Thanksgiving, Vulnerability, and the Journey to Find Your People

On gratitude, creative expression, and building a life that feels deeper and fuller.

The content game is an absolute grind. Each week you publish without any real reward, only the belief that the reward will come eventually. And then you learn that the process itself is the reward. It’s a game motivated by status that forces you inward to struggle with your own thoughts and find the deeply rooted driving force that drives the consistency and creativity you need to show up each week and produce.

I’ve always felt like I had this in me. I’ve sensed some innate creativity and found ways to offer that value. But never has the journey forced me so deep inside my own brain to sift through my thoughts and deal with complex topics: motivation, family, business, creativity. The writing process and my journey on Substack has taken me there.

For the last 26 weeks, I’ve been undergoing significant change. Meeting new people around the world sharing their views, learning that social media can be a form of TV (like many of us have been sucked into experiencing) or a form of social networking, using it to drive genuine connectedness. You have to be willing to take risks and put yourself out there.

All of life is about taking risks. To live a great life, you have to be willing to try things, to get uncomfortable, to live experiences that make you feel alive. And at the center of all of this is vulnerability. A way to unapologetically share aspects of yourself so that the people who are interested in what you have to say, the people you want to meet, can find you.

Like any good relationship, it takes two to tango. Someone has to initiate and lead. That takes vulnerability.

Through all of this, my life feels so much deeper and fuller than it did before. I feel like I am someone who lives in this vast universe, speaking up at the stars and shouting, letting people know that I am here and I want to be found. I want to serve people and do something with the skills I have built.

I have found other people like me, and I know there are more out there. Good people who are creating things and leading with creative expression, doing the deep and difficult work to explore how the process is changing them and evolving them into the thing they were meant to become.

I am one of those people. Each week I share thoughts that I hope inspire you to share with a friend who’s on a similar journey, building the future they want for themselves.

So on this Thanksgiving, I am feeling deeply proud of the work to show up here and share what I’m feeling. To will it into existence and to change. To do the hard work to trust the process and see where it takes me, knowing that the path will take me to my destiny, wherever that may be. I look forward to meeting it.

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Beyond all of this: why would I even care to send this note?

Growing up as a Jewish kid in America, there are very few holidays where you get to be just like everyone else. There is a huge Christmas season, but you don’t celebrate Christmas. Thanksgiving is one of the only major holidays where, growing up, I truly felt like I was just like everyone else. I got to experience the city shut down, the family time. It was a universal experience regardless of denomination. You feel a part of your American existence.

It’s a holiday I’ve always spent with people I love around good food. There isn’t any performative ceremony. It’s just a time to spend with family and enjoy each other’s company. To really be thankful for those people and enjoy the time. It is the only time of year where the holiday is that simple and everyone I know is doing it, regardless of whether you’re Jewish, Christian, or Muslim.

I love that about this holiday, and for me it always feels like a special time. Now I get to spend it with my wife, my daughter, and my in-laws. The people have changed, but the feeling has not. So it inspires me to share, to feel grateful, and get emotional.