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Look for the Big Tree.

Twenty years ago or so, my family took a vacation to Costa Rica. We rented a car to drive to this park that we were going to visit.

We didn’t have iPhones or Google Maps or GPS. We’d never been to Costa Rica before.

What we did have, from the travel agent who helped us book the trip, was a printed-out set of instructions to get to the hotel. We were mostly traveling on two-lane roads to the park — not the kind of roads that have big signs pointing you where to go. So instead of the instructions you’d expect — “Travel 10 miles down Highway 1, take a left at Highway 17, continue on for 12 miles…” — what we got was a bit more abstract.

I remember the very first instruction vividly: We were told to drive about 15 minutes down the road and take a left at the big tree.

I was in the front seat, and my dad was driving. So as we drove, we kept an eye on the clock. 15 minutes seemed a bit unclear — did we think Costa Ricans drove faster than the speed limit or at a more average speed? (Were there speed limits?) And how big was this big tree? We drove down the road looking at each tree we spotted. Was this tree big enough? What about that one?

And eventually, some 20 or 25 minutes later, we came to a fork in the road. And there, dead ahead, was a very big tree.

We took the left.

I don’t remember how long it took to get to our destination. But I do remember being amazed that we got there at all, especially considering the directions we had. They weren’t what I was used to, but they were enough to get us there.

Point is: There are a lot of ways to get to where you want to go.

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That photo of green and red trees along the blue Costa Rican coastline was taken by Max Bender for Unsplash.

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Do Your Prep Every Single Time.

I did a stupid thing today.

I was driving down with my son to pick up my wife at the airport. It’s an easy drive — 35 minutes, especially on a low-traffic day like a Sunday. There was no one on the road when we left home. We left two hours early so I could run a few errands beforehand. I was already thinking about activities to fill all the extra time we might have.

The drive was going fine — until it wasn’t. About two miles before the highway exited the canyon out into Salt Lake City, we hit a standstill. What we didn’t know was that an 18-wheeler had crashed, and the road was completely closed. It would take officials nearly eight hours to re-open the road.

I almost always check Google Maps before we leave, just to make sure there’s no traffic to be aware of. Had I done that today, it would’ve re-routed me to an alternate road. That trip to Salt Lake would’ve taken an extra 15 minutes.

I didn’t, though.

Instead, we got stuck in traffic for over an hour. Luckily, after a whole lot of waiting, police were able to route smaller vehicles like mine over a bridge and to an alternate route. We did make it to the airport for pick-up — it just took two hours for what should’ve been a 35-minute trip. Even more luckily: My son napped through most of the traffic.

Still, it was a reminder: No matter matter how many times you’ve done something before, you still should go through your routine. A five-second check of Google Maps would’ve saved me 90 minutes.

Next time, even if it’s the 1,000th time I’ve done something, I’ll still make sure to check.

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That’s the photo I took while stopped in the canyon on I-80 today. We saw a out of red lights for a very long time. I’m grateful we didn’t have to sit there for 8 hours — I’m not sure what we would’ve done!

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Always Be Moving Forward.

A concrete staircase, with a wooden railing on the right and brown spots on the stairs and walls.

Sometimes, when I’m on a road trip with the family, Google Maps will say that we’ve got two choices: We can stay on the highway and get to our destination in, say, 20 minutes, but things will be super slow due to an accident ahead; or we can get off the highway, driving at 25 or 35 miles per hour on a local road, and also get there in 20 minutes. The ETA doesn’t change — but with the local road, at least we’re not at a standstill.

When given that choice, my wife always chooses the local road. She always wants to be moving.

I was thinking about that recently while talking with a client. They were a little bit frustrated about the pace of progress with their work. They have a few big projects in the queue, but they need help from some colleagues to get those projects to the finish line, and that means a few more weeks (or months!) of work. They lamented the fact that they weren’t moving faster.

And I reminded them: There’s still stuff in their control that they can tackle sooner rather than later. Yes, those tasks might be a bit smaller, but getting them done would represent forward progress. 

A baby step is still a step in the right direction.

Everyone wants to move fast, but sometimes, that’s not an option. So if you have the chance to take a step forward, no matter how big, take it.

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That photo of a white, concrete staircase in Italy comes via Gabriella Clare Marino for Unsplash.

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Start Anywhere.

I ask myself this a few times a quarter when projects start to pile up: I’ve got a lots of things to tackle. Where should I start?

And the truth is: You can start anywhere — as long as you start.

I know I can find myself paralyzed by all those choices. Instead of getting stuff done, I end up worrying about all the stuff I have to get done. (And then I find myself with a lot less time to actually do the things I need to do!)

Don’t worry about finding the perfect starting place. The end result is far more important than where you start.

Start somewhere, and go from there.

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That’s a photo of an American Airlines jet taking off, with pink flowers blurred in the foreground and the moon behind. It was taken by Sachin Amjhad for Unsplash.

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Don’t Miss An Opportunity to Miss an Opportunity.

I read this line in a New Yorker article, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since: “They never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”

There have been so many times when I’ve showed up for something without knowing exactly what I might get out it. I didn’t want to miss out on something, even if I wasn’t sure what it was! When you show up, you don’t always stumble into something good — but sometimes, you do. (Case in point: My MLK Day story.)

Point is: There are certain opportunities that only come along when you take the time to show up. Don’t miss the opportunity to miss an opportunity. Just show up and see what presents itself.

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That’s a photo of a departures board with flights from Singapore’s airport to destinations around Asia. It seemed as appropriate a photo for the “show up” message as any. It was taken by Benjamin Wong for Unsplash.

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Just Fix This One Thing.

It’s been a busy week. We went to a wedding last weekend and are going to another in 48 hours. I’ve got some new clients starting this month, a few talks coming up, and generally just a lot of work happening. It’s a ton for a small business like mine — and of course, having a 1-year-old at home adds a whole lot to your plate.

So I really could’ve done without coming home on Sunday night to find that the garage door opener wasn’t working. it was just one thing too much for me to handle — the classic straw that broke the camel’s back.

I got myself twisted in knots for a few minutes about the garage door opener. I procrastinated for a day and got myself more angry about it. Really? Now this? And then I stopped spinning my wheels and decided to fix just the one thing.

I went to YouTube (bless you, YouTube), and found a tutorial. Two minutes later, I’d fixed the garage door. (Turns out it was a super simple fix. I literally just had to push a button.)

I still have a mountain of work to do. But just getting that one tiny task completed felt like a victory. I did this one thing — I can do the rest.

I didn’t need to do it all. I just needed to take care of that one thing.

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That photo of a pale yellow garage door, with shadows creeping up the wall, was taken by Tim Mossholder for Unsplash.

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The Second Why.

One funny thing about becoming a dad is watching how kids start to process the world. What I’ve noticed is that nobody — not even professional reporters — ask as many questions as little kids.

It’s one thing for a parent to get the initial question: “Why’s the sky blue, dad?”

The parent will give the answer. But then they’ll ask a second question: “Why?” And then a third or a fourth why.

It’s funny: In a certain way, kids are often more curious than a lot of the working professionals I know. I’m guilty of this myself: I might ask “why” once to a colleague or client, but if a satisfactory answer is provided, I won’t dig deeper.

And I want to challenge myself to be prepared for that second why. I want to be prepared to know more, to go deeper.

If I’m asked or if I’m not, I should be prepared to defend what I know — or at least be prepared to give more than the surface-level answer.

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That’s a photo of a young girl with brown hair reading, as the pages of a book flip before her. It was taken by Johnny McClung for Unsplash.

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A Year Ago Today.

I’ve been keeping a daily journal for well over a decade now. Every night, I write a little note to myself about what I did that day or what I learned. Often, I’ll go back and look through old entries to remind myself of the progress that I’ve made or the things I’ve done.

But what I didn’t expect about parenting is that my phone’s photo album would be just as powerful of a reminder tool.

I’ll often look back through the archives to see what photos I took a year ago on this date. With a one-year-old, the photos are astonishing — could our son really have been that small a year ago? That bald? Remember that outfit? He used to fit into it all the time! Remember that trip we took? Yeah, that was a year ago today, too.

The time really does go by as quickly as everyone says, and it’s by grounding yourself in these moments from the past that you can appreciate the progress. I know a year from now, I’ll be amazed at the things my son is doing that he couldn’t in the fall of 2024.

Make time to pause and to rewind. We all need those moments to show us how far we’ve come.

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That’s a screenshot of my phone’s photo album. A funny thing happens when you have a kid: You replace lots of photos of food and trips with literally thousands of photos of your kid.

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Use Your Imagination.

I played golf over the weekend at a par 3 course near me. Most par 3 courses are what’s known as a “pitch-and-putt” — you rarely have a shot longer than 100 yards, so each hole involves a fairly short shot and then a putt or two.

This is not that kind of course.

This is a par 3 course that involves shots over long stretches of desert bush and water. The greens are devilishly sloped, and you sometimes have to hit the ball close to 200 yards just to land on the green.

It’s truly not an easy course. I usually shoot a better score on a full-length golf course than I do on this par 3 course.

But one thing I love about it is that it inspires me to try shots I wouldn’t otherwise try. The other day, I ended up literally between a rock and a hard place — there was a boulder 20 feet in front of my ball, with the hole maybe 10 feet beyond that. At first glance, I had no chance to get my chip shot anywhere near the hole.

But then I took another look around the green. Behind the hole was a huge slope that, if I could land my ball on it, would feed the ball back to the hole.

So instead of playing my shot at the hole, I aimed 25 feet past it. My ball landed on the slope and trickled backwards. Maybe 10 seconds later, it stopped less than a foot from the hole.

It’s not a shot I would’ve tried on any normal golf course, but on this one, it made perfect sense.

And I’ll say: It reminded me that sometimes, you need to use your imagination to figure out the right answer. Solutions aren’t always as straightforward as they could be. So look around for alternative paths, even ones that seem a little ridiculous. There are options out there — some good, some bad, some risky — if you know where to look.

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That’s a photo of one hole on the course, which features what’s known as a Biarritz green — basically, imagine a giant halfpipe in the middle of the green. Depending on where the hole is that day, you may need to putt either up or down a slope that’s about five feet high.

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It Takes Longer Than You Think.

Last night, we went down to Sundance to see a few singer-songwriters from Nashville — Trannie Anderson, Josh Jenkins, and Matt Jenkins — perform on stage as part of a series of concerts with Nashville’s famed Bluebird Cafe. Together, the three of them have written songs played by some of the biggest artists in country music: Lainey Wilson, Walker Hayes, Keith Urban.

But as they told stories about their work, one thing came up over and over again: It takes an awful lot of writing songs just to get one song on an album. The Jenkins brothers told a story about writing a song for an artist, who passed on it — before deciding to record it several years later. Anderson told a story about working a job as a dog walker for a famous country musician who ended up recording one of her songs almost a decade later. All of the artists on stage said that they might have to write a 100 or more songs just get one that’s worthy of being recorded. (And there’s still no guarantee that the song will end up on an album!)

Sure, there are overnight success stories out there, but to me, the night was a reminder that it usually takes a lot of work, a lot of patience, and a lot of rejection to get to where you want to go.

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I took that photo during the show. The stage at Sundance is absolutely spectacular — it’s built into the hill, with just a little backlight against the dark night sky. If you get a chance to go there for a concert, you should.

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