Here's The Thing: A Beginner's Guide to Adulting

Ever finish scrolling through social media and suddenly feel like your apartment isn't nice enough, you're behind in life, or everyone else's relationships are better than yours? I love how much we can learn, discover, and enjoy online! But I've also been thinking about how easily the things we watch can influence our thoughts, moods, and expectations—sometimes without us even real...

We've spent the last seven weeks filling our adult toolkits with practical ideas for navigating money, jobs, relationships, decisions, and everyday life. Now it's time to put those tools to work! In this final episode of the series, I'm sharing two stories—one about a BYU football player and another about celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay—that offer some surprisingly useful lessons about tr...

Ever look at your calendar and wonder why so many of your plans never actually happen? You schedule the time, set the reminders, and have every intention of following through. But when the moment arrives, somehow it's not so easy. Here's the thing: Managing your calendar isn't just about organizing your time. It's about learning to show up for yourself. In this episode of Building...

You may be a fully functioning adult, but somehow your family still remembers the time you threw away the mixer beaters when you were ten. Sound familiar? Growing up changes your relationship with your parents and siblings—or at least, it should! In this episode of Building Your Adult Toolkit , we're talking about how to build adult relationships with the people who have known you the longest....

With endless advice about workouts, nutrition, sleep, supplements, and wellness, taking care of your health can start to feel surprisingly complicated. Sometimes we spend so much time trying to find the best way to get healthy that we never actually do the simple things we already know would help. In this episode of Building Your Adult Toolkit , we’re talking about health as a form of wealth—and w...

Dating can feel surprisingly complicated. How do you meet someone? How do you stay open while still protecting yourself? What if it seems like everyone else is getting into serious relationships while you’re falling behind? And how do you turn a promising first date into an actual relationship? In this episode of Building Your Adult Toolkit , we talk about dating as something you learn—not somethi...

What if the hardest part of making a decision isn’t choosing—it’s wondering whether you chose wrong? In this episode of Building Your Adult Toolkit , we look at the full lifecycle of a decision: preparing, choosing, living with your choice, learning from it, and deciding what comes next. We’ll talk about loss aversion, anticipated regret, and why our brains are so good at imagining everything that...

How do you become good at your job when nobody is teaching you what you need to know? And how are you supposed to build a life outside of work when your job takes up so much of your time and energy? In Episode 2 of Building Your Adult Toolkit, we're adding two practical tools to help you navigate both sides of working life. First, you'll learn how to direct your own mentorship, ask better question...

You move into your first place feeling pretty capable—and then you realize the rent is late, your account is overdrawn, or three automatic payments hit at once. Suddenly, instead of feeling like an adult who’s figuring things out, you’re thinking, “I should have known.” In the first episode of the Building Your Adult Support Kit series, we’re talking about money—but not in the way you might expect...

What does it actually mean to travel well? In this episode, we’re talking about the difference between a vacation and a trip, why getting outside your usual bubble is so valuable, and why you definitely don’t need a passport—or a huge budget—to start exploring. We’ll also talk about travel snobbery, why famous tourist attractions are often famous for a reason, and how to plan a trip around what yo...

What does it actually mean to have hope—and what do you do when you’re having a hard time finding it? In this episode, we explore the surprising psychology of hope through two powerful real-life stories: a dramatic rescue at sea and a refugee family building a life they never expected to live. Then we turn to psychologist Charles Snyder’s Hope Theory and the three ingredients that help hope become...

Ever get to the end of the day and feel like choosing what to eat for dinner requires more brainpower than you have left? That’s decision fatigue. In this episode, we’re talking about why even small choices can start to feel exhausting after a day full of decisions—and how to stop spending so much of your attention on things that don’t really matter. You’ll learn how simple defaults, routines, and...

Three people. Three experiences. Three lessons that have completely changed the way I think about time. This year has reminded me that time can feel abundant long before we realize how precious it really is. In this episode, I’m sharing three deeply personal lessons I’ve learned about appreciating what your body can do, giving your time and energy to the people who matter most, and staying curious...

Playing Nice Most of us were taught to "play nice" as children—to share, take turns, and think about other people's feelings. But what does that lesson look like when you're an adult? In this episode, we explore the surprising difference between childhood kindness and healthy adult relationships. Through stories about mischievous grandchildren, practical counseling concepts, and everyday examples,...

How to Apologize Like an Adult Last week, we talked about how to make a mistake like an adult. This week, we're taking the next step: learning how to apologize. Most of us grew up believing an apology is supposed to make everything better. But healthy apologies aren't about making our guilt disappear or convincing someone to forgive us. They're about acknowledging reality. In this episode, we'll e...

How do adults actually handle mistakes? Most of us don't have a problem admitting that people make mistakes—we just have a much harder time admitting our own. Instead, we explain them, justify them, or quietly file them away so we don't have to look too closely. In this first episode of a two-part series, we're exploring what it really means to make a mistake like an adult. You'll learn a simple f...

Healthy marriages aren't found—they're built. In this episode, we're talking about one of the most important foundations of a lasting marriage: never stopping your friendship. As life fills with careers, kids, responsibilities, and routines, it's easy to focus on building a life together while forgetting to keep getting to know the person you married. Drawing on lessons from building homes, we'll...

Have you ever noticed that someone else's bad mood can become your bad mood? There's actually a scientific reason for that. This week, we're talking about emotional contagion —the surprising way emotions spread from person to person, just like a cold. You'll learn why negativity can be so contagious, why empathy doesn't mean absorbing someone else's emotions, and how to stay calm, caring, and grou...

Milestones That Turn Into Momentum Have you ever looked around and wondered why everyone else seems to be moving forward while your life feels stuck? Maybe you've graduated, started your career, or checked off all the "right" milestones—but you're still waiting for the house, the spouse, the financial stability, or the future you imagined would be here by now. In this episode, we're exploring why...

What if roommates are about more than shared rent, dishes in the sink, and negotiating thermostat settings? In this episode, we explore one of the most formative relationships of emerging adulthood: the people we live with. From hilarious roommate stories and unforgettable personalities to the deeper lessons hidden in shared living, we'll talk about how roommates help shape who we become. As we mo...

Money is rarely just about money. In this episode, we explore the hidden beliefs, emotions, and assumptions that shape the way we save, spend, earn, and think about money. Through four simple but powerful questions, you'll uncover the financial stories you may have been carrying for years without realizing it. What emotion comes up first when you think about money? What messages did you absorb abo...

Coming home from a mission is supposed to feel exciting—but for many returned missionaries, it can feel surprisingly lonely, confusing, and disorienting. In this episode, we explore why the transition home is often harder than expected. We talk about the unique loneliness of feeling changed but not fully understood, the challenge of maintaining the spiritual growth you experienced during missionar...

What if comparison isn't making you miserable because you're jealous—but because you're constantly absorbing thousands of other people's lives? In this episode, I use my favorite Disney roller coaster, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, as a metaphor for growing up in a world that never fully stops moving. Between social media, endless content, and constant connection, many of us are experien...

Sometimes nothing about our circumstances changes — but the way we see them changes everything. In this episode, we talk about perspective: how the “lens” we look through shapes our emotions, reactions, resilience, and overall experience of life. Using a simple folktale, travel stories, and a practical self-awareness exercise, we explore how our experiences quietly build the internal narratives we...

Graduating high school can feel exciting… and strangely overwhelming at the same time. One minute the path is clear, and the next, the map opens up and suddenly there are endless possibilities, decisions, and pressure to figure out your whole life. In this episode, we talk about why your 20s can feel like a brand new level in a video game—and the three biggest things to watch out for as you step i...