A Letter to My Younger Self at 30

A Letter to My Younger Self at 30

If I could sit down with myself at thirty, twenty years before this one, I wouldn’t give general encouragement. I’d give him a short list of things I actually needed to hear, not the kind that sounds good for five minutes and changes nothing. This is the...
What Turning 50 Actually Taught Me

What Turning 50 Actually Taught Me

Somewhere in my forties I noticed that the reference point for most of my decisions had always been outside me. Status, what other people thought, what I assumed they expected from me. Turning fifty didn’t suddenly change that, but it made the direction obvious....
Sleep Debt and Presence: The Real Connection

Sleep Debt and Presence: The Real Connection

Presence sounds like a parenting topic, or a relationship one. It’s really a sleep topic — and a predictable one, once you know what to look for. I only found the sleep debt and presence connection by tracing my worst moments backward, not by planning to look...
I Was Just Too Tired to Show It

I Was Just Too Tired to Show It

I try to keep my training load fairly consistent, whatever the number happens to be that year. Some years it’s close to ten hours a week, in quieter years six to eight, and in the more motivated ones fourteen or more. The number itself isn’t particularly...