Stefan's Writing

Articles & Commentary

These are my own articles, stories, experiments, mistakes, and reflections. They are deliberately separate from the Globusz book summaries.

Self-DevelopmentWhat I have tried, learned, kept, questioned, and discarded.Meditation & MindfulnessPractical ways I use quiet attention in ordinary life.Silva MethodRelaxation, visualization, mental techniques, and my experience with them.Happiness & PerspectiveStress, relationships, gratitude, aging, and keeping perspective.

All published articles

Browse Stefan's writing

Practical Guides

Choose the Life You Want to Keep Practicing

Thirty small steps later, I don’t think life needs a grand reinvention. A good life is simpler: notice what you already have, give worry only the attention it deserves, and live honestly as the person you are now.

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Practical Guides

Keep Learning After You No Longer Have To

Retirement could have been the point where I stopped learning. Instead, it gave me time for quantum physics, new technology, books, Spanish, travel, exercise, and questions I once postponed. Curiosity widened the horizon.

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Practical Guides

Decide What Enough Means

During walks in Kapiolani Park, I sometimes ask whether more money would really change my daily life. I would probably still exercise, swim in the ocean, work on websites, and spend time with the people I love. That helped me separate wanting more from already having enough.

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Practical Guides

Repair Small Relationship Damage Quickly

I used to turn a forgotten coffee machine into an argument by defending myself. The day I simply said, “You’re right. I forgot. I’m sorry,” the tension vanished. Sometimes five bad minutes do not need to become five bad days.

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Practical Guides

Let Yourself Be a Beginner Again

My first attempt at meditation came with wandering thoughts, constant itching, and the suspicion that everyone else probably sat like a statue. What changed was not instant calm—it was learning that being awkward at something new is simply the price of entry.

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Practical Guides

Ask for Help Before the Problem Becomes a Crisis

When a new airport heat-map project pushed me into unfamiliar technology, I struggled alone because I did not want colleagues to think I was less capable. One question to Kamlesh solved what pride had kept difficult for far too long.

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Practical Guides

When Life Changes, Don’t Demand the Old You Back

Boxing once felt like my entire future. Then Hungary, Éva, teaching, meditation, America, airline work, and IT kept changing the shape of my life. I learned that adapting does not mean losing yourself—it can mean becoming a larger version of who you already were.

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Practical Guides

Stop Saving Happiness for Later

Scarcity taught me early not to wait for money before enjoying life. From mountain weekends with bread and bacon to budget day trips across America, I learned that the ideal version of an experience should not cancel the version available today.

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Practical Guides

Choose What Deserves Your Worry

After a totaled car left me with a huge financial loss, a disputed IRS bill dragged on for about two years. I lost countless nights to worry before learning that even serious problems do not deserve every hour of our attention.

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Practical Guides

Let a Mistake Be a Mistake

A Budapest renovation cost me more than $120,000 and left me with faulty systems, unfinished rooms, and extra repair bills. The harder lesson was learning to separate a bad decision from a permanent judgment about myself.

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Practical Guides

Listen Without Preparing Your Reply

One evening my wife came home discouraged from a trip, and I immediately tried to solve everything. Then she said, “I don’t need you to solve it. I just need you to listen.” That sentence changed how I think about support.

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Practical Guides

Stop Trying to Fix Everybody

For years I tried to help a childhood friend escape a destructive relationship, only to watch him return to the same pattern again and again. I’m learning that caring about someone does not make their choices mine to control.

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Practical Guides

Do the Thing You’re Slightly Afraid Of

As a schoolboy, a broken tooth pushed me into a boxing gym. Learning to box changed far more than schoolyard fights—it gave me the confidence to form friendships, apply for opportunities, start a school boxing team, and eventually become a coach.

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Practical Guides

Put the Phone Down Long Enough to Notice Your Life

When friends visited me in Hawaiʻi, I was surprised to see them looking at their phones instead of the scenery—and later doing the same at dinner. It made me think about how easily screens can steal the moments we actually wanted to experience.

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Practical Guides

Slow Down Before a Big Yes

I went in for an oil change and nearly let a Mustang Mach-E test drive make a much bigger decision for me. The experience taught me to give excitement time to cool and to count the boring consequences before a major yes.

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