Why is it so hard to change? Is it simply a lack of desire or willpower? According to science, the answer is no. The reason we don’t change is because most of us are missing one crucial ingredient: self-compassion.

It's interesting how coincidences show up when you're thinking about something. Mine occurred on the evening of the day I attended Chip and Michael Hebb’s workshop, their first Death Over Dinner (DOD) virtual collaboration. Michael, the founder, shared his personal story and how DOD evolved into a global phenomenon.

As a follow-up to yesterday’s Wisdom Well blog post, here’s part 2:

My friend Kevin Kelly’s blog post on 103 Bits of Advice went viral, so I figured I’d do a deep dive into my own list—62 bits of advice I wish I’d learned earlier (Part 1). It also reminds me of Baz Lurhmann’s “Everybody’s free to wear sunscreen.” Here’s the first half:

The young mind is exceedingly focused but doesn’t often see the collateral benefits and costs of the decisions they’re considering. The older mind has developed the pattern recognition to imagine the less obvious tradeoffs that come with key life decisions.

My co-founder Christine Sperber is effortlessly cool. Commonly branded a “lovely badass” during our end-of-the-week workshop appreciation ceremonies, Christine has the street cred of being a former professional snowboarder turned Baja hospitality guru. She’s MEA’s Chief Experience Officer. Yes, there was a reason I hired her to throw my week-long 55th birthday party in El Pescadero in 2015.

One of our co-founders, Skylar, recently made an insightful comment during one of our team meetings. He said something to the effect of, “I am no longer hopeful that the world is going to turn around anytime soon.”

“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before!”- Preamble Star Trek TV

These words tumbled out of the Stoic philosopher Seneca’s mouth more than 2,000 years ago. Today, they’re an important reminder that pursuing wisdom is a choice, and it’s often the result of a skinned knee or a bruised ego. In other words, our current difficulties create our future discernment.

Brené Brown wrote a blog post four years ago about "The Midlife Unraveling." She wrote: