Hey friends,

There are now nearly 2,000 copies of The Inner Compass out in the world, and it’s continuing to find readers of all ages and backgrounds. The book has only been out for a month, and I’m truly heartened by the response. Thank you for the support.

One of the benefits of self-publishing is that I can experiment with all kinds of things, including pricing. When I released The Inner Compass, I set the Kindle price at just $5.99 to make it easier for people to buy the book. But now that it’s finding its readers, I will be bumping the price up to $9.99 to make the royalties more favorable.

With that said, I want you to be able to get it at the lower price since you’re on this newsletter. Perhaps you already have the paperback version, but want to have it on your digital device so you can take it with you anywhere. Or you haven’t gotten around to buying the book yet, which makes this a good opportunity to do so.

Regardless, you can grab your Kindle copy today before I increase the price in the coming days:

As a reminder, if you buy the book, just send me your order receipt and I’ll send you a bonus booklet called “A Month of Reflections”. It contains 30 carefully selected excerpts of my work that will help you recalibrate and trust your intuition. It’s a great companion to The Inner Compass, and pairs well with a journaling practice too.

Now, for today’s newsletter, I’d like to re-share a popular reflection on the topic of happiness.

I’ve come to realize that happiness isn’t something you can aspire to attain. Because if that’s your framing of it, then you’ll always be chasing it, and any pursuit of this nature introduces restlessness.

So in today’s post, I want to offer a better alternative. It’s something that’s helped me greatly, and perhaps it can do the same for you. When you’re ready, let’s dive right in:

​The Riddle of Happiness​

Interviews and Media Appearances

Here are 3 more interviews / podcasts I’ve gone on to discuss The Inner Compass:

With Paul Millerd: Mastering the Inner Game​

With Jim O'Shaughnessy: Infinite Loops - The Inner Compass​

With Bogumil Baranowski: Money, Mastery, and the Courage to Trust Yourself​

A Thought I’ve Been Pondering

I posted this page from The Inner Compass on Twitter/X the other day, which resonated with many people:

Lawrence Yeo @moretothat This explains our constant need for validation 11:54 AM • Aug 18, 2025 86 Retweets 772 Likes Read 5 replies

​

Learning about social referencing made me reflect a lot on the problem of conditioning. The fact that it’s coded into us since infancy means that this pattern of looking outward is a primal instinct of sorts. So how can we possibly trust our inner world if it’s an instinct to look outward to validate it?

Well, just because we have a primal instinct doesn’t mean that we can’t curtail it. For example, if I’m very hungry and I arrive at a company dinner, I’m not going to launch my face into the food and consume it with no regard. Even though my body is urging me to do that, my mind will understand the context my body is in and exercise restraint.

The same applies to social referencing. Even if our impulse is to look to others for our sense of security, we have the ability to recognize the context of that impulse and to reduce it accordingly. For example, if I look around and see that all my friends work in jobs they hate, I can recognize that my context (i.e. my values) are different. I may see that the uncertainty that accompanies agency is more worthwhile than the security provided by a salary. And through that realization, I can curtail my conditioning and press forward with my own conviction.

A Brief Parting Question

In what domain of life do you have the most difficulty trusting yourself in? Work, relationships, money, creativity, something else? Why do you think that’s the case?

I’ve found that there tends to be a certain area of life where trusting your capabilities is more difficult than others. This tends to be the function of our upbringings, but I’m curious to get your personal take on this question.

As a reminder, if you haven’t picked up a Kindle version of The Inner Compass yet, I suggest you do it today before I increase the price of the book. And if you’ve already read it, please hit reply and let me know what you thought of The Inner Compass.

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

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.

P.P.S. If you want to learn how to write essays 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.