38 Musings for 38

Celebrating another year around the sun

Photo by Matthew Landers on Unsplash

It’s my birthday next week! To celebrate, here are 38 musings for 38 years of life:

1. Embarrassingly, I had to look up what “musings” meant, just to be sure. 🤦‍♂️

   

   Are these musings? I think so. If not, well, they’re 38 of something. Moving on.

2. This was originally going to be “38 Lessons for 38”, but since I did 37 Lessons for 37 last year, and I’m writing a book on 100 life lessons…I’m a bit lesson’d out.

3. I’ve been reading a lot of my old posts recently. To my delight, they still hold up well! That said, if I had to write them all over again, I’d break the longer posts into multiple parts, sort of like what I did with The Unplugging Playbook. It took me a while to realize that 4,500-word posts, although valuable, are a great way to lose readers. Oops.

4. To that end, I am declaring right now that this post will be less than 1,500 words. My birthday gift to myself is to edit a short piece. At the time of this declaration, this post is not yet finished. We’ll see how I do…

5. If it’s not clear already, there is no rhyme or reason to these musings. But you know what? I’m having fun.

6. This newsletter has brought so much joy to my life. For example, earlier this year, I reconnected with a friend from my elementary school days who came across a piece I wrote. We hadn’t spoken in 20 years but had the chance to speak a few months ago. It’s like we picked up right where we left off!

7. A few weeks ago, I set the ambitious goal of hitting 100 paid subscribers by the end of the year. Welp, that’s probably not going to happen, but I’m still glad I put it out there. You never know, right? I’ve gained 3 new paid subscribers since I made the announcement, so it seems doable that I can hit 50. If you’d like to make my birthday:

8. I’ve been more active on social media recently, especially on Threads and LinkedIn. Do I love putting myself out there? No, but at least I don’t hate it anymore. The key, I’ve found, is to write useful things, and stay away from the hot-button issues.

9. Speaking of, I miss the days when people could disagree with one another passionately, but still be friends. We’ve lost the art of nuance, of being able to hold two competing truths in our minds at the same time. We see things as either-or. Black-or-white. But that’s not how life works.

10. If you really need a controversial, divisive take from me, fine: I’m Italian, and I like The Olive Garden. Is it my favorite Italian restaurant? No, of course not. (That would be Saraceno in Boston.) But is it fine for what it is? Yes.

11. Another hot take: I don’t like birthday cake. I hate frosting. But birthday cannolis? Yes, please.

12. One of the reasons I write is to have something to share any time I have a conversation with someone about resilience. I’ve done this dozens of times with friends and acquaintances. This will always be cool to me.

13. I love when I take my advice. As I discussed last week, it doesn’t happen too often, but it’s validation that what I say actually works. Which, you know, is a nice ego boost.

14. Two pieces of advice I’ve taken to heart recently: 1) Break tasks down into smaller pieces and 2) Act. I find that whenever I try to do too much at once, I become overwhelmed and get nothing done, which then makes me anxious, stressed out, and depressed. Bite-sized action makes a world of difference.

15. Part of my problem is that I don’t act until I have a bulletproof plan in place. But guess what? My plans fall apart when they come in contact with reality. It’s much easier (and less aggravating) to act imperfectly and learn from my mistakes. This is something that needs constant reinforcement.

16. Actually, there’s a third piece of advice I’ve taken to heart — celebrating my victories. I get so fixated on the end goal — making a living as a writer/speaker — that I sometimes fail to appreciate the small milestones along the way. Case in point: last week I wrote a post that will soon appear on one of my favorite Substacks! (High-fives self.)

17. I started my freshman year of college 20 years ago this month. To put this in context, the Boston Red Sox wouldn’t break their 86-year World Series curse for another month and a half.

18. I got a cellphone for my high school graduation two months prior. A gray flip phone without internet access. Times have changed!

19. I’m fortunate that I didn’t get a phone sooner. I would have had a completely different high school experience if I was born four years later.

20. Today is the 23rd anniversary of 9-11. I was a sophomore in high school at the time, and coincidentally, I was home sick from school that day. I remember my mom calling me to turn on the TV. I was annoyed — I wanted to go back to sleep. But once I turned it on, I never turned it off. The memory of that day still haunts me.

21. A friend brought us bagels the other day from a local bakery. For reasons still unknown, I went for the onion bagel first. Three days later, I can still taste it. (My 100-year-old self was disappointed in my decision.)

22. In the past, I would have dreaded nearing 40, but I truly believe, despite my disease wreaking havoc on my body, that my best days are ahead of me. I believe in my potential; it just took a few years to figure out what that potential was.

23. A few people told me they enjoyed the playful nature of last week’s piece. I agree! Humor has played an important part in my resilience journey. I love to make people laugh. Not every topic I write about easily lends itself to humor, but I try to strike the right balance between seriousness and levity when I can.

24. Next week’s post will have a sponsor. Sponsorships are another way for me to monetize this newsletter, and it’s validation that I’m building something meaningful! To be clear — it won’t impact my content in any way.

25. I don’t have a formal sponsorship process just yet (the sponsor came to me), but if your company is interested, let’s chat!

26. The other day, I looked back through my archive to search for an old post. It struck me just how much I’ve written since I began in January 2023. This is my 117th post! It made me realize that I haven’t even started to scratch the surface of repurposing my content. I can turn past articles into digital products, social media posts, etc. The bottleneck is me.

27. I should probably hire someone to help me do this. (Re-reads advice on asking for help.)

28. People ask all the time if I’m going to run out of topics. The short answer is no! I currently have a list of 40-50 new topics. And this list grows every week.

29. There’s a pack of coyotes in the woods that howl anytime an ambulance drives by. They’re howling right now as I write this.

30. Boston College football is 2-0. The New England Patriots are 1-0. I was not prepared to care about football this year, but here we are.

31. I really miss Boston. I feel like I left a piece of my heart there when I left eight years ago.

32. A topic that’s been on my mind recently is the difference between a flaw in ability vs. a flaw in strategy. So often when we fail, we blame our intelligence, when in truth, we’re just using the wrong strategy. I might write about this soon.

33. One of the reasons I announced I’m writing a book (besides for marketing reasons) is to force myself to actually finish the book. Because if I didn’t say anything, I would have lost momentum. I know myself too well.

34. I keep a running list of life lessons in a Notion file. I have 526! Some might be duplicates, but it’s definitely over 500. There’s probably enough here for another book. 👀

35. A reminder for myself: Many types of success are empty and hollow. Money. Achievements. Fame. Status. The best kind of success? Relationships. Hanging out with friends. Spending time with my parents. Enjoying the company of extended family. Interacting with readers. This is the path to lasting contentment.

36. I don’t know where I’d be without this newsletter. It has saved me in many ways and strengthened my purpose at a time when I was beginning to lose my way.

37. To all my readers — I love you all! Thank you for showing up, week after week, to read what I have to say.

38. Final word count: 1497. 😎