Last year taught me something uncomfortable about listening.
I listened too carefully to people who brought me problems without ever bringing me solutions. They were well intentioned. Some were close. Some sounded experienced. But the pattern was the same. Concern without ownership. Warnings without ideas. Friction without forward motion.
At the time it felt responsible to listen. It felt like leadership. What I did not realize was how much creative energy I was handing over to voices that were not building anything themselves.
Somewhere along the way the noise got louder than my own intuition.
Earlier this month I shared that our family will be PCSing to Portugal. At the time it felt like a logistical update. A timeline. A destination. Lately it has felt like something more.
I have been drawn to Portugal not as an escape, but as a symbol. A place that represents a different relationship with time, ambition, and success. The idea of the good life. The Portuguese call it a boa vida.
It is not about doing nothing. It is about doing what matters without the constant hum of urgency. Without the pressure to justify every decision or defend every pause. Life still has structure. Work still exists. Goals still matter. They are simply no longer driven by noise.
That idea has been reshaping how I look at everything.
This year feels different. Not louder. Clearer.
This is the year of daring greatly.
Not in a dramatic or reckless way. In a grounded way. The kind of daring that comes from deciding you will no longer outsource belief in your own vision. The kind that asks whether you are willing to fully reinvent what you have built or fully release it.
For me that choice is honest and direct. Go all in on reinventing The Option with clarity, boundaries, and standards that match the future I see. Or step fully into a different definition of success altogether. One that values presence as much as progress.
Portugal keeps surfacing in that reflection because it reframes success itself. A good life does not reject ambition. It simply refuses unnecessary suffering.
Daring greatly means I no longer accept partnerships built on fear or scarcity. It means I am no longer interested in managing other people’s discomfort at the expense of my own momentum. It means choosing builders or choosing solitude. Either way I move forward.
Listening, I have learned, is only powerful when paired with discernment. Not every voice deserves a seat at the table. Especially not the ones that only point at cracks without ever picking up a tool.
This year I am daring greatly by trusting myself again.
Whether that path leads to a fully reimagined business or mornings that begin with sunlight and espresso and nowhere to rush to, the outcome is the same.
Alignment.
And that is a version of success I am no longer willing to negotiate.