My dad used to work at a lumberyard. He would bring estimating projects home and work on them at night at the dining room table. The overtime pay he earned helped my parents pay ahead on their mortgage. I’m sure there were about a million other things he would have rather been doing, but he spent many evenings at that dining room table, after long days at work, earning a little bit extra. Family first. I will never forget the little watch he kept close at hand, logging his hours. If one of his sons wandered into the dining room, hoping to chat, he’d stop what he was doing, turn off the …
Cristy Ward, March 2019 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. Cristy Ward has been hanging around the Escape Adulthood Universe for the long haul! Working with sherpas (kiddos) on a daily basis, she is privy to the secrets of fighting Adultitis more than the average adult, and she …
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Damascus Moments
As I wrote about in Penguins Can't Fly, I am not a natural-born rule breaker. This may come as a surprise coming from someone who wrote a book about breaking rules. The obvious question is, "How did you go from being a shy boy who was afraid of new situations and spent an eternity in swimming lessons to a guy who makes a living speaking in public about breaking rules?” For years, I’ve tried to come up with a compelling answer. After all, it seems like some sort of magic was involved. I would often point to a moment when I imagined myself as an 80-year-old guy looking back on my life …
Advice From an Astronaut
"It's Time To Dream Bigger" by Jason Kotecki. Digital. I recently got to see a real live astronaut. He showed us a video of what thunderstorms in Central Africa look like from above. (Answer: strobe lights at a night club.) Terry Virts is a former NASA astronaut and Space Station Commander who came to Madison to speak to schoolchildren about his experiences. My daughter Lucy and I had the opportunity to hear his stories and see his incredible snapshots from his 200-day tour of outer space. He told us that being in space doesn’t feel like floating, but rather like you're always falling. …
Building Sandcastles and the Meaning of Life
Why do we build sancastles on the beach? I mean, what’s the point? Eventually, the surf will swallow it whole and all the hard work will be for nothing. That’s what I was thinking as my kids were enthusiastically erecting a stronghold of sand on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. They worked fast. Built it high. And even added a moat for protection. That led to questions about life. If you’re lucky, you have eight or nine decades to work with, although most of us have much less than that. We busily build families, careers, and accomplishments to be proud of. It’s easy to wonder: What’s the …
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Shelley Storhoff, February 2019 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. Shelley Storhoff is the Queen of Follow Through! In her email signature she has chosen the quote: "Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass. . . it's about learning to dance in the rain.” It’s obvious through her …
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What I Learned After an Eternity in Swimming Lessons
We went to Mexico recently. My youngest daughter spent the first hour in the pool at our condo on her tiptoes, bouncing around to various areas, repeatedly asking, “Can I touch?” When you’re little, and don’t know how to swim yet, that’s the only question that matters. “Can I touch?" It’s a simple yes or no question. The translation, of course, is “Can I survive here? Am I safe? Do I have anything to worry about?” Only Ginny was asking this question, as my other two kids know how to swim. Once you know how to swim, you don’t need to ask, because it doesn’t matter if you can …
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Boss Lady
"Boss Lady" by Jason Kotecki. 6" x 8". Oil on canvas. Original is SOLD. Limited edition canvas prints available here. This little bird is the boss, but I’m not talking about her title. I’m talking about her attitude, her fabulousness, and the way this winged wonder enters a room like she owns the whole building. You might be surprised to learn that she wasn’t always this way. She was shy, not all that confident, and cared way too much about what other people thought. She was a bird who blended in. Oh, she wanted to be bold, chase her dreams with unabashed determination, and let the …
Enjoy the Climb
"Enjoy the Climb" by Jason Kotecki. 16" x 20". Oil on canvas. Original is SOLD. Prints available here. If you were to place your nose really close to this canvas and focus only on one of the goats, what would you see? A mountain goat on a snowy mountain. The environment around them is boring, plain, cold, and possibly treacherous. I was reading some old journals the other day. I was struck by how concerned I was about details of projects and initiatives that are no longer relevant to our current business model. Problems that needed to be solved, or else! Pitfalls that seemed like …
Why You Shouldn’t Throw in the Towel Just Yet
When kids start to talk, they’re bad. Like, really awful. They’re mostly unintelligible and can’t even string more than two syllables together. Compared to a great orator like Martin Luther King, Jr., they should be ashamed of themselves. But they’re not. A grown-up sure would be, though. We chastise ourselves all the time for not being good enough. If someone sees our feeble efforts, we apologize profusely. Not kids. They just keep on going. Part of the reason we struggle so much with learning a new skill or implementing a new system is because we know what mastery feels like. …
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