Trailheads & Pivot Points

Welcome to Base Camp – Your epicenter for the tools, skills and resources for lifelong learning and self-discovery.

There is a much better starting point for engaging in your life in an empowered and agentic way than most of us were taught. In the past, most of us only gave serious thought to change when we hit rock bottom. Rich Roll, host of the Roll On podcast, would say that we only face the reality that we have to make life changes when what we are doing no longer works. I can tell you from personal experience that the work of self-development is hardest when starting from rock bottom.

In 2026, we are embracing self development as a proactive, dynamic lifelong endeavor. Just as we now care for our physical health in a proactive daily manner, we are doing the same for our personal growth, which is evergreen. We never stop learning, growing, recalibrating, discovering. Because we have greatly improved our longevity through improved physical health, we owe it to ourselves to keep our brains as malleable and actively engaged as our bodies. Caring for our mental and emotional health is the next evolution in our human development.

In his latest book, What to Make of a Life, Jim Collins makes it crystal clear that self-knowledge is an imperative for all of us. The better we know ourselves, the better equipped we can become to navigate our life experiences. The sooner we adopt healthy practices of self-inquiry, self-awareness, psychological tools and emotional management skills, the better prepared we will be to handle all that life has entails.

Just like a well-stocked basecamp at your favorite mountain range, the Base Camp at Trailheads and Pivot Points, is ready to meet all levels of self-discovery explorers.  

From the novice who is just sticking their toes into personal growth to the long-time practitioner, you’ll find easily integrated resources for every stage of your lifelong personal development.

As you become more practiced and confident with the basics, you can begin to add more sophisticated and advanced tools for skillful life navigation.

My mission is to help you integrate the life skills and relationship tools that feel most comfortable and relatable to you for the stage of life you are currently in.

While I am committed to keeping Base Camp stocked with the latest advances in neuroscience, psychology and emotional intelligence, we also know the on-ramps for these breakthroughs have to be inviting and achievable.   Check out relatable blog posts and The Daily Trail Notes tab to keep you motivated and educated.

Welcome in to Base Camp!  Let’s get you started with Basics:

Foundational Knowledge and Insights:

Click on any of the blue boxes below to build a strong foundation of how your incredible brain and body are designed to work. The better you understand how to work in tandem with the features of your brain, the easier it is to apply the skills and tools for a lifetime of self discovery and personal growth.

It turns out that we do need to know how our brains and bodies work in order to maximize our fullest potential. What we once believed were bugs in our core operating system, we now know are its best features.

Basic Life Skills and Self-Knowledge

Now that you have foundational building blocks, you can get to work in developing objective self-awareness using body budget, emotional intelligence, growth mindset and storytelling as frames of reference for the impact that your thoughts, emotions and behaviors have in your life. With this integral working knowledge, you’ll easily identify where you have room for growth. Then you can begin to put into practice the skills and tools that empower you to manage your life with confidence, flexibility and resilience.

Jim Collins, author of What to Make of a Life, suggests that we build an expansive working self-knowledge. Jim kept his own “bug book” since his early 20’s, noting what he was able to objectively observe about himself, in the moment and over time. Get yourself a personal journal and begin your own self observation. Your self-knowledge becomes a lifelong customized reference guide.

Higher Elevations:

In this section of Base Camp, you’ll find a variety of resources and tools to help you elevate your foundational skills. Be prepared to experience some natural growing pains as you excavate and explore what’s been holding you back and how you’ve been getting in your own way.

Put those growing pains in context. We’ve experienced and lived through them for the first part of our lives, outgrowing childhood by design. Our brains are not fully developed until our mid-twenties and the same is true for our bodies, especially when it comes to the inner landscape of our emotions and experiences.

The early chapters of our budding adult lives are supposed to be full of experimentation, temptations and exploration. We rely heavily on the support of others during this time period and often are protected from the full consequences of our choices, again by design and on purpose. As we ease ourselves fully into our adult life, we start to remove some of that scaffolding and step into our autonomy and agency. We will falter – it’s basic human nature and the very organic process of lifelong personal growth. We will grow stronger and more resilient through trial and error. We can learn to trust the process – and recognize that it can be more rewarding and fulfilling with the right approach and attitude.

“Once you enter a certain age, it is your responsibility to unlearn behaviors that hinder your growth as a person.” — James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, August 2025

Relatable Blog Posts:

• How to Help Your Brain When It’s Stuck On Disagreement
• Your Brain on Disagreement
• Are You Consistent or Coherent in How You Show Up?
• All Feelings Are Welcome, All Behaviors Are Not
• Ouch! That Hurt!