Be More, Not Just Do More: How AI Helped Me Reclaim My “Why”

I had this realization not in a meeting, not while staring at another overflowing inbox, but on a trail — hiking along Willow River in the St. Croix Valley, surrounded by trees that didn’t care about deadlines.

It hit me somewhere between the rustle of the leaves and the rhythm of my boots: I love hiking.
I also love sewing. Crafting miniatures. Baking. Creating.

But you know what? I don’t actually do those things much. And that day, I finally asked myself the uncomfortable question:

If I’m not doing the things I love… then what the hell am I doing?!!

Because here’s the truth — I’m efficient. Like, elite-level efficient. I can check off a to-do list faster than my kids can destroy a freshly cleaned house (and trust me, that’s lightning speed).

But somewhere between all the “doing,” I stopped being.

When you live to do, there’s always another box to check. You finish one task, and poof — another takes its place, like some cruel productivity whack-a-mole. The list never ends. The pressure never stops. And rest? Rest starts to feel like guilt in yoga pants.

Holy Cow, Is this a Mid-Life Thing?

As I walked that trail, I realized — I’ve been living to do, not to be.
To “be” is different. It’s slower. Fuller. Deeper. (Shakespeare was making so much more sense to me and in a hurry. That dude was beyond his times!!)

When you live to be, your actions aren’t just about finishing something — they’re about becoming someone.

You grow into memories that sustain you, into hobbies that heal you, into relationships that refill you. These aren’t things you cross off a list. They’re things that fill the list of your heart.

I’ve spent years helping people and businesses use AI to get more done. But the more I use it, the more I realize: that’s not the point at all.

AI isn’t here to help us do more.
It’s here to help us be more.

It’s the gift of time — the invisible hours we’ve lost to endless emails, reports, and admin.
It’s the invitation to reclaim your creativity, your stillness, your spark.
It’s the reminder that maybe the greatest “innovation” of all is living again.

Somewhere in the neon-lit chaos of the 1980s, we glorified the all-nighter. The 24/7 grind. The “sleep when you’re dead” mentality.

But the next generation? They’re rewriting that story. They’re not working to death — they’re working to live. They see AI for what it truly is: not a replacement for our humanity, but a redemption of it.

A Call to Be More

Automate the mundane. Delegate the repetitive. Let technology take the wheel for a while — so you can finally roll down your windows, breathe, and be present for the ride.

Go hike. Go bake. Go sew something tiny and adorable that no one but you will fully appreciate.

Let AI help you find the time to become again — the artist, the parent, the dreamer, the whole human you were before the “do more” era took over.

Let’s stop using AI to cram more into our calendars. Let’s use it to carve more out.

Because when we stop living to do…
We finally start living to be.

And that’s the sweetest upgrade technology could ever offer.

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