Each year on my birthday I revisit a post I started a decade ago—Life + Business Lessons Learned—and I review/update the lessons in the list. Since I turned 42 this week, here are my 42 Life + Business Lessons Learned.

Each year I also like to ask myself: what is something I accomplished this past year, something I learned, and something I'm excited to experience next year?

Something I accomplished this past year:

One of the biggest projects I've ever embarked on was re-designing and planning our kitchen renovation. Everything about the process was completely new to me and required a lot of research, decision making, and resources.

We're still not done yet, but we should be complete by the end of the month, and I'm so proud of the design and how the project has come together!

​You can follow along here.​

Something I learned:

Other than all the learning I did about kitchen design 😅... I also learned about the power of breathwork. I attended an incredible breathwork retreat last year, and my experience was borderline psychedelic (despite there being no psychedelics involved).

It was fascinating to see how everyone had such a different experience of the work, and I was reminded just how strongly my brain processes everything visually.

I had vivid experiences, memories, and imagined scenarios playing out in my minds eye, both beautiful and sad. The textures, the lights, and the colors were so incredibly vivid.

I have long known that I tend to need visuals to help me learn and integrate, but it was truly fascinating to see how my brain relied on visual storytelling to process old trauma.

Something I'm excited to experience next year:

I would love to host a multi-course dinner for family and friends in the backyard with ingredients grown from my garden.

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Elsewhere:

Articles

Last week I was inspired to write a piece about the universal principles behind every productivity system, and a companion piece, The Notion dashboard I use every day.

"Each new framework promises to be the solution to helping you become the most effective version of yourself. Each creator presents their method as revolutionary, but the truth is that they’re all mostly teaching the same fundamental behaviors, just wrapped in different terminology." Read on.​

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Make with Notion Conference

The Make with Notion conference is coming Sep 18th. Ben will be there in person, while I'll be attending virtually! Register here.

That's all for this week - I hope you've been enjoying your summer!

Maybe I'll see you online at the conference? :)