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We have within each of our skulls an inbuilt technology that allows us to take our very thoughts — no matter how simple or complex — and through either rhythmic vibrations of air molecules propagating in waves between our mouths and our recipients’ ears, or through multiple series of lines of chaotic squiggles, dots, and shapes representing those vibrations in visual form, we have the capacity to transmit our very thoughts from our brain to someone else’s brain....

My phone’s camera isn’t great at capturing the full beauty of the skies at night. But, they say “The best camera is the one that you have with you.” Here’s a photo of the Aurora Borealis — the Northern Lights — I took this week while traveling the highways of Saskatchewan, Canada!

It’s much better to be in a bad place but working in a good direction, than to be in a good place but heading in a bad direction. Your current situation may feel like the most significant and important thing in the world right now. Much more important, however, is what you choose to do with the moment you’ve been given. Optimizing for forward momentum is almost always more useful than fixating on the difficulties of the moment… or the failures that brought you there in the first place....

Sometimes it’s easy to lull ourselves into that comfortable mindset that our day-to-day decisions only impact us — that it doesn’t really matter what we do, because the effects of our choices start and end with us. I think, with rare exception, that’s actually pretty far from the case. Many of choices we make day-to-day have very real impact on others. For examples, in no particular order: Choosing to like and share a piece of spurious content (unverified news claims, convincing misinformation, etc....

“Sometimes a hypocrite is nothing more than a man in the process of changing.” ~ Brandon Sanderson in Oathbringer Been loving this quote I read few weeks ago. I’ve found it can so applicable, both for helping us approach ourselves with grace when we don’t show up the way we need to, and for approaching others who don’t appear to be acting in line with their stated values. There are indeed times when hypocrisy needs to be called out for what it is, because one’s words and one’s deeds are blatantly contrary, actively pointing in opposite directions....

You’re creative. Whether you feel that’s true or not, you have a creative gift that is uniquely you. So, here is a challenge for you: Go, create something, today. Bake something, write something, draw something, design something, build something, record something… and put it out there! There are people who love what you do and want more of what you’ve created in their lives. There are people whose day would be better for them reading, listening to, watching, tasting, using, or simply having something that you created with them in mind....

We all have todo lists — commitments, tasks, obligations — things we’ve given our YES to. And often that list is overwhelming. In times like that, clarifying our NOs may be even more important than trying to power through our YESs. We can’t be everywhere, and we can’t do everything, as much as we might aspire to. But, we can strengthen and honor that which has our YES by getting clear on what we have said NO to, and not letting ourselves feel obligated or distracted by those NOs....

Nutritionally, the idea is fairly intuitive: Eat junk, and our bodies reflect that we’ve been eating junk. Eat clean, and our bodies eventually look more lean. Too rarely do we let that idea jump from body to mind, but that’s an apt and important jump. Cognatively, we are what we consume: what we watch, read, listen to, and think. Is your informational diet helping you become who you want to be?...

With exceedingly rare exception, you don’t know the full story. How could you? It involved multiple people with highly complex and intricate lives, who have each faced unique challenges and hardships that you’ll never know. You don’t know what drove them, and you don’t know what drives them. There is still a place for anger — injustice rightly catalyzes it. But if we want to see positive change, every drop of anger needs to be tempered with at least 10 drops of empathy....

Years ago I came to a conclusion I return to often: People tend to act reasonably in accordance with the world they’ve be presented with. In this age of polarization and anger (and now, war), I find that phrase all the more potent. Who is someone who is doing something you disagree with? It’s important to remember that their worldview generally feels cohesive and sound to them according to their narrative, the things they’ve read, and the experiences they’ve lived....