A question I couldn’t ignore

About two months ago, my brother sent me a text from beautiful Hawaii.

Meanwhile, I’m sitting in the bi-polar weather of Wisconsin—wearing a hoodie one day and a t-shirt the next.

His message was simple.

“Why did you stop writing?”

*Wifffff, whew….*

I stared quietly at that message for a moment before replying.

That text sent me down a mental rabbit hole…

“Why did I stop?”

I could blame it on life getting busy.

Fatherhood.

Creating videos becoming the focus.

Losing interest.

Yet the honest truth is… I don’t entirely know why I stopped.

But the more I sat with that question, the clearer the answer became.

And it was much simpler than I wanted it to be.

I stopped prioritizing it.

And that realization hit me harder than I expected.

Because writing has always been one of the clearest expressions of who I am.

And somewhere along the way… it slowly slipped to the edges of my life.

“Did I stop caring?”

“Nah, that’s not it. I still care.”

“Then… why… aren’t… you… doing it?”

(Time to climb out of the rabbit hole Ronald)

As it turns out, my brother has started writing.

And his writing made him think of mine… which led to that random text pinging my phone.

So I opened it.
I read it.
And eventually… I replied.

So why am I sharing this?

Well, after rereading that text thread, and nearly talking Alexius’ ear off about wanting to write more… two things became very clear to me.

One.

Values don’t stay alive on intention alone. They need structure.

For years, I’ve said writing is something that matters deeply to me.

And it does.

But the truth is, I never created a real place for it to live in my life.

No container.
No consistent practice.
No protected space.

So slowly, quietly… it faded into the background.

Not because the value disappeared.

But because life has a way of filling every space we don’t intentionally protect.

And two.

Your values only shape your life when you make room for them.

If your calendar is full…

If your commitments are stacked…

If your environment is crowded…

Then the things you say matter most will slowly get pushed to the edges.

And this is something I see all the time as people start to create more clarity in their lives.

They say they value certain things, but there’s no space for those values to show up.

And that’s exactly why the Declutter Breakthrough Challenge exists.

Not to motivate you to declutter stuff.

But to help you create the kind of space where your values can guide your life.

If that’s something you’ve been thinking about lately, you can learn more about the next challenge here.