micro manifesto workshops!

the minimum effective dose of manifesto energy

Hi friends!

So a bit of quick housekeeping.

I've officially split "manifesto musings" into its own Substack. All the writing here is going to riff and expand on this thesis.

1. the stories we tell about ourselves, others, and the world become self-fulfilling prophecies

2. too many of us are building lives, companies, futures in the quicksand of stories that no longer serve us

3. humanity’s most profound gift is not raw intelligence, but our capacity to dream, speak, and live new stories

4. writing a manifesto uproots old stories, and plants the seeds of new narratives that can bring us back to life

5. choosing to live into a new story, however imperfectly, is the most courageous thing a human can do

One of the ways I've been refining and living The Thesis™ for myself is writing micro-manifestos. Specifically, I've been attempting to write tiny six-sentence manifestos that actually move me. Which, as it turns out, is insanely difficult for a verbose fella like myself.

But I've written a handful now, and I'm genuinely excited about this format and potential of it. Feels super accessible, lower stakes, more enjoyable.

Here's the first six-sentence manifesto I wrote last month, about my lifelong struggle with food. This piece is simply entitled "Every meal is a miracle."

Your relationship with food has come to feel like an eternal battle between rigid self-control and shameful surrender, turning every meal into an anxious ordeal where you rarely enjoy yourself, let alone feel nourished.

This cycle isn't about food or weight, but your bone deep belief that the little kid in you who loves Big Macs cannot be trusted, and that unlike “normal people,” you've lost the right to eat without authoritarian vigilance over him.

Staying mired in this pattern robs you of one of the most basic human pleasures—the simple joy of eating—and disconnects you from yourself, the people you care about, and from life itself, meal after meal, year after year.

Your path to freedom isn't through tighter control, but radical gratitude, approaching each meal, even those "forbidden" foods, as a chance to practice presence, curiosity, and appreciation for all of the ingredients that found their way here.

Years of mistrust won't be undone in a day, and though the old patterns will likely pull you back into the darkness from time to time, choosing self-compassion in those moments will help you keep inching towards freedom.

No matter what, you can always begin again with your next meal, turning off the distractions, gazing at what's before you with wonder, and saying it with feeling. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I've been reading this every morning as a ritualized reminder, and saying something akin to grace at each meal, and it's been cool to watch a lot of old patterns of authoritarian control over food start to soften. Increasingly convinced that gratitude practice has legit healing powers.

Anyhow, that brings me to my main announcement. I'm teaching a pair of workshops over the next month to guide homies through the creation of their own six-sentence manifestos.

The first is next Friday, June 27th, at 3pm est. This one is about using micro manifestos to get unstuck in life. It'll help you declare independence from a pattern/circumstance that frustrates and stifles you. Whether you're feeling stuck with work5, relationships, health, spirituality, or anything else, this workshop will help you create a charge of emotional energy that unsticks you. Register here.

The second is on Tuesday, July 22nd at 6pm est, and it's part of my friend Christina Ducruet's Creativity x Fear event. For that one, we'll be using the six-sentence format to ditch the stories and insecurities that stifle our creative work, and step into a more fluid, free, enjoyable relationship with creativity. If that's your jam, you can either register for the entire six week experience, or just my workshop.

So yeah, that's all I got. Hope to see y'all at a workshop soon, and holler if you have any questions.