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

Ohhhhh so that’s why I was feeling a type of way and added those squats to the program… now I know what the root of it was.

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• Get To The Point

• Moments with Maurice

• What's Got Me Smilin'

Get To The Point

Communication was key in my family, but it hadn’t always been that way. Nana (yes, the one you know, the one you love, the one who keeps you from having ashy knees) made a concentrated switch to addressing things head-on when my siblings and I came into the picture. 

I obviously can’t really speak to how things were before I was sentient and not a drooling baby (not much difference from how I am now, right? 😉), but I can tell you that the way she helped mold my family was VERY different than everyone else’s.

If you had a problem, you discussed it head-on. There wasn’t any of this “I’m not going to inconvenience you with my real emotions”; you talked about what was really going on, whether or not you wanted to. 

As a kid, this was a hard thing to get to the root cause of why you were upset. It’s easy to ride the emotions: sadness, anger, joy, they feel almost primal and are so easy to let suck you away. But what’s the actual root cause?

Ever been asked why you’re crying and you have no damn clue other than it just feels right in the moment? It’s like that.

Take my parents going on vacation, and me finding myself sobbing. Being forced to work through it meant I was able to figure out if I was so upset because I wasn’t included in something (no), upset I didn’t get to go on a cool trip (also no), or worried that my parents would get in a plane crash and die (super specific, but bingo, that’s it).

But don’t you worry, I wasn’t the only one in my household who was allowed to have conversations where nothing was off the table; my friends were also given the same opportunities, much to my embarrassment. I mean, are you surprised when Nana wouldn’t hesitate to tell strangers to pull up their pants?

So with my friends, she was always ready to jump in to have a conversation with them around their swearing (we didn’t do that in our house) and get to the root cause as to why they thought it was appropriate to use that language. Nana was all about respect, and hearing that language in her house made her feel like she wasn’t respected, and the speaker may have lacked some self-respect. In the same way, she’d also pop in on our conversations surrounding girls. As young boys, you can often head in the direction of what’s deemed “cool,” but Nana was always there to remind us in a loving way that “cool” didn’t always mean right.

She was never rude, or mean, or unkind about things. She was always open and loving, inviting further conversation… yes, even when the banana and the condom came out. I didn’t say anything about these conversations not being embarrassing, did I?

Whether I believed it or not, I was lucky to have a foundation that forced me to look deeper than the surface level. It allows me to look at things like being nervous for an event and realizing that the way I feel is because I’m unprepared, not because I lack the necessary skills to make it through successfully. 

Getting to the root holds a mirror up to the problem, and many times it’s me, I’m the problem. I’m not upset at that other driver; I’m just mad at myself that I didn’t leave earlier. Or even that I’m upset at someone displaying road rage when I’ve been working hard all morning to create a carefully curated, blissful state, and I’m letting this person get under my skin.

Most of the time, what we feel comes from a much deeper place than we realize. Think of the last major feeling you felt today. Do you know why you felt that way? I mean, do you REALLY know why you felt that way? 

If not, try to find time to sit quietly with your thoughts, journal, or have a conversation with yourself. I’m not going to act like I know the right way to do things, because there are still a lot of times I still can’t figure out why I feel a certain way (just ask my loved ones). Like most things that move the needle in our lives, it takes time to get it to where we want it to be. Huh, it’s almost like getting to the root cause of our emotions is a great thing to improve our lives, that takes a bit of time… So Great Things Take Time? Damn, Nana was right again.

Moments with Maurice

If you only pause to reflect on your life for one moment today, do it now.

If you’ve been journaling along with me, take the time to pause on the reflection and write down your answer to the prompt. Even if it feels silly in the moment, looking back on what you’ve written down can be eye-opening when you start to see patterns form.

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

The Downshift

Concealer colors or seat colors? Going for subtle or making a statement?

A NY Moment

One of the things I love most about NYC is that anything and everything is possible. Last Friday with DJ John Summit and lululemon for the Experts Only run was no exception. It’s like the feeling I get on marathon Sunday, a collective excitement about something that is outside of the normal day.

I was impressed with the logistics that (from my end) felt smooth which meant that the one mile run on the HIghline and the surprise pop-up concert on the Vessel seemed to go off without a hitch. I was so in the moment I ended up leaving my phone somewhere by accident… not like the 1600 texts would have had a dent made in them.

Out and About This Week

Shuka this week for a tasty meal and time to catch up with some friendly faces.

Remember:

-Adrian