think everything that follows acceptance in this post can actually make acceptance—or recognition—happen.

For me, I started making “towards” moves by working on my blog. I kept focusing on that, and my “want to’s.” Eventually, the dissenting voices waned. (I got out of Nebraska, wrote a best-selling book, and eventually moved to a different continent.)

It’s like you were saying when I interviewed you, James: You can’t change your thinking, but you can do things, and eventually that will change the way you think.

Thanks for the post, looking forward to hearing the interview.