Escape Adulthood

Maintain Perspective

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Grammys, Mushrooms, and the Practice of Patience

You know what there isn’t enough of these days? No, not Twinkies. Patience. Here in Wisconsin, it appears that Spring didn’t get the memo about showing up. The weather suggests that Old Man Winter is holding on for dear life. I can’t help but wonder if the slight sense of panic that is bubbling up among citizens of the North is partially caused by our lack of patience. With smartphones keeping us constantly connected, our DVRs editing out commercials, and information on Twitter speeding by at warp speed, patience is more scarce (and valuable) than ever. Marketers promise and the …

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How to Make Big Decisions

When I was a kid, I had a hard time making decisions of any sort. It’s the stuff of family lore, and I am regularly reminded of how often I’d come to tears over having to choose between chocolate or vanilla ice cream. Fourteen years as an entrepreneur has sharpened my decision-making abilities, but that doesn’t mean every choice is easy peasy lemon squeezy. We all face the tough choices from time to time. The ones with no easy answer and no certain outcome. How do I handle my suddenly rebellious teenager? Which job offer should I accept? Is it possible to make ends meet if I stay …

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It’s a Good Morning

It's a good morning, isn't it? If you're having a hard time agreeing with that statement, let me ask you some questions... Are you alive? Can you see? Smell? Hear? Talk? Walk? Do you have a job? Do you have a roof over your head? Do you have something to eat today? Does someone love you? Do you have a dream in your heart? Is today a chance to let go of yesterday and start fresh? No, you may not have said yes to every single one of those questions. But you only need to say yes to one of them for it to be a good morning. …

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Shake it Up

Andre Cassagnes, the dude who invented the Etch-a-Sketch, was an electrical technician. Cassagnes came up with the idea in his garage when he peeled a translucent decal from a light switch plate and found pencil mark images transferred to the opposite face. Initially dubbed the Telecran, the toy was renamed L'Ecran Magique, or 'The Magic Screen,' and made its debut at a toy fair in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1959. Funny thing about Etch-a-Sketches. Using one is ridiculously easy. (Especially if you want to draw, you know, stairs.) But making anything worthwhile with it is really, really hard. …

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The Seasons of Life and a Stress-Reducing Secret

I became a father a little over four years ago. Before that, my wife and I had been married for eight years and worked together on our small business. We were used to working long days, coming and going as we pleased, and eating out at nice, quiet restaurants. We used to have a Cheerio-free backseat in our car. But now we have two kids, which practically makes me an expert at parenting. An expert at knowing how little I actually know about it, that is. …

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The Sweet Spot of Somewhere In Between

Some kids get more attention at school than they ever do at home. And not the positive kind. They spend more time watching television than they do talking to their parents, who feed them junk food, allow them to run wild, and don’t show up for parent/teacher conferences. Other kids are sent to the best schools and feel pressure to score high marks. They participate in a dizzying array of extracurriculars, with the goal of gaining acceptance into a prestigious university in order to embark upon a lucrative career they'll only marginally enjoy (if they’re lucky.) Both seem pretty extreme …

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