IGMT #056 | What if attention isn't the problem? What if it's volume? What a great day, Reader! I was working on some doctoral research the other day when I noticed my browser was slowing down. Nothing dramatic, just enough that I became aware of it. Since my first instinct is always to blame technology before myself, I started looking around to see what was going on. That's when I noticed the top of my screen. Thirty-seven tabs. Research articles. Volleyball websites. Amazon pages. ADHD...
10 days ago • 3 min read
IGMT #055 | Somewhere between too many ideas and not enough finished ones. Hello again, Reader. I opened my laptop three different times this week to work on this newsletter. The first time, I ended up reorganizing folders instead. The second time, I somehow convinced myself that I needed to clean up old podcast outlines before I could possibly write something new. Which naturally led me into rereading unfinished blog drafts, half-built course ideas, random voice notes, and at least seven...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, Reader. There’s something that’s been stuck in my head lately, and I can’t really explain why it won’t leave. I keep thinking about Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, and more specifically, how every episode started. He would walk in the door, take off his jacket, put on that cardigan, and then sit down and change his shoes. It was slow, calm, and completely predictable, and somehow that was the whole point. Nothing about it was rushed. Nothing about it was...
3 months ago • 4 min read
Grab a spoon Reader! I was standing in the cereal aisle the other day, staring at what felt like an endless wall of options. Same brands, same colors, slightly different promises. One box said more protein, another said less sugar, another was somehow both healthier and better tasting than everything else around it. I picked one up, flipped it over, read the label like I knew what I was looking for, then put it back. Grabbed another one. Did the same thing. After a few minutes, I realized I...
3 months ago • 4 min read
Road trip time, Reader. There is a stretch of highway near me that always feels longer than it should. I have driven it a hundred times. I know the exits, the stores, the little bend in the road where traffic always slows down. And yet every time there is a moment where I stop driving the road and start thinking only about being done with the road. At that point I am not really paying attention anymore. I am just waiting to arrive. And it got me thinking... You hear a similar phrase late in a...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Hey Reader! A few weeks ago a Tuesday came and went without a newsletter. If you’ve been reading It Got Me Thinking for a while, you probably noticed. For the past year or so Tuesday has had a rhythm to it. Somewhere during the week something small catches my attention, the thought sits in the back of my mind for a few days, and eventually it turns into the newsletter. Except this time it didn’t. I paused for a bit. Not because I ran out of things to say. If anything, the opposite is usually...
4 months ago • 3 min read
Hope all is well Reader! The other night I opened my phone and saw one of those posts that promised confidence in five steps. It had the right fonts, the right colors, and just enough urgency to make it feel important. Believe in yourself. Visualize success. Speak it into existence. I stared at it longer than I should have, not because it was inspiring, but because I was trying to remember a single time confidence actually showed up that way in real life. Not online. Not in quotes. Not in...
5 months ago • 3 min read
Pack it up Reader! The other day I noticed something small, but telling. I had finished a long day. Nothing dramatic. No crisis. Just one of those steady, full days where everything worked but nothing really stopped. I sat down, scrolled for a bit, checked one more email, and realized I still felt tight. Shoulders up. Jaw clenched. Breathing shallow. Nothing had gone wrong. And yet nothing had been released either. And it got me thinking… Pressure does not always show up as a spike. Sometimes...
5 months ago • 3 min read
Pay attention Reader! I was sitting at a stoplight the other day, radio on low, nothing urgent happening. Then the light turned green and the car behind me immediately laid on the horn. Not a tap. A full commitment. My body reacted before my brain did. Heart rate jumped. Hands tightened. I rushed my foot to the gas and pulled through the intersection faster than I needed to. Nothing bad happened, but it struck me how quickly everything changed. Same car. Same road. Same skill set. One small...
6 months ago • 3 min read