On the way back from my friends’ weekend, on Tuesday morning, while I was on my flight to Austin, Avengers: Endgame tickets went on sale. […]
How Are You? Really?
My friends and I have gotten in the habit of intentional “how are you doing?” check-ins.
50 Books
I’ve read 50 books so far this year. 30 were physical books; 20 I listened to the audio versions. I haven’t read at this pace since high school (though really all I’ve done is replace fanfiction hours with published works). A few books have been bad, most of them average and entertaining, a few amazing.
Writing Update: New Tools
Writing Update Tuesday. Spending the last few days in a cabin in the woods sent my friends and me down a myriad of rabbit hole topics. As one of these friends, Lin, is also my writing accountability partner we also talked a lot about writing, our writing, others writing, publishing, and the works.
One Version of Someday
More advice from my father: it’s better to make a plan and deviate from it than to have no plan at all.
The Three of Us
My fingers press to my stomach
Under four layers of clothing
The core of me is warm and giving
My hands are freezing
I walk like that for a few minutes
Hugging myself through the juxtaposition
Of heat and cold across the skin of my belly
Austin to Atlanta
Traveling alone in the past has felt a little lonely to me. In college, it was a zone between worlds. My family and my fiance in one state. My friends and my burgeoning self in the other. No matter which way the plane flew I was leaving something behind.
Practicing Practice
I lead a monthly lunch & learn series at work for past graduates of our in-house leadership development program. It’s a discussion based program where I curate content – often a First Round article or Ted Talk – and we eat sandwiches and share our thoughts. It’s relatively well attended, though I couldn’t get any interest in the month I chose the theme diversity (the general squeamishness indicative of a bigger problem).
The Best Compliment I Ever Received
Brené Brown writes that shame drives two big tapes: “never good enough” and “who do you think you are?”
Pomodoro Technique
The more I try to cram efficiency into my days, the more I see how natural distraction comes to me. Even things like picking up a book and reading I’ll find myself getting distracted by thoughts before I pick up the book. As I wrote about previously, I’m interested in doing more deep work and decreasing my phone time every day. All in all, strategies like scheduling focused time, locking my social apps during the day, and shutting my office door occasionally have helped.