Good morning!

Welcome to another edition of The Matt Viera Newsletter.

The newsletter with the goal to inspire you to roll the dice.

Did you know…

Finland has been named the world’s happiest country for the ninth consecutive year in the 2026 World Happiness Report.

One of the factors believed to contribute to Finland being the world’s happiest country is its strong emphasis on work-life balance.

A Drive to a Random Destination in New Jersey

A few months ago, the front windshield of my SUV cracked.

At first, it was tiny.

Barely noticeable.

I spotted it while clearing snow off my SUV after those brutally cold days this past winter when the snow simply did not melt.

What should have taken ten minutes took nearly forty-five.

At first, I ignored it.

But as anyone who has dealt with a cracked windshield knows, small problems rarely stay small.

That tiny crack gradually spread until it stretched across nearly the entire windshield.

So I called my insurance company, confirmed the replacement was covered, and brought the SUV in to get fixed.

After it was replaced, something felt off.

Whenever I drove at higher speeds, I heard what sounded like air leaking into the cabin.

The only way I can describe it is that faint sound you hear when a window is open just a millimeter.

So I brought it back.

Long story short, the issue was eventually resolved, but I needed to get the SUV out on the highway one more time to confirm the noise was gone for good.

So this past Sunday, I decided to take a drive.

And for whatever reason, I chose a destination that has played a significant role in my life:

Hackensack, New Jersey.

I know. Random. But stick with me.

Hackensack is the one place on earth tied to two completely different chapters of my life.

It’s where two different jobs I worked were located.

And more importantly, it’s where I quit both of them.

The common denominator?

Both required me to work 60+ hours per week.

The first was when I served as a recruiter in the Army.

If you stay in the Army long enough, you eventually become one of two things: a drill sergeant or a recruiter. Before I had the chance to choose, the Army chose for me.

Recruiter.

I hated that job with every fiber of my being.

In fact, it is the only reason I left the Army.

Had I never become a recruiter, I genuinely believe I would have stayed in for 30 years.

But life had other plans.

I got out, moved to Miami, went to law school, and eventually became an attorney.

Then after taking the bar exam and moving back to New York City, my first job was at a tax firm.

That tax firm?

Located in Hackensack, New Jersey.

Now, in retrospect, I actually enjoyed that job and the work I did there.

But the circumstances surrounding it were challenging.

At the time, I lived in Brooklyn.

Which meant I was commuting from Brooklyn to Hackensack.

Every day.

I was coming home just to sleep, shower, put on a fresh suit, and do it all over again.

My life became work, commute, sleep, repeat.

Eventually, I realized I had two choices:

Quit or move to New Jersey.

And I remember thinking to myself very clearly:

I didn’t move back to New York City to work in New Jersey.

So I quit.

No backup plan. No guarantees. Just faith that something better existed if I was willing to bet on myself.

Eventually, I landed a role with a law firm in Manhattan.

And while I ultimately left that role for different reasons, it marked something important.

It fulfilled a promise I had made to myself decades earlier.

And it took me driving to Hackensack, past both of my former work locations, and sitting in a park while enjoying a breakfast sandwich to remember that promise I made to myself.

You see, when I was a recruiter, I often had to drive from Hackensack to Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn.

(Coincidentally, I currently live a few blocks from Fort Hamilton).

And on the way back to Hackensack, sometimes I would purposely drive through Manhattan instead of taking the highway.

Partly because I wasn’t in a rush to get back to the office.

But also because every time I drove through the city, I’d promise myself:

“One day, I’m going to work here.”

Fast forward to today.

I’ve been working in Manhattan since 2010.

Sixteen years.

I kept a promise to myself that I made nearly three decades ago.

And sitting in that park this past Sunday morning, other thoughts kept replaying in my mind:

What if I never took a chance on myself?

What if I accepted circumstances that made me miserable because they felt “safe”?

What if I stayed in jobs I knew weren’t right for me simply because leaving felt uncomfortable?

Truthfully, I don’t know where I’d be.

Maybe I’d be happy.

Maybe not.

But what I do know is this:

I am exactly where I want to be today because I refused to accept what life handed me when I knew it wasn’t right.

I took risks.

I trusted my instincts.

I walked away from situations that no longer served my long-term best interests.

Truth be told, it wasn’t easy.

But life rewarded me far more than I could have imagined.

That’s the lesson here.

The people who build lives they genuinely love are rarely the ones who always played it safe.

They are the ones willing to take calculated risks when their intuition tells them something is off.

They are the ones willing to leave what is comfortable in pursuit of what may be better.

Because comfort can be dangerous.

Comfort is what keeps people stuck in careers they hate.

Comfort is what convinces people to tolerate mediocrity because at least it’s predictable.

And before they know it, years have passed.

Then decades.

Then one day they wake up wondering where all the time went.

But if you want more out of life, eventually you have to ask yourself:

“What happens if I stay exactly where I am?”

Because sometimes the bigger risk is not taking one at all.

If there is something in your life right now that you know is not aligned with the person you want to become, pay attention to that feeling.

That is often your intuition telling you something needs to change.

Trust it.

Roll the dice.

Bet on yourself.

Because the life you want is rarely built by endlessly accepting what is.

It is built by having the courage to pursue what could be.

A Destination Worth Traveling To

Quote that caught my attention…

“Everything you’ve ever wanted is sitting on the other side of fear.”

—George Addair

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