I believe life is a journey of learning, unlearning, remembering, and expanding who we are, both as individuals and as a species. In recent months, I’ve felt a tension between where I am and where I want to be. I’ve wrestled with frustration, anger, and impatience—caught in the belief that I should be farther along, that my life should look a certain way by now. Then I realized, like so many others, I was measuring my life by a definition of success that was never mine to begin with. I had internalized the idea that success was the final goal. After all, that’s what all the self-help books say. When life feels confining, they tell me to “rewrite my definition of success.” To ask myself: What does success look like, feel like, and mean to you?

But that question itself is misleading. It’s still only ever led me to a never-ending checklist.

While well-intentioned, I believe that words shape our experience and are containers of our understanding. And for someone like me—who has long defined my worth through external markers—redefining success was just another way of shifting the terminuses, another form of measuring myself against something outside of me. It was still a reaching, a grasping, a proving. Success, by definition, is an accomplishment or the attainment of something—but life is not something to be attained. It is something to be lived.

And that’s not to say that external markers don’t have value. I thrive on tangible tests—races, thru-hikes, words written—not as validations of my worth, but as places where I put my humanity into practice. They are places where I can practice endurance, stretch my limits, and integrate my being into the world. They are not finish lines; they are places of participation. The measure of a life isn’t in the things we attain, but in how deeply we inhabit the experience of being alive, of being human.

So, if not success, then what?

I am not here to live a successful life. I am here to bridge the essence of a deeply human life with a deeply natural life. To cultivate a world, a society, where human beings and nature flourish together. A life woven by the fabrics of nature, relationships, and the pursuit of growth. A life measured not by external achievements, but by the depth of my visceral engagement with the world.

To be human is to be enduring. We were given the unique adaptations of the ability to walk long distances, run great lengths, and carry more than many other species as we move through the world. These capacities, however, are not isolated—they are part of a greater rhythm. Our endurance is not just physical, but relational and ecological. We thrive not only through our individual strength but through our connections—with each other, with the land, and with the cycles of nature.

It is often said, "If you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together."

Our humanity, our endurance, is rooted in our connections to one another and the world around us. It is in this interconnectedness—between body, mind, heart, one another, and earth—that true endurance and fulfillment emerge.

This space—this site—is a living, breathing philosophy. It is where I test this idea, redefine it, and invite others to walk alongside me as we each find our path. Growth, contribution, and connection are my measures. Endurance is my practice. Exploration is my test. Expression is my integration. Engagement is my offering.

This is my philosophy of life—for now.

What’s yours?