#133🚿 What I'm leaving behind in Kyoto

Travel and perspective

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I’m on a mission to put the “Personal” back into Personal Development

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Shower thought🚿: Can you be a high achiever without expectations?

I’m back. I took 9 days off of my life — work, writing, and projects to spend time with my wife in Kyoto and California.

Kyoto is an incredible city and Japan is so uniquely different than America. There’s a strong culture of respect, discipline, and hospitality.
The streets are quiet. People obey crosswalks. And they pay great attention to the finer details.

I’m blessed to have had the opportunity to experience their way of life.

I’ve had a lot of people ask me what I “took away” from this experience.
But I’m more interested in telling you what I’m leaving behind.

I’m a high achiever at my core

From an outsiders perspective, I’m objectively doing well.
I went to Kyoto as a result of top performance in my job.
I stay fit, active, and run distances most people don’t want to drive.
I have a growing newsletter and soon to be published children’s book
And I do all of this while managing a family and personal life.

…. But I don’t (or at least haven’t been) waking up in the morning feeling great.
I struggle with confidence.
I worry.
I have a nasty habit of focusing on all of the things I don’t do.

I’m a high achiever at my core. I want to perform well and “be the best” and I set a high bar for myself.

This has mostly worked out for me.. I’ve reached what people would say is “success”… But I know there is a better way.

Focusing on the process, not the outcome

After 9 days off, I’m slowly reintegrating myself back to my life.

I’ve broken many of the automatic little processes, habits, and loops I had before I left. This has given me a chance to rebuild again.

We brought large suitcases to Kyoto (despite my attempt to pack light). In all that “baggage” I carried with me heavy, self-imposed expectations. Expectations that feel like sandbags, weighing me down and making life feel harder every step of the way.

I left that behind.
I can always find more baggage.
But (at least for now), I don’t want the weight of my own expectations.
I want to be light.
I want hard work to be fun.
I want to focus on the process, not place all of my worth on achieving outcomes.

See you next time, Japan.

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THANK YOU for making it to the end!

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