The Most Essential Step

“And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles, no matter how long, but only by a spiritual journey, a journey of one inch, very arduous and humbling and joyful, by which we arrive at the ground at our own feet, and learn to be at home.”

― Wendell Berry, The Unforeseen Wilderness

In this week’s podcast conversation, Reboot Co-founder Dan Putt talks with AppSumo’s CEO Noah Kagan all about the journey from a string of “almost successes” to the moment when you find your own path and success on your own terms. Their conversation traverses the ups and downs along the way to finding yourself and living life from a place of wholeness, not brokenness. The key moments along the path are the places in which we no longer chase what we think we should do (according to the world or the voices in our lives), but rather heed a call from our inner self and see ourselves clearly. 

This journey is legendary: It’s a hero and heroine’s journey unique to your imprints, your patterns, your strengths, and your longings. The plot line involves what it takes for you to make that very spiritual (and arduous and joyful and humbling) journey to arrive at your own feet and learn to be home as Wendell Berry notes in the quote above. 

And, so often this is a journey related to our worth and tied to and impacted by our working life. Whether we’re chasing entrepreneurial dreams to avoid facing our anxiety-causing demons, or we feel like we’re fumbling along in the working world, working towards someone else’s dream while avoiding our own, something clicks when we arrive at the ground at our own feet. From that place of wholeness, and a greater understanding of what drives us, we can see more clearly what is our path, we can hear our voice, and we can stride toward the future we want to move into. 

From here, we can define a success that’s ours, not one prescripted by the many voices in our world. 

Take a moment to reflect on what success is to you: 

• What does success look like to the current version of you? 
• What would achieving that version of success feel like? What was the vision or version of success the younger you may have been chasing? 
• How would the future you, an older you, define success?