How do we know we're building the right life?

I want to spend some time exploring a question that's been stuck in my head ever since getting back from Montana.

Our lives can be built a million different ways... so how do we make sure we're actually building the one we want?

It's actually the same question that ultimately led me to build Our.os.

Recently my family and I spent the week at Flathead Lake with some close friends. To be totally transparent, I was having so much fun there that I hardly even opened the app.

At first, I thought that was a bit worrisome. I've spent the last year building this thing, and then I go on vacation and barely use it.

But then I caught myself. Maybe this wasn't a problem at all. Maybe the vacation itself was the experiment.

For one week, my only job was to spend time with friends and family. Wakeboard. Wake surf. Hang out with my kids. Be outside. Laugh. Eat good food. Repeat.

Life became incredibly simple. There wasn't anything I felt like I needed to optimize. There wasn't anywhere else I needed to be. I just got to be there.

And honestly... It was the most human and the most like myself that I've felt in a long time.

That immediately made me wonder something. Was this just vacation? Or was I actually in an environment that fits me better than my usual every day?

I honestly don't know. Maybe it's both. But for the first time, something I had always treated as fixed suddenly didn't feel fixed anymore.

I've always kind of assumed I'd live in Santa Barbara forever. Not because I had spent years comparing it to anywhere else. Just because... that's where life happened.

Family is there. Friends are there. My career was there. It was the default, though a beautiful one at that.

But after a week in Montana, I realized I was suddenly open to questioning that assumption. Not because Santa Barbara is wrong. But because I had experienced a version of myself that I hadn't seen in a while. And I liked that version.

Which made me think... If different environments bring out different versions of us...

How do we actually figure out which ones fit us best?

Because right now, most of us rely on a feeling. We take a trip somewhere. We love it. We come home. And we wonder...

"Was that real... or was it just vacation?"

I don't think that's a trivial question. Choosing where you live might be one of the biggest decisions you'll ever make. It affects your relationships. Your routines. Your opportunities. The activities available to you. Even who you slowly become over time.

And yet we usually make that decision with surprisingly little evidence.

Maybe that's actually what I'm trying to build with Our.os. Not an app that tells people how to live. But a way to build evidence around the environments, activities, and people that consistently bring out the version of ourselves we like the most.

Because if we had that evidence... Maybe we'd make some of life's biggest decisions a little differently.

That, more than anything, reminded me why I'm building Our.os. Not to optimize every moment of our lives. Not to tell people where they should live. But to help us better understand ourselves so we can make those decisions with a little more confidence and a little less guesstimation.

I still don't know the answer. In fact, that's exactly why I'm so interested in exploring it.

I'd love to hear what you think. Have you ever been somewhere that made you feel more like yourself? And if you have... What do you think it was?