“I thought about losing weight once, but I don’t like to lose.”
— Unknown
It was not a New Year’s resolution per se. As the ball dropped on the strangest and, in some ways, most difficult year most of us had ever experienced, I didn’t make a grand pronouncement to lose weight. I didn’t write it down or post a status update about it or scream it to everyone I encountered in January. Rather, it was more of a hazy, general goal.
It’s time to get healthy.
I received the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine yesterday.
“Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree.”
— Emily Brontë
As a parent and homeowner, it can be difficult to not become a slave to tasks.
The ceremony should serve as the base camp of a mountain, but far too many people treat it like the peak
I began playing organized basketball at the age of six.
By the age of ten, I was playing year-round for various travel teams in various leagues, almost always in the age bracket above mine. There was never an offseason. Camps, practices, summer leagues, fall leagues, spring leagues, open gyms – I did it all. When state rules prevented us from holding official practices, we all met at our point guard’s home and conducted practices on the full court in his backyard.
Basketball was an everyday thing.
Monday morning. The start of another week.
After a Friday and Saturday of perfect sunny, 80-degree weather, Mother Nature’s mood darkened. It turned wet and chilly, just a bummer of a day, so we turned it into a lazy Sunday.
Things became worse overnight and I was even awakened a few times by the sound of the wind and the rain battering my house. This was the weather in a bad horror film. I thought about worst-case scenarios. When you’re a homeowner, everything is cause for worry because everything is expensive and time-consuming.
Shortly after waking up, my wife called me into our daughter’s room.
One of the (many) reasons I don’t like working with my hands is because I don’t feel any sense of accomplishment with having done the work. If a fence needs to be built in my yard, I feel the exact same way if I do it or if I pay someone else to do it.
And that’s how I feel in all aspects of my life.
I value the destination over the journey.
I lead a sedentary lifestyle. I work in an office and I read and write in my spare time. The most non-sitting that occurs in my day is my nightly routine of doing the dishes, where my six-foot-three frame has to stoop just to reach the bottom of the sink.
This general lack of movement and exertion is the only thing I miss about working manual labor.
Recently, I learned that someone close to me had received a promotion. A big promotion. They would now be doing a job that is reserved for very few people in the world. It meant plenty of perks and tons of responsibilities. It was one of those jobs that comes with a press release.
Whether personally, professionally, or creatively, you’ve probably had a project or plan fail miserably, even beyond your wildest fears and worst-case scenarios. In fact, you’ve probably had more than one. I certainly have.
While there may be a natural tendency to wallow in our misery, it’s important not to let that failure derail us. They say the best marketing for your current project is to make a new project. And that’s true.
It’s also the best way to overcome failure.
