Category: Start Something Project

Are You Over Thinking?

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

Sometimes the answer is just doing it.

Not thinking about doing it. Not writing about doing it. Not talking about doing it. And not waiting on it, or giving it more time.

Sometimes you just need to do it.

Anticipation can be deadly. Every time I have to jump into cold water or a cold pool, I can’t think about it too much. The more I think about it, the longer it takes to do it. The longer I think about it, the harder it gets to pull the trigger. The longer I think about it, the less time I spend actually doing it, and the more time I spend lost in thinking about it. The worst part is always the first three minutes as my body acclimates to the change in temperature from the outside air to the colder pool. And magically, after those three minutes, the sting wears off and I even begin to forget those moments pre-cold. Adaptation happens quickly. We forget our fears the minute we go ahead and get started.

The worst part is starting. Scratch that. Sometimes the worst part is the anticipation of starting. Sometimes the worst part is all that dang thinking you do before you start doing what you really need to just be doing. It’s all that thinking about starting that can paralyze you.

Quit that thinking.

The antidote to anticipation is action.

The hardest part can be just getting started.

Happy Holidays 2012!

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and all the love and joy I can send your way over the holidays. Thanks for being here, for building such an amazing community, and for teaching me so many things over the past year. I’ve learned so much from each of you who write in, comment, and tell me stories about how you’re changing and growing throughout your lives and explorations. I feel so lucky to be able to write (and that people listen!) and that I’ve spent a year doing this thing on the side that I love doing–telling stories and being here. It’s wonderful.

It’s been an incredible year, both at my job and in editing several of the websites and projects I’m involved in, and I’m so grateful to have another internet home here on this site, to tell the stories of how I do it and what I’m learning along the way. I love writing, thinking things through, and sharing the behind-the-scenes of what I’m working on and how I think–and this year, I’ve been lucky to work with a few of you one-on-one both in calls and in the month-long Start Something Program. I’m blown away by the incredible people I get to meet and interact with.

You, seriously, are the best. I hope you all know how wonderful you are. I want to highlight some of the amazing people I’ve gotten to work with, as a quick nod to all of you and your talented ways:

  • Krista, who explores the everyday human experiences and  “response crafting” (I love this term!) … who doubles down as an IT Consultant by day and philosopher-doer by night;
  • Jennifer, whose backstory is so touching and who has such grace and confidence; she’s building a platform and website called “The Health Sessions,” looking at how to achieve your dreams while dealing with chronic illness (check out her Facebook page, and watch for her new website coming soon);
  • Lauren, who works in social media in New Orleans and blogs about travel, work and love at Mermaid Chronicles. (And my personal favorite: her story of landing a job via a story of carrying a surfboard through the subways of New York. Yes!)
  • Lisa, an all-around “Advocate for Awesome,” who is a Higher-Ed power-punch and triple threat through her talents in speaking, writing, and intrapreneurial mindset–and a contagious zest for growth and learning.
  • And so many more. There are some goodies still being crafted behind-the-scenes, and I can’t wait to see (and support) so many of you. Continue reading “Happy Holidays 2012!”

Gratitude, Holiday Cheer + Post-Thanksgiving Epic Giveaways.

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

Congratulations to Melissa for winning a copy of Shane Mac’s book, “Stop With The BS” and to Claire and Anne for winning spots to Molly Mahar’s Holiday Council (which starts Monday, November 26th– join me there! I’ll be on the interviews and on as many calls as possible). I’ve been hearing wonderful reviews of the book and so many of you have reached out to say how much you like the layout and design: thank you! I’m SO GLAD!

Also, stay tuned because I STILL have LOTS more to give away, even *after* this post, and this post is a big one. Nuts, right? Happy Holidays to all of you. 

Gratitude, for all of you.

As I write on this blog and interact with so many people via email and in the comments, I find myself overwhelmed. Overwhelmed, mostly with gratitude. Your letters, emails, comments, and positive energy make me feel so lucky. From the bottom of my big, deep, water-loving heart:

Thank you.

You are all wonderful. Thank you.

Thank you for supporting me in the Charity Swim we did earlier this year, thank you for participating so actively in this blog, thank you for surprising me, thank you for teaching me. Thank you for all of your wonderful comments about the recently-launched book, and for everything you do. I appreciate it, more than you probably know.

And in the name of gratitude, I’ve put together my first “Epic Big Fat Delicious Wonderful Holiday Sale.”** 

(The name needs a little work, right? A free present for someone who comes up with a better name for what I’m doing today, deal? Deal. Leave a note in the comments and I’ll send you something special if I like it). 

The writing on this website is all free–all of the essays, thoughts, wandering, questions, ideas and inspiration. I write because I have to, because it’s in my soul to write, and my writing ritual is to open up a notebook or a computer every time I have an idea, sometimes multiple times a day. I’ve been known to obsessively type into my phone new ideas whenever I’m out and about, drafting new thoughts. Beyond the prolific nature of this site, however, there are also lots of ways to work with me for people who want more advanced content and specialized one-on-one time. For those of you that have been wanting to work with me, check it out. There’s LOTS of good stuff coming at you today: Continue reading “Gratitude, Holiday Cheer + Post-Thanksgiving Epic Giveaways.”

Building Something Bigger (And a Peek Behind The Curtain): My Monthly Review

Posted on by Sarah K Peck


It’s the end of the month (Happy Halloween!) and I’m sitting down to do my monthly review–which happens as close to the 30th as I can get each month, give or take a couple of days depending on my schedule and deadlines. I find that I like to check-in on the 30th to see how things are going, because a monthly check-in is a good rhythm to gauge whether or not I’m making significant progress on my larger goals, what I moved forward on, and whether or not I’m happy with the balance in my health, lifestyle, ambitions, physicality and writing dreams.

I’m sharing a peek-behind-the-scenes into my monthly review because I think you’ll like it–I love learning how people operate and how often they check in with themselves, what (or whether or not) they set goals for themselves, and how they go about reaching them. I like getting things done and making things happen, and this is a system that works for me. I’ve shared it with a handful of people over the past couple of days and so I’m documenting both what I do–and some of the questions they have–as a peek behind the curtains. Continue reading “Building Something Bigger (And a Peek Behind The Curtain): My Monthly Review”

Indianapolis: PowderKeg 2012

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

I spent the last weekend in Indianapolis, Indiana, as part of the inaugural 2012 Powder Keg Conference put on by The Verge celebrating StartUps, Developers, and Innovation in the central hub of Indiana. While I’d been to Indiana before, I’d never made it to Indianapolis, and it was beautiful to see another Midwestern city in the Fall. I was fortunate to join a host of talented and diverse speakers including Julien Smith, Kate Endress, Scott Case, David Blaine, Scott Dorsey, Dave Knox, Jonathon Perrelli, and many more. I’ll recap some of the best tidbits and ideas on this blog in the weeks to follow, but I wanted to share some of the photos of this beautiful city.

 A view of downtown Indianapolis. Continue reading “Indianapolis: PowderKeg 2012”

THE START SOMETHING PROJECT: It’s Time to Take Yourself—And Your Dreams—Seriously.

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

It’s like I just woke up. And I realized: this is it.

We only have one world.

We only have one life.

This IS your chance. This IS your life. What you are doing right now, today. Tomorrow.

The day after that.

What are you doing?

That’s you. That’s what you’re doing.

Do you like it?

Are you ready to take yourself seriously?

I’ve been there. I AM there. We are all there. I go through it, over and over again – the fears, the doubts, the insecurities, the scareds, the what-the-fuck-am-I-going-to-do moments. I have weekends spent holed up in my apartment, alone in my room, because I’m not sure what to do next, because my heart is pounding, because I know that I’m just not content with what’s currently at play, and I want more. I’ve lived through rib removal surgery, I had the delight of fiances and not-so-more-fiances and broken bones and disasters and all of the rough-and-tumble. And in spite of it, because of it, because the world doesn’t care what you could have done, I swam nine miles and I said FUCK IT, jumped into the ocean; I built a website because I wanted to write about landscape urbanism and no one would “let me,” I gave presentations until people started wanting to hear what I had to say, I stopped plodding and started exploring, and somehow, I found myself skipping instead of walking, dancing my way into the wee hours of the mornings in New Orleans, Omaha, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Paris, Munich, Freising, Taipei, Seoul, Amsterdam, Portland, and many other cities I’d never been to–but I went ahead and went there anyways.

I didn’t wait for someone to give me permission.

I just knew, I KNEW that I wanted more than this. Continue reading “THE START SOMETHING PROJECT: It’s Time to Take Yourself—And Your Dreams—Seriously.”

The Start Something Project (How I Want to Help You Kick Start Your Next Project, Dream, or Experiment).

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

What holds you back from taking action?

I hear this all the time:

I want to meet new people. I want to enjoy my job more. I want to start a blog. I want to be a better writer. I want to start a business. I want to come up with a vision plan for the next 6 months. I want to challenge myself to eat better. I want to…

Tell me, what do you want to do?

And better yet, why aren’t you doing it?

The things I’ve done in my life so far have been because I took a deep breath, despite being scared, stepped forward and did it anyways. Because I said YES–HELL YES to things that scared me. Because I jumped at the chance for adventure.

It was through experimentation, experience, and commitment that I figured stuff out as I went. I will be a life-long learner and do-er.

What about you? Continue reading “The Start Something Project (How I Want to Help You Kick Start Your Next Project, Dream, or Experiment).”