Welcome.
This Substack is where I write sometimes humorous personal essays about what makes life cool and people interesting. THERE ARE STORIES. Everyday life, solo travel, corporate, Dateline, faith, relationships, and everything in between.
What we have here is a veritable cornucopia of things: scary animals, embarrassing injuries, bad names, travel mishaps, unwelcome encouragement, break-ups, commentary on life, Dateline close-calls, funny prayers, corporate idiosyncrasies, overanalyzing, bad dates, my foibles. Those sorts of things.
Sometimes I’m lightly insightful and sentimental, but that’s only here and there.
I didn’t even pay readers to say these things:
Nobody observes the world quite like you do. Your ‘Sad Choices Building’ story is classic, clever and totally hilarious. Thanks for always sharing your ‘lens’ with us. Honestly, the world is just a bit brighter and funnier because you’re in it pointing these things out.
I so appreciated this piece, Emily. I rarely laugh right now. (Existential dread is real.) This made me laugh and think about something that is curiously important and not life threatening. Thank you for the breath of fresh air.
Love your stories... so relatable and therefore funny and clever... you are my cup of tea 🍵:)
Also this one just so you know what you’re in for: You’re a rebel and I love it!
Some background on me:
I used to be a cushy corporate person with a cushy gig in tech. It was my third distinctly different career, and one that allowed me to think I’d “made it.” But I heard the call of the wild and when it got really loud, I left to explore, build a business, and see what this whole life thing is about when you give up certainty.
Caption: Corporate-y Emily becomes Emily the Writer. Guess which one is more fun? The first is professional picture I had taken during my last corporate chapter. The second is me feeling exquisitely alive near the top of Pike’s Peak in Colorado.
I worked on my business as I wandered my way around Europe looking for places that seemed historically important (read: everywhere) and where I might get warm (it was winter). Below is proof of me NOT being warm somewhere in the middle of Greece in February 2023.
Going into this chapter of change, I’d done what experts recommend for really committing yourself: I sold my house. This is akin to burning the boat so you literally can’t get home. While I could technically get home to the US, I didn’t have an actual house to get to, so I kept traveling.
And talking with strangers.
And writing.
And thinking about all the things I actually wanted to write. Then I’d write what I thought I should, but I don’t do that anymore. I also don’t travel full-time anymore, and am at home in the western United States, happily writing to you from MY VERY OWN DESK.
Oh yeah! Also in this travel chapter, I published a book (Dear Fellow Spender), and started another one (Dear Fellow Dreamer). This second book launched January 2025.
Related to these books, and separate from More to Your Life, I also write stuff about corporate dynamics and dysfunction, betting on yourself, and life off the hamster for builders/dreamers in and out of corporate. I also work with these same people to launch or grow their dreams—books, businesses, creating financial runway to leave corporate, etc.
You can plug into that stuff at my website, EmilyBurnett.me.
Here (More to Your Life) is where I play, hone, and grow my sometimes-humorous, very human-focused, writing craft of stories.
What happens at MTYL:
Free subscribers to my Substack get one post per week.
Paid subscribers to my Substack also get the weekly post, but for just $5/month you also get to feel really good about yourself for supporting my work before I become VERY famous. Occasionally you get random surprises, like the occasional audio version of a post, but to be honest, the main reason people pay is because they love what I write and want to support it. And I really appreciate it!
If your inbox and life could use more stories and more of what I’ve described here, the button below will tell you what to do.
We obviously share an interest in life and people, and finding what’s cool, funny, and interesting about all of it, so I’m tickled we’ve found each other.
