From My Inbox: Childhood Joys

Recently, I was flipping through The Book Of Doing: Everyday Activities To Unlock your Creativity And Joy. At page 23 the author suggests recapturing a favorite childhood activity (actually, she suggests writing down 3 of them and then doing them).

Here’s what immediately came to mind, pulled from the most ridiculous recesses of my mind, from the very awkward age of 11 or 12:

1. Ballarama (elaborately choreographed backyard dance extravaganzas performed only during the summer months as a slip ‘n slide was incorporated into the productions).
2. Dressing up (imagine Mrs Wiggins at age 80) followed by a walk through the local park. Really.
3. Proper afternoon tea (it’s why I stopped putting sugar in my tea, as the host and my partner in crime in all of these activities, didn’t care for sugar in her tea, and if I wanted sugar in mine, I’d have to go back into the kitchen to fetch it myself. I never did.).

When was the last time you chose to play, or fully immersed yourself in silly joy or as my pal Monica muses on in this short video, had a passion?

+ read my book recommendation on unapologetically loving something “silly”.

Invention requires the willingness to be wrong, to try things that seem like good ideas and see what happens, even to imagine things that seem like good ideas and imagine what will happen.

• AI and the Structure of Reasoning (reaction wheel)
• 27 Clues into Writing Your Heart Out (Joyce Carol Oates: A Writer's Journal)
• What to do with all that leftover cheese? (Longer Tables with José Andrés) - clearly, eat it, and not worry about what to do with it (as you/ll discover when you hit the next bullet point)
• The end of dieting: WeightWatchers and Noom are now pushing Ozempic-like miracle drugs over willpower (Fortune)
• The Pentagon's Matryoshka (Diplomatica)
• Seine-side booksellers to be forced out during Olympics (The New Paris Dispatch)
• Baby Play-Convert romper with Hood: 3-in-1 Use cases. This super cute product was created by a former student of mine (yes, Prof Hoey lead an entrepreneurship/careers in vc/startup funding course at LIM college in 2014).
• Show the kids how to manage money, honey! Financial literacy needs to start early. Support this Kickstarter (launching August 25) - an initiative and creative project of a former colleague, dear friend and yeah, one of those scenarios where I don’t know who is mentoring who - plus follow @finlitkidsbox on Insta.
• Women in Real Estate, there’s a global community gathering on LinkedIn waiting for you.
• Are you a member of AwakenHub (all Ireland community for women entrepreneurs / female founders)? If not, look into it, if yes, then submit your interest by September 4 to be part of a 12-week coaching cohort lead by yours truly.
• Deadline to apply to be part of the next Digital Undivided x JP Morgan Chase: Breakthrough program is August 27.
• Meet The Editor: Tiffany Godoy, Vogue Japan’s Head of Editorial Content! (Virtual event August 23)
• Also on August 23, Developing Responsible and Impactful AI with Aishwarya Srinivasan (Collective[i])
• Fashion + Food + Art. For those seeking a stylish escape on a summer Friday: Sexy in the City: Southampton Style Excursion on August 25 in, you guessed it, the village of Southampton.

And BTW…seems most of you would rather be caught with your fly undone than food stuck between your teeth.