More than any other adventure in my life, running Badwater 135 has taught me about the long and winding road, the struggles involved in our journeys, the joys, the importance of teamwork and trust, and what it means to propel yourself forward in adverse situations. Badwater 135 has educated me about aspirations, preparation, and how to rebound when I spiral…
Finance & Fitness: The Key to a Wholehearted Life
Many of us possess our own ideas on what it takes to achieve a wholehearted life. The term wholehearted is defined as showing complete sincerity and commitment, and its synonyms consist of adjectives such as positive, devoted, dedicated, and enthusiastic. In a time when society is often rushed, in debt, overweight, and disillusioned, who doesn’t want to attain a wholehearted…
Cultivating Your Career Story
“If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you now it’s not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That’s why it’s your path. – Joseph Campbell Culturally, we are storytellers. We move through our lives listening to and narrating stories pertaining to our childhood, stories of how…
Priorities
Most of us tend to spend our days scrambling from one event to the next, be it work, meetings, or extracurricular events. We live in a time of slotting activities in and striving to accomplish our daily tasks. Although I attempt to let daily situations dictate my priories, whether it’s work, family, or play, often, the lines blur—is it more…
Hardwork, Hustle, and Grit
In life, we tend to see the finished product—a book, a presentation, a company that is successful, a car driving along on the road, runners crossing the finish line of a race. Unless it is your book, company, creation, or race, one rarely glimpses the effort or intensity of an endeavor. As a society, we are not privy to the…
On Being Great
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. – Mark Twain I’ve noticed a trend on social media these days in which some professionals regularly publicize how many followers they have, or promote their rankings, or note why they are…
Making College Years Count
(originally published in Huffington Post) Making College Years Count Years back, a college degree, which only a subset of society pursued, was the route to employment. If you obtained a bachelor’s degree, then you were almost guaranteed a job upon graduation, and that job was typically the stepping stone to one’s career. Times have changed. During the 2017-2018 school year,…
The Movement Miracle
(originally appeared in Huffington Post) In my early twenties, while working in publishing and pursuing my first graduate degree, I discovered running. At first, two miles was as far as I ventured. I ran the twenty blocks from my apartment on Manhattan’s upper east side up to 90th street and 3rd avenue and back. I loved the feeling of passing…
Embracing Change
(originally posted in LinkedIn Pulse) Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change. – Stephen Hawking The last 1.5 years for me have been about change: leaving corporate America, starting up my own company, witnessing its growth through hard work, experimentation, taking risks, and a little luck. Then, amid it all, I accepted a full-time associate professor role, which led…
Brooklyn Girls
(originally appeared in Huffington Post)First, it was me and my mom. We were the original Brooklyn girls. From my earliest days, my mom was my partner when it came to navigating Brooklyn and its eccentricities. She had a no-nonsense and straightforward disposition that taught me that if you didn’t speak-up for yourself, then you risked living your life on someone…