When my wife and I first met, she was mid-way through a Master of Education degree. She was also working full-time, running a ladies fastball league (with over 100 participants), working out every-day, and regularly socialising with friends. That year, she would also win an outstanding student award and we would take 5 trips (here’s to new love!), where she disconnected from all the other things. She was (and is) by all accounts, an overachiever….

If we consider the cost-benefit analysis of social comparison, we undoubtedly notice that its greatest cost is not the comparative distance between ourselves and others, but the practices’ devastating loss to our own happiness. The following takes the form of a personal reminder letter, which is surprisingly dark and dripping with healthy sarcasm. Not sure yet if I like this style – but it was fun to write. Dear Mathew,  I have some advice that…

I’ve been increasingly looking for a productive approach to venting. In an uncharacteristically overloaded year, I’ve often comforted those colleagues who are stressed and need to vent. I’ve wanted (and want) them to feel better. But at the end of a colleague’s vent, I’ve felt worn out and, futilely, they’ve seemed more hopeless. I worry that my attempts to help are being counterproductive. Thing is, I understand their pain. When I’m stressed and overwhelmed, I…

It’s time for us to stop pretending. There are just some dreams we’re holding on to that we’ll never get done. If we want to find freedom and more happiness, it’s time to let them go. For many years, I’ve held onto many dreams that I managed to just never plan or do. Yet, here they are, on my todo list, vision boards, or at least in the back of my mind as things I…

Recently, my mornings have become overwhelmed with demands for my attention. Some of these are, of course, inherently important and urgent – like when my newborn needs food or a diaper change, or when a coworker calls to tell me they’re in the hospital and need support.  But a vast majority of these attentional demands are not urgent, and some of them are not even important at all – like my endless scrolling through Facebook…

After my wife and I returned from our honeymoon in Hawaii in December, 2019, we both noticed that our minds felt calm and spacious. We loved it. We both felt happier, more relaxed, and also more productive and creative. We both felt inspired again. This wasn’t the first time vacation had made use feel this way. Time away from our normal routines gave us a sense of perspective and creative inspiration. I guess I began…

There have been several points in my career where I’ve been asked to give career advice to others. I’m lucky. My relatively successful, non-traditional career path perhaps incorrectly suggests I can offer meaningful insights. What I can offer is insight into my own career approach which, given the circumstances I have found myself in, seemed to have served, and surprised me. That said, I’ve noticed that there are typically three conventional pieces of advice.  Advice…

In November 1979, an Air New Zealand DC10 crashed into the 12,000 FT Mount Erebus, killing all 257 people on board. Due to a navigation system input error, the pilots unknowingly flew off course which put them 45KM away from their planned flight path – sending the plane directly into the side of the mountain. This tragedy would’ve been avoided had the pilots adjusted the flight path slightly by 2 degrees. Over the course of…

I was lying awake this past week with an odd question. Money feels different depending on how much you make. If I make $100/day, for example, a $50 lunch (don’t ask me where you’re picking up a $50 lunch, but bear with me) feels very expensive. If I make $1,000 a day, a $50 lunch feels more trivial. In real terms, when I was a financially struggling student, I sometimes worried that a Starbucks coffee…

“Success is most often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.” ― Coco Chanel It’s often observed that the path to success is paved with failure. Yet, it’s easy to treat failure as catastrophic. My Story At the end of grade one, I couldn’t read. My teacher thought that I should repeat grade one. My parents, fearing that I would fall horrendously behind decided to take me out of school and to…

In January, I did stuff I didn’t want to do and now I can’t stop. At the beginning of the year, I read a book called The Motivation Hacker and decided to start implementing what it called “Success Spirals.” You can read more about the start of my journey here. But basically a Success Spiral is a mini (typically) daily goal, which you track for a predefined period of time. For some, this might be…