September 16, 2026Life Notes15 min read
Topic
Purpose & Personal Growth
Essays on meaning, adulthood, habits, identity, and becoming.
Best starting essay
Reflections from Japan, Part Two: The Beauty & Horrors of Timing, Effort, and Building Legacy
Another week back in 'real life' and I have to admit, there's been good and bad days since posting part one last week. Despite going through unemployment before, I can't say that I ever feel prepared to go through it aga
Start readingTopic highlights
Featured essays
March 26, 2025Work, Ambition & Unemployment6 min read
Reflections from Japan, Part One: Searching for Peace & Simplicity In An Unemployed World
February 16, 2021Mental Health & Self-Worth6 min read
Being Honest With Ourselves
June 6, 2016Grief & Mortality4 min read
The Illusion of Infinity
Complete topic archive
All essays in this topic
Includes every public migrated essay tagged with Purpose & Personal Growth as a primary or secondary topic. Topic pages are still here for direct links, but the Essays archive is the main place to browse and filter.
September 22, 2026Life Notes6 min read
Maybe the Best Memories Are the Ones We Never Planned
The moments that matter most do not always arrive on an itinerary. A reflection on distraction, attention, and letting ordinary time become a memory.
September 16, 2026Life Notes15 min read
Ten Years in Los Angeles: I’m Not the Person Who Arrived Here
Ten years after moving to Los Angeles, I look back on the life I built, the costs of leaving home, and the person I became along the way.
September 10, 2026Life Notes6 min read
Can You Still Call Somewhere Home After You Leave?
Leaving home can create a second home without making the first one any less real. A reflection on distance, identity, and belonging to more than one place.
August 26, 2026Life Notes5 min read
Part Two: The Memories I Haven’t Made Yet
Nostalgia can help us notice what is missing now—without letting the past distract us from the ordinary days that are becoming our next memories.
August 18, 2026Life Notes8 min read
Part One: Maybe I Don’t Miss the Past. Maybe I Miss Who I Was Then.
Nostalgia can look like missing an old game, place, or period of life when what we really miss is the person we were and the future we imagined then.
August 10, 2026Purpose & Personal Growth6 min read
Does Everything We Enjoy Eventually Have to Become Productive?
Hobbies can quietly become businesses, content, data, or another thing to optimize. A reflection on protecting enjoyment from the pressure to make every interest productive.
July 20, 2026Work, Ambition & Unemployment7 min read
How Do You Stay Ambitious When Work Stops Feeling Stable?
Career instability does not have to make you stop caring about your work. It may mean building a version of ambition that no single employer can take away.
July 13, 2026Purpose & Personal Growth5 min read
You’re Not Behind. The Timeline Was Built for a Different Time.
Feeling behind does not always mean you made the wrong choices. Sometimes it means you are measuring your life against a timeline built for a world that no longer exists.
April 3, 2025Work, Ambition & Unemployment5 min read
Reflections from Japan, Part Two: The Beauty & Horrors of Timing, Effort, and Building Legacy
Another week back in 'real life' and I have to admit, there's been good and bad days since posting part one last week. Despite going through unemployment before, I can't say that I ever…
March 26, 2025Work, Ambition & Unemployment6 min read
Reflections from Japan, Part One: Searching for Peace & Simplicity In An Unemployed World
So, I'm back on the job market again. This will be the third time I have been looking for a new role since 2022, and as much as this has bruised my ego and made me think I'm the worst…
May 1, 2024Purpose & Personal Growth3 min read
Q&A - May 1 2024
Looks like I lied back in February when I said that I would try to write more; as I haven't sat and typed words on this blog in almost 3 months. Well, rather than dwell on this, I figured…
January 22, 2023Purpose & Personal Growth5 min read
Paris Thoughts vol. 2
Continuing from my previous posthttps://viewsfromamaninthe6ix.wordpress.com/2023/01/15/paris-thoughts-vol-1/, here are some ramblings from having the time to self-reflect on how 2022…
December 12, 2022Purpose & Personal Growth6 min read
Tyrell Wrapped: 2022 in Review
If I had to describe this year in a sentence? An absolute whirlwind of emotions, lessons, and building blocks for what I think might just be a pretty exciting future ahead. I've discussed…
September 16, 2022Life Notes10 min read
6 Years in Los Angeles
Why hello there. I know it's been two months since I last wrote anything, and do I ever have some updates... but those will come in time. Instead, I wanted to write a reflection piece…
January 4, 2022Purpose & Personal Growth6 min read
Sticking To Your Goals
So, it's the time of year again when most people are setting up resolutions that they will quickly give up a few weeks later. We've all done it. The new year comes around, we have this…
March 26, 2021Purpose & Personal Growth9 min read
Letter To My Younger Self, part two
You may be asking, where the heck is part one? Well... I wrote it many many years ago herehttps://viewsfromamaninthe6ix.wordpress.com/2015/03/25/a-letter-to-my-younger-self/. I figured it…
February 16, 2021Mental Health & Self-Worth6 min read
Being Honest With Ourselves
I've been thinking about this question for a little while now... so let me ask: why is it so hard for us to be honest with ourselves about what we want? A lot of us lie to ourselves in…
January 9, 2019Mental Health & Self-Worth17 min read
What Are You Afraid Of?
It's the beginning of 2019, so that means it's around that time of year when the 'new year, new me' motto comes back for about 3 weeks and then disappears until Jan 1 of next year…
December 6, 2017Purpose & Personal Growth3 min read
Bigger Than Me.
I never know how to start these things... should I be witty? Serious? Use a quote? Post a song? Tell you a joke? Anyways. 2017 was a big year for me in many ways... probably too many to…
August 27, 2016Life Notes3 min read
Views from a man in the 3?
I guess I'm going to have to change my blog name - I'm moving to LA. Scared. Excited. Nervous. Curious. Anxious. Ready - these are a few of the 1,000 feelings running through my head at…
June 6, 2016Grief & Mortality4 min read
The Illusion of Infinity
So the title may be a bit misleading, but trust me that this is not a blog about math. Please continue to read on without being worried about having to dig up your high school calculus…
August 6, 2015Purpose & Personal Growth4 min read
Broadening Your Horizons
So the title may be pretty vague... what am I referring to exactly? What should you be broadening? In short - anything and everything that you have the chance to. I have to admit that I…
April 17, 2015Boundaries4 min read
A Tricky Concept Called Independence
So I was going to start this post off with the definition of Independence... but it keeps redirecting me back to the word Independent. Let's go with that then, according to…
March 25, 2015Purpose & Personal Growth3 min read
A letter to my younger self
Let's just get this out of the way now: things don't get easier. You currently spend your days going to school, eating junk food, and then coming home to watch Pokemon. Sometimes you make…
February 16, 2015Life Notes3 min read
The Theory of Everything
So I honestly wasn't sure if I was going to write on this blog anymore... but I've just been inspired so here it goes. If you haven't heard of The Theory of…
Newsletter
Never miss out on a new essay
Get new essays and occasional behind-the-scenes commentary on the book progress. Sign up to get new essays straight to your inbox, in case you don't want to come to this website all the time.