How to want more without feeling guilty for book clubs: honest answers for Briargate

A Briargate edition · from the book

The bravest sentence a settled person in Briargate can say isn't 'I want more.' It's 'I still do.'

And this is Briargate: one of the Colorado Springs area's most established communities — the kind of place where life looks handled from the outside, which is exactly why the gratitude-versus-settling question lands so quietly here And that's precisely where gratitude and growth start arguing — politely.

🎧 A note for Briargate readers (press play)

“Ambition is not ingratitude.” — There Is a Fine Line Between Gratefulness and Complacency

The quiet signals you'd only admit here

You laugh when people call you 'settled' — not because it's wrong, but because it's accurate.
You defend your routine passionately when anyone suggests changing theirs.
Your to-do list is full of upkeep and empty of ambition — and you know the difference.

The gratitude / growth ledger

Two columns on paper: 'What I'm grateful for' and 'What I'm pretending not to want.'
You don't have to act on column two today. You just have to stop hiding it from yourself tonight.

Being thankful for today and honest about tomorrow is not a contradiction — it's the whole assignment.

How book clubs use it

Book clubs keep reporting the same thing — the discussion questions in the back start arguments in the best way, and someone always confesses they've felt 'grateful and stuck' for years.

What people in Briargate keep asking

I'm in a good season. Should I skip it? Those are the readers it's most for. It's about keeping momentum through comfort, not waiting for a crisis to start growing.

What's the one-line takeaway? 'Grateful' and 'growing' were never opposites — and the moment you pick both, the guilt goes quiet.

For every Mountain West reader who nodded too many times

There Is a Fine Line Between Gratefulness and Complacency says the rest — with humor, warmth, and zero guilt-trip. Kindle $0.99 · free on KU · paperback $14.99.

There Is a Fine Line Between Gratefulness and Complacency — book cover Kindle — $0.99 Paperback — $14.99

Read it free on Kindle Unlimited · paperback $14.99, Prime shipping · Book-club questions on the main site.