In case you missed it, I recently took part in a 10-day silent meditation retreat. On November 27, I took on the 11+ hour drive through the snow and ice to Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, to the first Vipassana Meditation Center in North America. I stayed there for a 10-day course, ending on December 9 (last Sunday) when I drove back. …
10 days of silence (part one)
I’m about to do something very cool. On Tuesday, I’m driving to a Vipassana Meditation center for a 10-day silent retreat. I’ve been trying to go on one of these retreats for three years now, and I’m stoked that it’s finally actually happening. The reactions I’ve gotten from talking to people about it have been mixed, to put it mildly. …
looking ahead at 2019
I don’t know about you, but I’m still not quite sure what happened to 2018. We’re sitting here at November 18, and I vividly remember this time last year. Looking forward at the calendar, the next month and a half are going to breeze by. This week I’ll head to my hometown for Thanksgiving with my family, then I’m heading …
good to great
I’ve been sort of joking for a while that there are a couple things I really like — coffee and sushi — but I’m really not much of an expert. I’ve told people, “I know what’s bad and what’s good…but I can’t really taste a difference between good coffee and great coffee. I don’t have the palette.” And that’s fine …
active thinking
As I’ve written about nearly to death over the last month, I’ve been spending the majority of my time writing! It’s surreal to effectively be a full-time course author while Unreal is sort of in “off-season mode” before the next cohort starts in January. When I’m writing the script for a video, there are a few considerations: What is/are the …
the case for support
Back in 2014-15, I was busy building and running a ticket marketplace called Tixers. A lot of the time, it was really in-the-weeds and miserable work. Not only was it rough work, but there weren’t a lot of people I could talk to and relate over it. So it was during this time that I really became close to my …
existential vacuum
I just spent a week on an island in Belize, and actually allowed myself to spend it completely relaxing. And, I even read a book! I know — what a novel idea (pun intended) — but I rarely give myself the time to actually read a book vs. listen to an audio book. So what book did I choose to …
one question for decision making
A lot of people come to me for advice on making decisions, and I’m happy to share my perspective or give a hot take whenever I can be helpful. Lately, I’ve been using a new approach to making decisions myself, and sharing that with others too. It’s just one question: “What will you wish you would have done a year …
is the narrative serving you?
I was feeling a little aggressive. A couple months ago as I was looking forward to October, I decided that I wanted to take on writing two Linkedin Learning courses concurrently to close out the year. If I did that, it’s obviously twice as beneficial financially, and since I wouldn’t start a new cohort of the Unreal Collective Accelerator until January, …
going first
I’m really lucky to be in Columbus, Ohio. Having been in one major city for the past nearly 10 years, I’ve been able to dig deeply into different communities here, and create a good name for myself in a handful of circles. Because I pushed myself to “network” and volunteer in the community several years ago, it’s actually not very …