As it’s the start of a new year (and for some, a new decade, which it isn’t but let’s just go with it), there’s no shortage of articles, online or otherwise, about making a fresh start, doing the things you always wanted to do and becoming who you want to actually be. I’m 100% onboard with all of those goals and if that’s what your plan is for 2020, then more power to you.

That said, there is a foundational requirement on this path to self-actualization that I think gets missed, and that is, that in all the positive, rah-rah emphasis of doing what we want, we miss the basic stock-taking that …