In the Worst Moments of Your Life

12/31/2025

It's the last day of the year.

This season brings rest, relaxation, leisure. 

But it also brings something else: a kind of dark mood that, when we look carefully, reveals itself as a crisis of meaning. 

Where do we find hope when everything else feels dimmed?

Where do we stand when our efforts don't seem to produce the results we want?

How do we deal with this thing like a demon that pulls us into the ground and halts us?

Here's something I know for real: what we do in the worst moments of our life determines the quality of what comes after.

And here's the hard truth we must confront: there is no ground outside of us. 

We are not, as a species, enlightened about who we are, where we came from, where we're going, or what any of this means. We are, more or less, lost in the fog.

If there is hope, if there is meaning, if there is love or joy or ambition to be found, it must come from within you.

Sometimes it arrives as a metaphor.

A vision. A dream. An ambition. A love.

The boldness of the lion, the high flight of the eagle, the resilience of the wolf.

It could be a past hero, a prophet, a titan.

A religious symbol. A deity. A name. A place.

Whatever brings you meaning and power: by all means, use it.

Search for what moves you.

What moves me is my commitment to my family.

My personal and then to my extended family.

I begin where I am and stretch outward to my Western brothers and sisters where I live,

and my Eastern brothers and sisters where I am from, and really to all of humanity.

I see a species with a condition, a condition increasingly leading to unworkability with one another and with the environments where we live and work.

The same care I have for my personal family, is the care I have for this larger family.

And this care gives me power. It gives me cause.

It lifts me when I feel dark and defeated.

I am reminded that no desire is unique.

We are always kidnapped by society.

We are prisoners of each other, because we generally want what others want.

As René Girard understood, the nature of desire is mimetic.

We copy each other's wanting.

And yet, in the middle of all that, I find ground for taking responsibility.

For choosing what will satisfy me.

For deciding what will mean something to me.

For some people, it's family.

For others, it's the simple experience of being on Earth: joy and play.

For others still, it's work as the most ennobled form of worship.

For me, it's all of the above.

I want my family, my work, and my play to exist in the same space.

And I'm fortunate to have designed such a game for myself.

This is possible for every human being: to design a game that gives you joy and then to surrender yourself to it.

This, I believe, is the only hope we have — to fall in love with something.

But a stark reminder must go with it: none of this is totally up to you.

You are being propelled by powers beyond your imagination.

Cared for and tested.

Taken through trials and triumphs by forces unbeknownst to you.

But you are here.

So the first mood you must fill yourself with is gratitude.

Gratitude for the opportunity to be in the play at all.

Begin there.

Then ask: what is the next move that's possible?

From this place of stuck darkness, what is the next conversation I might have?

Who might I message, contact, call?

And if you can't think of anyone, I'm here for you.

As my New Year's gift, I offer you a free thinking session.

A session of assessment on any issue:

your plan, your design, your wonder, whatever you're up against.

You're welcome to think with me.

Schedule the call if you accept my gift.

This is my wish for you as the year turns:

that in the worst moments of your life,

you find the ground within,

begin with gratitude (even for the difficulties),

forgive yourself and others (for being stuck),

and make your next move to bring a different future. 

-Saqib