Back to the Basics

Photo by Martha Dominguez de Gouveia on Unsplash‍ ‍

I came to Halo Roasters today, my favorite coffee shop down the road from my house, to write. Over the past few weeks Andrew and I have been talking about our 2026 goals. While he always likes to have goals around learning new things, expanding his ever-growing list of practical skills and boundless knowledge, I keep coming back to my first love: writing. I want to try to find a publisher and agent; I want to give a writing career a real shot. Not just something I do as a hobby and earns a little extra pocket change; I want to be able to fully focus on it.

A few weeks ago, when we were in that whisky tour I told you about, a man came up to me at the end and told me that when he heard me talking (I asked a lot of questions - I'm that person on the tour) he thought I was Mel Robbins. I told him that it was the highest praise I could have gotten which was probably a bit of hyperbole, but I was flattered to say the least: No, I'm not Mel Robbins, I told him but give me 5 years.

So, if I want to be like Mel Robbins - best-selling author and host of an award-winning podcast, someone who has helped millions of people with her relatable advice on work and life - then I need to start doing the things to get me there. This is, of course, something I already know - I literally wrote the book on it - but I also wrote about how hard it is. Fortunately for me, it's something I've already been successful at once which means I know the formula that works for me, I just need to do it.

Sometimes getting the thing we want involves starting anew, and sometimes it's just about starting again. The secret formula may be just going back to the basics and doing what you know works.

So that's why I'm sitting here, in my favorite coffee shop where most of my first book was written. I'm also writing with pen and paper which was a happy accident (I forgot my laptop) but it got me back to the root of what I love. No agenda. No other windows or apps to distract me. Just pen, paper, and my thoughts. It reminds me that beginnings don’t always look like beginnings. Sometimes they look like coming home.

As you imagine who you want to become this year, don’t forget to look backward as much as forward. The answer might be tucked inside an old habit, a forgotten joy, or a dream you stored away too soon.