Jumping Through Chaos: How Super Mario Rescued Motivation & Taught Me To Let Go

An essay about agency, surfing motivational waves, and what it means to be human.

Life’s like a game of Mario—not the original, but the newer versions we get on smartphones. You know, where the little plumber moves on his own. You control the speed and choose when to jump, but the walking is done for you.

We, too, live on a conveyor belt—the belt of time—where hours, minutes, and seconds tick away, regardless of what we do. Time move…