Get to the heart of what matters to you. This month, simplify.

March 1, 2020

I was scrolling through old photos the other night, as I often do when I should be sleeping, and I came across what I was doing on March 1st, 2020. I hosted a brunch for my girlfriends to celebrate the year end of our fantasy football league. We shared food and hugs and so many laughs. Looking at those photos feels like a lifetime ago. I could have six people from six different households in my apartment at the same time? We were so blissfully ignorant of what was coming. If given the option, I wouldn’t have warned us. I would have just asked everyone to stay a little longer. To exist in that ignorant bliss just a few more minutes. Before the world changed.

 In the early hours of March 15th, my son Theodore was born (6 weeks earlier than expected). Within days, and in some cases hours, everything in New York City shut down. As I look ahead at the month of March I am also pulled back to the March of last year. How quickly everything changed, and how we’re still sifting through the ashes of grief for what we thought last year would be, and what we faced instead. 

COVID-19 and my son’s birth will always be inextricably linked for me. In the beginning, each day I visited the NICU and navigated changing protocols was a reminder of how dire the pandemic was becoming. Driving up to the hospital and seeing freezer trailers. Hearing nurses talk about their friends with patients on the COVID floors. All while wishing for nothing more than my baby to get strong enough to come home with us. It was stark. Bleak. And as each month since has passed and he’s grown into a pudgy, loud almost-toddler, he is a constant reminder of how long we’ve been in this pandemic. He’s almost a year. And so is this nightmare. 

 For those of us who are fortunate enough to have not lost a family member or someone dear to us to COVID, to have not lost our livelihoods or homes, to still be functioning feels like more of a blessing than we could have hoped for. And while COVID has taken so much from so many, it has given us one small gift – that of simplicity. Of shutting out many of the things we hold dear but also shutting out the noise. It has pulled back the curtain to reveal what truly matters. 

When I see my older son, Jack, teaching his little brother to wave. When my husband and I take turns throwing the kids in the air, dancing around the living room to 80s ballads. When I put one last kiss on a tiny cheek before turning out the light for the night. When I hear a little almost-3-year-old voice whisper back “I love you, too.” How could anything else matter more? The simplest moments often carry the most weight. 

Who is in your bubble? What do you keep in there with you? Are they the essence of who you are and what you love? 

This month, we’re going to explore this theme further. Getting to the essence of what is important in business, in life, in goals. Peeling back the layers and the noise to get to the heart of what is important to you. Simplifying. And setting you up to continue holding those moments dear. For today, for tomorrow, and for the future when this pandemic is nothing but a distant memory. 

We’re deep-diving on Clubhouse and whether you really need another social platform and whether less is more when it comes to social followers and your content. M.T. Deco founder Melissa Blum is also sharing her simple and effective use of ‘The Five Minute Journal’ that has revolutionized her goal-setting strategies. 

We’ll also hear from a rockstar group of contributors this month. Former President and CMO of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) and Executive Vice President of The NBC Agency, now managing partner at the consulting firm VIDA F.R. Company Frank Radice shares his favorite tools for finding success. Head of Sales Enablement at Peloton, founder of Culinary Itineraries and all-around inspiring human Christina Rabinowitz shares her advice on finding balance in life and career. And the fabulous Megan Collins, Cultural Insights Analyst at CULTIQUE and founder of The Manicured Shelf, is back with her simplify-inspired reading list. 

We hope this simplicity inspires you to make changes you’ve been meaning to make. Or – simply – to be ok with the peeled back, the raw. Afterall, out of the ashes, a phoenix rises.