I Wanna Be Me When I Grow Up
I'm Kara. I create content about personal growth, productivity, and technology, faith, and my well lived life. Subscribe to my weekly newsletter to get a fresh new article, a roundup of anything I published this week, and other fun stuff in your inbox (most) Monday mornings.
Who Are You?
Who Are You? Even though my life theme is "I Wanna Be Me When I Grow Up", I still struggle with what I want to be when I grow up - or rather with how I want to spend my time on activities that really matter to me. And whenever I spend time pondering this, I come back to the idea of roles.When I read and study productivity, many systems take a roles-based approach. When I start listing out my roles, at a high level, I can summarize the most important ones to me as a best friend, daughter,...
We're a product of our time and place
We're a product of our time and place While flying home from Portland last week, I finally watched Good Night and Good Luck. George Clooney originally did this as a film in 2005. He took it to Broadway in 2025. It was then broadcast live on CNN for one night. That broadcast has now been made available as a film. There was a scene in the film that made me think about how lucky I am to be in this time and place. In the scene, one of only two female actors who are featured (since the play is set...
What does it actually take to stop?
What does it actually take to stop? Before we dive into today's article, I want to thank everyone who took time to respond to last week's newsletter. While I hate that body image and weight issues plague so many in my community, I'm grateful for all of you who spoke up in community with such kind words. I love hearing from you - whether in email or in Circle. As I mentioned two weeks ago, I'm working on a reboot of the Facts of Life Book course. Last night, I worked on some planning and...
How are you present in your body?
How are you present in your body I've been doing a lot of reflection lately on two topics: How time is the most precious resource we have The mind-body connection Part of this thinking has been around taking care of my own wellbeing and health. My doctor prescribed one of the weight loss drugs for me (Zepbound specifically) to use if I want to do so. I've battled my weight since I was eight years old. My school picture in 2nd grade and my school picture in 3rd grade don't even look like the...
A Place for Everything...
A Place for Everything... Facts of Life Book Manifesto There is something beautiful about having the perfect thing in the perfect moment. Maybe its my fascination with LEGO coming into real life, but I love it when two things fit seamlessly together or when something slides perfectly into place. I feel like much of my adult life is really about trying to figure out where things fit. When can I do this task? How am I going to get that done? Where do I put this thing I just bought so that I...
Gratitude for the Uneventful
Gratitude for the Uneventful A beautiful moment from our most recent cruise. I have started keeping a pretty good list of newsletter ideas for weeks when I'm not sure what to write about. This is a fairly new process though and I realized, as I missed the last two weeks of newsletters, I could easily have used one of those ideas. So, let's dive into this one - being grateful for the uneventful. As I shared in my little duology on planning for the worst while also anticipating joy, the end of...
...and Anticipate Joy
...and Anticipate Joy A photo from our most recent Southern Caribbean cruise, October 2026 This was actually the first article idea I had in our little duology on planning for all eventualities. (Read part 1 here if you missed last week's newsletter.) I got Gayle the book Disney Adults for Christmas. Something in the book sparked a conversation about anticipatory nostalgia. My note about the article idea it spawned was that I wanted to try to create that in as many ways as possible. And then,...
Plan for the worst...
Plan for the worst... Kona posing with our bags. The little duffle on the far end is his bag as he is off to my dad and sister's house for a visit. This week's newsletter is the first of a 2-part mini-series on planning - especially for planning the "big stuff". Today, we're going to talk about when and why you should plan for everything to go terribly wrong. I'm a glass-half-full kind of person most of the time. Yet, sometimes when I look at a situation, I see that there are ways that it...
What does done look like?
What does done look like? In her book Dare to Lead, Dr. Brene Brown discussed a project management idea of "What Does Done Look Like?" When I read the question in the book, it immediately resonated with me. The idea of it is not new in any way. While Dare to Lead is not a productivity book, nearly all productivity books have some sort of conversation in them about clarifying the intended outcome. David Allen's classic Getting Things Done talks about clarifying the "desired outcome" of a...
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year My 2026 Vision Board Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful holiday. Ours was filled with a little sickness (I dealt with food poisoning on Christmas Eve), some cooking and baking, a lot of good eating, some fun, and even some painting. Meet my new office accent wall. The color is Sherwin Williams Cruising. My new office accent wall - and the first time I've managed pony tails since losing my hair to chemo. I still can't do a single pony tail, but two high side ponies like...
I'm Kara. I create content about personal growth, productivity, and technology, faith, and my well lived life. Subscribe to my weekly newsletter to get a fresh new article, a roundup of anything I published this week, and other fun stuff in your inbox (most) Monday mornings.