Projects
Many bloggers write about very specific themes: travel or cycling or cooking or running, for example. I envy them. I wish my life was that focused. Sadly, it’s not.
My interests are both broad and deep. This means I write about many different topics but I also pick specific projects where I spend more intense energy for several months at a time.
So if you found my blog because of a post about divorce, you might not understand all the crazy CrossFit posts. And if you found my blog because of CrossFit, you might not care about the posts about careers and leadership. I’m sorry if this confuses you, I wish my writing was more consistent. All I can tell you is that I’m committed to writing about whatever I care about the most. And what I care about evolves from year to year.
Since May of 2011, I’ve designed and written about a handful of very personal projects. I thought I could help you out by providing an overview of all my projects here. Some are still ongoing, and if you subscribe to the blog you’ll receive all my updates in your email. And if you’d like to participate in any of these projects, I’d love for you to join me.
- May – September, 2011 – Project “Don’t Die From Heartbreak.” Ok, this wasn’t a project I ever planned, it just landed on my head like a boulder one day. For 5 months, I mostly wrote about the process of divorce and grief and trauma and everything I learned about putting your life back together again after betrayal and emotional abuse. Then I didn’t write about this so much anymore.
- August, 2011 – Gratitude Month. In order to recover from my relationship grief, I committed to publish a letter of gratitude every day for an entire month. I was mostly successful. You can read my lessons from this project here.
- September – December, 2011 – Weekly Gratitude. After my month of gratitude ended, I decided to continue the tradition on a weekly basis, and for the rest of the year I published a gratitude letter every Sunday.
- October, 2011 – Hope4OB. This was the most creative project I’ve done, which resulted in a 22 minute video you can watch here on Vimeo. I was inspired by my friends John & Karen O’Brien and their family and friends who rallied to support them in their fight against cancer. If you know anyone fighting cancer, you might find inspiration in their video or in the story behind the video.
- February, 2012 – February, 2013 – CrossFit Games As Failure Project. I convinced 7 of my craziest friends to join me on a completely irrational adventure – to become as physically fit as possible before the CrossFit Games in 2013. This might be my most insane project. You can read the longer project description here. Every Wednesday I publish an article from the women on our CrossFit team.
- March, 2012 – Ongoing – Fan Friday. Every Friday – more or less – I share with you someone or something I’m a fan of. I do this to share resources that just might help you live a better life.
- June – October, 2012 – 40 x 40 (40 Random Acts of Kindness). In October 0f 2012 I turned 40 years old. And instead of having a mid-life crisis about this milestone, I decided to complete 2 random acts of kindness per week, every week until my birthday. And then to celebrate my 40th birthday, I spent almost three weeks on a surfing and safari trip to South Africa.
If there’s any sort of theme that weaves these projects together, it is one of hope and resilience. Once upon a time I was a Peace Corps volunteer and even though my volunteer years are over, my idealism stays with me. I’ll update this project page as I continue to embark on new adventures.
