ShiFt Happens

If you follow me on Facebook, I promised this one was coming.Some of you don’t have a time-management problem. You have a mouth-management problem. I learned this because my own mouth kept signing me up for things the rest of me did not have time to do. As a young military officer, I thought being dependable meant catching every ball thrown in my direction. Need it today? I’ll handle it. Someone dropped it? I’ll pick it up. Nobody knows whose responsibility it is? Wonderful. Apparently, I run...

I'm writing this from an airport, on my way to North Carolina for a conference I'm speaking at, because of course I was up late last night packing like the trip snuck up on me instead of being on my calendar for a month. My son picked that exact moment, mid-scramble, half my brain on my slides and the other half looking for a charger, to bring up the virtual reality game he's been designing in his head for weeks. He needs a developer. He wants to know when we're finding one. Today would be...

My friend was at her desk, minding her business, unwrapping a sandwich, when her coworker leaned over and said, "Oh, you're eating that for lunch?" Five words. That's all it took. My friend went full courtroom drama. Macros. Meal prep app screenshots. A gluten explanation nobody requested, delivered with the energy of someone defending a thesis. The coworker just nodded and walked away. She wasn't collecting data. She was being weird about a sandwich and my friend handed her a whole...

I was watching a show recently where two couples were both trying to pull their relationships back from the edge at the same time. It was the same episode, same stakes, completely different approaches. The first couple sat down and the woman looked at her partner and said, "Here's what I need. I need you to come home when you say you will. I need you to stop making plans without telling me. And I need two weeks of that before we talk about what's next." It was hard but doable. She gave him...

This year was a good one. Not perfect, not easy. But good in ways that actually count. I reached a goal I’d been working toward - over 50 women inside my online women’s community. Conversations about real life, support, and women showing up as themselves - not who they think they should be. I said yes to more than 25 speaking engagements. Different rooms, different stories, same reminder every time - people want honesty more than hype. I became a Nea-Nea - that’s my grandma name. Still wild...