Hey friends,

Before I begin, 2 quick announcements:

(1) My book, The Inner Compass, will be translated into French! Courrier du Livre has bought the French rights to it, and will publish and distribute it throughout Europe. I'm so excited for my book to continue reaching readers in new places.

(2) The paperback edition of The Inner Compass is still on sale for just $9.99 on Amazon! As we head into the holiday season, this is a perfect time to get it at a lower price (both for yourself and others).

If you do get it, just send me your order receipt and I'll also send you a bonus booklet of 30 daily meditations. This is a collection of carefully selected reflections I've chosen to give you a mindful start to each day.

All right, that's it! Now onto today's post.

As we head into Thanksgiving here in the United States, I’m reminded of what it means to appreciate life and its contents. Like you, I have so much to be grateful for, but oftentimes, I gloss over them as them as the fog of responsibilities and to-do’s pile on top of my plate. Routine and acclimation are the greatest foes of gratitude, and I’m not impervious to their pull either.

So in an attempt to remind myself of all that I have, I created a story a few years ago that I’d like to share with you again today. I like to revisit it around this time, as it contains a thought experiment that instantly reboots my capacity for gratitude the moment I read it.

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

​How to Be Thankful for Your Life with One Simple Reset​

An Illustrated Gift

One of the things I’m most thankful for is your readership. As a small token of gratitude, I wanted to send you some wallpapers you can download and use in the spirit of Thanksgiving.

To grab the wallpapers, simply visit this Dropbox link and download them all. I hope they convey at least a fraction of the warmth I feel knowing that I have your support. Thank you again - it means the world.

A Thought I’ve Been Pondering

I've been working on a piece about ambition, and how to think through its paradoxical nature. I plan on publishing it in the near future, but here's an excerpt I wanted to share in the meantime:

Ambition is most fruitful when it originates from the belief that everything is all right. You’re not ambitious because you desperately require the benefits of your ambition, but rather because you want to challenge and stretch yourself to become a more capable human being. You don’t believe that the rewards will be the answer to your life’s problems, but that the process in itself will yield a problem that you’re excited to solve.

This kind of mindset is only possible when you believe you have enough. A mind that’s looking to accumulate or attain is perpetually flirting with greed, and is one that is rarely grounded in the present. To be empowered by your ambition, you must enjoy the precise moments in which you’re exercising your abilities, and not ruminating over how your abilities will attract future recognition. In order to experience this, you have to be okay with the space you occupy, and be aware that you’re fine - in every sense of the word.

It is only here where your ambition becomes a beautiful force, and is one that is anchored in a genuine expression of self.

A Brief Parting Question

Are there any recent books you've read that had a big impact on you? (Besides The Inner Compass, of course 😉)

Winter season is a perfect time to cozy up and read, so I'm looking to fill up my reading list. Please share your recommendations with me.

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 feel free to share this email with anyone who might enjoy it. Have a great rest of your week!

-Lawrence Yeo

P.S. Thanks to all the wonderful people that support the blog on Patreon! It means so much. 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.