We all have a story that we're living. The question is whether we're living our story, the one we want to write for our lives or if we're reading the story someone else has written for us. It's so easy to fall into the trap of living the story someone is telling for you.

As we go through our lives, we need to be able to apply brakes whether they are the physical brakes on our cars or bikes or zip line harness or if they’re the choices that we make. But, we need to think through why we’re applying the brakes. Is it common sense or is it a fear of what could happen response?

On the face of it, this deck looks like it's in great shape.  You put your deck furniture on it, you grill dinner for your friends and family, you throw a happy hour on the porch.  It looks solid.  It looks like it will support what it needs to.  It does it's job...until it can't anymore.  

I’m sure I could get a lot of responses on the things that you watched that you loved or hated (and please do share those comments so I can curate my to-watch list), but the reason for this blog is really more about the why we sit down and binge watch or engage in hours of video game play.

Do you get excited when spring comes, and it’s an excuse to clean your house, your yard, your shed? If you’re like me, this brings very little joy and excitement to me beyond the recognition that the season has changed. But, it signals the time to open the windows (while avoiding the deluge of pollen that has appeared) and let some fresh air into your home.

I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go with today’s blog but as I was listening to a great podcast (Brené with Dr. Susan David on The Dangers of Toxic Positivity, Part 2 of 2), I realized I wanted to focus on where we are – 1 year into the pandemic response, all of the equity discussions that got more visibility this summer, and a US election that has shone a light on how divided our country is.

When you draw a house with a tree in the yard and start coloring it, do you automatically make it look a certain way?

We are bound to get frustrated about something at some point in time…and maybe frustrated a lot about a lot of things in our life particularly in years of additional stressors like a pandemic, an election, equity issues, etc. If you have not been frustrated at some point in time this year (or even this week), I definitely want to talk about your Zen approach.

Any good road trip begins with preparation…what do I need to bring, how many stops do I think I’ll make, do I need to worry about weather, what directions do I need (thank goodness for Waze), how many snacks/drinks do I need for the ride, etc. Our lives are full of planning for what we might need, how we’ll get there, what we need to be prepared for. I usually am pretty good about managing all of the road trip planning in my head but sometimes not writing it all down and thinking ahead leaves me with a forgotten item or frustration for not remembering to think about something specific.

You may be asking why I’ve picked this as a blog topic, but for me it is aligned to our game of life. We have to choose the piece to take a risk on and sometimes it will be a solid choice because our foundation is solid; but inevitably at some point, we will pick the wrong piece to pull, and the tower will topple.