It’s a nice feeling of accomplishment when I finish writing and formatting my blog post each day.

Some days, I’ve even written two posts. Wheeee! But it’s funny—writing more posts doesn’t really mean that I’m crossing more stuff off of my to-do list. The days and the blog posts will keep on coming, like the chocolates on Lucy and Ethel’s conveyor belt. Getting a few days ahead is always nice, but there’s still more to write. So maybe I’ve taken care of today and tomorrow, but I will need to keep it going.

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I used to give out stickers to my music students for each piece of music they completed.

One little boy earned a few stickers in one day. “I wasted these ones,” he said, pointing to the empty spaces on the sheet where the stickers had been. I smiled at his subtle mistake. “Yes, you used them,” I said. What’s the point of stickers, anyway?

For her “virtual red carpet” appearance at the 2021 Screen Actors Guild Awards, Kerry Washington donned a stunning silk velvet gown embroidered with Swarovski crystals, plus a matching cap.

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The other day, I wrote a song from scratch.

The music for the verses took about 90 seconds to compose. Then, the bridge took another 5 minutes. The lyrics, on the other hand, took another 90 minutes, and then I tinkered with them over the next day or so, changing “it” to “that” and “eventually” to “actually.” But the song was essentially done in one sitting.

It was incredibly satisfying to create something from nothing. I used to labor for days or weeks or even years over a song, hesitant to commit to completing something if it wasn’t perfect. As a result, I have a bank of song ideas and fragments going back all the way to high school.

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Last fall, back when things were normal, I joined a singles tennis league.

I had started playing tennis only a couple of months before, but one of the reasons I started playing tennis in the first place was to develop my competitive side. My penchant for seeking win-win solutions had been causing me to back down in situations where it was arguably inappropriate to do so.

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I am grateful to my longtime mentor, Neil Bainton, for his perpetual nudges toward clarity.

We’d meet for a meal where I’d talk about my plans for my business or whatever, sharing the various options and possibilities I was considering.

Neil would never get mired in the details. He always brought the conversation back to one simple question: “What do you want?”

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