Andrew and I are currently out to dinner and we just overheard a guy at the bar telling a hilarious story. Immediately we both stopped talking to try and listen, chuckling because even though we were sitting in silence right now, we knew we’d be super entertained chatting about it on the ride home. It reminds me of one anniversary in Niagara Falls…

This morning I woke up naturally in a warm, comfy bed. As I was laying there, I suddenly realized I had forgotten to set up my Sunday Starter. I wasn't sure what time it was as I contemplated getting up and rushing to get it out - would I make it before 7am EST? Had the time already passed? Laying there I realized that it was okay that I was late this week.

If you’re old enough to remember the iconic movie What About Bob I’m sure from the title alone your mind was just filled with some classic Bill Murray lines…

On January 1, 2023 a good friend of mine and I poured some sparkling water and sat at her kitchen table brainstorming New Year’s resolutions. Once we had a list ready of our goals, we went to the store and bought a bunch of bottles of champagne. Most of the bottles were pretty cheap but they were a way of celebrating various achievements throughout the year. As we strolled through the champagne aisle, I decided to splurge; if I made it through the whole year and reached every goal, I would pop a bottle of Dom Pérignon…

I recently started rewatching the television show F.R.I.E.N.D.S. This round of the series will make it, let me think, my gazillionth time watching through all ten seasons. It's one of those shows I can have on and I don't even need to see it to know what's happening. I'll have it on in the background while I’m writing or fully pay attention as if it's my first time watching the show; I'll watch the same episodes with the same jokes and laugh like its my first time hearing them.  There's a reason I started watching through this series again. I didn't know it at the time, but after reading through Play and Repeat: Why We Watch the Same Shows Over and Over, I learned there are a whole slew of reasons why humans prefer to watch shows they have already seen.

BE more than the job because you ARE more than the job… I posted that on social media on Wednesday, and then proceeded to work late every night. On Friday, I didn’t shut down my computer until 9pm. The truth is, it’s far easier to write some words than it is to follow through on the actions that make them true.

If you are reading this the Sunday morning it came out, then yesterday I took the EMT National Registry exam. It was a two hour adaptive test which means the more questions you get right, the harder it gets. Once you reach the threshold of either passing or failing, the test just shuts off…

On April 15, 1931, Plennie Wingo set out from Santa Monica California to break a world record; 8,000 miles and over a year later he would become the person to walk the furthest around the world… backwards. As I sat in the car listening to a podcast tell the story of Mr. Wingo, I was inspired to write a Sunday Starter about it so I pulled out my OneNote on my phone and jotted down a few notes.  

I used to do yoga every day. It was a big part of my routine and how I stayed healthy. In yoga, discomfort is okay. It means you’re growing; you’re pushing yourself in the right way. When you sit in the discomfort eventually your body adjusts and you are able to do new things you never could before. In yoga, discomfort is good, pain is not…

So I’m walking down the streets of DC and I make uncomfortably long eye contact with a stranger. The anxious and self conscious part of my brain immediately assumes it’s because I look ridiculous. Gearing up for a long day of walking around the city and museums, I donned my black running shoes and comfortable hiking joggers; wanting to be warm I had my socks up high, pulled my Eddie Bauer winter coat hood on and zipped it up tight. Add my sunglasses and I looked unusual to say the least, but I also decided that morning that I didn’t care.  

It doesn’t matter. I’ve heard some version of this from many people lately.  It doesn’t matter… I don’t care… Oh well… It is what it is

The thing is though, it does matter to me. While I agree that something at work shouldn’t impact my overall well being, simply stating it doesn’t matter doesn’t do anything to stop it from mattering.

There are some things in my life I am excelling at, while there are others I am failing miserably. It is frustrating for me because the things I am struggling with are actually things I am very good at. I shouldn’t be doing poorly, yet I am. It made me think of a story I once read about Ruth Bader Ginsberg…

This week someone handed me a book that he had just published. I had already known this, of course, as I cheered him on through the process and celebrated when it finally arrived. There’s something special that connects people that experience the same thing.

I did it. Today, I passed my EMT Class. For the last 6 months I have spent 250 hours learning to be a certified EMT. Today, I am excited, I am relieved, and I am so tired because I haven’t slept or exercised properly since August. So all I have for you this morning is the simple reminder to celebrate.

It was just after halftime when my coach looked at me with the question - should we change our strategy? The score was 2-0 and her unique method of keeping our entire team on our half of the soccer field was surprisingly working. As the captain, I shook my head no. It was tempting to go back to playing in a more normal fashion. She felt the urge, I felt it too, but being abnormal was exactly what was keeping us ahead. Up against Goliath - the team that had won nearly every year - we shouldn't have been winning, but we were.   

In the late 1800s, Delhi India was overrun by cobras. The British Government, that ruled at the time, decided to solve this problem by offering a bounty for them. Seems like a great idea right? We have too many cobras so let's pay people to catch them. Unfortunately, this well-intended decision was exploited…

I've been writing for the last hour, and I still have yet to finish a Sunday Starter. I tried picking up some old posts that I began a while ago: one was about the Cobra Effect, another about being an underdog, a third about being left-handed, and a forth titled Puffins. I worked on each one for a little bit until I hit writers block, in which then I moved on to the next topic hoping it would be different. It was not different. I've now made my way through four ideas and instead of being finished I am staring at them lined up in my OneNote with a "(Needs work)" next to each title. That's what I write when my idea is almost finished but not quite there. As I stared at it just now, I felt very tired. They all needed work and I didn’t' feel like I had any more work to give.

It’s May 1, 1820 and you’re in Brooklyn. Several boxes are in your hands as you prepare to move to your new apartment. Now just mentioning that may already bring a wave of anxiety; anyone that has ever moved knows the stress that comes with Moving Day. Now imagine all the stress of your family moving, and multiply it by everyone in Brooklyn.

As you embark on a New Year and think about the "new you" that you want to be, remember that goals aren't about changing who you are; goals are about finding who you are and that process begins on day one. When you set your eyes on a target, and start making a plan for how to reach it, you should be thinking about two things: rituals and habits.  

"Spotify Wrapped" is likely something many of you have heard of. For those that haven't, all you need to know is that Spotify is an app that allows you to stream music from any artist. This is not like the illegal downloads of the early 2000s, but rather something the artists all agree to. Every year this app comes out with a summary of the top artists and songs you’ve listened to. Introduced in 2016, Spotify Wrapped has quickly grown to…