Bye, Bye Barry. Growing up in Oklahoma, I remember watching Barry Sanders play for OSU. This Amazon sports documentary takes a look at why this all-star football running back quit professional football at the peak of his career. Sanders got a lot of guff from the press for not being very talkative. He was often accused of being stuck up. The movie paints a picture of a supremely talented athlete who didn’t care much for the accolades and hype of professional sports and just wanted to play to the best of his ability and let his performance do the talking. He’s my kind of guy. Great movie to watch while doing Zone 2 cardio.
Old Bay Seasoning. If you live in the mid-Atlantic coastal area of the United States (particularly in Maryland), Old Bay Seasoning is an institution. A blend of celery salt, paprika, and pepper, it’s a go-to seasoning for crab and other seafood. After using it in my recipe for crispy chicken sandwiches, it’s become very popular in our household. Our 13-year-old son, Gus, is obsessed with the stuff. He puts it on everything; he particularly likes to put it on his eggs (as do I) and his turkey sandwiches. Highly recommend making it a staple in your spice rack.
Lower Lights Christmas Music. We love listening to Christmas music this time of year. There’s a bajillion versions of classic Christmas songs out there, and I like a bunch. One of my favorite takes on the classics is done by the Lower Lights, a “gospel-folk collective” of musicians. I think the two best songs from their two Christmas albums are “O Come, All Ye Faithful” and “The Holly and the Ivy” (an underrated Christmas song in general).
It Never Gets Easier. AoM Podcast guest Nick Maggiulli articulates an idea that I think about more and more as I get older. As you get better and better in a given domain, it gets harder and harder to stand out and excel. The competition gets stiffer, so what it takes to stand out grows and grows. There will always be someone that’s better than you. To escape the frenzy of trying to outperform everyone, Nick suggests taking a lesson from poker and choosing a game where you know you have a slight edge over everyone else playing. Find the winnable game. That often means choosing to be the big fish in a small pond.
Quote of the Week
We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse.
—Rudyard Kipling
