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.
The Skill of Beginning Again
Happy Memorial Day to my American readers. The Skill of Beginning Again Photo by Gia Oris on Unsplash I watch streaming as I'm going to sleep. Recently, the YouTube algorithm served up a guy who creates aquascapes. You might be wondering what in the world this has to do with beginning again. One night, after watching this guy build yet another beautiful aquascape, I found myself thinking, "You should create one of these." It got to the point where I was googling fish tank prices. Something in...
Choose Slow Dopamine
Choose Slow Dopamine A while back someone shared the image above in a Zoom session. I quickly drug it into my "ideas" folder and then moved on ... because there is always stuff to do.As I was looking at my list of article ideas in preparation for being out on vacation - and wanting to make sure I had newsletters and other publications scheduled even while I was gone - I decided to take a closer look at this one. Over the last three weeks, we've been talking about the role of challenge in...
The Challenge Restart Button
The Challenge Restart Button As I've shared before, the scale and I have a complicated relationship. I know I'm not alone in this. For months, I was doing the all right things - eating less and moving more - but the numbers just sat there. Or even moved in the wrong direction. I wasn't trying to run a marathon. I just wanted something to shift. What ended up shifting wasn't the number. It was me. I went back to the pool. Not to train for anything. Not to become a competitive swimmer (though...
Play your way to motivation
Play your way to motivation Later this week, I’m running my “Meet Robot Kara” session live for the first time. (It will be recorded if you cannot attend live so sign up to get notified as soon as the recording is available). I doubt I’ll speak much about this in the workshop, but one of the biggest reasons I’m enjoying the work with the robot is that it feels like play.In last week's newsletter, we talked about challenge calibration — finding that Goldilocks zone where a task is just hard...
Pushing yourself just enough
Pushing yourself just enough Some days, I sit down to do my work and I just don't want to start. There is plenty of work on the list, but none of it is interesting or even remotely challenging to me. I can blow through a list of bill payments, phone calls, and meeting schedules like it's nobody's business. But, it's boring as crap and - sadly - even when I do go through a big list like that, I rarely feel any sense of accomplishment. A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I wanted to explore...
Writing to Think
Writing to Think As I mentioned recently, I've been playing around with Claude Cowork to build "Robot Kara". Just like with that newsletter, the robot did all the behind-the-scenes publishing and tinkering to get this post delivered to you — whether on Circle or via Kit in email. That technical stuff probably doesn't matter to you — but for me, it's the "boring" part of what I do. It's not hard, but it isn't exciting either and so it doesn't hit me with the right level of challenge (a topic...
How does Kona know it's Sunday
How does Kona know it's Sunday Hi everyone. Thanks for indulging a couple-of-weeks break as I enjoyed some great family time in Australia. The trip was fantastic and I hope to add some blog posts about it soon. I planned to put together a quick video highlight reel but my video editing software had other ideas. So instead, today's video is just my favorite picture from the trip and a few notes about the trip as a bonus. Now, on with today's newsletter...A few weeks ago, I noticed something....
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...
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.