The Last Rep I noticed the number before I noticed the day. Episode 666. Cool Subtle. Of course it is. If you need a moment to make a joke about it, go ahead. I did. A quick one. A quiet one. The kind you smirk at and then move on from. Nothing dramatic happened. No lightning. No ominous music. Just…Monday. Still Monday. Very much Monday. And not just any Monday. The last one of the year. There’s something about that realization that lands a little heavier than I expect it to

Why We Always Feel Behind (Especially This Time of Year) There’s a specific lie that gets louder this week. It doesn’t kick the door down or announce itself. It just kind of…settles in. It shows up while you’re driving, while you’re standing in line, while you’re half-listening to someone talk about their plans for the next year. It waits for a quiet moment and then slips in like it’s always belonged there. Everyone else has it figured out. It’s a convincing lie. Not because

Perspective Can Make You Feel Small The first time perspective ever really knocked the wind out of me wasn’t on a mountaintop or during some profound spiritual moment. It was the day I became a father, almost thirty years ago. I remember holding this tiny human and realizing, all at once, that my life was no longer just mine. Someone else’s survival, safety, and future were now partially in my hands. That moment didn’t make me feel powerful. It made me feel small. Not in a po

People Watching Is a Public Service People watching is one of the most underrated public services we still participate in. No tickets. No subscription. No algorithm deciding what you see next. Just you, standing somewhere long enough to notice that humans are…a lot. And not in a bad way. In a deeply fascinating, occasionally confusing, sometimes alarming, often hilarious way. I was reminded of this in New Orleans. If you want a master class in people watching, find a city whe

Communication Costs Something...That is Why Communication Is Hard Communication is one of those things everyone agrees is important in the abstract and quietly avoids in real life. It’s the first thing listed when a project fails. The first explanation given when a relationship breaks down. The first recommendation offered when teams aren’t working well together. “We just need to communicate better.” It sounds clean. Reasonable. Responsible. Almost comforting. And yet, for so

Clarity Doesn’t Cancel Chaos Your Daily Boost – Episode 656 I came back from New Orleans with clarity. Not the dramatic kind. Not the “I’ve got everything figured out now” kind. Just the quiet kind that shows up when you step away long enough to notice what you’ve been carrying. Three days away somehow felt longer than it should have, not because the trip was extravagant, but because I was present for it. And presence has a way of stretching time in the best possible directio

Reset & Reality Check There’s something about the end of the year that makes us start talking to ourselves differently. We don’t usually say it out loud, but the internal dialogue shifts. We start looking ahead. We start imagining a cleaner slate. We start assuming that January is going to feel different — calmer, lighter, more organized — even though nothing about our actual lives has meaningfully changed yet. The same responsibilities are still there. The same patterns are

When Life Is Moving Too Fast…and You Finally Notice There’s a pace we all slip into without meaning to — a pace that feels productive, responsible, necessary, adult…right up until we realize we haven’t actually experienced  anything in several days. It’s not burnout. It’s not crisis. It’s the quieter thing that happens long before burnout: Life starts happening faster than we’re noticing it. It sneaks up on you. You’re answering emails, handling tasks, planning a dozen small

The Annual Holiday Scheduling Crisis (Now With Inflation) There’s a special kind of chaos that shows up this time of year — the kind where time and money join hands, lock the doors, and tell you they’re not coming out until January. And somehow you still have to shop for gifts, attend parties, remember who you forgot to buy for, and pretend you’re not quietly negotiating your own sanity like it’s a hostage exchange. I don’t know who designed the holiday season, but it definit

The Truth We Keep Dodging I’ve been thinking a lot about honesty lately…mostly because it’s easier to think about it than commit to the other things I’ve been avoiding. There’s something unintentionally funny about the way we say we value honesty, yet we keep it at arm’s length the moment it starts tapping on the glass. We love the idea of being truthful people. We’re much less enthusiastic about the part where the truth interrupts our routines. Everyone assumes they’re self-

Before We Turn the Page I always think the last week of the year is going to feel ceremonial, like the universe should dim the lights, pull a curtain back, and give me a moment to summarize everything I learned in some clean, digestible way. But it never happens like that. It never feels cinematic. It feels more like sitting at my desk with a half-finished to-do list, a browser with too many tabs open, and a year that didn’t so much “wrap up” as it slowly stopped moving, like

Making Peace With The Unfinished I’ve been thinking a lot lately about all the things I didn’t finish this year. Not in a dramatic way. Not in a “beat myself up and make a vow in a notebook” kind of way. Just…noticing. The projects that stalled. The goals that fizzled. The conversations I meant to have and didn’t. The ideas that felt important in March and somehow became background noise by October. It’s strange how December turns us into amateur historians of our own lives.

The December Circus I didn’t realize how strange December was until I started paying attention to it while everyone else was mentally clocked out. There’s something uncanny about this month, like the whole world collectively agreed to work half-heartedly while judging everyone else for doing the same. Offices don’t close, but they feel abandoned. Emails still arrive, but none of them sound serious anymore. Calendars stay full, yet nobody attends anything with their full brain

December Won’t Finish Itself I was sitting at my desk this morning doing that thing where you open your calendar even though you already know what’s on it, like maybe somehow it changed overnight and didn’t bother to inform you. It hasn’t. Same meetings. Same deadlines. Same list of things that looked heroic in July and now feel suspiciously heavy in December. And right on cue, that familiar little voice showed up…the one that says it’s probably fine to push a few things into

The Last First Day Of The Year There’s something strangely powerful about looking at the calendar and realizing…this is it. The last first day of the last month of the year. No more new quarters. No more “we’ll fix it after summer.” No more “once school starts,” “once school ends,” or “after the holidays” escape hatches. Just December. One final stretch of days, lined up in a neat little row, asking a very simple question: What are you going to do with me? ⸻ The Temptation To

Black Friday, But Make It Human Black Friday is a strange holiday. Not an official one…But emotionally? It’s right up there with Thanksgiving and New Year’s. People wake up early…Fueled by adrenaline, ambition, and some version of “THIS IS A DEAL I CANNOT MISS.” And for what it’s worth, sometimes they’re right. But what always gets me about Black Friday is that it manages to blend three things that normally don’t go together very well: Gratitude. Impulse. And exhaustion. You’

Gratitude Without Performance Pressure Tonight, we’re at the beach for Thanksgiving. Waves, salt air, family, food…the whole postcard setup. And still, I’m reminding myself that location  doesn’t automatically produce peace . A beautiful place doesn’t do the inner work for you. It just gives you a mirror with better lighting. Gratitude Isn’t a Costume There’s a quiet pressure baked into holidays that no one talks about: Be thankful. Be joyful. Be present. Be glowing. Gratitud

Here’s Where the Week Actually Landed A debrief on presence, planning, and the strange ways the week teaches you exactly what you need. The Plan Was Simple…and Then Life Happened I went into this week with something I’ve honestly avoided for years: A plan for my themes. On Sunday night, I sat down and wrote out the full arc of the week. Monday through Friday. Intentional topics. A little structure. A touch of strategy. A creative roadmap I could follow. It felt responsible. M

Let the Good Moments Count You ever notice how the smallest, most random moments in life somehow end up doing the emotional heavy lifting? Like, you’ll have a whole week where work feels like an Olympic sport…but bingo at a local pub resets your nervous system like you just returned from a wellness retreat. I don’t know who needs to hear this, but: The good moments count. Even the dumb ones. Especially the dumb ones. Let me explain. ⸻ The Bingo Reset So Friday night, after a

The Week We Get Our Feet Under Us There’s a special kind of optimism that shows up on a Monday morning after a good weekend. You wake up believing that the rest, the joy, the connection, the little pockets of peace are going to launch you into the week with momentum. You tell yourself, “I’m recharged… let’s hit the ground running.” That was my plan. Keyword: was. Because by 9:00 a.m. today, work went from zero to one hundred, and whatever vision I had for a calm, focused, hig