If you've ever said, even quietly, "I just don't feel like myself anymore"...

...this is for you.

You're not broken. You're buried under false narratives about who you're supposed to be. You were hardwired for happiness. Every week, Dr. Richard Himmer writes one letter to help you strip them away and remember who you always were.

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The Hardwired Framework

Four answers. In sequence. None can be skipped.

What you arrived with before the world's training program began its long project to shape you into someone useful can be organized into four dimensions.

01 Core

The stable dimension of who you are that does not negotiate with circumstances. Before you knew what you were good at, before you knew what you were for, you were someone. That someone is Core.

When obscured: a life that looks correct from the outside, while the person it belongs to has gone missing.

02 Call

The specific contribution your Core self is designed to make in the world. Not a job description. Not a passion. The particular thing you, from your particular vantage point, are here to do.

When obscured: sophisticated expertise applied to precisely the wrong territory.

03 Connect

The dimension of knowing and being known. The ability to bring the person you truly are into a genuine encounter with another, in ways that cost something and produce what productivity cannot replicate.

When obscured: reliably present, and almost never truly there.

04 Code

A principle-based structure that makes decisions in advance, so you are not required to negotiate your values afresh every time the pressure increases. Not rules from outside — the internally coherent environment built around what you actually believe.

When obscured: clear principles, eroded by Thursday, every week.

Meet Dr. Himmer

In October 2008, I lost my identity. What I thought I had lost was the will to keep fighting. What I had actually given away, long before the collapse, was the original version of myself.

Richard holds a Master’s in Psychology and a PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology, both from Walden University, and an MBA from City University of Seattle. He has spent more than thirty years coaching executives, leaders, and individuals through the work of recovering who they are when the constructed self can no longer hold.

His prior books, Listen & Lead and its companion workbook, Models & Definitions, Your Encore Years, and his doctoral dissertation on workplace bullying and emotional intelligence, preceded the framework that became Hardwired.

Before you subscribe

The four questions most people ask, answered.

Will this work if I’m not religious?

Yes. The framework is grounded in human experience first — three decades of clinical observation, executive coaching, and the study of how people actually change. The theology Richard practices is the deepest explanation he has found for why the framework is true, but it is not the argument. If you share his beliefs, you will recognize the structure immediately. If you do not, take what serves you.

What if I’m not the kind of person who responds to self-help?

Then this is built for you. Hardwired is not a motivational manual. It does not ask you to think positive thoughts, set audacious goals, or believe in yourself harder. The work is self-reflective — it helps you find the right problem before anyone plots the solution. If self-help books have failed you, it is likely because they were solving the wrong problem.

How often does the newsletter arrive?

Once a week. One idea, one question, one assignment. Short enough to read in five minutes, specific enough to change how you think about the rest of your week. No upsells, no filler, no affiliate links.

What happens to my email address?

You receive the weekly Hardwired Newsletter, plus early access when the book and podcast launch. You can unsubscribe anytime. Your email is never sold, shared, or used for anything outside this work.