Welcome to the community where together, we’ll dive deep and find the strength to never give up because Great Things Take Time.

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Here's what's in today's email

• The Traffic That Started It All

• Moments with Maurice

• Some Choices Were Made

• What's Got Me Smilin'

• Damn! You Put Your Foot In This

The Traffic That Started It All

Many of you have heard me allude, or outwardly say, how much I love driving. For me, it’s a meditative experience that calms my nerves, resets my equilibrium, and reminds me of fond family memories when I would visit my family down south. As a little boy, my Uncle had a junkyard, and sometimes the keys would be left in the cars, letting me explore the ins and outs of all the cars like a kid typically can’t. That’s where my love for cars started, and it’s never stopped. I could spend hours talking about them or just driving.

Because of my love for cars and driving, you can understand why I try to spend as much time as possible driving. However, in NYC, when I try to drive, it’s actually just waiting in traffic. The other day, caught in traffic, I was searching for a reason as to why things were crawling along. (Because when things aren’t going our way, isn’t it nice to find someone else to blame?)

Along came a kind individual named David, an urban planning enthusiast, who sent me the following regarding why the street was set up the way it was:

This got me thinking, how often do we expect to know the answer to something, that we’re right, or that we have the solution to something? In a city like New York, where it’s a walker’s paradise with decent mass public transit and bike lanes, zipping through the city at high speeds is not a great idea. In that moment I was so focused on thinking there had to be a better way and that others must be suffering like I was, but David’s above explanation makes perfect sense.

Too often, we’re quick to judge and think we have the solution, or understand the problem. We forget that there are several billion people on the planet who have their own unique experiences and views that influence society. In New York City alone it’s several million (how crazy is that, an island with a few million people?)

Sure, my experience was a decently lighthearted one that got me wanting to bike more and made me appreciate the effort and challenges that come with urban planning but next week I could be learning about something completely different.

Think about all the times you judge processes, people, and actions during the week. You think you could do better, and maybe you could, but we’re humans; we’re an imperfect species. Decisions are made, whether intentional and well thought out or not, and we have to understand that what influenced one person might be completely different from ours.

In fact, how many of you had some intense feelings surface about me driving in NYC?

The internet has divided us due to snap judgments and surface level thinking. I know because I admit that I’ve found myself leaping to conclusions from time-to-time. But that’s the beauty of being so different, we’re able to learn from each other and experience a more vibrant and rich world.

Just Ask

In a world where things can get heated just by a missed comma, a skipped sentence, or a cropped photo, my challenge to you this week is to approach things with an open mind and an eagerness to learn.

Ask one extra question from someone whose viewpoint you don’t fully understand (and no, I don’t mean in a sarcastic tone).

Look up from your phone to notice the strangers around you and how they interact with the same environment as you.

If someone asks you how you’re doing, don’t just say “fine.” Tell them how you’re really doing.

Limiting emotions and context never did anyone any good.

We don’t know what someone is going through or what they are experiencing unless we ask. So ask. But if you do, you better be prepared that your worldview is going to open up a bit more. Be prepared to absorb new information and for the chance that you actually could be wrong. Learning and feeling more in tune with the world is a wonderful side effect, and just think of how long your phone battery will last when you’re not judgmentally doom scrolling for hours!

Moments with Maurice

Each week, my Wednesday content will leave you with a reflection and prompt to share your reactions and thoughts, and the following Monday I’ll highlight some of the responses. Taking things inward is powerful, but sharing them reminds us we aren’t alone in our thinking and that we aren’t all that much different.

Wednesday’s content was all about changes that felt significant in the moment due to my worry about their impact on some of my relationships. These changes I made were so that I could prioritize time for myself, allowing me to be a better friend, partner, instructor, coworker, and human being. Finding time for ourselves can be tricky, so many of us live busy lives, and it may feel like the easiest way to get rest is to power through. But when we don’t find micro-moments to recharge, we’re often less efficient, keeping us away from what we want.

The thing I like the most about the responses from Tyler and Em to the prompt below are that they perfectly encapsulate bookending your days with time for yourself. If you relate to the below, I also challenge you to find some time in the middle for yourself.

Maybe it’s the Fall weather, or maybe it’s looking at the city from a new angle, but this month I have a lot of deeper topics to dive into. Specifically, I want to share more on depression, fear, past mistakes, and how those are present and impact my life. This week, I’m going back to a time when I may have just held a door open for many of you, or when you saw me in passing at your local gym. This was a time I learned a lot, and if I hadn’t made some big changes, could have influenced where I was today.

Because no matter what, there is always something to smile about.

• Sunday Motor Co: Me including car content in these newsletters is almost as predictable as a clock. I visited Sunday Motor Co, an automotive-inspired cafe & lifestyle brand this week. Y’all, as geeky as you may feel, I can’t emphasize how important it is to find your passions and search for others with similar ones. Whenever I’m around like-minded gearheads, I feel inspiration and passion ignited inside me that reminds me of all the wonderful things in life. Maybe it’s a little cheesy, but it’s definitely true. 

• Virginia Tech vs. Miami Game: Coming down to the last second with a challenged call that left Miami the winner kept things interesting.

• TOMATOES: Post Italy, I’ve been craving them nonstop. It pairs really well with a surprise post-wedding gift of olive oil from Rebecca and Andy.

• New Spaces & New Colors: Moving is hectic, never-ending, and can make you feel like you’re never settled. This week I felt like I was slowly starting to move somewhere with the unpacking and cleaning as opposed to just treading water. I’ve been so grateful to have a space that I can dedicate to being my office, and be able to set it up and paint it how I want. Here’s a sneak peek at the before and some of the greens I’m looking at. 🤔 

Food is a universal way of sharing and experiencing each other.

My grandma, my mom, and I have always been the same, it brings us joy to see people enjoying what we’ve made. Because of that, I want to give space for the community to share recipes that are so full of love, it makes people say "damn, you put your foot in this!" 

Each week, I’ll highlight a recipe from the community, sharing the story behind why this meal, dish or drink is special to them. What better way for us to get to know each other better and maybe even cook together?

Ingredients:  

• 1 Salmon Filet (preferably wild)

• 1 pound Yukon gold potatoes

• Half pound of haricot vertes

• 8 oz grape tomatoes

• 4 hard cooked eggs

• 4 carrots

• 4 green onions

• 1 cup pitted olives

• 1 bunch asparagus

Vinaigrette Ingredients

• 1/2 cup champagne vinegar

• 2 TSP Dijon mustard

• 1 TSP salt

• 1 TSP Pepper

• 1 cup olive oil

Dressing Ingredients

• 4 lemons zested in juice

• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 1/4 cup Dijon mustard

• 2 garlic cloves, minced

• S&P, to taste

Recipe

1. Place salmon on sheet pan.

2. Mix all dressing ingredients together and spread on top of salmon.

3. Roast salmon @ 450 for 10 minutes.

4. Boil potatoes, eggs and cook vegetables individually and when done set aside.

5. Mix together and toss all vegetables individually in vinaigrette.

6. Plate salmon and place vegetables around salmon.

7. Any questions, refer to photo. Enjoy!

Submit your recipes and story here

What To Expect From Me:

Monday’s newsletter will always be accessible to anyone that has subscribed to Great Things Take Time. I’ll highlight moments of my week, announcements, things that have brought me joy, and other things worth sharing. But to bring you even more great content we have the Great Things Collective, a paid subscription level for $9 a month that gets you the following:

• Access to a Subscribers’ Only Discord community to interact with myself and other like-minded friends. 

• Additional editions of the Great Things Take Time newsletter where I share stories from my life, lessons I’ve learned, guest authors, personal growth prompts and so much more!

• Exclusive access to in-person and virtual events. 

• The ability for YOU to share more in-depth with the Great Things Take Time community. 

• First in line to get all announcements, merch drops, and anything else fun I have planned to share with you. 

Thanks for being with me on this journey. I’m excited to see where this takes us, and what we’re going to achieve together. I know this is far from perfect, but together I hope we can grow it into exactly what it’s meant to be.

Remember:

-Adrian