A few weeks ago, I took the road less traveled. Instead of running the same road to the bridge and back, I decided to go left. I ran and chose a new road that I had never gone down before. When I got to a cross-road I chose a direction and kept going. About halfway through, I looked at a map and realized that if I kept going in the same direction my total mileage back home would probably be over 10 miles. I could turn back at that point, and run a total of 7. Or I could keep going.

I came to the café today to work on my book, but when I sat down I felt so heavy with thought. Thoughts that weren't about my book. Thoughts about life and the more I tried to push them aside, the less focused I was. So instead of trying to push them away, I opened up a blank page, called it Untitled, and just started writing.

There is a quintessential moment in nearly every romantic movie. It's that dramatic kiss when the couple finally gets together. Imagine that moment right now. Now tell me - what's the weather like? Is it raining? Yeah.. It's probably raining because it always is. Sweet Home Alabama… The Notebook… Singing in the Rain… although I guess we saw that one coming. But heck, even Spiderman and Daredevil make the list. I don't know why a kiss isn't as romantic when the sun is shining, but it's true and that's what I was thinking about as I was sitting on my kayak watching the storm clouds roll in.

When I was a kid, my favorite part of the water park was the lazy river. Sitting in a tube and just letting the current take you was the most simple and yet satisfying experience. Just sitting in the tube, of course, was never enough. I would need to hang beside it, one hand attached to keep me a float, with the rest of my body kicking and going with the flow to see how fast I could get.

The other day, after driving 6 hours, I went to open the driver side car door only to realize I was trapped inside. I pulled on the handle several times but somehow it got caught mid-way through opening. I pulled and shook it but the door wouldn't budge. I then had to…

Last night I met Dale. He's an older man, retired, with horn rimmed glasses and a very healthy appetite for life. He was in town to cheer on a friend in a three day fishing competition where he hoped his friend would make it to day three. Don't worry though, because if he didn't he was going to visit the longest zipline in the US which, according to him, was somewhere between NY and Boston (I looked it up - it's at Hunter Mountain, in case you want to go). Toward the end of the night, as we talked over the empty chairs beside us at the bar, he told me a story that I hope I never forget.

A few hours ago I was sitting on a plane, staring at the closed cockpit. It was a small jet, and so in seat 2A I was just about 10 feet back from where the Captain was flying the plane. Despite being so close, I couldn't see anything. The cockpit was closed and the door never opened for the duration of the two hour flight. The reason for that, is what is called the Sterile Cockpit.

It’s 11am on Sunday and I am still in bed. Late last night, I flew back from a week away in Cancun, Mexico. I spent just about the entire time drinking piña coladas, relaxing by the pool, and not having a care in the world. For that reason I’m sure it’s easy for you to understand then why I am nursing my coffee, snuggled in the sheets and not wanting to get back to “real” life.

I can’t remember the last time I was the first to wake up in this house. This year we have 8 adults, 3 young kids, and two dogs, so I’m not really sure how the only one without kids managed to get up first. But here I am, sitting outside on a cool summer morning, coffee in hand, listening to nothing but the sound of the birds.

This week I have been working some extra-long hours. Our team has a deadline and I want us to reach it. Fortunately, for myself, I am not being told I have to do this. There are no expectations and my manager has even checked in on me several times to make sure I'm not getting burnt out. When I work at a place like that…

In an effort to avoid going for my run this morning, I decided I would procrastinate by checking my work messages. The day that I am writing this is a Wednesday and I had taken just 2 days off around the fourth of July holiday. With so many out, I didn't expect to come back to much. To my surprise…

When I was 3 years old, I took a dance class.

I believe there’s a ridiculous picture of me somewhere at my parents' house that can serve as proof. I was dressed in a fake grass skirt and had more make up on than I’ve ever worn as an adult. Looking at that picture you might think I would have pursued a career in dance. Yet, surprisingly, the following year when my mother asked me if I wanted to go back to dance class, I apparently said…

Just this year I started taking vitamins every day. I know, I know, it's probably something I should have already been doing for years. But better late than never, right? When my doctor gently scolded me for not taking them, my need to please had me going out to the store that day to get a bottle. Which of course made me feel like a real adult (until I bought them in gummy form).

What do you do, when you're just so tired? When you don't have any desire to stick to your routine? Right now, I am having one of those moments. I am jet-lagged, exhausted, and I have two leftover pieces of pizza in the fridge that are calling my name. I was very tempted to skip my writing today. I was very tempted to…

Almost a year ago, I tried an intermediate yoga class. I watched as the instructor twisted herself into some ridiculous shape. As I made an attempt and failed, I complained to my husband that it was too hard and I could never do it. As I laid there on the ground, defeated, he said something that stuck with me…

I love the finished parts of my house. The projects we’ve worked on and the furniture and nice things we’ve been able to buy. But I also love the unfinished parts. I love my basement that has cement floor, old wood paneling, old laundry machines and a toilet in the middle of the room. I love my kitchen that has peel and stick tile on it, poorly painted cabinets from one manic weekend, and…

Last week, I told you about the formula for habit building and how all habits consist of cue + routine = reward. When you analyze your habits and figure out what cue is causing which routine and the reward you feel after, you can successfully switch out the routine in the middle. This is one of the reasons the well known habit-changing program AA is so successful. The reward is not the drink or feeling of being drunk…

Recently I have found myself drinking more coffee during the work day. I used to have two cups of half-calf in the morning and that would be it. But a few months ago, I unknowingly created a cue for myself that started to form this bad habit.

Earlier this week, as I stared at my calendar that holds my monthly ambitions, I realized I had failed at my writing goals. Just like a New Year's Resolution forgotten by February, I had just let it slip. I was doing so well with exercise and devoting more time to work, that it was easy to feel like I was succeeding. Truthfully though, I was doing the bare minimum to get this newsletter out and letting the thing that was most important to me - working on my book - slip through the cracks.

Earlier on in my life and career, I used to look at the opportunities other people had and just figured they were given to them. I would see someone presenting in the all-company meeting and assume they had been chosen for their greatness. I would sit back and dream about the day when someone would pick me for my greatness. What I didn’t realize, is that there is a very important phase in between being a nobody and being a somebody. I call it the Ask For It phase.