How This Started

More than eighty of you are reading this for the first time. You likely found your way here through a post I put up on LinkedIn this week (a rare one for me). Four short paragraphs about the gap between the life you've built on the outside and what's actually going on inside. Something in it landed for you. Welcome.

This letter started with a lunch. I had just left my last job and was catching up with a mentor. What struck us both was how little the conversation was about work, and how much it was about what people were actually carrying. He looked at me and said, "Why don't you see if you can help one person?" I set a goal of ten. I started a small letter and now seeing it cross two hundred feels a little nerve-wracking, honestly.

The people who have come through here are often, from the outside, doing great. Successful, capable, charismatic: the ones others rely on, the ones who show up, the ones who carry it. What often goes unseen or unaddressed is that the outer performance doesn't always reflect the inner reality. The successful CEO who isn't sleeping. The person everyone leans on who has nothing left to fill their own cup. The driven, motivated, high-functioning person who, quietly, doesn't recognize themselves anymore.

When the outer and inner fall out of alignment, you're underperforming by definition. Not as a judgment, just as a fact. Bringing them back into alignment is hard work. But when it happens, life gets that much clearer. That's what this is about.

I know this territory. While I was at Harvard, over a decade ago now, my outer and inner couldn't have been further apart. On the outside: Harvard MBA, on top of the world. On the inside: struggling to get out of bed for class some mornings. I had no idea what was happening. I went to see a doctor, convinced something must be physically wrong. There had to be a name for it, a fix for it. He told me he thought I was depressed. My first instinct was that he had the wrong guy. Turns out he was a doctor for a reason. No one in my life knew. I wasn't talking to anyone.

Fortunately, I don't recognize that person anymore. I remember them, but they're gone. That didn't happen on its own. It's been one of my proudest accomplishments, actually, because when it's between your ears, no one else can do the work for you. You have to find your own way through.

What helped was focusing on the small things, stacked. If you're trying to build an empire but struggling to get out of bed, maybe the goal today isn't the empire. Maybe it's just to get outside and go for a walk. Stack wins from there.

The real shift was paying attention to what was actually going on inside, and then starting to talk about it more. Being more honest, more open, less convinced I had the answers, and slowly learning what I actually needed and how to ask for it. Something in that opened more than any external achievement had. More connections, more meaning, a better version of me than I could have planned for. I’m always still figuring it out. But the gap between who I am on the outside and who I am on the inside has never been smaller. Life has never been clearer. I'm happily married, with a newborn son at home. More richness than I've ever had, and more to figure out than ever.

That feels right.

Infinite Momentum is for people who want to be a little more deliberate about the life they're actually living. Not because something is wrong with the life they've built. But values shift, perspective shifts, and the weeks pass fast. The offer is simple: once a week, carve out a few minutes. Read something that might prompt a reflection. Identify one small shift. The more passive we are about our own lives, the more days accumulate that we won't get back. This is a practice of being a little less passive. Once a week. On a Sunday.

And the work doesn't stay inside. When you're more aligned, you show up better as a leader, a partner, a parent. For the people who need the best version of you, not the depleted one.

One of you, who has been here from the early days, said it better than I would: "I have been following Infinite Momentum from the early days, and I have found it incredibly valuable. Such great insights and a good anchor to remind me of what matters to drive balance and perspective in life to ensure I can show up both professionally and for my family."

That's the North Star. Keeping perspective on what matters to you, in all the noise of daily life.

Some of the most remarkable things I've heard here from some of you often start with "I think you're the first person I'm telling this to." I don't take it lightly. And I want to be honest: this has never been one-directional. The insights many of you have shared have helped me navigate my own life in ways I didn't anticipate. That's been an absolute gift.

To those who have been here from the beginning: thank you.

Hit reply and assuming you’re comfortable, tell me what brought you here. There’s a poll below as well.

What are you working through? In a world overflowing with content, what was it that made you opt in here? Where are you feeling out of alignment?

For those who've been here a while: what's changed? What do you need more of, or less of?

The answers shape what I write next, and the conversations that follow are some of the best parts of this.

This week's nudge: What's one small action you've been avoiding? Something that, if you did it, would bring you a little closer to where you actually want to be?

See you next Sunday,
Eric

P.S. Next Sunday, we're back in The Stack with Issue 4 on strength. It's the one I've been building toward since January.