Hello Reader,

Each week, I share one strategic insight and one grounding practice to help you grow with AI in alignment, not overwhelm.

This is for conscious entrepreneurs who value substance over shortcuts.

AI Insight That Matters 💡

The Wisdom of Subtraction

This past week has been one of profound shifts. I've been diving deep into using agentic AI to code and create videos and do all kinds of fancy things, and the feeling has been one of rapid expansion, of "leveling up."

But I caught myself assuming that this feeling came from adding a new skill.

When I paused, I realised the most potent transformations were happening because of what was being taken away.

We’re conditioned to believe that progress comes from accumulation—more knowledge, more systems, more tasks on the to-do list.

But this new chapter with AI is revealing a different path.

It's not just another tool, it’s a mirror that reveals the intricate scaffolding of habits and identities we've built around past limitations.

As I let the AI handle tasks I used to wrestle with, I could suddenly see the mental and emotional energy I had been spending on the how instead of the what.

I saw the identity I held as "the guy who has to figure it all out." The AI didn't just add a capability; it made an entire way of being obsolete.

This is the perspective inversion: the true upgrade isn’t the new skill.

It’s the spaciousness created by the subtraction of what's no longer needed.

“ The true upgrade is in letting go of what no longer serves you. — Colin Scotland

AI Prompt That Works ✨

The Subtraction Prompt

Use this prompt when you feel overwhelmed by a project's complexity. It helps shift the focus from doing more to un-doing the unnecessary.

The Prompt:

How to Use It: Run a current project or workflow through this prompt. Pay close attention to your emotional response. Where do you feel resistance to letting go? Where do you feel a sense of relief? The insights are in those feelings.

Grounding Practice ☯

The Empty Space Practice

This practice helps you embody the feeling of spaciousness that follows subtraction.

1. Sit comfortably and bring your awareness to the physical space of the room you're in. Notice the distance between you and the walls, the ceiling. Feel the air around you.
2. Now, close your eyes. Bring to mind one small thing you've let go of recently—a task, a worry, an old belief.
3. Instead of focusing on what's gone, bring your attention to the space it left behind. Is it calm? Quiet? Open?
4. For 60 seconds, simply rest in that inner spaciousness. This is the feeling of wisdom. It was there all along, just waiting for something to be removed.

Personal Note ❤️‍🔥

This quote has been a lifeline for me this week.

What I’m learning is that sometimes, subtraction is not a choice. Life itself becomes the great subtractor.

Old structures, relationships, and ways of being that no longer serve are simply… taken away. It can feel jarring and destabilizing.

I’ve been watching this happen my own life and I see that the pairing down, while uncomfortable, is necessary.

It is clearing the space required for the next level of my own evolution. The real practice (and hardest part) has been to surrender to this process. To allow things to fall away without grasping.

The only anchor in this process has been presence. Choosing to feel the raw discomfort of the space being created, rather than scrambling to fill it with something new.

It’s a process of letting go, moment by moment. It's in this empty space, this stillness, that the path forward reveals itself.

What is life subtracting for you right now, to make room for wisdom?

🎥 Latest Content

In the spirit of this week’s insight, I have been in a period of subtraction and integration rather than creation. There is no new video this week. I am practicing resting in the empty space.

Thanks for being here. If this resonates, could you share it with someone building something that matters?

Please reply and let me know what landed.

With love 🙏
Colin