Left unexamined, life becomes a printout of the unconscious. You can see what rewards you; the harder work is spotting what restrains you: the belief you won’t be enough, the fear of rejection, the shame you carry, the shadow you avoid. That is the dragon.

Put it on paper. Patterns surface. The dragon loses its fog. Name it, study it, and walk toward it—because what you refuse to face keeps steering you. When you confront the dragon, you recover choice. The treasure isn’t gold. It’s the person you become by facing it.

“Dragons hoard gold because the thing you most need is always to be found where you least want to look.”

- Jordan B. Peterson