New Year, New Us

aka the one about change

I love the beginning of a new year because I love making lists. New years come with new goals which means LISTS EVERYWHERE.

POP QUIZ: The over/under for how many notebooks I currently have in my desk meant for tracking goals is set at 6.5. Do you take the over or under on that number?

ANSWER: Always the over.

And I know the internet and influencers have canceled lists and goals and trying to become an entirely different person from who you were on December 31 to who you want to become on January 1. AND YET, I ENDURE.

At the turn of a new year, I will always tell myself that THIS is the year I get into F1, learn how to smoke a brisket without burning it, and make time to fish more and a hundred million influencers pointing at text bubbles set to music WILL NEVER STOP ME.

I think part of it is about just liking the idea of a reset, but the other part is my tendency to get overrun by information, responsibilities, and intentions. When this happens, I like the idea of just Select: All / DELETE and starting over.

When I started this newsletter over a year ago, I had a couple of thoughts on what I wanted it to be and it more or less went in that direction. I had a lot of things I wanted to do and I wanted this space to be a catch-all for all those things. And it has been, but just not in the most neat and orderly way.

I like to always have an eye towards POSSIBILITY which is great, but it also means bogging down consistency, which though not as sexy, over time, is much more beneficial.

ACCORDINGLY, we’re going to do a little bit of a reboot here on the newsletter in the interest of simplicity, consistency, and creating compelling content worthy of your attention and for others, your hard-earned cash dollars.

1. The new name.

2. I haven’t known what to do with Sectional Healing because even though I love it as a joke and play on words, an alarming amount of people still think it is called “Sexual Healing”, which is an entirely different newsletter vibe.

3. I’ve always loved the “Yes, And…” approach to conversation and improv and I think it will match more easily and seamlessly with the newsletter’s new focus on a the curation of content and ideas (no matter how stupid these ideas might be).

4. The participants.

   1. me, obvi

   2. Jason, obvi

   3. Ashley, not obvi!

      1. Ashley has such great taste and style and she doesn’t have a reasonable place to drop all these recommendations, so we thought it would be a good idea to include them here. Plus, we’ve always wanted to do something creative together (you know, besides a life, marriage, and three kids) and since we are two people creating content on the internet, this felt like a perfect opportunity.

      2. As a bonus to this spousal collaboration, Ashley is bringing over aspects of her business with The Bluest Willow for the benefit and enjoyment of YOU, the subscribers.

5. The content

   1. a weekly recommendations email

      1. Tomorrow, we’re sending the first edition of what the new weekly email will look like but broadly it is going to be a collection of recommendations, followed by a mini-essay written piece.

   2. An end of week podcast with Jason on Over Under Achievers

      1. Similar to this newsletter, Jason and I are pivoting away from exclusively sports content. While our conversations will still be populated with sports takes and opinions, this will also be balanced out by other pieces of conversation he and I naturally gravitate towards as middle-aged dudes, best friends and people of the world who are interested in a BEAUCOUP of different topics.

   3. Other misc. posts

      1. I want to keep the timetable associated to these fluid until I have a better sense of when and how often they will be dropped into the feed but they include but are not limited to…

         1. pages from things I’m currently writing

         2. home and wardrobe product drops from Ashley’s The Bluest Willow

         3. Weird comparison posts

         4. group threads

         5. podcast episodes with Ashley, Q&As, recaps, ADHD (ask a dad, husband, dude)

6. The schedule

   1. For now, we ‘re focusing on TWO THINGS A WEEK. Some weeks it may be more, but two things a week is a YES AND promise and commitment.

OK. I think that summarizes everything for now. Happy new year and see you again tomorrow…