Year of the ZABAL - Day 152 (Monday, June 1, 2026)
Back in Motion, Still Building
gm zm,
Happy June and welcome to the final month of Q2.
You may not have heard from me in a while through the newsletter, but the work never stopped. The days have been full of building, testing, learning, and putting pieces into place. A lot of the progress hasn't been loud, but it's been consistent. If you've been following along elsewhere, even something as simple as checking GitHub tells the story. The momentum has been there.
Right now, a major focus is ZABAL Gamez, a three-month virtual Build-A-Thon designed to help people move from ideas to execution. The structure is simple: one month of workshops, one month of open building, and one month of curated projects leading into the finals. This morning we held the first workshop, and another session is coming up later today. There's still a lot to learn about what this experiment can become, but that's part of what makes it exciting. The goal isn't perfection. The goal is creating an environment where people can show up, build, and surprise themselves with what they're capable of making.
This morning's session was with yerbearserker from Empire Builder, on going from an idea to something real. The throughline: build your foundation and your community first, before you rush to launch anything. And we did not just talk about it. We set up a ZABAL Gamez home base live on the call, a place to recognize the people who keep showing up all season. You can see it here: empirebuilder.world/empire/zabalgamez01e9af
Starting soon, 5 to 6pm EST, Joshua.eth (founder of Bonfire) and Plat0x go deep on Bonfire and how it helps builders keep track of everything moving across ZABAL Gamez. Free, livestreamed, and recorded. RSVP: luma.com/y189qk8p Live:twitch.tv/bettercallzaal
Today's mindful moment came from a card I keep close: don't take anything personally.
The card puts it plainly. When you refuse to take things personally, you avoid a lot of upsets in your life. The anger, the jealousy, even the sadness tend to fade once you stop making other people's reactions about you.
It sounds simple until life hands you a chance to practice it. When you're building in public, sharing ideas, organizing communities, or trying something new, it's easy to attach your identity to every reaction. Every opinion can feel like a judgment. Every setback can feel bigger than it really is.
But most things aren't about us. People respond through the lens of their own experiences, expectations, fears, and priorities. The more space you leave between someone else's reaction and your sense of self, the easier it is to stay focused on what matters. Less energy spent defending. More energy spent creating.
Sometimes growth isn't about becoming harder. It's about becoming less reactive. That small shift is the kind of thing that, over time, transforms your life.
Keep building, even when the feedback gets noisy.
Everything is free and open to anyone. See what is on now at zabalgamez.com/live, find every session on the calendar at luma.com/zao, and jump into the conversation in the /zabal channel.
-BetterCallZaal on behalf of the ZABAL Team
