I didn’t expect a mountain bike race, a podcast conversation, and a childhood horror movie to have anything in common — but they all pointed me to the same place: inner peace.

This week’s issue of Authbition Weekly climbs through fear, fatigue, and perspective to find the balance between pushing forward and knowing when to stop.

This week I read an essay I almost didn’t share—filled with mischief, fear, and laughter. Writing it brought tears, reading it brought joy, and sharing it revealed something deeper about empathy and compassion.

On a real road trip, I read aloud my essay Grandma Riding Shotgun Saved My Ass — a wild true story of driving 1,000 miles overnight with my grandma riding shotgun. From highway parties to a speed trap with guns drawn, it’s part family legend, part near-disaster, and all heart. A story about freedom, risk, and the bond that kept me safe.

In this week’s Authbition Weekly, my wife Abby joins me on the mic to explore comparison vs growth mindset, where we uncovered the mantra “I am enough” and discussed how compassion makes us unstoppable. I read my most vulnerable essay yet on finding home, and share a funny, refreshing, and thoughtfully challenging essay by Robin Wilding that flips the idea of psychopathy on its head.

In this week’s Authbition Weekly, I explore the choice between seeing My Morning Jacket at Hopscotch in Raleigh or staying grounded in Cedar Mountain. Through The Whole Mind Game, I discover how music, nature, and time flow together — and reflect on why artists are our human expression of Mother Nature.

In this episode of Authbition, I record live from the massage table with my therapist and friend, T'Keyah Moore, founder of Soul Vibrations Holistic Wellness. Together, we explore the Whole Mind Game, a simple yet powerful way to turn “either/or” decisions into expansive opportunities. We talk about cycling breakthroughs, ambition, authenticity, earliest memories, and how relationships shape who we are. T'Keyah shares her journey as a holistic practitioner, the healing power of sound bath therapy, and her vision for a retreat in the mountains. This is a conversation about quality—of body, mind, and life itself.

This episode reminded me that sustainability isn’t about slowing down, and growth isn’t about burning out. The best of the best comes when I find a rhythm that blends both.

What stood out most was learning the value of an internal shift before reaching for external ones. On the bike, that meant adjusting my form and rhythm before hitting the gear shifter. In life, it means pausing before chasing the next hack, scroll, or shortcut — and asking whether the real shift needs to happen inside first.

A big thank you to Joe Guay for joining me at the infancy of Authbition. Joe is a voice actor and a talented essayist whose words carry both humor and heart. I’m grateful he was willing to show up vulnerably, play The Whole Mind Game with me, and share his story.

We began our conversation with the tension between having a Real Job and being Self-Employed. Together we explored…

Hello Friends,

I’m sitting on a flight from Boston to Raleigh. I finished writing a draft for a new essay about a very memorable day on a movie set where I had a hot encounter with Bridgette Fonda. Then I moved on to reading a few essays from fellow writers on Medium. What to do next? How about starting my newsletter here on the Authbition website?