Happy New Year!!!!! Let’s start this out on the right foot with a reflection of the last month of December 2024. Welcome traveler to The Explorer – The Month of Morality.

“be watchful over what you love, because you become what you desire.”

Staring at a bunch of words on a Google Doc, all I could say was: “This doesn’t sound right!” 

This dilemma was the hallmark of the first half of 2024. Typing, writing, sketching — these moments of writing led to another attempt at writing the dreaded first draft of my book again and again.

The words rustled around and didn’t speak as they used to. It was forced. There was no clear direction. 

“Screw it, I’m not focusing on this for now,” and I put it down.

Months of reprioritizing different things over the writing led to a full 2024. As the months moved on from June, July, August, and September, things slowly came to fruition.

Sketching the outline like the way an artist etches their masterpiece, the main ideas and the driving motives were being cultivated. It was now November and time to tackle this final challenge of the year.

Would I wrap up this final challenge? Time was running out.

“Okay - it’s gonna be shitty let’s just write what I can and be done with it.”

Every day from then on, a rough chapter was written. It wasn’t pretty, nor was it ecstatic, but it was done. The foundation was laid, and the systems were in place for the coming year, a year of editing.

Writing and publishing a book is no easy feat. The idea and concepts underlying it are all concepts discussed, but what does it mean to show it, and why are you doing it?

If you could write a book about anything, what would you write about?

This ongoing struggle led me to read “The Second Mountain” for more clarity on what that means, and David Brooks explains it fluidly. His breakdown of the second mountain in four different areas helped show why I was writing this book, namely for vocation, marriage, community, and faith.

I was pondering the next book before heading out on a trip and thought about rereading “The Inner Game of Tennis.”

It was a sound plan, but I later had a dream where a conversation unfolded with one of my mentors.

He and I discussed back and forth about the next steps of accepting responsibility and explicitly said the words: “The mountain is you.”

The last book broke down the individual and communal mountains. Yet, something was missing and this quote summarized it well:

“There’s always a tension between self and society. If things are too tightly bound, then the urge to rebel is strong.”

How do you harbor the individual such that it continues to thrive in the community?

I aim to find some answers in Brianna’s Wiest book, The Mountain is You.

Thank you for reading the December ‘24 newsletter! What’s one thing you’ll do to continue living a moral life in 2025?

Send me a message on Instagram or reply to this email!