🐳 #2 Just a Splash | The Shallow End | My Swimlane

Is meaningful work overrated? And let’s talk roller-skating, mini-frogs, and our stellar taste in movies.

It’s full-blown summertime at The Diving Board. In Minnesota, where I live, summer is the time of year when we hold our heads up high and say, “Joke’s on you, suckers!” to the parts of the country who think we live in a miserable ice world. As they suffer through months of choking heat, we are typically enjoying Sunny ‘n 75 for weeks on end. This year, though, instead of sun, we’ve got RAIN. Ah, well.

Whatever the weather, I’m glad we’re together, readers.

*REMINDER* to submit your questions for the July edition of 🍹Poolside Chat🍹. (Here’s the first edition of Poolside Chat, ICYMI.)

And now for today’s post: 🐳 Just a Splash etc. is a monthly helping of work-life doodads – links, recommendations, and other amusements. Enjoy perusing, and if you like what you read, take a second to ❤️ this post, leave a comment, or share with a friend!

Let’s cannonball.

---

🐛 I’d call this article an “earworm” – something I read quickly in passing and sort of dismissed but haven’t stopped thinking about since, like a song I can’t shake. As someone who cares a lot about “meaningful work”, this post offered a compelling counterpoint I hadn’t considered: The Trouble with Passion.

💡 But I still think this matters for lots of us: “Finding Your Zone of Genius” with Elise Loehnen - watch (2m) or read (5m) or both.

And one more good read for you: The Most Common Career Regret

🎥 Last, but not least – are you and your team leading with an Enterprise Mindset, or are you stuck in siloed thinking and me-before-we behaviors?  My colleague Beth and I chat it up about “Enterprise Mindset” in this new vlog from my partner org, The People Side. I wrote an article years ago on this topic for The People Side - here’s that: 5 Ways to Develop an Enterprise Mindset.

---

I am happy. Why am I happy? Because for years I have longed for a solution to this dilemma:

It’s 5:30 on Tuesday. I’m wiped out and don’t feel like cooking two meals – a boring one that my kids will eat, and one for me and Rob featuring more culinary interest than frozen fish sticks and grape tomatoes. Can someone please make me a very yummy, healthy meal that does not necessitate DoorDash?

I’ve tried a few options over the years, most recently Fresh N’ Lean which underwhelmed me flavor-wise.

🥗 😃 Enter CookUnity. You guys. These meals are foodie-approved, non-mushy textures, and ready to heat and eat. I filter for the flavors and conditions I prefer (spicy! not 1600 calories!) and once a week they are delivered.

I realize this sounds like a commercial. Don’t be fooled. Per usual, nothing in The Diving Board is sponsored, I am not that popular. I just have an evangelistic personality when I find stuff I love. I have seen the light and must tell it on the mountain.

❓How do YOU solve the 5:30 dilemma in your home?

💿💿💿💿💿 This next question hit me like a ton of 90’s Compact Discs recently: WHERE DID ALL THE ROLLER SKATING RINKS GO? When I was a kid, every other birthday party involved skating around an endless oval in ultraviolet lighting to very loud pop music and it was TRANSCENDENT. My kids are missing out. I plan to locate a roller rink in the next few weeks and level up their childhood. Will post pics. 🛼🛼

🎞 🍿 What are your top 5 favorite movies of all time? Let’s define favorite as “movies you most enjoy watching”. I will put on no airs as I answer this. I can be snobby in some ways, but my taste in movies is deliciously mainstream:

1. The Sound of Music

2. Jurassic Park

3. Love, Actually

4. Notting Hill

5. Moana

Runners up are going to have to be Walk the Line, Anne of Green Gables, Titanic, Signs, and The Notebook. I love them, I just do.

---

🐝 I’ve been paying more attention lately to my nervous system, noticing how jacked up I feel at the end of a workday. Usually it’s because my day was FULL and GOOD but I just feel so buzzy and need to come down.

What strategies do you use for unwinding and settling your nervous system? (Looking for healthy strategies that do not rhyme with whine or cheer.) 😉

Nature works well for me. I took a long walk in the woods recently and felt like a whole new person when I emerged. Also, I met the tiniest frog, we are friends now, his name is Tidbit.

🏕 I took my kids camping last weekend all by myself! With our son’s health issues, camping has felt like a big HELL NO the last few years. But his monthly IVIG treatment is WORKING, you guys! He’s healing, and every month is better than the last. It felt like time to test the waters. Rob couldn’t come, so I put on my brave cape and went for it.

The kids LOVED it, and we all remained in Good Mood-ville! We built fires, hiked, evaded mosquitos, made “blackened pancakes” 😐, and let nature melt our cares away. Feels like we might be moving towards brighter days as a family, where we get to do more of the things you picture doing when you picture having kids.  So anyway, yeah, I’m rugged.  

🧐 I think I’ll start a recurring feature in this newsletter called “Weird Pictures You Find After Your Kids Steal Your Phone”. This month’s selection:

What is happening? This is just odd on so many levels.

---

*CLAP CLAP* Lights out for now, kiddos!

See you next week on The Diving Board, where I will (1) trial run a new way of sharing my words with you (2) talk about MY FAVORITE THING that I can’t believe I haven’t talked about since The Diving Board launched and (3) tell you about something exciting happening on July 30^th. Whoop!