The Essentials
Weekly essays on clarity, growth, and living with more intention.
Weekly essays on clarity, growth, and living with more intention.
Hey, I’m really glad you’re here.
I’m Ryan — and Present & Progressing is a newsletter for anyone learning to live with more clarity, discipline, and intention in a fast-moving world.
Each Monday morning, I share honest reflections on growth, mindset, and the systems that help you stay consistent long after motivation fades. It’s personal, reflective writing from someone in his mid-20s, figuring it out in real time — but written for anyone who wants to keep showing up when life feels uncertain.
Start with these reader favorites
If you’re new here, these pieces will give you a sense of what this publication is about: intentional living, sustainable growth, and making peace with progress in all its forms.
Keep It Simple, Stupid
A framework for staying grounded in a world that never stops moving.
Living Between Two Truths
How contradictions shape balance, growth, and who we become.
Let’s Have an Honest Talk About Motivation
Why chasing motivation will always let you down — and what to focus on instead.
You Can Be More, But You’re Already Enough
Breaking the achiever’s loop and learning how growth and belonging fit together.
25 Things I’m Starting to Understand
What I’ve learned so far about work, relationships, and building a life that feels like mine.
A bit about me
I started writing Present & Progressing because I was tired of pretending I had answers when what I really needed was space to ask better questions.
This newsletter is my attempt to slow down and notice what’s happening beneath the surface — in myself, in others, and in the spaces in between.
I write about money, mindset, identity, and the quiet discipline of showing up, the version of growth that’s less about reinvention and more about returning to your values, your voice, and your own pace.
Most of the time, I write because I need to hear it too.
Sometimes it’s something I’ve lived.
Sometimes it’s something I’m still wrestling with.
Sometimes it’s just a thought I can’t shake.
Join the journey
If you’re someone who values self-discipline, reflection, and intentional living, you’ll feel right at home here.
Every Monday at 7:30 AM EST, you’ll get a new essay in your inbox, plus short reflections throughout the week on Substack Notes.
Subscribe below to start reading and join 400+ readers who are learning to live with more intention, one step at a time.
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Good to see this. As you noticed, I've my parallel effort focused on simplifying personal finance. It's mostly lessons I learned as an adult. I wish someone explained finance in simple terms to my 25 year self. Best wishes with your work. It's much needed.