Escape Adulthood

Archives for April 2018

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Becoming a Professional Giver

"Glorious Purpose" by Jason Kotecki. Prints available here. A professional giver. I’m not sure it's something anyone aspires to when they are a little kid. A professional athlete or musician? Sure. But a professional giver? Is that even a thing? I first heard the term last year from my mentor, Noah, who was challenging Kim and me to take things to the next level. We've had a pretty good run of success with our business, and he invited us to to take a wider view. He encouraged us to begin looking at ourselves as professional givers. The premise is to start thinking of it as your job to …

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Something New to Try in the Bedroom

"Fork & Spoon" by Jason Kotecki. Prints available here. I’ve been married for almost 18 years. Every single night that I’m at home, I sleep on the right side of the bed. Why? How did that come about? I don’t ever remember having a discussion about it with Kim, and yet, here we are; our assigned spots have not changed since the day we got hitched. Weird. Why do we do any of the things we do? The little habits that make up our days, where did they come from? Which way do you take to work? How do you typically run your meetings? On-board new employees? Welcome new customers? Deal …

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Julie Ann Sullivan, April 2018 Adultitis Fighter of the Month

An Adultitis Fighter is someone who rallies against rules that don't exist and engages in ruthless, senseless acts of silliness that undermine Adultitis and its unadventurous version of adulthood. Once a month, we shine a light upon the most remarkable among us, holding them up as a dazzling example of what we should strive for in this epic battle against a formidable enemy. Julie Ann Sullivan used to be a CPA and spent decades in the financial services industry. It's a profession few people would consider to be a hotbed for Adultitis Fighters. But Julie Ann breaks the mold! She's now a …

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A New Way of Looking at Life Balance

"Life Balance" by Jason Kotecki. Prints available here. I want to die at a ripe old age, completely close-minded, resistant to change, and stubbornly set in my ways. Said no one ever. And yet, that’s the path most of us find ourselves on. As we grow older, we tend to grow more rigid, both in body and mind. We’ve had plenty of time to institutionalize our preferences and weed out the things we don’t like. Meanwhile, we become a perfect host for Adultitis. One way to stay young and lively is to continue inviting new experiences, environments, and points of view into our …

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Don’t Be Afraid to Get Your Princess Dress Wet

"The Princess Dress" by Jason Kotecki. 30 x 30 Oil on canvas. Original is SOLD. Prints and canvas reproductions available here. This painting was inspired by my daughter. Our family loves going on walks. A half mile from our house, there is a row of lakefront homes. A small sliver of land between two of them serves as a public access point to the lake. A few years ago, an hour before the sun tucked itself in for the night, we pushed our strollers through the skinny green passageway to enjoy the pint-sized plot of beach that was ours. It wasn’t long before my oldest began wading in …

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“Go Big or Go Home” is a Dumb Way of Doing Things

I was speaking in Reno about one of the most controversial "rules" I wrote about in Penguins Can’t Fly, which is “Thou shalt not swap sides of the bed.” Just the mention of it can give people who have been in long-term relationships the heebie-jeebies. Shortly thereafter, an attendee named Laura emailed me to tell me she had tried it with her husband. “He was hilarious,” she wrote, “and he did not like it at all. We were laughing so hard through the whole thing!” That same day, I got a note from Jeff, who heard me speak in New Orleans the week before. He reported that my talk really hit …

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