the brain rewards us with more dopamine for the act of seeking a reward than for the act of receiving one. - Brad Stulberg

Excitement temporarily feels good. And there is no doubt that bursts of excitement add texture to your life. But if you are obsessively trying to generate the feeling, you may miss out on what is in front of you because you are already moving ahead.

In 2017, the most recent year for which we have data as of this writing, more than 150,000 Americans experienced deaths of despair. That is the highest this number has ever been, and nearly twice as high as it was in 1999.

When we create a space in which to practice our craft, it is beneficial to surround ourselves with objects that invite desired actions and eliminate ones that do not. In his book The Evolving Self, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, PhD, writes that being intentional about our surroundings is essential to eliciting our best performance.