In this episode, we’re going to be taking a deviation from our usual transmission. This Monday, which was a bank holiday for all of you in the UK, a book that I’ve been working on for about 2 years finally hit the shelves. It’s imaginatively called “The Observing I: A guide to living a more authentic life”, and it’s full of philosophical ideas and psychological methodologies to help you get to the bottom of the nature of you. It’s available to purchase on Amazon as an eBook, and we’re currently working on getting a paperback copy ready. In this episode, I’m going to talk a little about my motivations behind writing the book, and I’m going to read Chapter One in what will essentially be an extract from the coming audiobook. Seems a bit silly that I do a podcast and then release a book and don’t actually make an audiobook from it. So that will be coming in the future as well. As soon as it’s available, I’ll let you know. If you’d like to get your hands on a copy of the eBook, then you can purchase it directly from Amazon here if you’re in the US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D54FV5D5 Or here if you’re in the UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0D54FV5D5 I’m not quite sure what to do with myself now. I feel like I’ve clambered up Mount Doom and fought off a shrivelled, spiteful avatar of my own self doubt. This is the first time that I’ve ever finished a book that I’ve started. It’s an odd experience. I’m left with the same sort of sensation as when you finish a long, emotional engaging movie. What happens next? One thing I do know is that I’ve got the bug for writing again, so expect to see more articles on here. And, who knows, there may be another book grumbling in the works. The process is kind of addictive. Why I wrote the bookI actually started the book before I started the Substack, which has been going since July of 2022, so about a month shy of 2 years. I never intended to start a podcast. This was all supposed to be a newsletter that went out a few times a week, but it turned into something much larger than that. The book wasn’t supposed to accompany the podcast either. Back in the beginning, they were two very distinct and separate entities, and the title of the book wasn’t even set in stone until a few months ago. It was an amorphous, shifting blob of ideas and aspirations. A few ideas from philosophy sprinkled with the practical application of said philosophy, which invariably tended to bring in some sort of supporting psychological framework. The whole thing didn’t start to come together until I’d gone from the sketching ideas section and decided what the point of the book was going to be. Surprisingly, on reflection, it turns out that I was initially motivated by a deep seated aggravation. I’ll explain. So I started the book not long after the whole Covid lockdowns and, being stuck in your house with little contact with the outside world, offered a lot of time to pace and think and pace again. That thinking took place against a backdrop of having only the internet and a television as the windows into what was going on beyond the safety of my four walls. It was then that I began to realise that the world is very noisy. I knew this already, but I hadn’t acknowledged it. I was, like everything else, going with the flow of life because that’s how the world was. But when I noticed it, it was deafening, a drowning cacophony of clamouring hands all fighting for my attention, devouring little pieces of it in sodden blood stained bowls then coming back for more. This got me questioning how we are supposed to maintain a grip on any sense of ourselves amidst all of that chaos? How are we able to make good choices that align with our values and intentions, when we’re faced with so many external influences? So that became the purpose of the book. To get that moment down onto paper, as much for me as it was for any audience, and to curate a set of philosophies and idea