Competing Against the Ghost

Competing Against the Ghost

Most of us are walking around in quiet competition with a ghost. We carry a mental snapshot of a very specific version of ourselves: the untethered guy we were in our early twenties, the athlete before the injuries piled up, or the fiercely independent kid who had...
Closing the Loops

Closing the Loops

  Most of the exhaustion we feel on a Friday evening has nothing to do with the actual physical or mental labor we performed that week. If we audit our energy, we usually find that we are exhausted from the sheer amount of bandwidth required to keep track of all...
Our Emotional Survival

Our Emotional Survival

We pride ourselves on being self-reliant in almost every area of our lives, but most of us have a massive, glaring blind spot when it comes to our emotional survival. If we look closely at how we operate, our partner is usually the only person on earth who truly knows...
Receiving the Torch

Receiving the Torch

There is a very specific, quiet moment in adulthood when we look around the room and realize we are no longer the kids at the table. We spend our twenties and thirties building our own lives, but we usually do it with a psychological safety net. Even after we sign the...
The Maintenance Phase of Adulthood

The Maintenance Phase of Adulthood

When we are younger, life is defined by massive milestones. We are constantly building. We are chasing the career, finding the partner, securing the house, and trying to get our feet underneath us. Every year brings a massive, noticeable shift in the landscape of our...
Exhaustion Disguised as Anger

Exhaustion Disguised as Anger

We are culturally conditioned to express a very narrow range of emotions, and for most of us, the most acceptable default is frustration. When you snap at your kids for being too loud, or you lose your temper over a misplaced set of car keys, it rarely has anything to...