The Adventure of Being Both
"What’s a Girl to Do When Two Versions of Life Both Feel Right?"
More To Your Life: A daily column about freedom, exploration, and creating work and a life you actually like. There are stories.
Sometimes I want to move to the country, wear overalls, and sell jam. Or pies. I haven’t quite decided. What I do know is that both are weird considering my complicated relationship with fruit. More about that another time perhaps.
In that version of my life, I want to be like an 1800s lady of leisure—embroidering, practicing the spinet, and playing croquet between tea parties. In overalls or joggers, though.
In that life, I also want to share nothing about my life online and spend my time with my hopeful future family. Not that my future family is hopeful, although I guess I do want that—more so, I mean that I do still hope to have a family of my own. I’ll garden, care for animals, ride bikes on smooth dirt roads, read even more than now, and write mystery novels. Of course there will still be neighbors—but not too close—as well as the commitments I will always choose to be part of my life: church involvement, trying to help others, being a good citizen.
And then there’s this other version of my life where I may accidentally end up building a software company. Where I speak to audiences bent on intentional living, write this daily column where I genuinely like sharing stories and thoughts, run a paid membership* sharing more tactical advice around the things I’ve learned—career exits, traveling solo, simplifying life, business tech, etc.
In this version of my life I am also a financial coach, play and help others get into pickleball, and have all the interests under the sun—AI, politics and culture, corporate dynamics, personal liberty, entrepreneurship, birds…
What’s a girl to do when both versions of life resonate deeply but sometimes feel so divergent? I guess she lets both be true, finding ways to spend time in both parts and doesn’t try to compartmentalize or over-craft too much. I wrote this the other day in my Jimmy Book of treasures:
“So, what does one do with it all? I guess write it all, embracing the writing journey as a microcosm of the deep-thinking, winnowing process of living an examined, adventurous life.”
So I’m gonna do more of that and I hope you’re here for it. Now, please excuse me. I’m off to my embroidery while I watch an interview of Eric Schmidt talking about the future of AI…
*If you ever want more of the tactical or practical stuff, you can find it in MTYL Insider—a paid membership available to all MTYL subscribers. This month’s focus is all about simplifying your digital life—email, socials, and advice—so you can hear all the complicated parts of glorious You more clearly.