After my most recent bout with bladder cancer I was ruminating and spending time on a support board online. I read a post where the person was anxiously awaiting thier first 3-month checkup after their first TURBT. They complained about the anxiety. Feelings I knew all too well. Having done this twice now, I did not want to shit on their parade, but I also wanted to warn him about putting all his eggs in that first 3-month checkup basket. ...
This weekend is kind of a big deal. Carrie and I are celebrating our birthdays. Hers is tomorrow, Saturday, August 30. Mine is Sunday, August 31. Labor Day is on Monday, September 1. A three-day weekend where our birthdays land on Saturday and Sunday. The stars have aligned. What are the odds? Seriously. Let’s find out. How many times has this happened since we’ve been together? Not a lot. This weekend is a once-in-a-blue-moon kind of deal. ...
Fear doesn’t stop death; it stops life. If it costs you your peace, it’s too expensive. People only see the decisions you made, not the choices you had. Never take criticism from someone you wouldn’t take advice from. The magic you’re looking for is in the work you’re avoiding. Ships are safe in the harbor, but that’s not what they’re built for. Ambition without action turns into anxiety. To live a life most people don’t, you must be willing to do what most people won’t. You can do anything, but not everything-focus. If you want to make the wrong decision, ask everyone. Those who don’t move won’t notice their chains. It’s okay to live a life most people don’t understand. If someone could only see your actions and not hear your words, what would they say your priorities are? You can’t have a new reality with an old mentality. No risk, no story.
From Reddit Fuck your Notion templates that took longer to set up than actually doing the work. Fuck your 27 different colored highlighters for “time blocking” - you’re not mapping the genome, you’re writing a grocery list. Fuck your morning routine that starts at 4AM. The only thing you’re optimizing is your caffeine addiction and sleep deprivation. Fuck your pomodoro timer. If I wanted to live my life in 25-minute chunks, I’d go back to high school. Fuck your inbox zero - emails multiply like rabbits anyway. Who are you trying to impress? Fuck your 17 different productivity apps that all sync together in some ungodly digital centipede. You spend more time maintaining this shit than actually working. Fuck “deep work” when you can’t even focus long enough to finish reading this post without checking your phone. Fuck your habit tracker that’s giving you anxiety because you missed one day of meditation and now your perfect streak is ruined. Here’s what actually works: Do the fucking thing. That’s it. Stop reading productivity on Medium. Stop watching YouTubers tell you how they organize their day in 15-minute intervals. Stop buying notebooks that cost more than your hourly rate. ...
I bought these shoes in July 2023. I have another pair of “comfortable shoes” for walking, but these have been my exercise shoes. Since I put these into the rotation last August 1, I have walked almost every day. According to Samsung Health, I’ve walked just under 2.5 million steps in a year. I’m retiring these shoes today after logging just over 1100 miles. I am replacing them with a new pair just like them. ...
Summer 2024. I’ve gone back to writing in a notebook. On May 28, someone posted a deal from meh.com in a Slack channel at work about a sale on the Panda Planner by Rocketbook. I’d heard of Rocketbook during my recent obsession with e-ink writing devices, but this was an opportunity to check them out for $20 and maybe get a handle on my day-to-day better at the same time. ...
SSC: Analyze your loss by asking three questions: Start: What weren’t you doing? What can you start doing differently? Stop: What did you do wrong that you should stop doing? Continue: What was working and should be continued? Reference: The Index Card that Changed My Life
You’ve amassed hundreds, or maybe thousands of (fill in the blank with whatever digital goodie you hoard - e-books, video files, meme photos…etc.). More than you could ever read, watch or enjoy. You want to delete half, maybe more. You want to feel less anxious when you see that directory. You want to believe that you can prune it down to something manageable. Something you could actually use. But then you realize that you may never find some of those things again. Plus, you’ve got tons of storage. Deleting will only increase the anxiety that you’re deleting the “wrong” thing. ...
Observations from day 2 It’s October! We’re very excited! Everybody got a good night’s sleep. And there are turkeys! This morning there was full-on, Thanksgiving turkeys just walking around the parking lot checking out the cars (our included) like it was their job. If you ask me, I think that portends that it’s going to be a good week. Turkeys! 9:35 AM. We got to the Beverly station and found that the train’s going to be late. Like over an hour late. Hey, you know, life goes on. Everything will be fine. ...