Navigate / search

Hello & Welcome to I.B!

I believe in personal freedom. Financial freedom. I believe in being able to lead your life responsibly. Don't settle for the rat race—this includes schooling, jobs, the things you buy, and everything that keeps you in meaningless motion.

This blog is about a compilation of insights that will help you refine how you see so that you can refine how you do. It will change the way you perceive life. It will amplify your perspective and improve the quality of your decisions.

Will you join me on this journey? If any of these words resonate with you, subscribe and let's figure this out together. Happy reading!

Living with Intensity: A Guide to Self, Relationships, and Society

What is intensity? The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as “the quality or state of being intense, especially an extreme degree of strength, force, energy, or feeling,” and “the magnitude of a quantity (such as force or energy) per unit (as of area, charge, mass, or time).”

Life is experienced through different levels of intensity. We can feel intensity on a roller coaster, when we turn up the volume, or when we eat something very spicy. But intensity isn’t felt only in sudden bursts of energy. While 100-meter sprints are short and intense, making our hearts pound and our breathing skyrocket, a marathon is more about sustained effort, a slow burn that tests our patience. Continue exploring

Tapping into Hidden Strength

Unlocking the Strength Beneath Our Struggles

The term post-traumatic stress disorder—the psychological troubles that unfold after severe stressful events—is familiar to many. Far less known, however, is post-traumatic growth: our ability to rise stronger after adversity. I first encountered the term in Kelly McGonigal’s The Upside of Stress: Why Stress Is Good for You, and How to Get Good at It. Continue exploring

How to Build Self-Trust When It Is Difficult

We know that one of the most important keys to success in any relationship is trust. But what about trust in ourselves?

What is our relationship with trust when things get difficult—when self-doubt creeps in, when we face criticism, or when we need to make an important decision? In moments like these, we may begin second-guessing ourselves, feeling small, thin, or loose, like we may float away. Once we recognize where we stand with ourselves and begin to nurture our relationship with trust, we can start to develop inner trust not just as a fleeting feeling, but as a lifelong skill.  Continue exploring

9 Civil Engineering Principles You Can Apply to Your Life

Principles are fascinating. They’re universal truths that guide our decision-making and approach to life. Figuring out the guiding principles within your work or passion forces you to think deeply about their core essence. Exploring how they might apply to life helps strip away excess complexity—revealing not just the unique value within the craft, but offering insight into how we might live better, differently. As a byproduct, it sharpens our ability to synthesize and get to the root of what truly matters. Continue exploring

Holding on and Letting Go

“Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything – anger, anxiety, or possessions – we cannot be free.” -Thich Nhat Hanh

In childhood, we don’t really own anything. As students, we have yet to achieve something. All youth is a process of learning. Children are naturally interested in learning, playing, and exploring. They hold on to the few people they know well, but there isn’t much for them to let go of. Children are free—they don’t have to worry about holding on or letting go (that’s our hope). They simply live in the present, and we prepare them for the future. And as we grow older, we gradually transition into the business of “accumulating.” Continue exploring

Love Within, Action Beyond

Balancing Self-Love and Selfless Action

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Love moves the world. It moves us. It gives our lives meaning. We all know what it means to love and be loved, but it’s much harder to know how to stay in love. However, when it comes to loving ourselves, we don’t know what to do. It’s as if the love we deserve is only validated externally. But eventually, we must realize that to learn to love ourselves and to seek within are fundamental pillars of our well-being and fulfillment in life. Many problems arise throughout our lifetimes when we don’t. We get depressed. We feel lonely. Nothing makes sense and we turn outward for love, creating all sorts of additional problems. Continue exploring

The Truth About Finding Purpose

A Guide to Meaningful Living

After decades of school defining my sense of purpose, the idea of finding myself seemed intriguing. I first came across this concept in Tony Robbins’ Awaken the Giant Within, where he discusses the importance of understanding your “why.” He explains that with a strong enough why, we can better navigate emotional struggles, overcome life’s obstacles, and remain committed to our goals. With a clear purpose, he argues, we can always find the “how.” Since then, I’ve read countless books on everything purpose-related: personal calling, starting with why, intrinsic motivation, higher purpose, and the true north—you name it. What I’ve come to realize is that the truth about finding purpose extends far beyond just self-reflection. Continue exploring

Embracing the Paradoxes of Life

Embracing the paradoxes of life reveals how it isn’t linear, nor does it have a single right answer. Life can be better understood through seemingly contradicting truths that challenge our conventional thinking. Each paradox opens us up to a deeper understanding about the inner workings of life, helping us grasp what we otherwise couldn’t. Continue exploring