Just notice

Before you change your life, you have to notice you’re living it.

We were taught how to multiply. But not how to notice.

But it turns out that noticing is an essential skill.

Just notice.

Simply notice.

Like noticing the horses in the photo above.

Paying attention has ended up becoming one of the most valuable skills we can cultivate in modern life. It helps us make better decisions in virtually any situation.

I remember one particularly difficult moment in therapy when I was explaining some situation to my therapist where I was unable to decide between two different paths in my life. I was rattling off the pros and cons and the domino effects of choosing each.

“You’re so good at thinking through the logic of these situations,” she said.

“Thank you.” It’s always fun to win the side quest of getting a compliment from your therapist.

“Close your eyes for a moment.”

“Uh, okay,” I said.

“Now tell me: what do you notice when you think about each path? Put the logic aside. Put the thinking aside. What do you notice? What do you feel?”

I just sat.

And just noticed.

After a moment, I knew which path to take. It wasn’t logic. It was feeling. It was the quiet intuitions that had been crowded out by the noise of my thoughts.

Thoughts yell. Intuition whispers. We need both. Noticing is how you hear the difference.

It took me most of my life to uncover the realization that I had built a personality around thinking through problems and being proactive.

But it turns out, it was a strategy to avoid feeling.

Overthinking.

Under feeling.

That said, I’m confident that this childhood strategy got me to where I was.

I’m also confident that this childhood strategy isn’t going to get me where I know I need to go next.

I’m developing an online course called CUT TO: Hollywood with my friend Yoni about moving to Los Angeles and starting a career in Hollywood. I have had so many thoughts come up while developing this course:

• Who cares what I have to say?

• Am I an expert?

• Do I need to be an expert?

• What happens if this course fails?

• What will people think about me if I say I’m doing this and then give up?

• Will anyone actually care?

• Will anyone who cares actually spend money on this?

But whenever I close my eyes and just notice… what comes up for me is this intuition that not only do I have the knowledge—to explain in detail how to accomplish the goal of cultivating a career in the insanely competitive and in-flux industry that is Hollywood—but that it is, in many ways, the thing I’m meant to do right now.

I just sit.

And I just notice.

And that’s what comes up.

One of the first videos in the course is on the concept of ten specific skills that, when learned, ripple throughout everything else you do. We’re calling them Seed Skills because, once planted, they take root—growing into a life that’s rich, resilient, and sustainably free from burnout.

Seed Skills aren’t sexy or glamorous or honestly, all that original.

But they’re undertaught and undervalued and absolutely essential.

The first Seed Skill is “Just Notice.”

It’s the foundational foundational skill. Just noticing is a skill that isn’t even explicitly talked about very often. But once you know it’s a skill—and once you start cultivating it—everything else simply becomes easier because you’re more in each moment.

Noticing doesn’t solve the problem, but it stops you from solving the wrong one.

Whether that moment is a job interview, a dinner with friends, or a tense argument with your partner, just noticing is the key to making the next best decision.

There are two parts to noticing: your internal landscape, and your exterior environment. Both must be paid attention to in order to cultivate this skill.

Look around the room. What do you notice?

What are people saying?

How are they saying it?

Why did the energy on this Zoom meeting just… shift?

Can you feel that? And then—now the spiral in your brain has kicked off, right? A million stories about why it’s happening.

Slow down. Just notice. We’re not even attempting to change anything yet.

Which is actually fucking incredible. We are—perhaps for the first time in a while—turning off autopilot. No longer reacting like we're cornered; instead, responding like we're conscious.

The moment you notice, you create stillness. And in that space, a path to freedom can form.

Put another way: you can’t change what you don’t notice.

Practice this by putting your phone away the next time you’re sitting at a coffee shop. Look around.

That toddler in the stroller pulling back on that shitty race car toy that only goes about 6 inches but he still loves it. Or she I don’t know the kid’s wearing blue but it’s 2025 so who knows.

The guy and girl who are either not talking because they’re on an awkward first date or they’ve just been together for so long that it’s circled back around having nothing to talk about and being awkward.

Perhaps if you just notice long enough you’ll start to feel some uncomfortable feelings. Which is probably why you aren’t sitting long enough most of the time. But that’s good news, actually.

Feeling discomfort is the cost of awareness—and the doorway to change.

Feeling discomfort isn’t a bug of noticing. It’s the feature.

Which is why the next skill to cultivate is Sit in Discomfort.

But we’ll get to that. For now, just sit. And just notice.