This morning I found myself reflecting on AI.
Not from a place of fear. Not from a place of defending it. Just from my own lived experience.
This year alone I've traveled to Miami for Ultra with friends. I went to EDC with my family. I spent a weekend in Nashville for meditation. I went camping at Black Sheep. I flew to California to see Rush. I'm training for Ragnar. I went to Las Vegas for a board game convention and saw Illenium at the Sphere with my daughter.
Adventure. Experience. Action.
As my friend Aubree likes to tease me, I'm becoming a traveler.
And when I look back on all of it, I realize AI enhanced many of those experiences.
It helped me think. It helped me plan. It helped me organize. It helped me learn. It helped me create.
But it didn't live my life for me.
I still made the trips. I still had the conversations. I still sat in meditation. I still ran the miles. I still stood in the crowd singing Rush songs with thousands of people. I still laughed with friends around campfires. I still experienced awe.
That's an important distinction for me.
I don't want to outsource my soul.
I still think for myself. I still value creativity. I still exercise discernment. And perhaps most importantly, I still enjoy challenges.
AI can solve a lot of problems. But I don't want all my problems solved.
Years ago, during a meditation, God said to me:
"I would never solve all your problems for you. I would never do that to you."
At the time I didn't fully understand it.
Now I think I do.
It wasn't a statement about limitation. It was a statement about love.
Because if every challenge were removed, every obstacle cleared, every problem solved, I would lose the opportunity to solve them myself.
And that's the gift.
You get to do this.
You get to struggle. You get to learn. You get to fail and try again. You get to build strength, wisdom, character, resilience, and courage through lived experience.
Human beings are wired for challenge. We are wired for growth, striving, curiosity, goals, setbacks, and discovery. The satisfaction doesn't come from having every obstacle removed. It comes from engaging with life and finding out who we become along the way.
A tool that helps me climb bigger mountains is wonderful.
A tool that climbs the mountain for me removes the very thing that made the climb meaningful.
So no, I don't see AI as a replacement for living.
I see it as a tool that can help me live a bigger life.
The key, at least for me, is remembering that the point was never efficiency.
The point was participation.
You get to do this.
P.S. One of my clients, Luke, arrived last night with his wife for today's workshop. This morning, before we even started, he went out and ran the hill near my house.
That struck me as a perfect example of what I'm talking about.
There is a difference between learning, planning, thinking, and preparing...
and actually participating.
Nobody can run the hill for you.
You get to do that part yourself.