Today was another rainy day, so I headed downstairs to run on the treadmill. Mile one was a breeze. Mile two was easy. And mile three was so much fun. I got all sweaty and felt like I was on top of the world! I’m sure it was the banana I had eaten beforehand. Well, maybe it was something more than that. After finishing NPR’s Up First and New York Times’ The Daily, I listened to a Tim Ferriss Show episode with Bozoma Saint John, the Chief Brand Officer at Uber. I always read about her in the news and follower her on Instagram, but I didn’t know what she sounded like when she talked. I used to listen to the Tim Ferriss Show quite regularly. Last spring, I picked up his book Tools of Titans, and halfway through, I started feeling overwhelmed with all of the things I had to do to become successful. I put the book down, and gave myself a break from his podcast. I received so much positivity listening to Boz. She was so energetic and positive. It was fascinating to hear about her move from Ghana to Colorado, and her “very Ghanaian” father’s reaction when she lost the student council elections – twice. Tim Ferriss’s podcasts are long; this one was two hours, so I only got halfway through, and I couldn’t wait to finish listening to it later.

I had an extremely productive morning. I was super focused as I did some strategic thinking work. Close to noon, my husband walked in to give me a kiss. After saying hi, I walked into the kitchen, made myself some green tea, and ate a handful of blueberries. It’s funny – if he hadn’t walked in, I would have continued to focus on work and not think about food. An hour later, we heated up last night’s stuffed peppers and sweet potato soup. I thought I would hit the usual afternoon slump after this filling meal, but no, I kept on staying focused! I was impressed with how productive I was.

In the afternoon, my husband and I took a break to go see the Soviet art exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago. We have a membership there, so we often pop in an out. We rushed home so that I could catch my next conference call, only to find out the minute before the scheduled start time that it was getting cancelled. I didn’t mind getting an hour back to get some work done. But before that, the rest of Boz’s interview. I got so motivated as she talked about her career, and was so touched by the story of how she met her husband and her relationship with him before he passed away. She was so confident, so powerful, so positive, so thoughtful. She gave me so much energy!

I got back to work, and was quite focused for a couple of hours. “Were you going to make the leftover squash and kale tonight?” I shouted from my office. “Yes, I’ll start cooking now,” my husband said. I continued running numbers and typing away on my laptop until he said, “It’ll be about fifteen more minutes.” That was my que. I worked on making tuna boats, which took more or less fifteen minutes. Using avocado as a replacement for mayo was brilliant. It tasted so good!

We are now all packed up for the weekend. We’ll be heading to Breckenridge tomorrow night for a long weekend of skiing. It’s his first time, so I’m excited to see how he does! When I taught him tennis for the first time this summer, I was pleasantly surprised with how good he was. He didn’t hit baseball-like home runs like beginners usually do. His strokes were clean and strong, and his footwork was precise. Maybe it’s because he’s a good soccer player. Or maybe he’s just a fast learner. Anyway, I’m hopeful!