This mini-episode from my lastest Substack article is a quiet gut punch and a wake-up call. A single Christmas photo opens the door to the moments you never realize are the last ones, the traditions that end without warning, and the time we unknowingly trade away to screens, noise, and busyness. It’s not about doing more, achieving more, or optimizing your life, but about noticing what actually matters before it’s gone and asking a simple, uncomfortable question: what moments are you choosing to create while you still have the chance?

All that in more in my latest Substack → You are not lost. You are just asking the wrong question.

When you're done, I'd love your thoughts here in the comments!

If you enjoyed this article and you don't want to miss my future essays, my actionable insights, and my soapbox rants about navigating the world as analog humans in today's digital hellscape, make sure to subscribe at zackarnold.com/substack.

If you're feeling a little bit overwhelmed, and if it feels like all the effort you've been putting in this year is not leading to the results you want, then I invite you to learn a little bit more about this thing called the plateau of latent potential, a concept from James Clear's Atomic Habits that I talk a whole lot more in today's Hot Seat with one of the students in the Arnold Academy, Rob Tovey.

After that, Rob and I shift gears to discuss how he can prioritize and clarify what his goals are for 2026, defining specifically what is that scary goal in work, and in life. We also explore how to prioritize attention from everything he could be doing to the things he should actually focus on.

Want to learn more about working with me and having your own Hot Seat session?

→ Click here to learn more about The Arnold Academy coaching & mentorship program

What if the reason you feel stuck, burned out, or off course isn’t a lack of effort but the fact that you’ve been blindly walking in circles, absolutely convinced you were moving straight ahead?

Using the science of walking blindfolded as a metaphor for modern life, this episode "You are not lost. You are just asking the wrong question." unpacks how linear career paths, industrial-era education, and the question “WHAT do you want to be when you grow up?” train us to chase the wrong goalposts, confuse motion with progress, and sacrifice our creative soul. We explore why life is cyclical rather than linear, how Mark Manson’s Four Stages of Life better reflect the messy reality of growth, why transitions between stages suck ass, and how reframing the question from WHAT you do to WHO you want to become can help you stop walking in circles and start moving toward work and life that actually matter.

I’m curious...WHO do you want to be when you grow up?

→ let me know here in the comments

If you enjoyed this article and you don't want to miss my future essays, my actionable insights, and my soapbox rants about navigating the world as analog humans in today's digital hellscape, make sure to subscribe at zackarnold.com/substack.

In today’s Hot Seat conversation, Julie and I dive deep into what it really feels like when your creativity and cognitive clarity start slipping through your fingers. I talk through the hidden impact of dopamine-driven distraction, and we explore how removing social media can expose just how out of shape our brains have become. Together we dig into boredom as a skill, cognitive fitness as training, and the fears that surface when you step into collaboration and authenticity. If you’ve ever felt foggy, scattered, or disconnected from your creativity… this is the episode you need.

Want to learn more about working with me and having your own Hot Seat session?

→ Click here to learn more about The Arnold Academy coaching & mentorship program

This mini-episode taken from my latest article in the Digital Essentialism Series on Substack pulls back the curtain on the likes, comments, and compulsive urge to reach for your damn phone 205 times a day, all to uncover a deeper question: What might you be avoiding with your attention? From digital essentialism to deep work rituals, from messy garages to meaning, we dig into why we avoid the blank page, why we panic when life pauses, and why being “CrAAAAAAAAAAzy busy!!!!!” keeps us from confronting purpose, values, and meaningful goals. If you can only call something a distraction when you know what it’s distracting you from — do you really know?

If you enjoyed this article and you don't want to miss my future essays, my actionable insights, and my soapbox rants about navigating the world as analog humans in today's digital hellscape, make sure to subscribe at zackarnold.com/substack.

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In today’s Hot Seat, I’m talking with Joe Dobson, who’s feeling stuck trying to balance earning paychecks with actually building his career. He’s been organizing his time and putting in the work, but still feels unclear about direction and how to network strategically. In this conversation, I guide him through accepting that you’ll never get it all done — but you can choose what truly matters. Together, we explore how to stop chasing work-life balance and instead practice deliberate, strategic imbalance that aligns with your goals and values.

Want to learn more about working with me and having your own Hot Seat session?

→ Click here to learn more about The Arnold Academy coaching & mentorship program

In today’s Hot Seat with one of the students in the Arnold Academy, Brandon Holmes, we dig deep and talk about some really existential stuff, moving far beyond just setting goals to explore the vision for the next phase of work and life. As we unpack his mind maps and scattered intentions, the real reason behind his uncertainty becomes clear. This reframing will help you shift your mindset so you can finally make progress on what you want to accomplish.

Want to learn more about working with me and having your own Hot Seat session?

→ Click here to learn more about The Arnold Academy coaching & mentorship program

In this mini-episode, I unpack my 2198-word “old man yells at cloud” rant about how algorithms are the new cigarettes, diving into the sighs, huzzahs, and head scratches it sparked while exploring our global dilemma of knowing social media is engineered to farm our attention and fuel tribalism, rage, envy, jealousy, shame, inadequacy, and over-consumption, yet still relying on it for community, connection, and “what’s the haps,” leading into my mission for part two of this series where I break down how I’m reshaping my relationship with technology as a content consumer through my rules, boundaries, and guardrails rooted in digital essentialism so I can extract genuine value without this toxic ecosystem costing me my soul.

If you enjoyed this article and you don't want to miss my future essays, my actionable insights, and my soapbox rants about navigating the world as analog humans in today's digital hellscape, make sure to subscribe at zackarnold.com/substack.