I'm not feeling inspired…  I said these words to Andrew in the United lounge of Newark Airport. A busy airport with lots of frustrated people waiting around from delayed flights was - surprise, surprise - not exactly a fertile environment where I am primed for success...

I firmly believe that communication is the foundation of anything profoundly good or bad. Are you feeling wonderful and heard? Good communication has occurred. Are you feeling terrible and ignored? It's likely because you are left with too many questions and only your own anxiety-filled-imagined-answers. Communication is at the core of every relationship we have and yet the typical person has very little understanding of what makes good communication good.

Someone this week told me I was brave for starting my own business. It is true, it is brave to take a risk like this. Looking from the outside in it probably looks very risky to walk away from a steady job. What most people don’t see though is that you can be brave and take risks, while still being smart about it.  The first big risk I ever took was when I was 22 years old, and I decided to move to Ecuador…

As I watched Simone Biles make history as the first woman’s gymnast to win two Olympic all-around titles in non-consecutive games, I could not help but think about how courageous she was for taking a pause on her career. In a time when she was the best in the world, she put her mental health over expectations of others. She hit pause because she needed to and look what happened. She not only came back to reach the level she was at prior to the pause but she excelled beyond it, making history.

This morning, I woke up feeling very relaxed. I went through my usual routine - bathroom, brush teeth, make coffee - and somewhere in there I took out my phone and noticed it was Sunday. I had been enjoying my vacation so much I completely forgot what day it was. In the 174 weekends I have been sending out this email, this is the first that I was so blissfully distracted I completely forgot about it.

I remember many conversations from my 20s centered around what my wedding would look like. At that age, I went along with the expectations: I would have a big wedding, 10 or so bridesmaids, and lots of flowers. But when it was my turn to have my special day, I found myself making decisions I didn’t expect. I didn’t want a big bridal party, just my sister and my best friend. I didn’t want a big limo or lots of flowers, instead we used the money on Skee Ball, drove ourselves home, and skipped the after party.

A group of friends sat gathered at a table. They had already exhausted conversations about their work and their lives so they moved on, like many of us do, to trying to convince the others to watch their favorite shows. Eventually the conversation led to the bad shows, the horrible movies, the ones that are not worth your time. What is interesting with these flops is that many of them had brilliant actors. 

Whether you are burning bright, or barely keeping your flame lit, you have a fire burning in you. It is the essence of who you are to everyone else in this world, the best parts of you that others are inspired by and admire. It is the piece of you that was meant to be on this earth. Every day, every week, every season of your life, you will encounter people that will either be oxygen to your flame or wind that tries to burn you out…

Years ago, I was hiking a mountain near Park City, Utah. It was late Fall, at a time when normally the mountains would be covered in snow, but due to the unusually warm weather there was only traces. I began the hike up the mountain like any other. While I had never done this hike before, I expected to see signs along the way and a clear path to follow.

Earlier this week I received a text message from my sister about my niece; it was a message that filled me with so much joy I find it difficult to find the words to describe it but I want to try. Recently my niece began reading and watching the Harry Potter series and two things have resulted from this. The first is that my Instagram algorithm has now started sending me Harry Potter Reels which are hilarious. The second is that my niece has chosen to dress up as Emma Watson for a school event which led to my sister sending me this text…

Just do it. That’s it. That’s the advice summed up in three words. Just. Do it. For the past year I’ve been wanting to start an LLC for my writing, book, and other consulting dreams, and for the past year I did just about everything I could do except starting an LLC. I met with lawyer friends to ask their advice, I googled “how to start an LLC”, I posted on Facebook asking for help, I wrote a Sunday Starter about starting an LLC; I did everything except go to the website and fill out the form. 

When I was in 5th grade, I finally made the travel soccer team. After this many years, I cannot remember if it had been my first or second year trying out for the Travel League, but I remember that I was one of the best players in the Not-a-Travel league. Top scorer and team player, I wasn't surprised when I made the team and I expected to impress everyone when I walked into that first practice. What I very quickly and painfully learned, was that my other team wasn't that great; I went from being the best player on one team, to the worst on the other.

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.