Over the last six months, I have been spending more than my fair share of time pondering retirement from the land of W-2s. I watch videos, read blogs, and pepper peers with questions. I am certain those closest to me are tired of hearing me talk about it. In fact, […]

The morning ritual felt hollow. Same as every morning, I woke up and immediately reached for my wrist, expecting the familiar haptic buzz of a device ready to catalog my existence. Instead, I found a blank screen; cold, unresponsive, and seemingly resigned to its fate. My initial reaction wasn’t one […]

Several friends of mine, leaders with 30-plus years of experience and deep wells of wisdom, have recently found themselves navigating a career pause they didn’t ask for. Most are chomping at the bit to get back to the workforce, while the minority are relishing the time off. For those of […]

I’ve long been fascinated by the concept of parallel universes. The idea that for every choice we make, another timeline instantly sprouts where we chose differently: a vast, intricate web of “what ifs.” Recently, I delved into Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter and Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library. Both explore this […]

Last Saturday, while waiting for my heart rate to descend from the rafters after a grueling HIIT session, the reality of the room came into focus: I am easily twenty years older than everyone else in the class. There is a quiet satisfaction in keeping pace with twenty-somethings, but it’s […]

Over the last few weeks, I’ve had the good fortune of crossing paths with several friends from my uniformed days. Without exception, each has asked some version of the same question: “Are you still writing?” Each time I hear it, I feel a small pinch in my chest. If you […]

With the help of countless mentors and friends a blueprint for the next phase of my life was purposefully crafted upon retiring from the Navy. Well, maybe not the next phase, but the next chapter. After spending over three decades in uniform and cherishing my role in public service, I […]

I have long enjoyed the traditions and ceremonies that accompany military service, well most of them anyway. After 31 years in uniform myself, I continue to make it a point to support teammates still in uniform. Living in a Navy makes it relatively easy to attend the ceremonies that celebrate […]

Complacency is a dangerous state of mind. It tends to find us when we are most satisfied with our situation. There are countless examples of individuals, teams, and companies who have allowed themselves to be undone simply by being stuck in an overly satisfied state. Oftentimes, long after their undoing, […]

The last two months have been an absolute gift. What ended up being an almost two-month sabbatical from work was filled with adventure, reflection, home improvement, mental/physical wellness, and reconnecting with loved ones. When I parted ways with my most recent employer I did so committed to not jumping back […]

I gave up long ago on the illusion of perfection. However, the pursuit of progress and reaching toward both individual and collective potential remain significant parts of most days. My parents made the merit of becoming the best version of myself extremely clear early on in my life. To this […]

“Now that you are retired from the Navy, what do you do with all of your free time?” It’s a question I get regularly and a question that is not all that easy for me to answer. It’s not easy because retirement from the military happens at an age where […]

Life is a series of choices, and last year as I contemplated leaving and ultimately left the military felt like a lifetime in and of itself. It wasn’t that it felt like a significant period of time, but the number of choices we needed to make made the year seem […]