I blame Mercury Retrograde

Hi Love,

I'msorryI'msorryI'msorry! 

I have not abandoned you. I just got overwhelmed with work and travel, but the real culprit is Mercury in retrograde. 

Okay, to be fair, it's more like it all started with Mercury in retrograde. Mercury stopped in Picese (water sign) and I was forewarned to watch out for electronics and water. My water bottle leaked due to improper handling (me) and an indispensable 1yr old MacBook Pro gradually soaked up the liquid on an overnight flight from SFO-JFK. 

The laptop arrives home dead as dead can be. 

Thus began the tedious undertaking in repair quotes, insurance claim, unsuccessful Time Machine syncs (corrupted files), temporary machines and on and on. 

It's amazing how I am crippled without a working laptop. Do you experience the same? I'm still on a temporary machine but we are near the end of this missing limb saga. 

Since 2016 I feel like I've slowed my travel schedule, spending more time at a single location and being very selective of where I go and purpose of the travel. I would qualify myself to be a great traveler, lover of perpetual motion,  yet the travel in these past couples of months have completely floored me, making this weekly installment nearly impossible. Could I have aged into being a homebody? Yikes! 

Maybe it's because these trips have involved very few down days and each day on the ground are full-on, physically and emotionally demanding. I look to all of my traveling friend, these road warriors, and I wonder how are they all still managing. 

I'm writing to you from a cafe in Istanbul in my old/favorite neighborhood. A cold spell is blowing through the city catching everyone off guard, I included. I packed for Spring in Iraq (where I was) and not for an Arctic chill. 

There is an election in Turkey tomorrow. The political climate is more divisive than ever, perhaps even worst then in the US. The lira is losing value but reinvigorating tourism as a result. I love Istanbul so much that I seriously considered living here long term in 2016 but the way the country is trending post-coupe is just not something I wanted to be a part of. 

How do we draw that line? As expats and as travelers? If we vote with our dollars, then do we not uphold some responsibility to the flourishing of oppression when we choose to be there, for work or pleasure? It's a hard and murky line to draw and I don't have the answers. What are your thoughts on this? 

I'm back and I've missed you! 

Charlie 

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IDEAS YOU CAN STEAL

I'm a member of Acumen Global Leadership and an Edmund Hillary Fellow. Both of them start the community building and getting to know each other as humans before we identify as our profession. It's not uncommon. It can be an uncomfortable process but when it's done right, it is effective in creating deeper bonds that result in greater ROI for both the individual and the network. It's worth considering and adopting. 

WORTH A READ

Amanda Palmer's rambling notes to her Patreon audience are about the only non-work things I've had a chance to read these last few weeks. They are so good. Often ungrammatical, a stream of consciousness style mind dump of anything and everything that is anything but unfocused, extremely intimate and insightful. Unfortunately, these notes are for her Patrons only. However, you can become one for as little as $1 a month. For the writing alone is worth it, not to mention, if you are skilled, you can extract some great marketing insights. 

A POD WORTH LISTENING

Pivot with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway.

Are You in the Driver Seat or Hanging on by the Bumper?

Happy New Year!!

Yes, you might say, that was over a month ago. Yes. You are correct. And it is also true that today is day two of Chinese New Year. The best way I've found to keep the binary (potentially toxic) at bay is by reminding myself that many things can be true at the same time. It can get complicated. But it's helpful with empathy, listening, presence and deepening. It allows for another point of view.

I'm sorry this note is late and it is showing up midweek. Re-entry has been a bit of a bitch. It's easy to walk away, to break the habit and let it all go. Getting back into it all has been extremely difficult this time. I feel like the year took off without me and I'm hanging on the bumper like a bad action flick.

Oh boy, did J and I let it all go in those weeks! Down in Patagonia, the troubles of the world seem so far away, just stories you hear. We emptied our minds and filled it with fiction (good and not so good), endless sky, 100km/h wind, ancient granite peaks, delicious crab goodness cooked in butter and more butter, glacier lakes the color of gemstones and new vocabulary for our private language.

Now. Three weeks after our return and well into the calendar year, all the pieces we left behind are shouting for attention with the eager insistence of resolutions and goals chiming in, building towards a loud ruckus.

So Hi! Here I am; here we are. There is nothing to do but do. And into this year we go.

Let's go!

Charlie

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I NEED YOUR VOTE!

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IDEAS YOU CAN STEAL

Some obsess over inbox zero. Personally, I'm happy with inbox 100. 
Hack 1:Start a new email account! This comes from Kashmir Hill on her series,"Blocking the Tech Giants." TCutting out Google was week three and she had to start a new email account. So brilliant and simple. Not practical. But can we all just admire the solution for a moment before we dive back in?
Hack 2:Multiply your time by asking 4 questions about the stuff on your to-do list. 
Hack 3:Don't reply to your emails. 

WORTH A READ

Universal Basic Income (UBI) and 70% income tax are ideas that have been around for a long while and newly revived for public debate. Here are two compelling reads on the subject. 

Give People Money: How a Universal Basic Income Would End Poverty, Revolutionize Work, and Remake the World by Annie Lowrey
(I'm in the middle of this book and I'm a fan!) 

Utopia for Realists by Rutger Bregman. This is next on the docket for me. If you don't have time for another 300-page book, he's got a great TED talk. 

I FULLY ENDORSE

Shoshanna Hecht, executive coach. I just had the pleasure of working with Shoshanna and I cannot recommend her more! What is an executive coach and what does she do? In her own words, "I work with successful, high-achieving women to break through the glass ceiling in their own mind." Shoshanna is highly qualified (see her credentials here) first of all, and during our time together, she suggested concrete tactics that I can implement to help me overcome a particular challenge. It is up to me to practice and implement course but unlike psychotherapy, working with Shoshanna is about what's next. 

DON'T MISS

The Jungle. I've seen my fair share of plays (I studied theater in undergrad) and this is by far one of the best plays I have ever seen. It's run in NYC has closed but it is coming to San Francisco The Curran. SEE IT. 

What the Constitution Means to Me returns to NYC March 14th. It's a fantastic one act and an Obie Award winner. 

I'll leave you with Speaker Nancy Pelosi's sarcasm-laden clap for Trump's State of the Union speech....it so good!