concentrated wisdom for the busy self-actualizer

The classic Greek philosophers had a word for the process of self-actualizing and striving to reach your highest potential. They called it 'Areté.' (pronounced ar-uh-tay | listen).

In fact, Areté was one of the most important values in classic Greek culture. Guys like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle tell us that the meaning of life is to live with happiness and that the way to achieve happiness is to live with Areté (aka excellence, striving to reach your highest potential).

By looking at the universal truths taught by philosophers, religions, self-development gurus and current psychological research, I think we can find the keys to self-actualizing and happiness.

My mission is to distill the wisdom of the world's great teachers and to help us define our own philosophy that works for our 21st century lives.

Hence, my desire to inspire and empower you to "thinkArete."

Emerson instructs us to "Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your reading have been to you like the blast of triumph out of Shakespeare, Seneca, Moses, John and Paul."

I like Emerson. So, I’ve followed his guidance. Check out 2,500+ of my favorite “blasts of triumph” I’ve collected in my journey and check back often (might want to bookmark the site) b/c I’m adding new ones all the time.

After selling my last business (Zaadz), I decided to go through all my favorite books and journals and notes from seminars and capture the “Big Ideas” I learned.

My goal is to distill the essence of these lessons into fun, inspiring, practical bits of wisdom we can immediately apply to our lives. I have a great deal of respect for your time and intelligence, so I’ve kept ‘em brief and removed all cheesiness. :)

Some of them are just a quote and a kick in the butt while others are a little longer. We’ve got over 500 Big Ideas in there and I won’t be stopping till I get to 1,000 (and then I won’t be stopping). So you may want to check back often for the new stuff. And, sign up for the newsletter on the left to keep up-to-date.

Coming soon: Check some of my favorite: Books, Essays, Poems, Speeches and other goodness in the Wisdom section.

If you'd like to let me know what you think of the site, I'd LOVE to hear. Reading how you've been inspired by thinkArete is truly one of my greatest joys and I'd be honored if you shared your thoughts with me!

And, if there's anything you'd like to see, please let me know!

Random thought: Shouldn't self-development be fun and sexy? I think so, too. Let's make it so, shall we?

Oh, and you can learn more about me here.

Hope you enjoy the site!