The Good Life

In the same way that our cell phone is a distraction for us while driving a car, people can be distractions that keep us from attaining the things that we want out of life. Whether we’re trying to get a promotion at work, get rid of the stress that we feel throughout the day, or hitting a PR on a lift or workout, it’s important that we identify distractions in our lives and how to…

Dear Ben, I am speechless and full of an endless stream of thought all at one time.  10 years ago, I promised to…for the rest of my life…make you laugh until you cry, care for you when you are broken and ill, be your anchor when life feels like it’s ripping at the seams, devote myself to raising a family with you, challenge you to be better than you even know how to be, be…

I’m no expert on relationships, but I’m old enough to have a well-seasoned collection of my own observations. Observations of my own relationships, as well as those of others. And, one of the things I’ve seen act as a real test for people is this: open-heartedness.  Can the two people approach life with the other person open to change and adaptation, or are they guarding themselves in an effort to protect against potential harm or…

Like many of us, I am a helper. If I can, I love helping people figure out how to have a tough conversation with their coworker, how to handle an issue with their kid, or how to get better at double-unders. I remember how helpless I’ve felt in my own experiences with the same things they struggle with, so that leaves me with this overwhelming feeling like I owe it to the universe to sweep…

When I want to do something to let someone I know that I care about them, I have a tendency to want to give them something. When a friend has a baby, I want to bring them their favorite drink from Starbucks, some trashy magazine, and a cute newborn outfit. When someone has surgery, I try to make them some of my family’s favorite banana bread or homemade hummus. When Maya is having a bad…

It’s a matter of twisting our thoughts, and finding a better perspective on life as it happens around us, isn’t it? Like when Bode finds a huge bag, goes up to his bedroom, fills it up with as many LEGO’s as he can, brings it downstairs, and starts unloading all of them onto the living room coffee table where we all spend our time together and try to put our cups and books down. The…

I may be naive, but I feel like a lot of us are at least making an effort at keeping an open mind and coming to terms with the idea that we don’t know it all. In fact, what I’m finding more with every year that passes is that I actually know less and less compared to each previous year. I think Ray Dalio would consider this “detaching from knowing”, or giving up the idea…

Let’s visit the topic of perspective, because I am becoming more and more sold on the fact that it’s one of the most important skill sets that I can invest my energy in. Yesterday, a friend of mine had a tough training day; she was well below her PR snatch weight, and 2 minutes behind her previous time in the benchmark workout at CFNE. I have been there so many times, too, and I remember…

My intention today, on my 43rd birthday, is to make use of my rapidly disappearing memory to try to dig up all of the moments, the people, the events, the good and the bad…that have delivered me to this place in my life. I know I have an endless number of things I need to work on, a tremendous amount of evolving left, and a lifetime left of trying to figure out what I don’t…

In an effort to avoid a life of hypocrisy, I’m going to put a personal story out there on the table that sheds more of a transparent light on me than I am comfortable with. But, those are the stories that we typically connect over, right? The ones when you admit that you and your partner are not, in fact, as happy every moment of every day as your Instagram feed makes it seem. Yes,…