How do we use our time well?
So many of us haven fallen asleep at the wheel of our own lives.
Me, included. Have, in the past. And, will again. Because I’m human, just like you. Fumbling and stumbling, trying to see more clearly, connect more deeply, and grow more alive through the joyful calamity of it all.
Thing is, we’re made no promises. It’s time to step back into the driver’s seat. To feel more alive, and less alone. That’s what Awake at the Wheel is about.
If not now, then when?
What will you get as a free subscriber?
Every Sunday morning, you’ll get a weekly Wake-up Call in your inbox, exploring a topic that is central to feeling more alive and less alone, often in an unconventional or novel way.
Then, we’ll wrap with a playful, yet purposeful journal and conversation prompt designed to help you reflect on the topic, and nudge you to spend a few minutes thinking about it in the context of your own life. And, if you’re inclined, then share it with a friend or loved one as a way to open a door to conversation. Or, right here in the Awake at the Wheel community. To see each other more fully, and know each other more deeply.
It’s an opportunity to begin the journey to coming alive, in a gentle, weekly and if you’re inclined, communal way.
More alive, less alone.
If those four words resonate, become a free subscriber now, and join in the fun and growth every week.
What do you get as a paid subscriber?
When you become a full access paid subscriber, for the price of a single (semi-bougie, alternative milk) latte a month, in addition to your weekly Wake-Up Calls, you’ll unlock:
Invitations to our monthly Awake @ the Wheel Community Jams, with a rotation of guided visualizations/meditations, fun guests, open Q&A, and time to drop into creative and soulful live-journaling and all-hands conversations.
Long-form “big think and feel” articles, essays, and poems - that take you much deeper into a story, idea, moment or key element related to living a life of meaning, purpose, passion, and play.
Video & voice notes - unedited and real, from the trail here in Boulder, Colorado (bears, rattlesnakes, and bobcats optional).
Access to commenting & community (we keep this community comment space for full-access members only, because it helps ensure a more sacred and safe space than the free-for-all of public comment sections).
Access to the archives - as the archives grow over time, you’ll be able to drop into and revisit everything, and return to what moved you.
Periodic Wake-Up Workshops & expert interviews that explore specific topics, tools and skills designed to help you feel more alive, less alone and more engaged with the world around you.
A way to say thank you, to support this work, and help grow this space, so I can spend more time, go deeper, and give you even more.
And, remember, the micro-hit you get from that fancy almond-oat-macadmia-milk latte is gone in minutes. As a full-access Awake at the Wheeler, you’ll keep replenishing your “more alive, less alone” mug all day, every-day, and all month long.
Try it for a month. What’ve you got to lose?
About Me
I’m the dad of a daughter whose every move beats my heart (I generally don’t post photos, because that’s her life and story to tell). The husband of a woman who has blessed every breath I’ve taken for over 30 years. And, I’m a Maker, I live to love, and to create.
At various times, I’ve made my bones as a lawyer, multi-time founder, 6-time author, keynote speaker, yoga teacher, blogger, educator, podcaster, and executive producer.
For more than a dozen years, I’ve hosted one of the most popular podcasts in the word, Good Life Project®. I still can't fathom how it’s grown into what it’s become, but I’m grateful for the community, the impact, and my big-hearted and wise team.
They say, “don’t meet your heroes.” They lie.
I’ve spent time with everyone from Anne Lamott, Elizabeth Gilbert, Brené Brown, and James McBride to Peter Frampton, Macy Gray, Matthew McConaughey and others who’ve been knighted, won Nobels, Pulitzers, Oscars and Grammys, made world-changing scientific breakthroughs and led social change. Every one was, and is, my teacher. Every conversation, a gift.
Along an ambling professional path, I investigated insider-trading as an enforcement attorney for the SEC, fumbled my way through mega-deals at a big-firm in NYC, then “threw it all away” to make $12/hour as a personal trainer and learn the wellness industry from the ground-up. Soon after, I opened my own facility. Our ethos was “do the opposite of convention.” To everyone’s amazement (mine, included), we thrived. I eventually sold my interest, and took time to start following a creative impulse to write. And, break all the rules I’d learned as a lawyer.
A year later, in the shadow of 9-11, having self-published my first “alleged” book, I found myself deepening into Eastern thought and movement. Opened a yoga studio in Hell’s Kitchen, NYC, then spent the next 7 years breathing, moving, studying, and teaching thousands, training hundreds of teachers from around the world, and building community.
All of it, from my time taking depositions under the cover of secrecy in a windowless, cinderblock government box to bringing students out of Savasana after 90-minutes of sweaty collective effervescence, was a PhD in the human condition. In what makes us tick, or not. In how we see and believe and act, both when around others, and, more interestingly, when we think no one’s looking. In how we meet and make our worlds. And what inner and outer rules guide the pursuit.
This all led me back to writing, where, in 2008, I began my journey as an author in earnest, writing a series of award-winning and bestselling books. Among them — Career Renegade (Penguin Random House), Uncertainty (Portfolio), How to Live a Good Life (Hay House), and SPARKED (HarperCollins).
Then, there’s one more book that took four years, has a single copy in print, and will remain a mystery to all but one of two humans who hold my heart, and will for life.
All of which launched me into the world of public speaking, and along with our team, gathering community for a wonderful series of retreats, events, programs and even a five-year stint running an adult summer-camp that reconnected thousands of attendees to what it means to drop the facade, reconnect to meaning, play and joy, and come back to life.
In 2018, following a deep curiosity around the world of work, and how to make it better, I launched a research initiative that developed the Sparketype® Assessment, a simple, freely-available tool that identifies the essence of work that makes you come alive. As we head toward a million people having completed this assessment, generating approximately 50-million data-points, it’s grown into one of the largest-ever global studies on work-life fulfillment. Take it now, if you haven’t yet, it’s totally free and may reveal something powerful to you.
Somehow, this “long, strange trip” has led to features in The New York Times, Oprah Magazine, FastCompany, Shondaland, Success, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, SELF, Vogue, Yoga Journal, Allure, The Guardian, Inc., ELLE, Outside, yada yada yada. Why they cared, not entirely sure, but it’s been fun.
More than anything, I’m a dad, husband, friend, and Maker who just wants to spend my time loving who I love, helping others, and making things that move people.
I look forward to sharing, learning, and deepening the connection here at Awake @ the Wheel.
