Mother's Day should be the day when I celebrate all the wonderful mothers in my life who inspire me and my family. But I have been thinking a lot about my friends and how much they mean to me, even though I am an absentee friend most of the time.

I recently had my eyes opened to a phenomenon that is an interesting lens to thinking about the future of work, and that is the digital nomad. I just didn’t know that was what they were. And I am officially obsessed and excited by them!

There are times when I work and can be intense. But only for so long. It’s exhausting. And I haven’t even gotten into the insomnia that kicks in. (I invented a recipe called midnight chicken for a reason.) Renewing my energy and motivation has become something I’ve worked on for years. Here’s some thoughts on what I’ve learned. By no means an exhaustive list.

This post runs counter to how I once felt about (my role in) prototyping. When trying to set the right direction and even sell a big idea, I’ve often struggled to get started. And while in theory I know a prototype is a great tool to have in your arsenal, in my mind it’s something that other people like creatives, techies and “inventors” do. But the reality is I’ve been prototyping my whole career. I just didn’t own it.

I want my work to be big and meaningful. It's got to have big impact. It will mean something huge for the people who need it. It’s hard to do. It will not happen instantly, but be a journey to accomplish. It will be painful yet rewarding. But like a marathon or reaching a peak, you can't just show up expecting to crush it in on race day if you haven't prepared and trained. Even if you have all the natural talent in the world. And trust me. My 23andMe report said my muscle DNA is akin to that of an elite power athlete, and I still can't run 26 miles or even 1 without conditioning.

I have been lucky enough to take on progressively more challenging and high profile projects and roles throughout my career. Sure, lots of that has to do with high-impact delivery and being a good team leader, but I would argue I wouldn't have had quite as many great opportunities if I didn't make myself replaceable. Sounds logical. But put in practice, it feels terrible. Having personally been through layoffs, it's scary to think you might be expendable. And then our egos flip on and there's a real sense that NO ONE will be as awesome as we are in doing whatever that project was.

It was love at first listen when I found 36 Questions, a stunning and gorgeous and compelling podcast musical created by composers Ellen Winter and Chris Littler, starring Jonathan Groff and Jessie Shelton.

You finally made it! Or did you? You worked for years to get that degree. Run that marathon. Get that promotion. Launch that product. Deliver that program. Time to head for the beach and sip those drinks with umbrellas. But then you get back and you crash. And you realize, there is still more to do and learn, but you don't want to do it and learn it, at least not yet. Here’s my own hard earned lessons on how to stick the landing and embrace what’s next.

Throughout my life I’ve longed for sisterhood and aspired to give unwavering loyalty to my friends. But I have been stung more than once by women who take mean girl to a whole new level.

It's Women's History month. Time to celebrate! The list of women who inspire me in my work and feed my curiosity is a long one. Grateful for these incredible women in my life who inspire and support me.

I am an Olympics fans. I look forward to it and will watch as much as I can whenever it's on. I cheer on competitors in sports I have never bothered to learn the rules for (I'm looking at you curling and ice dancing) and feel genuine pride in the athletes accomplishments.

Listening is vital to learning and connecting as a team. And if I'm busy or “in the zone” I'm terrible at it. But I’ve found that if I apply these two simple practices and go in with the goal of connecting, then I'm all kinds of an awesome listener.

When starting up a project with a new team, I want to get people comfortable with each other so that we can push for bigger results. One source of inspiration to jumpstart the forming process is sharing and discussing with individuals and with the team some readings and TED Talks. Here are some I keep coming back to and why.

In 2017 I was honored to be selected as a Makers@Morgan Stanley Wealth Management honoree. Inspired by all the incredible women and men who are working together to make a difference, I decided to start this blog. This is my story.

Someone once quipped to me, "the only person who likes change is a baby in a dirty diaper." I absolutely loved this comment for so many reasons (funny! true! babies!). And I've used it quite a bit for myself and others while we're going through some disruption or another. I thought it might be interesting to dig into a story about change and some advice I was given which served me well, despite it being so antithetical to my nature.

I started like most of us started: I just did. I worked. I was smart. I got things done. Then, all of a sudden, that stopped working, and I had a choice to make about what I wanted to be when I grew up (again). So I decided to (really this time) take control.