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Gas is up. Groceries are up. And if your stomach does a little flip every time you open your banking app, friend, this one's for you.

Last time we talked about money, we talked about the two levers. This week I'm going to what happens inside us when money gets tight… and, believe it or not, what happens when we suddenly get more of it.

I'm also sharing what the research says actually helps us stay steady, a few offerings you can start using this week, and some very real, very practical places to turn if you're in the thick of it right now.

Not a perfect life. A comfortable one. Come plant a tree with me. 🌳

"Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago." — Warren Buffett

"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in." — Proverb, often attributed to the Greeks

I'm a life coach, not a doctor, therapist, or financial advisor. This episode is for information and inspiration. Please talk with a qualified professional about your own health and financial situation.

• American Psychological Association, Stress in America: Paying With Our Health (2015)

• Swaffield, J. (Vancouver Island University / University of Alberta), research on stress and eating; Richardson, T. et al. (University of Southampton), International Journal of Eating Disorders (2015)

• Mullainathan, S. & Shafir, E., Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much

• Hankins, S., Hoekstra, M. & Skiba, P. M., "The Ticket to Easy Street? The Financial Consequences of Winning the Lottery," Review of Economics and Statistics (2011)

• Federal Reserve community development research, "The Benefits Cliff, Explained" (fedcommunities.org)

• Hendricks, G., The Big Leap

• Ashraf, N., Karlan, D. & Yin, W., commitment savings study, Quarterly Journal of Economics (2006); Thaler, R. & Benartzi, S., Save More Tomorrow (2004)

• Gjertson, L., "Emergency Saving and Household Hardship," Journal of Family and Economic Issues (2016); Ruberton, P., Gladstone, J. & Lyubomirsky, S., Emotion (2016)

• Ameriks, J., Caplin, A. & Leahy, J., "Wealth Accumulation and the Propensity to Plan," Quarterly Journal of Economics (2003)

• Buffett, W., Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meetings (2020, 2022) and 2013 shareholder letter

• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, financial well-being framework (consumerfinance.gov)

• Mitchell, J., Mueller, A. et al., group CBT for compulsive buying, Journal of Clinical Psychiatry (2008)

• Gollwitzer, P. & Sheeran, P., implementation intentions meta-analysis (2006)

• Soman, D. & Cheema, A., earmarking study, Journal of Marketing Research (2011)

• Hershfield, H. et al., "Increasing Saving Behavior Through Age-Progressed Renderings of the Future Self," Journal of Marketing Research (2011)

• HUD Housing Counseling (hud.gov); IRS VITA free tax help; 211.org

• AAA gas price data, September 2026

Let’s go, let’s get it done.

Get more information at: http://projectweightloss.org

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Did you know the saying is actually "you've got another think coming," not "another thing"? I didn't either, until I heard one of my Maesters, Ryan Holiday, explain it, and it blew my mind. It really just means think again, and this week I'm talking off the cuff about why that little phrase points right back to what we talk about here all the time: our thoughts. I share how my Liberal Studies degree turned out to be a gift I didn't know I was getting, what employers say they value more than any college major, why AI is a tool and not the it, and how a habit like worrying can quietly turn into something we call our identity ("I'm just a worrier"). I also bring it back to project management, sales, and even dating, to show how every "no" is one more rung on the ladder. So the next time a thought shows up like it owns the place, maybe give yourself another think. Come hang out with me, my friend.

Quote of the Week

If any man is able to convince me and show me that I do not think or act right, I will gladly change; for I seek the truth, by which no man was ever injured. But he is injured who abides in his error and ignorance.

— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 6.21

Citations

· Holiday, R., YouTube short on "another think coming" Holiday, R., The Daily Stoic; The Obstacle Is the Way; Ego Is the Enemy; Stillness Is the Key

· Association of American Colleges & Universities & Hart Research Associates, It Takes More Than a Major: Employer Priorities for College Learning and Student Success (2013)

· Finley, A., How College Contributes to Workforce Success: Employer Views on What Matters Most (AAC&U, 2021)

· Jobs, S., Stanford University Commencement Address (2005)

· Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 6.21 (G. Long, Trans.)

· Perlman, M., "And Another Think," Columbia Journalism Review (2008)

Let’s go, let’s get it done.

Get more information at: http://projectweightloss.org

Send us Fan Mail

This week I'm going waaay back, 2,400 years to ancient Athens, to hang out with one of the fathers of Western philosophy and, in my book, the original life coach: Socrates. I share a quick bio of this fascinating Maester, from his days walking barefoot on ice as a soldier to calling himself a "midwife of ideas." Then we dig into his idea of a healthy soul. My hope is that you walk away seeing that the body and the soul are on the same team, and that you are worth caring for, inside and out.

Quote of the Week

"You, my friend, — a citizen of the great and mighty and wise city of Athens, — are you not ashamed of heaping up the greatest amount of money and honour and reputation, and caring so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul, which you never regard or heed at all? … For I do nothing but go about persuading you all, old and young alike, not to take thought for your persons or your properties, but first and chiefly to care about the greatest improvement of the soul. I tell you that virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money and every other good of man, public as well as private."
— Socrates, in Plato's Apology (translated by Benjamin Jowett)

Citations:

• Plato, Apology, trans. Benjamin Jowett, in The Dialogues of Plato (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1871), 20e–23b (the Oracle at Delphi) and 29d–30b (quote of the week)
• Plato, Charmides, trans. Benjamin Jowett, in The Dialogues of Plato (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1871), 155e–157c (the headache cure and treating the whole person)
• Plato, Republic, Book IV, trans. Benjamin Jowett, in The Dialogues of Plato (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1871), 427e–444e (the four virtues, the three-part soul, and justice as inner harmony)
• Plato, Phaedrus, trans. Benjamin Jowett, in The Dialogues of Plato (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1871), 279b–c (Socrates' closing prayer)
• Plato, Symposium, trans. Benjamin Jowett, in The Dialogues of Plato (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1871), 220a–b (barefoot on the ice at Potidaea)
• Plato, Theaetetus, trans. Benjamin Jowett, in The Dialogues of Plato (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1871), 149a–151d (Socrates as "midwife" of ideas)
• Xenophon, Memorabilia, trans. E. C. Marchant, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1923), 1.2.4 (care of the body), 1.3.5–6 (moderate eating and hunger as sauce), and 3.12 (Epigenes)
• Xenophon, Symposium, trans. O. J. Todd, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1922), 2.17–19 (Socrates dancing for exercise)
• Xenophon, Apology of Socrates, trans. O. J. Todd, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1922), 14 (Xenophon's version of the Oracle story)

Let’s go, let’s get it done.

Get more information at: http://projectweightloss.org