Life’s Journey – Erich Stauffer

Authority, Winning, and the Cost of Staying Adjacent

This morning clarified something I’ve been circling for years but never named plainly: I have optimized for system impact, not personal authority.…

January 27, 2026

I’m starting to see the shape of the season I’m in more clearly now. It’s quieter than I expected, slower than I…

January 25, 2026

A year of learning to stay instead of restart The Pattern I Finally Saw For most of my adult life, I’ve been…

December 30, 2025

Recently, I asked ChatGPT to do something different. I didn’t want tips or comfort. I didn’t want affirmation. I wanted confrontation. So…

May 7, 2025

I spilled coffee on my Field Notes. It went everywhere. Something so simple as setting down a cup of coffee caused an…

August 13, 2023

I read #donutrunbecausehappy as “don’t run because you’re happy” and I was like, ‘that’s the old me’, but then I realized that…

June 2, 2021

2019 was a formative year. A lot of change happened. Some good. Some bad. But it happened. And now all we can…

January 1, 2020

Have you ever had someone say something positive about you to you that stuck with you? Maybe it was a teacher, parent,…

March 20, 2019

This is a story of how a joke from a 3-year old, a 100-year old house, and a rainy afternoon helped me…

September 4, 2018