• Hungry Dogs Run Faster

    Jason Kelce quoted his offensive line coach towards the end of an emotional retirement speech. He talked about missing his time as the underdog. Life is often more straightforward when you have something to prove. When you achieve success, you have to keep motivated by finding new doubters to prove wrong. Fortunately, there is almost…

  • Revisiting FIRE

    In 2015, I discovered and dove into the world of FIRE aka Financial Independence, Retire Early. This movement was my first exposure to intentional lifestyle design. Many of the themes from FIRE are present in current-day productivity advice. The Retire Early portion of FIRE wasn’t really about retirement in the traditional sense. It was a…

  • Mastering My Monkey Mind

    MMMM…meditation. My nemesis. Whenever I read a list of wellness habits, I gleefully check off items I practice habitually. Until enviably I land on meditation. I have sporadically meditated over the years, but it has never become an atomic habit. So, I decided to take on a meditation challenge with the goal of ten minutes…

  • Failure is Painful

    We often grow and learn the most through our failures. We like to believe that when we do that right thing, it will feel good. When it comes to learning through failure, even the best kind of failure, this belief is a myth. Learning from failure is not always fun. In fact, it usually isn’t….

  • Reading Recap: January 2024

    🦡Where the Deer and the Antelope Play – Nick Offerman Shout out to Brinton Johnson who recommended I read Nick Offerman. I don’t know much about his acting career, but he is a great writer. I chose this title from Nick’s catalog, because I love hiking and national parks. I enjoyed Nick’s storytelling about his…

  • Build Durable Skills

    Durable skills, skills that last, have been top of mind for me lately. During Microsoft’s Discover Day, I heard Nadim Abdo recommend building durable skills like communications. Serendipitously, I was writing myself a note about durable skills in a presentation on the value of developing a deep reading practice. Durable skills like communication and reading…