Laura Gassner Otting What if the real reason you feel stuck isn’t because you’re lazy or ungrateful or broken—but because you don’t feel in control? Control isn’t about being the boss. It’s about having agency. About owning your choices, your work, your results. About knowing that the way you spend your time is actually adding up to the … Read more
Ambition has gotten a bad rap of late. And, because of that, you’ve lost some of your power. You see, somewhere along the lines, I’m guessing that a person in power persuaded you to allow your ambition to be subsumed into something that is more socially acceptable: faux humility. They convinced you that you shouldn’t … Read more
What if you didn’t show up to work tomorrow? Would anyone notice? Would it matter? Brutal question, I know. But if your answer is a hesitant shrug, let me tell you: that’s not just burnout. That’s disconnection. You see, it’s not that your work doesn’t matter. It’s that you can’t see how it matters. The sightlines are fuzzy, and in … Read more
Army Captain Joshua Mantz was dead, shot and killed by a sniper bullet in Baghdad. Until he wasn’t. He flatlined for fifteen full minutes, while medics pounded on his chest, shocked his heart, pumped him full of do-or-die drugs. And then—somehow—he came back. Alive. Alert. Brain intact. But with a burning question that wouldn’t let … Read more
You know how January 1 hits and we’re all buzzing with big, brave energy? New year, new you. Vision boards. Resolutions. #ThisIsMyYear vibes. I pick a word of the year to guide me. This year? Adventure. But let’s be honest: Adventure doesn’t just show up. It shows up because we show up. So… have you been … Read more
When Snoop Dogg talks, I listen, and you should too. Even if you don’t respect the player, you’ve got to respect his game. And here’s why: Snoop knows how to learn, to grow, to elevate, and to (yeah, I’m going to go there) get high. A few weeks back, I watched this clip of Snoop giving A$AP … Read more
You ever punish yourself for screwing up, only to realize later, that screw-up might have saved your life? I’m talking about Bruce Springsteen. Long-haired loner Bruce Springsteen.High school graduation skipping loser Bruce Springsteen.Concussion having military draft failing Bruce Springsteen. Wait, what? Bruce Springsteen’s first break didn’t come in music. It came when he failed his … Read more
This week’s message is a little bit of a paradox. I want to tell you to quit.But also… to keep going. Let me explain. Last week, I was off-grid. Like, truly off-grid. Hiking the Inca Trail in Peru with my family, surrounded by clouds, ruins, and precisely zero cell service. No inbox. No Instagram. Just mountains I never dreamed possible, … Read more
Last week I told you about the wild spectrum of emotions that ricocheted throughout my body during my son’s college graduation. But what I didn’t tell you was how much it triggered my own “I need to be perfect” younger-self trauma. Did you think you had to have it all figured out the day you walked … Read more
With the exception of the pandemic, I’ve consistently logged somewhere between 150,000-175,000 miles each year for the past ten years. I spoke at a US Army Base in Japan, rode a camel across the dunes of Arabian desert, danced the night away in Cartagena, and am one of about 2000 women to run all six … Read more