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

Pleasant Hill · this week's honest page

Pleasant Hill is full of people who did everything right. That's what makes the quiet question so uncomfortable here: what happens when doing everything right starts to feel like doing nothing at all?

And this is Pleasant Hill: a community in the Des Moines orbit where ambition is normal, busy is a badge, and gratitude can quietly slip into autopilot And that's precisely where gratitude and growth start arguing — politely.

🎧 A note for Pleasant Hill readers (spoken version)

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

What it looks like from the inside of Pleasant Hill

Nothing is wrong. That's the problem — nothing has asked anything of you in a while.
You feel behind even when you're ahead, and ahead even when you've stopped moving.
You keep waiting for a sign, ignoring that 'is this it?' keeps showing up like one.

The 7-day no-explanations week

For seven days, do one small thing you want without defending it to anyone — including yourself.
Watch what happens to the 'I should be grateful' voice when it stops being cross-examined.

You don't have to blow up a good life to build a bigger one. You just have to stop calling the plateau 'peace.'

The ending that spreads

It ends with a question, not a checklist — and that question is why readers from Midwest and everywhere else keep sending each other this book instead of just recommending it.

Asked in Pleasant Hill, answered honestly

Is it available in audio? The heart of the book is read aloud on this site, and the Kindle version (free on Kindle Unlimited) is perfect for phone reading.

Does it include discussion questions? Yes. Book clubs get a full set in the back — and readers from Midwest are already using them monthly.

For every Midwest 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 on Kindle Unlimited for free · paperback ships Prime · Questions for clubs on the main site.