Nudges from Nature

One of my favorite pieces of advice came from my Coach.  This guy is a Coach with a capital C.  Not a life coach. Not a personal development coach, or career coach, or leadership coach. Not a baseball coach. Though he does in fact do all of these things, I simply consider him Coach. It's a major part of who he is. I was going through a challenging time, and I wasn't giving in. I kept at it. I was going to fix things. Fix my situation. Fix my job. Fix my health. Fix my attitude. Fix my life. Fix everything. And yet, there we sat drinking hot coffee and I just didn't have it in me. I was drained. Exhausted. Nothing I was doing seemed to work. And like with any good coach, I was able to be honest about where my head was at. He and I often talk baseball. It's part of the circumstances of how we met and his philosophy on baseball is as much centered on life skills as it is on athletics and what happens on the diamond. "Sometimes, when you're in a slump, it's a g

ATTENTION ALL WRITERS:  Try ChatGPT now. Artificial Intelligence has been getting a lot of attention lately, primarily due to the unprecedented popularity of AI chatbot ChatGPT. There are numerous practical and philosophical angles to approach the topic of AI, ranging from the terrifying to the sublime. We simply have no way of knowing what these technologies will lead to, while the risks and upsides are both immense. One thing is clear: interest in these technologies is MASSIVE.  ChatGPT acquired its first million users the five days following its launch on November 30, 2022. For comparison, Candy Crush, which launched a decade ago, took a year to get to 100 million users. The telephone? Launched in 1878, took 75 years. As a tech professional, I've been captivated by the social experiment of it all, and have been actively engaging in conversations on the topic.  Yesterday, I was talking to a former Amazon executive in a wide ranging discussion on the topic, and amidst some of the

Listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge…Success will follow - Viktor Frankl To have any chance at a life fulfilled, at achieving some sense of accomplishment, of finding any sense of satisfaction in this crazy swirl of cosmos you find yourself in, you must learn to turn your attention inward and listen to yourself. It’s not necessarily easy to do, to pause for a minute and take stock of what you think or what you feel, much less attach value and importance to it, and even less so to act on it.  Nor is it at all supported or encouraged in modern day, western cultures. We are constantly being led away from our inner guidance system, and instead led to feel insecure, full of doubt, and fearful.  This is better for an economic structure built on consumption. There’s a product to solve for everything under the sun. We are addicted to treatments. We have few cures. If you’re reading this, you’re looking for some answers. They

“Depression is living in the past. Anxiety is living in the future.” I don’t know where or from whom I first heard this, but it provided immediate insight to frame the pain I was wrestling with and at the mercy of for a long time. Recognizing that what was formerly one single big sticky stinging ball of “depression-and-anxiety”, was in fact two distinct things, helped me immensely. It prompted a bit of curiosity in me, which is a form of relief in and of itself. At least now when I felt that one modification called depression, I could become curious about what in my past was occupying my thoughts that caused this particular species of pain. And when I felt the modification called anxiety, I became curious about what about my future was occupying my thoughts that caused this other species of pain. Both were still enormous, toxic ,and ferocious in their engagements, but now I could face each as a foe with its own disturbingly unique set of tactics and weaponry. You think it’s hard to li

He folds baseball pants. Not his. His son's. He folds bell bottoms. Not his. His daughter's. He folds a Grateful Dead T-shirt. Not his. His wife's. He opens a beer and puts Bob Dylan on the stereo.  The old LP. He takes comfort in the scratches and hisses. The socks will be retired. Thrown away.  He has no memory of throwing away socks, but he must have thrown away dozens of pairs in his life. He has no memory of throwing them away. Instead they just fade away. Unnoticed. Forgotten. The scratches and hisses will always be there. They will change over time. They will degrade the more times he runs the needle down the spiraled groove of the black PVC. Black. Durable. PVC. Yet, like a rock under water, atom by atom, the vinyl under the diamond-tip needle will eventually wear away. Not in his lifetime. Not in this one. He plays it over and over and over again. Don't think twice it's alright. It's alright. It's always alright. Socks. A cheap, modern comfort he do

When I'm feeling fulfilled, warm, and giving, I'm grateful that the feeling has returned. When I'm overwhelmed, I'm grateful to know that it will pass. When I'm full of fear, anxious about the future, and uncertain about what to do, I'm grateful for the ability to look inward, knowing peace will return. When I'm burdened by life's daily challenges, I'm grateful that they are mine. When I'm alone and feeling alone, I'm grateful knowing soon I will welcome others to my home. When I'm uneasy and I don't know why, I'm grateful for the understanding and patience my wife and of my children. When I lack focus on my work, I'm grateful my habits lead me toward healthy distractions like playing guitar, baking sourdough bread, and tending to the cabbage fermenting on the counter. When I'm down, I'm grateful knowing deeply that it will pass, on its own. I'm grateful when I have no will, that there is nothing for me to do. Whet

You can't browse through a newsfeed these days without seeing some mention of anxiety and depression being at an all-time high.  While it seems to be most shocking and pervasive among kids and teens, no one is immune.  Men, women, blue collar, white collar, rich, poor. One way we seem to be addressing this as a society is from the bottom up.  It's now common to post and talk openly about the individual struggle. A colleague shares on LinkedIn. A politician openly hospitalizes himself for treatment. A pop star vlogs about a particularly challenging episode. I imagine there's quite a bit of value in these things and perhaps contribute to a collective sigh of relief, however small and however fleeting. We feel better knowing we're not the only ones, and that others that we work with, others that we admire, others that we follow, are not exempt from the increasing barrage of threats to our mental well-being. What I've noticed most in the private, one-on-one conversation