Better Today Than Yesterday

[00:00:00] I want to tell you a story about a farmer. Let's go back to the early 1900s when we're in Missouri, and a young man works on his family farm. This is the kind of farm where you take care of your crops and livestock, and you eat what you grow. You eke out a living and a life, and he's ambitious. [00:00:24] One of the things he wants to do is go to the military academy. He applies to West...

The last couple of weeks stacked up on me. The requirements at work, travel and other things have resulted in poor self-care - particularly sleep. As you can imagine, a trip to the west coast and back causes havoc with the routine. I can’t emphasize the importance of sleep enough, at least for me. When I’m sleep deprived, a few things happen: * I get more negative * Everything seems more difficult...

I found myself tucked into a small seat on a long flight. Don’t cry for me, I was sitting next to one of my favorite humans on the planet, and we were on a great adventure. That adventure turned out to be more than I could ever have hoped. I’ll share some of it another time. But this may have happened 👇 He slept, and I found myself deep in a new book. The Courage To Be Disliked: The Japanese Phen...

BTTY gets BTTY with three ways to take it in. Watch, read, or listen. I hope you find something helpful here. Take care. BTTY turns ten this year, but it’s the last year that has taught me the most. The concept of BTTY hatched on my office floor in 2013. It was a Sunday, and I’d been on the job for 39 days. My boss and dear friend, for almost 25 years at this point, told me, “don’t do anything for...

Inbox Zero The first email was sent on October 29, 1969. Yesterday, 347 billion emails hit inboxes worldwide - in one day. There are only just over 2.5 billion active email addresses. You do the math. That’s over 100 emails per account per day. It’s not simply that you never get through your email; it’s that the process of “getting through your email” actually generates more email. This is from Da...

When I think back to times and places that were difficult, they usually seem not as bad as when I was there. There is a reason for this, and it’s called Fading Affect Bias. But first, a memory. We were deployed in Baghdad and in the midst of it. 18-hour days of grind. I’d beat the sun up and stumble over to the secure room we set up to access highly classified material. The coffee wasn’t great, bu...

Coffee and A Lion Tracker’s Guide to Life is how I started 2023. This was my second time through this little gem of pithy prose. The Premise Boyd Varty grew up on a game preserve in South Africa. His grandfather converted a bankrupt cattle ranch into a lion-hunting enterprise. Spoiler alert: the lions were eating the cattle. His father would do the right thing and bring it back to its natural stat...

I've been giving a lot of thought to warriors. I’ve found myself using this word recently and more than the days when I was surrounded by what the box office stylized as a warrior. If you close your eyes, you can conjure the stereotype- the violence, the blood, the action. A warrior, for me, is something different. Violence is not the calling card of a warrior, but rather love. I've walked with wa...

New Year resolutions - I understand why we do them. It’s a natural cutoff point and easy to ‘start new.’ We can do that any time of the year, but since we are here together, let’s take advantage of the collective momentum. But first, I want to offer a contratarían point of view. Let’s Stop, Not Start As you think about what you will change in the new year, consider what you can take away. Not what...

Cream & Sugar, Please A few syllables of kindness can make all the difference. Whether at the coffee shop, the dinner table, or that video call. I see you and appreciate the part of your life you gave me. It’s saying “No, thank you” to recognize they didn’t have to offer. They aren’t there to serve you, even if you pay them with ducats, dollars, or Dominican pesos. They were being kind and helpful...

I interviewed someone recently and asked, “What do you look for in a leader?” They said, “Care. If they don’t care, nothing else matters. If they care, everything matters.” I think that’s right. We need competence, but first, we need care. This isn’t just caring for the team but caring about the mission. Care is a decision. No training, no experience, just show up. Here are a few things that come...

I think about energy. The energy I have for life, the energy I give off, and the energy I get from others—the encouragement, discouragement, and where it leaks. How can I maximize its use? How can I get more through good habits? How can I be satisfied with what I have? How can I replenish it when it’s gone? Most importantly, where am I letting my energy go to waste? I have two that lead my list. S...

General James “Mad Dog” Mattis served in the United States Marine Corps for 44 years. Ask a Marine about him, and you will likely hear the reverence in their voice. His book, Call Sign Chaos, provides a glimpse into his style, life, and perspective. Love him or hate him - there is something simple about his approach. Unapologetic, authentic, responsible, and relentlessly focused on better. His “Th...

Generally, speed limits are set for the maximum safe speed on roadways. A different approach uses Variable Speed Limit (VSL) signs that change dynamically to avoid heavy congestion or accidents. It may seem counterintuitive, but slower speeds increase the number of cars that can travel on the road. As driver anxiety decreases, the distance between vehicles declines, and stop-and-go reduces. German...

It weighs 445 million pounds. I made my way down the cascading elevator bank to the ground floor of the Sears Willis Tower. It is an incredibly well-programmed office building with all the trappings. It’s where Joe gets you coffee or juice, and your greens are of the sweet variety. My feet know how to find a sushi counter I have on repeat to satisfy my sustainably sourced blue fin needs. Tucked on...

“What if you got fired?”  That was the question I found myself asking this week. Let me explain. Economist-philosopher and author E.F. Schumacher said, “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction.” That quote sparked a late afternoon session of walking in circles, looking at the...

I grew up on a small island. It was all the things you would imagine and many that you wouldn’t: the colors, the poverty, and everything in between. My memories of being on the water run deep. Those colors are still with me - my walls, photos, clothes, and particularly when I shut my eyes. My fondest memories are with my best friend. Shadrach came into my life when I was four. We learned to sail,...

Hi Friends, In a post a bit ago, I shared a piece of wisdom passed on to me from one of my favorite humans. She shared that she keeps a file of compliments that she can refer to when she needs it. She is an incredible human. Kind, gentle, thoughtful, and the personification of care. I’ve taken that an incorporated it into my journaling system. The process is humming and feels too important not to...

A special event on Monday was cause for time travel. I remember it like yesterday—the smell of cheap plastic mixed with sweat. I walked to the third one on the right in a row of 15 treadmills. My form was terrible. Bang - bang - bang as my feet tried to keep up with the never-ending black belt of torture. The red numbers glared at me, whispering, “you suck, you are too slow, and you will fail Vohs...

Humans began sharing written words 3,500 years ago. Circa 100 BC, the first ‘books’ show up but on different sides of our little blue ball. They were rolled bamboo held together with silk, hemp, or leather in China. This was also when, during the Tang dynasty, that woodblock printing was created. Meanwhile, in the Mediterranean, the Romans are binding vellum (made of animal skin) between wooden co...

At first, it was called Idlewild Airport. Then it became Major General Alexander Anderson Airport, and after no small amount of city council debate, it was renamed New York International Airport, Anderson Field. A month and two days after the assassination of President Kennedy, it became John F. Kennedy International Airport or simply JFK. The first flight took off on July 1, 1948, with US Preside...

Once upon a time, I worked for company that had a bar in this hip area of NYC. I was on the job for about a week, and my new boss said, “go extend the bar by four feet.” Being just out of the military, I barked a crisp “roger that” and marched off to execute. I was excited because I now had a chance to prove my worth. After all, I was back in the restaurant business after eight years galavanting a...

When you think of Broadway, you probably think of shows Alladin, Wicked, and Hamilton. While these shows take place “On Broadway,” they aren’t located on the oldest North-South thoroughfare in NYC, Broadway St. They are considered On Broadway because they have more than 500 seats. Theaters with less than 500 seats are off-Broadway. Today there are 41 On Broadway theaters and 120 off-broadway theat...

Rene Girard was a Stanford professor and polymath who was well known for pioneering the idea of memetic desire. He believed that human desire occurs through observant mimicry. Like an infant learning by watching her parents, we imitate others who have what we value. We Copy Luke Burgis, Author of the book Wanting, gets very clear when he says, Basic survival, sustenance, sex, warmth: these are all...

David Cain wrote This Will Never Happen Again . It’s not a long book. I recommend it if you have an hour to take some solid perspective. I’d also recommend his blog. In the book, he says this, "Theoretically, if you know what you love, then every time you make a decision, you’ll have a pretty damn clear idea if it’s taking you closer or further away from what you love. You’ll know the right thing...