This past week has been bittersweet for me.

On a personal level, life is great.

I've never been in a felt more optimistic about my future.

Every week I get omens, comments and DMs from people letting me know that I’m on the right track.

I’ve found my calling and I’m doing my life’s work.

It feels amazing.

2026 is going to be the best year of my life.

And yet.

All of this personal momentum is happening at a time when we are going through some really dark times.

The 8 deaths related to protests about constitutionally questionable practices of ICE officials.

The genocide in Gaza and banning a journalist that called attention to it on TikTok.

The recent release of 3.5 million files revealing the depth of corruption among our leaders; including murder, pedophilia and torture.

These aren't abstract news stories; they're deeply concerning realities.

I’d be lying if I didn’t say I felt the least bit conflicted.

Here’s just a few of the questions I’m wrestling with:

Should I delete my TikTok account (and switch to Upscrolled) like millions of other people are doing?

How do I reconcile my goal of focusing on the things that I control while fulfilling my commitment to being an example for courage (especially moral courage, like my friend and Gaza, ER doctor Mark Brauner)?

How can I allow myself to be happy when there's so much suffering and injustice?

I don’t have all the answers to those questions yet, but I did find help from two unlikely sources: a tech CEO and a hospice nurse.

Back when I worked at Netflix, Reed Hastings (Co-Founder & then CEO) told us a story during an all-hands meeting that I never really understood, until recently.

It's an ancient Zen parable, and it goes like this:

A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away at the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!'

The man's fate was sealed.
Tiger above.
Tiger below.
The vine was being chewed through.
There was no escape.

Whether he got eaten by the tiger above or the tiger below was irrelevant.

He had a gift right in front of him, and he chose to focus on it.

Different people have different interpretations about what the tigers and strawberry are supposed to represent.

One of the most common interpretations is that the two tigers represent fears the respective fears from our past, and future, while the strawberry represents the present.

Another interpretation is that the tigers represent our own self-imposed conditions that rob us of tasting the strawberry of happiness.

I choose to believe the two tigers represent the inevitable suffering of life, and the strawberry represents the gift that’s always available to us if we allow ourselves to see it and enjoy it.

Bronnie Ware was a hospice nurse who wrote a book based on her conversations with her dying patients. It’s called: The Top Five Regrets of the Dying.

One of the regrets is:

Not "I wish I had more money."
Not "I wish I’d advanced more in my career."
Not “I wish I’d spent more time being politically active.”

I wish I had let myself be happier.

That word "let" is critical.

Because it implies that happiness was available to them all along.

They just didn't allow themselves to receive it.

They placed conditions around when they would let themselves be happy.

When I first read this it made me realize that I’d also placed conditions around what it took for me to be happy.

I told myself things like:

“I’ll be happy when I make six figures.”

Then it was.

“I’ll be happy when I have $100,000 in the bank.”

Then it became.

“I’ll be happy when I’m a millionaire.”

An endless treadmill of moving targets that seem to make sense at the time, never lead to happiness.

And that’s because…happiness is a choice.

For too long, I’d defined what I needed in order to be happy.

Self-imposed conditions I was placing on my own wellbeing, that didn’t serve me.

It took courage (especially Intellectual Courage) for me to interrogate my beliefs and realize how they were contributing to my own suffering.

I don’t need to wait for world peace to be happy.

I can choose to be happy right now.

Yes, we’re living through dark times.
Yes, there are reasons to be outraged.
Yes, there are things to legitimately fear.

And yes, we can still enjoy our strawberries.

Two things can both be true.

We can allow ourselves to be happy, while acknowledging the presence of suffering.

Here's a question for reflection for the week:

What condition(s) have you placed on your own happiness?
Is there something you’re waiting for before you "let" yourself be happier?

Here's your challenge for the week:

Pick ONE strawberry that you haven’t tasted in a while. Make a plan to enjoy it as soon as possible. Tomorrow isn’t promised. Allow yourself to fully taste it. Savor it. Enjoy it. Challenge yourself to make a practice of finding and eating a strawberry everyday.

Do you have your own interpretation of the tigers and the strawberry? I’d love to hear it. Reply to this message and let me know. I read every reply.

With courage,

Jonathan