After over a decade of sharing thoughts, stories, and lessons here at ScottMiker.com, the time has come to close this chapter—at least for now.

Recently, I’ve begun some new initiatives that are both exciting and demanding. As I dive into this next phase, I’ve decided to shelve the blog articles to give these new paths the focus they deserve. I will leave the content available at ScottMiker.com so you can always check back and learn more, but I won’t be adding a new article each week.

Thank you for reading, engaging, and growing alongside me all these years! This isn’t goodbye—just a turning of the page.

Here’s to what’s next.

Onwards and upwards.

When I was younger, I helped a family member start and run a fitness franchise. It was a great experience, and I learned a lot about business. But I also learned a lot about human nature.

I can remember in the early days, sitting in the office and stressing about getting enough members to join. On a slow day, only a handful of people would stop in and ask about joining.

Many people struggle with uncertainty. They want everything clear and precise. They want decisions that are complete opposites.

But in life, we must become comfortable operating when there isn’t a black and white answer. We need to become optimistic to proceed when we don’t know exactly how it will all turn out.

When we strive to improve some aspect of our life, we often find that it takes patience. While we keep doing the work, we must wait and wait for the results to appear.

This is frustrating. It is the main reason why most aren’t able to improve. We are not a very patient society and are used to having everything at our fingertips.

The systems and habits approach to improvement is a great way to gain control of your life. Using the techniques you learn how to design your life through systems and habits.

Most people disregard this because they want quick results. They sacrifice effectiveness for the immediate outcome. Unfortunately, most of the valuable aspects of life take time. You can’t snap your fingers to get instant change. It requires consistent action over time.

I’ve noticed that there are many ways to gain insights in life. We can look to our mentors and those who accomplished what we strive for. We can explore and learn from experience.

Life has a way of teaching us. But we often miss the lesson because we aren’t looking for it. Instead of gaining wisdom, we push aside what we dislike in search for more enjoyment.

I am always surprised when people make decisions without fully understanding how those decisions will impact them. They can often see the short-term but struggle to realize the long-term, systematic impacts.

They may build themselves up all weekend to tell their boss off on Monday morning for something they dislike. Or they refuse to help a friend because they don’t feel like it. Or they get a new lease for a car they can’t afford.

Most people go through life choosing by default. They don’t actively seek out what they desire, settling for the easiest path in the moment.

But when people are on this path, they don’t realize what they are doing. I spent years living this way and always found someone else to blame for every misstep I took, every bad decision, and every missed opportunity.

The other day I was chatting with an old friend. He explained that his company just hired a new executive. The new executive was brilliant and innovative. But she was also a complete jerk.

He said that the previous executive in that position was fired for being a jerk. She would treat her employees like dirt and would create drama with her intense interactions. The company vowed to find a better fit but brought up someone that seemed identical.

Often in life we get pushed and pulled in so many different directions that we lose sight of the importance. Instead of understanding where we are headed, we wonder, “what is the point?”

It may be when your boss decides to change up the team, giving you tons of extra work that you feel is meaningless. It could be the corporate office hammering on yet another time-consuming idea that probably won’t work.

Life is chaotic, unpredictable, random, and strange. But it is also systematic, predictable, obvious, and normal. It is the great paradox of life. It can be both at the same time.

This makes it difficult. How can we improve if we don’t know what to expect? What if we plan based on the most likely outcome and it doesn’t work out?

Life has a way of settling into rhythms. We wake up to the same alarm, eat familiar meals, head to the same job, and wind down with weekend routines that rarely stray too far from the norm. There's comfort in the predictable—until, of course, the unpredictable shows up.

Even when our lives seem steady, change is always hovering in the background. It may come as a rite of passage, a shift in our responsibilities, or something more sudden and jarring—a loss, a diagnosis, a layoff. We know these moments are possible, yet we often carry on with business as usual, clinging to routines like a safety net.

Life often feels paradoxical. Less often feels like more. The easy road tends to be more difficult in the long run.

One that I come across frequently is the idea that freedom and responsibility are linked. If we are irresponsible, we tend to lose freedoms. But if we take care of what we need to, we gain more freedom to do what we want in life.

Life often presents feedback to us regarding our life. It could be the ping of guilt to start budgeting money or the tiredness that tells us we need to start exercising.

While these are frequent, most miss the warning sign. They may notice them but through denial or indifference, they avoid taking action.

The other day I was listening to someone complain about the current state of the world. They pointed to all the violence and hatred that exists. They said political views divide families and friends. They are argued that crime has never been higher, and that people have never been more selfish.

Most of our personal worlds revolve around systems that impact us. It could be relationships with family, our workload at our job, the weather and economic makeup of our community, our choices in entertainment, etc. Certainly, those can be negative.