amy rocks, okay?

 So, "why is it so hard to live a disciplined life when it feels so good?"  Is the simple question I throw into the living room Monday evening at 9P. To be fair, I am making the time all too late in the day to address my homework which includes "Think of a time you were living as the best version of yourself and note the values I was living at that time". The prompt naturally turned me off because if only it were that simple - I mean, you can see where this is going. Think of a time when were you most happy. Consider what were the values were you honoring at that time. Write those down and consider how you can live those more in your current life, aka - now just do that! However, despite the annoyance of the exercise, it became overshadowed by an emerging sense of gratification and fulfillment. Why? Spending time to answer those (annoying and somewhat predictable) questions was actually quite fulfilling.  Not in the sense of the question itself or the intended outco...

(Publishing posts from the past. This one hails from Spring of 2017 when we had first moved to Florida and were renovating our first home. Plz continue 2025 commentary following the revived content.) You should because it's true. Pooping was a whole other story. Some other things that have been going on around here - I ended up moving my computer over to our place while we're crashing with Adam's mom to help with staying focused on work during the day. It's nice and keeps me much more concentrated but I do miss the comings and goings and of course having two of the best coworkers ever, read: dogs. 1. Cleaning out the gutters. 2. Cutting concrete, pouring concrete, shaping concrete. 3. Paddle-boarding in the ocean. 2025, lets hit it: I strongly disliked paddle-boarding y'all. I bought the damn thing sitting in Northern California thinking I was so clever utilizing my delicious outdoor gear discount before I departed the industry. Now, at 40, its easy to admit an...

If you asked me, I would say that "Let's boogie" is one of Sean's most frequently used statements either in reaching out, or in response. I love it. It makes me laugh and sets the tone for positivity every time. Tonight, I started reading the syllabus for my first class as a student at the University of Florida working on a Master's in Leadership Development within the school of Agricultural Education and Communication (mouthful!) and I am practically coming out of my chair with excitement at the assignments and projects we have for the semester. Adam had to ask me to hold off on the first paper until at least class starts. Let me give you an example: "The purpose of this autobiographical essay is to increase self-awareness of the cultures and beliefs you represent and that shape your life experiences as a global leader and community member." You guys. I get to spend 6-8+ hours a week studying leadership,  defining  leadership and working  wit...

One is reminded, at a deeper level than all words, how making a living and making a life sometimes point in opposite directions.   Pico Iyer

<digging this out of archives from my tumblr in 2012 > I found myself more than once now doing a bit of market research for a business colleague of one fashion or another looking to up their social media efforts. I haven’t yet made a profit off of such ventures/projects, but it’s all the same to me because I’m having quite the enjoyable time doing it. Within a few hours (that’s Amy time - I’ve been absorbed for probably 5) I can get a solid grasp of a market, its competitors, what they’re doing and how my “client” can get ahead. I love it. I LOVE IT. I get to sneak around and pick apart information and approach and apply critical thinking and experience based knowledge to suggest how you can sweep the market and impress the customer. If you show that you know your stuff online through a variety of channels, your customer, the one that’s shopping and you don’t know it yet, will be impressed with you and most likely you’ll be the first they’ll look to fo...

“I’ve noticed that some of the most effective leaders don’t make themselves the center of attention. They are respectful. They listen. This is an appealing personal quality, but it’s also an effective leadership attribute. Their selflessness makes the people around them comfortable. People open up, speak up, contribute. They give those leaders their very best.” Sam Palimisano, Chairman and CEO, IBM, on the Best Advice I’ve Ever Got

"But, what am I going to do in Florida ?" I asked Adam as I could feel it begin to sink in that we would live there someday. Someday soon. We were on a house-hunting, property discovery trip with my father after he had returned from the Philippians and was feeling like it may be a bit too far for him. And a bit too lonely with the language barrier and the area he was most interested in living. But the sun, he said. And the fruit. All his aches and pains subsided and he looked younger than I can recall seeing him in my entire life. There was new life in his face and that giddy goofiness that cause all who meet him to quickly have an affinity for his company. So, when Adam and I were visiting Florida over the holidays, enjoying the sounds of the ocean and wrapping up by the fire in merely a blanket or optional hoody, my dad crossed my mind. I got it. I love that life, too. And I could imagine it being mine, and why couldn't it also be his? It's no secret the old...

Individual traits and circumstances have to be taken into account. Making it up is not winging it.   It’s being innovative. So take a look at the tried and tested methods.  See what has worked for other people.  But really keep your eyes open, don’t just follow the steps.  Think about what aspects you can take and build upon for yourself.  And if there isn’t anything plausible out there, make it up. Or someone else will.

Inc. has been one of my favorite publications for years. I think I first found them in a Barnes & Noble long before smartphones and now I most often find them on just that, my phone, browsing the internets. They produce such great work. Cut to the chase, down to the bone, tell it like it is. Some of these following items are "duh" statements, but others are ones that deserve to be reminded of. Time is all we've got. Surely, we're all doing the best with what we have, but there is no harm in looking up to that bright light that is your best self and doing what you can to get there. Application is difficult, start with awareness. Then start giving it your best shot. If you trip and fall, look back, evaluate, discuss, and develop a plan for the next time. Because you know there is a next time.  I believe the pursuit of the best self. I'm not too great at it for my own person, so I try to lift up others. Maybe that is me being my best self. And spreading goodn...

Happily, as the Universe once wrote, when you feel fear, it invariably means you're:     1. Exactly where you're supposed to be. 2. Doing exactly what you're supposed to be doing. 3. Becoming more than you've ever been before!

I'm so incredibly torn on this subject. Having run through this part of town recently and feeling incredibly unsafe, I immediately have one strong reaction to this article. However, being with someone in the affordable housing national real estate market and able to hear first hand the figures on the market and effects of the Seattle economy on the local affordable housing market, makes me think twice about my opinion. It's a difficult subject with a gnawingly frustrating sol ution. With my short stint in Australia, I was able to enjoy a thriving metropolitan area with similar demographics to Seattle in terms of age and affluence, but they managed their homelessness quite well. What is it that we're doing wrong, or could be doing differently? I don't know. I wish I did, but for the very reason we're in this place reading these articles, no one really knows. It sure as hell ain't easy. Read and listen:  Amid Seattle's Affluence, Homelessness Also Flourishes

So cliche, but I can't help myself. Here I sit, yet again, at the start of a new adventure and this time, I am finding it a little more troubling than usual to get my feet underneath me and start producing. I suppose that is because the stakes are higher because in the end, it's the same as it's always been, but now with so much riding on it, I don't find myself rising to the occasion, but rather experiencing complete deer-in-the-headlights effect. Which is odd. And it could change. I bet you if I went back into my journals and read the entry's that were around the times in which I was starting a new journey, they would all have the same sentiment. And slowly, over time, I would be writing less in the journal, and kicking more butt in the real world. I had been asking God to challenge me, to push me, to get me in a situation where I no longer had excuses and was forced to be the best version of myself. To grow professionally in the ways that I wanted to grow, ...

I get so antsy sometimes. And in a life long ago, I would tamper the antsy-ness with baking. Which then turned into cooking after I got smart and purchased some out of this world cooking books. Discovering recipes that were extremely challenging and had lists of ingredients I never heard of before, were an utter joy. A challenge to accept. A reason to drink a bottle of wine and dance around the kitchen! Anyway, my loving man has found a new favorite thing - cooking. You would have never guessed it. I would have never guessed it! But coming home and busting out his defrosted protein and whipping up an accompanying veggie is his new favorite thing. As such, mine too! But then comes a time when the itch starts to kick in again and all I want to do is cook. I want to chop and wiggle my hips and stir and mix, and sting my eyes with the scent of onion and hydrate my face with steam from beneath the lid. I want to YouTube "how to slice fennel" and wait not-so-patiently as the seed...

Never shake hands with a clenched fist.

Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.

This could fall on my shoulders and I may look past it years from now and regret how I handled the situation, but like all other times in my life when I didn't know what to do or where to go, I took what I knew at the time, made the best decision I could based off that information, and powered forward. It doesn't hurt to check in now and again to reevaluate where you are and make sure you're on the path you intend to be and can be proud of, but at a certain point, when you're just getting started, sometimes you just have to pick up your bags and go - because the alternative, staying still, in the moment, in the head-space, is more dangerous and detrimental than the move. I have always felt that if you weren't moving forward you were moving backward, and any direction is better than no direction. Or, as my cousin once told me, always have a plan. It doesn't matter if you stick to the plan, but you always have to have a plan. Because if you don't, you'...

People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing.  That’s why we recommend it daily.

This time it's just that my battery is threatening to take my mac to nap land. And I'm already down at the shop with no charger, but I want to get these few quotes preserved before it's too late and they go in the trash with the rest of them. The hazards of being a member of a daily quote calendar. "To hide the key to your heart is to risk forgetting where you placed it." - Timothy Childers "The giving of love is an education in itself." - Eleanor Roosevelt "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was a doctor! He was a doctor. It's not that I never knew that, but I suppose I hadn't really ever given it much thought. And it's quite the achievement. I wonder what kind of doctor he was. My thoughts are clearly unable to go much deeper this early in the morning, so I'm going to quit while I'm ahead.