Hey friends,

2025 has been quite the year.

In January, we had to evacuate our home due to the Los Angeles fires. In February, I had a bad accident that required months of healing. There were a number of other difficult challenges that we faced in early 2025, but the rest of the year was quite beautiful.

In March, I wrapped up a sold-out cohort of Thinking In Stories. In July, I self-published my book, The Inner Compass, which continues to resonate with readers and is now being translated to Spanish, French, Thai, Arabic, and Hindi. I spent the whole summer in Toronto with my wife’s family, then the entire fall in Korea with my family. I’m now working on my biggest creative project to date, which I’ll announce sometime in the future.

When I think back on 2025, it’s evident to me that this is the year I committed to my inner compass. The overcoming of challenges helped me understand that in the end, the greatest skill is knowing how to trust yourself. The future will always be uncertain, but trusting in your ability to figure it out is the “true north” that will keep you grounded.

That’s what my book is ultimately about, and I think reading it will be a fitting way to close out the year (and will give you a fresh start to the new one). In addition, Amazon is continuing to discount the book from $14.99 to just $9.99, so I recommend you get it at this price while you can.

And as always, if you pick up the book, send me your order receipt to receive a bonus booklet called “A Month of Reflections”. These are 30 carefully selected excerpts of my work that have been designed to give you a mindful start to each day.

To close out the year, I wanted to send over a chapter from The Inner Compass. I did a live reading of it when I first launched the book, and 5 months later, I continue to get messages about this particular chapter.

In it, I detail a central concept from the book, and how in the end, everything in life comes down to just 2 options. Seeing the world through these 2 lenses can have profound implications, as it helps to clarify the motivations behind the actions you take.

When you’re ready, let’s dive right in:

​Intuition and the Inner Compass​

A Thought I’ve Been Pondering

The end of the year is always a time for reflection, whether it takes an active form (through journaling) or a passive one (through resting). There’s a collective period of slowing down and taking inventory of one’s life, which sets the intention for how you’d like to proceed once the new year begins.

What I’ve realized is that this period is a worldwide recalibration of our inner compasses. It’s one of the few stretches in the year where you’re not just encouraged to direct your attention inward, but are expected to do so. The expectation of a quick reply fades, the temptation to put in overtime subsides, and the noise of the world loses its luster.

What remains is just you, free from the conditioning that usually feels all-encompassing. The amazing thing is that this dynamic is occurring at scale, so this is a shared state of mind across many timezones and cultures. It’s not just you that can hit pause on the relentless pursuit of your goals, but any number of people in any given environment as well.

This moment doesn’t last long, which is what makes it special. So I encourage you to make the most of it while we all have it together.

A Brief Parting Question

What’s a “win” from 2025 that you’ll remember for a long time?

For me, it was celebrating my dad’s 74th birthday together in Korea, and also taking him on a 4-day cruise in China across the Yangtze River. This is something he’s wanted to do for many years now, and the fact that we got to do it with the entire family was truly amazing. I’m so grateful that we were able to build these memories together.

What’s something that you’d like to celebrate from 2025?

As always, hit reply to share any thoughts, to respond to the parting question, or to simply say hello. I love hearing from you.

Thanks for reading, and thank you for all the support you've provided throughout the year. I'm filled with gratitude that you've dedicated some of your attention to my work. It means so much.

-Lawrence Yeo

P.S. Thanks to all the wonderful people that support the blog on Patreon! If you’d like to support More To That and get access to book recommendations, exclusive AMAs, offline posts, and other reflections, join as a patron today.

P.P.S. If you want to learn how to write pieces like the one I shared today, check out my writing course, The Examined Writer. It’s 3 hours’ of self-paced material, all designed to elevate your writing practice.