Hey, I hope your summer is going well.

I just got back from France. Somewhere between the overflowing farmers markets, the turquoise calanques of Cassis, and mouth-watering gelato, I noticed something.

This is what a well-functioning society feels like.

It’s not rushed. Not drained. Not frantic. Just alive.

My time in Portugal two months ago planted the seed. France cracked it open.

Somewhere along the way, America drifted from this easeful rhythm — not through any single choice, but slowly, the way a current pulls you from shore before you’ve noticed your feet have left the sand.

Systems built for growth quietly became systems built for more: more output, more hustle, more doing.

Most of us don't even notice the drift. We’ve never known the other shore.

Here are 7 habits, borrowed from a European summer, that might bring some of that shore back to you — wherever you are.

No phone. No scrolling. Just light landing on skin, an a few quiet minutes before the day asks anything of you.

In Europe, mornings don’t rush toward anything. They're savored, slowly, with coffee that's meant to be sipped, not gulped between emails.

Try this: Ten minutes outside before you touch your phone.

There's a subtle dignity in dressing with intention, even for an ordinary Tuesday. It isn’t vanity. It's a small vow: today is worth showing up for.

Try this: Wear something that makes you feel like yourself, even if no one else is looking.

Cafés stay full for hours — not because the coffee takes that long, but because no one’s watching the clock. Conversation isn’t rushed or time-boxed. It spills, the way water finds the shape of whatever holds it.

Try this: Let one conversation this week run longer than it "needs" to.

Somewhere along the way, lunch became something we squeeze in — eaten at a desk, hunched over, half-tasted, and half-remembered.

But a real pause at midday changes everything downstream of it.

Step away. Sit. Breathe. Let the meal — and whoever’s across from you — be the only thing happening for twenty minutes.

Try this: One lunch this week, away from your screen, on an actual plate.

Not for steps. Not for calorie burn. Just to mark the transition — to tell your nervous system, gently, the workday is over.

Try this: A 15-minute walk with no destination, right after you close your laptop.

Every town had its own market. Tomatoes still warm from the sun. Cheese cut to order, the knife pausing exactly where you pointed. Spices you could smell three stalls away, before you even knew what you were smelling.

There's a different kind of nourishment in a meal built from what's actually in season, handed to you by the person who grew it — not pulled from a warehouse shelf.

It slows you down before the first bite. You're admiring. Comparing. Asking. Choosing.

The meal begins long before the stove is lit.

Try this: One trip to a farmers market this week. Wander before you buy. Let curiosity lead.

Efficiency, at its core, is about doing more with less. And no productivity system outproduces actually enjoying what you're doing.

I first heard this from Joe Hudson — one of the most sought-after coaches in Silicon Valley — on a podcast I've been chewing on for weeks.

It echoes the old line — find what you love, and you'll never work a day in your life. But Joe takes it further.

Enjoyment was never about what. It's about how.

How are you moving through your day?

How are you meeting what happens to you?

How are you navigating your problems & your opportunities?

When you anchor into enjoyment, more becomes possible — not because you’re forcing more out of yourself, but because resistance stops eating the energy you didn’t know you were spending.

The European way was never about producing more.

It's about — as my fiancée likes to say — ‘juicing the orange’🍊. Getting the full, sweet weight of the moments already in your hands.

(That’s what I keep telling myself, at least.)

What habit feels most alive for you this week?

Reply and let me know — I read every one.

With love,
Aidan

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