It is in times of security that the spirit should be preparing itself to deal with difficult times; while fortune is bestowing favors on it then is the time for it to be strengthened against her rebuffs. - Seneca Be prepared. It’s a simple principle. As life frequently teaches us, simple isn’t easy. I learned it at an early age thanks to time in the Boy Scouts and an upbringing that favored self-direction. Read more...

So, how are you doing? I’m five days into my own personal attempts at self-isolation. Or as I like to call it, Friday. I can say that I’ve done more self-isolation than normal. I’m an introvert and a member of Gen X, so staying engaged while staying inside isn’t that big a deal in the scheme of things. I realize that the same cannot be said for most. I live in Tennessee so we haven’t seen quite the magnitude of impact as, say, Washington, California, or New York. Read more...

It’s now 2020. The beginning of a new year and, depending on how your definitions are set up, a new decade. It is my hope that this year and the years following, we’ll see that there are a lot of facets to our lives where patterns, trends, and forces have simply become too much. Too Much Transparency Democracy might die in darkness, but it will burn in the light of a thousand suns. Read more...

How you do anything is how you do everything. We all undertake projects in our lives. Whether it’s in our career or in our personal life, there’s always work to be done. Sustained, sometimes challenging work. Earlier this year, I undertook an amazing project cleverly disguised as a vacation. The Colorado Trail runs 486 miles from the outskirts of Denver to Durango. I started it on July 20th and finished thirty-one days later. Read more...

You don’t learn from it. You didn’t give it your best effort. You don’t follow-through on what you planned to do instead. You believe it was (and still is) out of your control. You chose comfort in the short-term over fulfillment in the long-term. You listen to others instead of the voice inside. You don’t try to do better next time. You let fear stop you. You don’t frame it properly. Read more...