Where Is Your Bread Buttered?

Unfortunately, the world does not work that way.

In reality, every goal is driven by a handful of variables, and they are often the opposite of what you feel like doing on a random Tuesday.

That’s why I’m a big believer in a daily reset. For me it’s prayer. For someone else it might be journaling, a walk, or a short meditation. The point is not spirituality. The point is re-anchoring your attention before the environment chooses your priorities for you.

People warned me about New York City before I moved here: it’s easy to lose yourself. The city is loud, fast, and endlessly seductive.

AI feels similar.

You open a chat window and suddenly you can generate ten options, ten angles, ten plans, ten deliverables. It’s energizing. It can also be disorienting. It’s very easy to start mistaking motion for progress.

After three years of living alongside AI every day, here’s my blunt takeaway: you still have to be your own rock. AI will not ground you.

Distraction has never been easier. Output has never been easier. Novelty has never been easier. But unless you’re in entertainment, you’re not in the novelty business. Most professions do not reward the highest volume of work. They reward the highest impact.

So I keep coming back to one question: where is your bread buttered?

Here’s the filter I use before I open a new doc, start a new thread, or ask AI for “ten ideas.”

• First: what is the one outcome I’m paid for? What would I get fired for failing to deliver?
• Second: what is the highest-leverage input that drives that outcome, even when it’s boring?
• Third: will using AI directly accelerate that input, or is it just giving me the feeling of productivity?

Pasting your core values in your AI prompts can help. But do not outsource judgment.

If you want AI to provide actual operating leverage instead of noise, you need priorities you revisit daily. Otherwise you will drift. Not because you’re weak, but because the current is strong.

And I’m not yet convinced AI is capable of bringing you back to shore.