(This post was originally written Feb. 19, 2020, prior to major COVID-19 action in the USA)
It’s funny how quickly life can turn based on a moment of awareness or a comment made in a seemingly mundane and unremarkable conversation. If you said to me 6 months ago that I was going to get a truck, learn the art of milling wood on a saw mill, and deliver firewood to friends and family, I would almost certainly have laughed it off. Yet, that’s exactly what happened.
Read more…Last January, I gave up my car and went ‘car-free’ for the first time in 20 years (I lived in NYC in 1998-1999, which was the only other time I was without a car since turning 16). I’ll get to the reasons why in a minute, but the headline is that I saved over $10,000 in 2018 compared to 2017. Cool, right?!?!
Now for the breakdown on how that happened:
I was spending around $1,000/month on vehicle expenses when I had my car; occasionally more, but this is a reasonable baseline. This was mainly the lease payment and the insurance (which was getting out of control at $234/month). I didn’t drive that much, so fuel was never a big factor. So, a total of around $12,000/year to have a nice car that was parked the vast majority of the time. Read more…
I used to think my voice didn’t really matter. That I wasn’t smart enough, eloquent enough, educated enough, good enough, etc. It’s really quite ridiculous when I look at it now. Sure, some of my heroes had more resources, education, money, better looks, etc., but others were no more prepared to have a massive impact on the world than I am now.
Last week I was doing some research on a project I’m working on, and I came across the story of OutKast and their rise to the pinnacle of stardom from their humble roots in my home city of Atlanta. One part of their story really struck me, but I didn’t really know why at the time. Read more…
Life sometimes provides us with opportunities that we could never imagine for ourselves and it’s up to each of us to take each one and seize it.
I’m typing this on an airport shuttle bus bound for Tokyo’s Narita airport for the final flight of a round-the-world trip for a client that began in mid January on the sunny beaches of Santa Monica. Since then, I’ve had a chance to slip on my sneakers and take off running in some truly incredible places on this beautiful blue planet.
In just over a week, I’ll be running in the Hunger Walk/Run in Atlanta for the second time. Read more…
Sometimes the universe lines up things for us that we just don’t know what to do with right away. The past 4 months have felt like that for me. So many days I’ve thought to myself, I need to sit down and write; to process all the things that are going on. But, to borrow a phrase from Jonathan Fields, I’ve been in ‘The Thrash.’
Truthfully, it really started in July when I returned home from the World Domination Summit, which was yet another incredible experience in Portland. I saw the talk that I gave at WDS on Vimeo for the first time recently. This was a pivotal moment for me. If you have 5 minutes to watch it, it explains a lot about where I’ve been and what I’ve been up to. Read more…
