“When you set giant, unrealistic goals, the delta between the actions you’re currently taking and the actions you would need to take to reach that giant goal become glaringly obvious.”

It was fascinating to see the impact that even a 15-minute delay to his nap schedule had on his ability to cope. Small changes in his diet and dinner schedule were detrimental to his ability to stave off a meltdown. It got me thinking that we aren’t so different.

Photographers and videographers (and all sorts of creative freelancers) spend tons of time tinkering with their portfolios, hoping that big brands will notice. What they don’t realize is that big brands are searching for something beyond just good work.

Have you touched a duck before? Have the majority of people touched ducks before? Then why do we say “get your ducks in a row” so often?

One of my videos is earning tens of thousands of views on Instagram. And counting. Amidst the scramble to respond to comments and messages, I’ve pulled a few lessons from this experience that I’d like to share.

Wherever the folks in your industry are spending time, you need to spend time there too. I’ll add, it doesn’t matter which end of the industry. Clients and colleagues are equally as important in the freelance game.

Life is painful. It’s hard. And no doubt, writing and workouts make it harder. But that is a portion of the pain that we own. We’re co-creators in the pain. We’re still choosing this.

There’s a study in which different people were tasked with interpreting an email. Those deemed in “high-power” positions were much worse at understanding the perspective of the email sender than those in “low-power” positions.

In a recent conversation with my uncle, we were discussing the optimal amount of time to assume you have left on this earth.

Baseball has a truncated outcome distribution. When you swing, no matter how well you connect with the ball, the most runs you can get is four. In business, every once in a while, when you step up to the plate, you can score 1,000 runs.

On August 11th, 2018, I tweeted the following: “I feel like I’m about to hit a personal / mental breakthrough. If the dissonance between where you are and where you want to be gets stronger, keep going through it!”

My knees were buckling under the crushing weight of stress. And I decided to take the weekend off of work and hang the cost.

As adults, we are told bedtime stories every single night.

We all got into this game because the feeling of turning ideas into reality is unmatched. Like a drug, it’s euphoric. And like a drug, it’s addictive and debilitating.

If you feel like people won’t respond to your work because you’ve already published something similar, that’s just resistance talking. They barely, barely remember what you published last week…

We’re not asking for a bulletproof, absolutely original, culturally tasteful eponymous debut album that’s rock solid from track one to track twelve. We’re asking for a summer bop we can play for our friends in the car and say, “I know these guys!”

We have a misconception that eventually we’ll get really healthy, or eventually we’ll start investing a ton of money at once, or eventually we’ll slow down and have a ton of time for family…but it just doesn’t work that way.

Life-changing wisdom and insights can be boiled down to a few very short sentences. The trouble is, when things are too short they don’t stick.

I injured my foot during training and I had to get an x-ray. I was tired and hungry all the time for two and a half months. My hips locked up for a year afterward, and I had to take a special stretching class to regain mobility. I got 2,519th place with a time that doesn’t impress anybody.

When we take steps to improve our lives, the people around us can feel insecure about their lives. They might isolate themselves, they might lash out, or they might stop asking you to hang out.