The Energy That Becomes Your Destiny

Quiet Clarity is a 2x/week newsletter and podcast for people who want to build a life of presence, depth, and deliberate intention.

You do whatever you feel like doing, then wonder why you feel drained.

It's interesting because doing whatever you want is beautiful—but only once you know what actually energizes you.

Most of us float through life in chaotic obligation, saying yes to everything that comes our way.

It feels like freedom because there's no structure, but it's really just avoidance.

You can't find your purpose until you track what lights you up versus what just feels good in the moment.

In high school and college, I said yes to everything.

Hanging out with friends, going out, watching TV, but also building a business, traveling, writing.

Because I tried it all, I slowly noticed what energized me versus what just gave momentary fun.

For seven years now, I've been journaling daily, tracking not just what I did but how I felt.

I categorize everything into energizers (lift your spirit), neutralizers (don't move the needle), and drainers (leave you worse).

This "energetic journaling" revealed patterns I'd never seen.

What I thought was fun was often just comfortable distraction.

What I thought was boring often lit me up from the inside.

There was once a teenage janitor who cleaned classrooms at night.

Most thought he was strange—too loud, always making faces, talking to himself in different voices.

No one knew he lived in a van.

No one saw him at night, standing on desks with a mop like a mic, telling jokes to empty rooms.

This janitor wanted to be a comedian, and that's where he felt the most energy.

But he bombed in his mind a thousand times before he ever touched a real stage.

People saw just a poor kid with too much energy.

But this kid saw a future.

So he kept leaning into what lit him up, even when no one understood.

He performed, failed, rewrote, returned.

Over and over and over again.

Until finally one day, someone laughed—not at him, but at his joke.

Then a room laughed.

Then the world.

That janitor was Jim Carrey.

What the world called delusion was just him following his energy until the whole world could see what he'd always felt.

He didn't wait for permission or validation.

He tracked what made him feel alive—performing, creating characters, making people laugh.

Then he did it every single day, even in empty classrooms with a mop for a microphone.

Your energy knows your destiny before your mind does.

If I do this every day for five years, what will my life look like?

I use this "unfolding test" to distinguish real energizers from false highs.

Lifting weights energizes me, and doing it daily unfolds into strength, health, vitality.

Gossiping might feel energizing, but five years of it leads to cynicism and resentment.

I've discovered four stages of freedom we move through:

Chaotic Obligation: No structure, no control, just avoidance disguised as freedom.

Trapped Discipline: Building systems but still saying yes to misaligned things.

Liberated Structure: Your calendar mirrors your energy; you protect what fuels you.

Earned Freedom: Structure falls away because rhythm has become instinct.

Naval talks about the unstructured life, but he speaks from earned freedom.

If you're still lost, you need to say YES to everything before learning what to say NO to.

Track your energy daily. Notice patterns weekly.

Then slowly design your days around what actually lights you up.

Because how you live your days is how you live your life.

Start where Jim Carrey started—not on stage, but in empty rooms with a mop.

Follow what energizes you, even if the world calls it delusion.

Your soul already knows your purpose; your job is just to track the breadcrumbs of energy it leaves behind.