Welcome to this week’s 1-2-1 newsletter. A small pause to recharge, rethink, and reconnect.
Inside you’ll find one ideas I’m sitting with, two voices I’m learning from, and one tiny step you can take to feel more like yourself this week.
I’ve been revisiting The Courage to Be Disliked this past week.
It challenges a simple but uncomfortable question:
Do you let your past determine your present?
For many of us, the honest answer is yes.
Personal Insight
What does it mean to become an adult?
Many of us remember childhood as carefree.
Freedom.
No bills.
No obligations.
Free to play. Free to explore.
But what if that never actually goes away?
What if we always have the ability to choose freedom?
Because if I’m honest, I’ve spent a good portion of my life avoiding what I wanted.
Staying invisible when it felt safer.
Not making difficult but necessary changes in my business.
Agreeing to keep operating as is, hoping things would somehow work out.
Not because I didn’t know.
But because choosing differently came with a cost I didn’t want to pay.
We all have dreams, aspirations, and goals.
And more often than we’d like to admit, we avoid them.
Through excuses.
Through comfort.
Even through “success.”
Sometimes we focus on our shortcomings.
Other times, we prioritize the expectations of others.
Either way, the result is the same.
We delay.
We avoid what we actually want.
And over time, that avoidance becomes a life.
So what would it look like to go after it, unapologetically and intentionally?
What if we invited others into that vision instead of hiding from it?
Where could that take us?
Or more honestly…
What’s one thing you’ve been avoiding that you know matters?
And what would it look like to take a step toward it today?
2 Voices I’m Learning From
1.
“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” - Joseph Campbell
Fear of rejection is real.
But so is regret.
A life half-lived is quieter, safer… and far more costly.
2.
“You don’t get to do everything. But you do get to choose what matters.” - Oliver Burkeman
Freedom isn’t about doing more.
It’s about choosing what actually matters and letting the rest go.
Safety and comfort come at a price.
So does going after what you want.
You just have to decide which cost you’re willing to pay.
1 REFLECTION / ACTION
Imagine a silver DeLorean time machine pulls up outside your house.
Your older self steps out.
They’ve lived your life.
They’ve made the choices you’re about to make.
What would you be most proud to hear you had the courage to attempt?
If something is coming up for you right now, pay attention to it.
That’s the signal.
You don’t need a complete plan.
You just need a step.
Take it today.
Even if it’s small.
Even if nobody notices.
Even if everyone does.
If this resonated, share it with someone who might need it.
Thanks for being here.
Jack
P.S. I’ve been thinking a lot about pressure and freedom lately.
I recently published a short essay called The Freedom Paradox.
It goes deeper into some of what I’ve been working through.
eBook + audiobook here:
https://jackjohnstonwrites.gumroad.com/l/freedom-paradox