Merry Swiftmas y’all.
If you were on the internet at any point Sunday evening you likely heard the news.
In honor of her 13th Grammy win, Taylor Swift gifted us with the announcement of a new album, The Tortured Poets Department.
See you all on Spotify on April 19.
I’ve spent $250.99 on groceries, $93.62 on takeout/restaurants, and $98.76 on coffee and beer since last week.
Oof this was quite a pricey week. Groceries included a trip to Costco as well as a few expensive ingredients (since when is mirin $14 and portobello mushrooms $13/lb?!).
I also treated myself to dinner at Nori, a plant based sushi restaurant here in Austin. This was was something I scheduled for myself following last month’s strict adherence to a slow carb diet. Totally worth it.
My current Bitcoin holdings: are 0.0749227 BTC.
I wasn’t able to share an Audio Note this week. I received a writing assignment with a super short turn around. Not a good reason for missing but it took away some of my other writing time.
This week on Medium I published Nickel and Dimed 20 Years Later — Why Americans Still Aren’t Getting By
This article was selected by the Medium human curator team for a Boost! This is the fourth one to get boosted so far this year, putting me at a 50% boost rate.
I had some really awesome coffee dates this week. One notable one was with Alex of EnVision Breathwork.
Alex facilitates breathwork for a group I participate in on Fridays. I’m new to the practice but as you know I love all things woo.
We talked about what slow growth means for business and how to cultivate meaningful relationships with others.
I sold my first pre-recorded webinar this week!
I hosted a webinar on Eventbrite last month about how to hire a virtual assistant. I recorded it and am now testing out selling recordings of it. The first sale is always the hardest so this is incredibly encouraging!
When you have expectations, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.
-Ryan Reynolds
Almost there.
Almost.
There.
Back in 2019 I hit my equivalent of rock bottom. I knew my dream career — working for the CIA — wasn’t going to happen.
By that point I had already started to pivot. I co-founded a business — an oat milk company — that wound up costing more to operate than it could possibly generate in revenue.
I was burned out and ashamed of failing. Not to mention my bank account was deep in the red.
At this time I was working in my last defense contracting job. I spent all day in a windowless SCIF.
In case you’re curious, government jobs are nothing like they appear in the movies. They’re boring and bureaucratic. It’s like being sent to Azkaban, but you’re voluntarily there in exchange for a paycheck.
A SCIF is a secured office where classified materials are handled. There’s no windows and limited access to the outside world. All of my personal electronics — including my phone — had to be locked up outside the office.
The interior hadn’t been updated since the 1970s and the lighting literally gave me headaches. Every day felt like a battle between boredom and nausea.
For no particular reason one day I had a total meltdown. I began uncontrollably sobbing at my desk. Was this it? Was this all there was to life?
I couldn’t do it anymore. If this was all there was to life I didn’t want to live it. I was D-O-N-E.
My head wasn’t in a good place so I Googled a life coach. I can’t tell you what compelled me to Google a life coach specifically, all I know is that’s what I did.
I called the first one that popped up, did an intake session, and for the next 12 weeks I left work early on Monday afternoons to secretly meet with her.
By the end of the program my life coach had me complete a blueprint. This was a list of goals I had for different domains of life — career, relationships, health, etc. — and my action plan for how I was going to turn those goals into reality.
Essentially, this was the first time I worked with someone to design the life I wanted to live, rather than mindlessly living the life I thought I was supposed to live.
During the program we talked about goals. My coach had me create a blueprint for my life. One of things I wrote on my blueprint was qualifying for the Boston Marathon.
I distinctly remember the conversation we had about this. She was intrigued that I had selected this as a goal but that I hadn’t allocated time or resources in my blueprint to making it happen.
She wasn’t wrong. For the next couple of years that conversation haunted me. Why wasn’t I doing anything to make progress on this goal?
My wake up call came on a summer afternoon in 2021. I listened to Joe Rogan interview David Goggins and knew I had to get back into running. I pulled up the Wineglass Marathon registration page and without thinking I registered for it.
I’ve been running ever since and now, I’m almost there.
Next week I’ll attempt to qualify for Boston again. I don’t have any pain and everything is functioning properly (knock on wood).
There’s no rain in the forecast with the morning starting in the mid-40s. The high for the day: 60 F. This is *perfect* running weather y’all. Absolutley perfect.
Minus what I’ve been told is a hilly course, this could be it.
As of today I’m pacing at a 3:35 finish. That’s five minutes away from a Boston Qualifying time for my division.
Five minutes.
That’s a few seconds per mile. With my pace runs between 7:10 to 7:20, I think it’s more than feasible to shave that time off on race day.
As I mentioned after my last race, I’m not going into this one expecting it to be a BQ. I’m going into it knowing it could be an preparing myself for that outcome.
Because once it happens, I’ll no longer be trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon. I’ll be a qualifier.
I’ll have done what I set out to do.
T-9 days. Let’s go.
What I’m Currently Reading
The Plant-Based Athlete: A Game-Changing Approach to Peak Performance
P.S. Check out my recommended reading list here
My running gear:
Whatever clothes I can find at the thrift store
My crypto gear:
My productivity tools:
Task management:
TodoistScrapping this because Google launched a new to do list feature built into Google Calendar. It’s AMAZING.
Time management: Clockify
Email management: Unroll.me
Everything management: Notion
P.S. some of these are affiliate links including links from Amazon’s affiliate program. I may receive a commission from them. This is one way to support my writing and help me build sustainable income streams in 2024.