How to want more without feeling guilty for new moms: honest answers for Essex

Reading room · Essex edition

The opposite of gratitude isn't ingratitude. In Essex, as everywhere, it's autopilot: the cruise control that feels like progress until you check the map.

And this is Essex: part of greater Burlington VT, full of people who built a good life on purpose and still feel the pull toward more That's not a coincidence — this is precisely the place the question was waiting for.

🎧 A note for Essex readers (30 seconds, spoken)

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

Three questions Essex readers dodge

What would you try if nobody would ever find out if you failed?
When did you last do something you weren't already good at?
What did you stop wanting — and was it a decision or a drift?

Steal 90 minutes back

Block ninety minutes this week labeled 'the thing I keep not doing.' Treat it like a dentist appointment — immovable.
Show up with the smallest possible version of the thing (one page, one call, one sketch). Momentum is the actual deliverable.

You can grieve nothing about your life and still feel the pull toward more. That pull isn't ingratitude. It's direction.

How it reads

Written with warmth and a sharp eye for the details of ordinary life — school hallways, group chats, Sunday kitchens — the book treats your plateau with respect, and then hands you the keys out of it.

Essex Q&A

How long are the chapters? Short by design — most readers finish one in a commute or a lunch break. The book was built for real schedules, not hypothetical ones.

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

One chapter tonight, one change this week

Start free on Kindle Unlimited, or own the Kindle edition for $0.99 — the paperback ($14.99, Prime) is the one people pass to a friend.

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

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