My mother put up a shower curtain that had a map of the world on in so that my sister and I would be reminded that the small town where we grew up is not the center of the universe. It inspired me to travel so much that she eventually replaced the world map shower …
Continue reading “Things I Learned from My Mother (#2): You’re not the center of the universe”
When my younger sister was born, my mother bought me a set of markers and told me that they were from my baby sister, so that I would like her and we would get along. It worked. I like her and we get along. We got together with our extended family at every holiday throughout …
Continue reading “Things I Learned from My Mother (#1): The Importance of Family”
I just spent an extra hour putting my 2 year old to bed. Two traffic signs whose messages always seem relevant to me: EXPECT DELAYS BE PREPARED TO STOP
I’m working on a project and I started a spreadsheet to keep track of what I did each week, to make sure that I did something every week. I also committed to recording “Did nothing” if I didn’t do any work on the project. Then I thought, “Why a week? Why not a day?” So …
I have a bad habit of accepting free stuff. Free socks—they’re brand new, still in the packaging. Not the color I would have bought, but they’re free. It’s a trap. Something’s being cheap is not a reason to buy it. Something’s being free is not a reason to accept it. It depends on what the …
It’s worth asking: What happens if you’re awesome at it? What happens if you’re awesome at your job? Do you get more money? More responsibility? More work? More vacation? Do you get to leave earlier? Do you get a good reputation? Do you get what you want? What happens if you’re awesome at being a …
I played poker this past weekend. As in poker, so in life: There are things you can control and things you can’t control. There are things you know and things you don’t know. You make a decision and hope for the best—BUT your decision was a good one or a bad one at the time …
Continue reading “Celebrate a good decision, not the good outcome”
Listen to that voice inside you. The one that says it’s time to stop working and go for a run. The one that says it’s time to stop eating before you’re completely stuffed. The one that says it’s time to do that thing you keep putting off. The one that says it’s time to lose …
I go to farmers markets. I buy organic strawberries at the supermarket. But the best strawberries I’ve ever had, by far, were the strawberries we grew in my backyard growing up. Deep red and sweet as summer. In the last place I lived, there was a Meyer lemon tree in the backyard. Meyer lemons are …
Walt Disney went bankrupt before he became successful. So did Henry Ford. To someone who’s never gone bankrupt, this probably sounds a little bizarre or daunting. But how does it sound to someone who has gone bankrupt before? It didn’t seem to deter Walt or Henry. They knew what it felt like to hit the …
