During the first few miles of the Brooklyn Marathon this past Sunday, one line kept looping through my head: “It was an unmitigated disaster.” My body was trying its best to run the 6:50-minute miles I needed for a 3-hour marathon, but my mind was prepping for failure – in this case, the failure of [...]
emmett.freedman
The Journey Is the Goal
Recently, while comparing reading lists, a friend asked me why I read self-improvement books, and whether I had any specific goals in mind when reading them. For some context, the last four books I’ve read are about happiness (The Happiness Project), anxiety (How to Stop Worrying and Start Living), moral living (The Second Mountain) and [...]
Service Over Self
Yesterday I watched my good friend Jake become a special agent in the FBI. After months of difficult training and time away from family, he took the oath of office and received his badge from the FBI Director Christopher Wray: “I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United [...]
Rising Tides
Last Thursday I read an excellent piece by Jack Raines called 25% Loaded. He writes Young Money, a newsletter I discovered a couple of weeks ago, and in honor of his 25th birthday he reflected on five things he’s learned so far: Don’t sleepwalk through lifeMoney is not the goalNo success happens overnightStretch yourself every [...]
Eat Your Own Dogfood
It’s been two months since Anne and I brought home our new puppy, Toby, and the dog I once wrote was “a terror to leave alone in his crate” and “stubbornly resistant to peeing outside” is unrecognizable. He’s house trained and very much at home in his crate. He walks loyally by my side, responds [...]
Write for an Audience of One
Longtime readers of this newsletter will know that I’m a huge fan of Tim Urban, the creator of the blog Wait But Why. Urban’s pieces are great and I’ll be linking to them for as long as I can. Here are some of my favorites: How to Pick Your Life PartnerLife is a Picture, But [...]
Training Update, March 23nd
First 20 miler of training, stiff legs and back in Baltimore
The Return of the (Un)Familiar
This week my company officially returned to the office. For the first time in exactly two years, there were more people commuting into work than staying home; more people talking around a table than on video. The office is no longer on life-support, but actually thriving – if only for a few days a week. [...]
Training Update, March 13th
I’m training for a new race, so I’m bringing back the weekly training update. It’s a good excuse to reflect on my running each week and keep tabs on my progress. It’s also a great forum for low-stakes writing – I’ve got an ambitious word count goal this year (150,000) and my newsletter isn’t going [...]
How to Face Tigers
Two friends came to me last week with variations of the same problem: They faced a big, overwhelming obstacle and they were scared. Being open about fears is uncommon, particularly for men, and their confidence brought with it a lot of responsibility. Like Brené Brown says, “Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be [...]