My mother has let herself go.

Even her ability to dress well doesn’t help cover up the belly and the arm fat. She also smokes again. She even does it when she’s around my kids, which infuriates me.

So I’ve been trying to change her.

Before you conclude it’s a lost cause, let me tell you this: my mother took her driving license at fifty, a year after I conquered my fears and started driving daily.

She also started to look for a serious relationship a bit after I got married.

I’m my mom’s inspiration, and I’m trying to make…

Step 1: Who are you?

According to research done by Dr Daniel Gilbert of Harvard, people are really bad at predicting who they will be in the future.

Renowned organizational psychologist and author of several bestsellers Benjamin Hardy elaborates.

• We recognize that we’ve gone through some big changes in our past.
• We see our current selves as the finished and evolved version of ourselves.
• We assume that in the future, we will mostly be who we are now.

In short, our past defines our identities. …

I spent most of my pre-teen years sitting on a concrete staircase leading to a locked door.

It was an alternative entrance to a residential building that no one ever used. Our gang of a dozen neighbourhood kids hung out there every afternoon, sometimes well into the evening. We were ages nine to fourteen, boys and girls, brothers and sisters, tall, short, fat, thin, blond, brunettes—a colourful group.

I was that group’s loser with a capital L. In fact, make all the letters capital.

I’d sit on the concrete, my butt getting cold, afraid to speak for I’d be mocked…

The Wrong Money Test.

“The wrong money is any money earned while doing tasks that are irrelevant to your Big Goals.

Wrong money is abundant. It’s everywhere. Ironically, it becomes especially abundant when you finally start to take a few steps towards that which matters most.” — Anthony Moore

Whenever I decide to focus on my novel, a huge copywriting client shows up, ready to throw money my way.

When it comes to money, there’s always another way to make more.

The way to pass this test is to answer this:

What is the way you want to bring value to this world?

The…

I used to write About pages for $5 apiece on Fiverr.

I was good, so I was busy.

I probably wrote 200–300 About pages before I switched directions, and if there’s one thing I learned, it’s this:

People are horrified by telling their stories.

Embracing who you are is tough. Showing it to the world feels like you’re walking naked on a busy street.

But it’s exactly what you should be doing.

“Being yourself is all you need to be” — Kevin Hart

I stumbled upon Kevin Hart’s autobiography “I can’t make this up” a few months ago after watching his 2020 special, and I must say it blew me away.

…

Why everyone should quit their day job at some point.

It’s not just that day jobs take time. It’s that they take a lot of time. You don’t realize how much time before you quit.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Day jobs keep you in a certain day-to-day loop which keeps your brain from forming new neural pathways.

Plus, your environment stays the same, and it’s usually not the one you want if you’re looking for a big change. We only have limited room in our lives for new people. Going to work daily fills a good part of that quota on autopilot.

That being said, I…

Scratch everything you’ve got, whatever it is. If you’re reading this, it’s not working.

Stare into the emptiness, horrified.

Stop walking, meditating and journaling. Or whatever else you’re currently doing to have great ideas.

Consider giving up the whole thing. If you don’t have great ideas already, maybe it doesn’t inspire you.

Watch “Friends: The Reunion”. Bitch about the botox. Admit it’s kind of good. Rewatch Friends all over again eating ice cream. The good kind.

Give up on giving up. If Rachel and Ross can quit the drama and make things work, surely so can you.

Read a little…

I’m going through the most difficult times of my life by far.

Nothing bad has happened to me, but this is more difficult than when I lost my dad.

First, I’ve been pregnant for a year and a half out of the past three years. So half the time, I’ve been pregnant.

I’ve had nausea, I’ve felt exhausted, I’ve been forbidden an unimaginable multitude of things (forget about alcohol and cigarettes, I’m talking cheese, sushi, riding a bike, taking a long walk, and so much more).

It was also impossible for me to focus during pregnancy. I don’t know if…