Blog

Do you litter? Probably not. Or, at least, probably not often. Not a lot of people actively try to use the planet as their personal trash can… Yet, often it seems like so many public spaces are a MESS. İt’s interesting to ponder why… İmagine for a moment that 1,000 people walk down a clean street, and just 1 out of 10 of them drop just a single piece of trash onto the street....

There exists a well-known relationship between identity and action. So much of how you and I navigate our lives comes back to identity. If, in your internal world, you think of yourself as someone who is passionate about fitness, you will be more likely to get to the gym or go on that run. If you think of yourself as an effective and persistent problem solver, you’ll eagerly jump into creating solutions for hard problems, instead of giving up when they seem too hard....

I heard this piece of advice recently: Never let a day pass without doing something that will serve you 10 years from now. I LOVED it! I want to make a habit of that. But, it got me pondering, why stop there? What if we never let a month pass without taking tangible action to make life better for our great grandchildren, 100 years from now? How would your life look different if you were regularly thinking about, and working towards, making the world 100+ years in the future a better place?...

A few years ago, I found myself in a bit of a culinary rut — whenever I would cook for myself, it was usually the same 2-3 meals. I needed to expand my horizons a bit! So, I gave myself a challenge of trying 20 new recipes over the course of the year. (For many people, that might be a small number. But for me, it seemed a fitting target.)...

I recently joined the executive leadership team at the non-profit Waha, as their Localization Director. I have committed to work with them for the next 3 years with the goal of shipping their app and curriculum in 80+ new languages during that time. This has been a role I’ve been really loving. It has been stretching and demanding in all the ways I love. The role requires a high degree of competence in online-communication, a deep appreciation of nuances in languages and cultures, and a broad understanding of current technologies and how they can be used to help simplify the workflows of our volunteers and partners....

I’ve had lots of experiences over the years of looking forward to a new movie or TV show being released. In some cases, that excitement for an upcoming release would last months or years. The year-long wait for Endgame after Infinity War came out comes to mind. Lately, though, I find movies and TV shows to be much less the focus of my anticipation. I can’t currently think of a new movie I’m excited to see when it comes out....

Today marks 2 years to the day since my dad passed away. Dad was an amazing man, and the last 24 months without him have been more of a challenge than I would have ever expected. Today I wanted to share the eulogy that mom, brother and I wrote in honor of dad after his passing. The recording of Dad’s Memorial Service is below, and the reading of the eulogy starts at timestamp 55:50....

Sometimes it’s easy to fall prey to the dual lies that 1) we’ll have our loved ones in our life more-or-less forever, and 2) that love is something that we can give too much of or run out of. It can be easy to withhold a kind word because we think we might not be creative enough to top it or live up to it later… or we might decide not to give that gift, thinking that maybe it would be better to wait and give it some other time…...

I’m dabbling with an idea, and testing whether it’s a good fit for work and life. Thus far, I’ve been liking the fruit of it. Basically, the idea can be expressed as follows: If I find myself doing the same (or a very similar) task 3 or more times, it’s worth starting to look closely at that task and to figure out a better system for it. After doing a given task a few times, you start to get the hang of it....

I recently published my 100th post on this blog. An exciting milestone! After passing the big 100, I’ve found myself pondering why I’ve been doing this. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the process of blogging. But it is a time consumer. It is effort. That effort made me spend some time thinking about the classic and vital question that should be regularly asked about any endeavor we spend time and effort on: "Who is this for?...