Ikigetsu

Tis the Season of Cutting

This past month has been intense—fiery, even. Long story short, I realized I’m doing way too much.

I’m launching a personal brand, building a digital marketing company, doing real estate photography, trying to maintain a personal life, planning and budgeting for a wedding, working on my fitness—the list goes on.

I knew something had to change. But up until recently, I had no idea how to approach this ball of chaos I’d created. Every time I thought about cutting something, it felt like I was losing too much. At the same time, I know that juggling three businesses—none of which are fully established—is a surefire way to fail at all of them.

A Moment of Clarity

While walking along the shoreline in Chicago, I stopped and took a deep breath. As I looked at the empty beach, a thought hit me:

“Wow, nothing.”

It was peaceful. No distractions. No noise. Just stillness.

Then, I noticed one person walking alone on the shore. They were the only thing in my line of sight—no clutter, no competition for my attention. Just one focus.

In that moment, a Japanese word came to mind:

Ikigetsu – single-minded focus on one thing.

I had an aha moment: I need to focus on just one thing. But how do I choose?

Following the Flow

I was recently reading The Creative Act by Rick Rubin, where he suggests that if a certain project or direction brings you joy, that’s usually a telltale sign that you should follow it. That really resonated with me.

Right now, I have a ton of ideas sparking in my mind, but I’m learning to let them germinate before going all in. If I don’t feel aligned with the universal flow of what I’m doing, it starts to feel like a prison cell.

Yes, there will always be hard days, but I don’t believe struggle should be the default.

Funny enough, I hesitated to write a newsletter this week, but now that I have—I’m so glad I did. Maybe one of you needed to hear this.

I’ll keep you posted on where my head’s at next week.

Much love,
Michael