On Ambition

And taking a break

I wanted to write to you all last week about ambition, a topic I’ve been circling around in this newsletter since its inception, but my own ambitions got in the way. I have been planning to take a short break from the newsletter through the end of June—and I’m still doing so— but I was busy in life last week in other ways. We’re moving into a new home, the kids are now off from school, and my book is out in less than three months (!!). I’m caught between wanting to go full “camel mode” before the book comes out and feeling the pressure to stay active online, waving my preorder sign around like one of those sign-flippers on the street corner.

By the way, did you know you can now preorder a signed copy of TOUCHED OUT from Skylight Books, my fave indie bookstore in LA? Or you can preorder the book wherever you get your books and get free gifts by filling out this form!

Anyway, last week I wanted to write you all a note about how forcing myself to take even a small break, a half-break, a semi-online break, is connected to my own efforts to check my ambition (and perhaps not totally succeeding?). I loved this piece by Rainesford Stauffer about the connection between OCD and ambition. Since reading it, I’ve been thinking a lot about how my obsessions and addictive tendencies are often inseparable from what looks like “ambition.”