The concept of anti-fragility was developed by the brilliant professor, former trader, and hedge fund manager Nassim Taleb.

Anti-fragile systems do not merely withstand a shock or a stress, but IMPROVE because of it.

What if summer in Upstate New York suddenly turned to Fall and on September 21st, all the leaves on the trees changed color overnight?

That’s just not how the seasons work. They transition.

Humans have one of the longest transitions from infant to full grown adult in the animal kingdom. About 1/4 of our life is spent growing up.

But when it comes to personal change, we want things to happen overnight. If our life is off course, we expect some self-help guru to bring us to “life-changing moments” to turn the ship around immediately.

But that’s not how things work. Our life is full of changes and most of these changes happen over time in transitions. They include:

• aging
• education and career
• personal finance
• psychological and social development
• health and fitness

Speaking of health and fitness…

Everyone wants a long life, but few work toward a truly meaningful one.

We laid to rest my step-mother in June. Her life was the epitome of meaning.

Nancy E. Fay NP was diagnosed with Type I diabetes back in the 1950’s. We know now that the life expectancy for someone diagnosed in the 50’s with Type 1 was about 55 years old. She died at 77.

Nancy not only beat the odds, but went on to live an extraordinary life.

Nancy was a Registered Nurse, a Nurse Practitioner, and a Physician Assistant. She was also a certified Diabetes Educator.  She paved new roads for the benefit of people with diabetes locally and state wide. She established the first diabetes educational programs in the Mohawk Valley and she was the first to receive medical coverage for such in the U.S.  Nancy was the first female non physician to become president of the NYS Diabetes Association.

Nancy was a trail blazer. Her whole professional life was full of meaning, and much of her meaning came from her illness – diabetes. She was a living testament to all those with diabetes on how one can live an extraordinary life with the condition IF it is well managed.

In her pursuit to help with diabetes management, she was a guinea pig for the local use of the insulin pump, which is widely used today.

The memorial in her honor was indeed a celebration. She beat the odds and lived a life of true meaning. A life to be proud of.

A much different “celebration of life” was saying goodbye to my friend Kate this past summer. She was 39 years old.

Most people measure how far along they are in a project by how many hours are left to complete it. If it’s a project that takes 40 hours and I’ve worked at it for 10, I’m 25% done.

Those that do a lot of projects or manage projects know the hardest part is getting the project started. Getting a project off the ground is like static friction, as it’s harder to get it moving from a standstill than it is to keep it moving (Law of Inertia).

People that have worked with me know I am more stressed at the beginning of a project than when it is underway. In a building project, you have to have plans, coordinate labor, and purchase materials before you hammer even one nail.

Once things are rolling and everyone knows what to do, things are much less stressful. Systems fall in place and stuff gets done.

I heard this expression for the first time a few weeks ago. It was meant as a snide comment about something I did that appeared to be half-done. The real meaning is in how it recognizes that getting a project started is the hardest part.

As previously mentioned, Barb and I had COVID-19 back in March.

Since that time, I have been suffering symptoms of Long Haul COVID (LHC). In my case, it has been two things 1) joint pain, particularly my right knee and 2) sensitivity to gluten.

I could function OK but I limped around a lot and spent a lot of time in the bathroom. I figured out the gluten thing after binging on bread and pasta a couple of times. I felt like crap.

Long Haul Covid is big business these days and there are clinics specializing in the treatment popping up all over. But I wasn’t gonna pay no clinic. Like everything else I do, this was going to be DIY.

In the The Big Bang Theory, Howard Wolowitz is an engineer among his scientist friends.

Howard is the nuts and bolts guy. His friends are the pure scientists. While the others are running experiments to support theories, Howard is making toilets that work in space.

And that’s how it works in the real world. Scientists answer questions based on the Scientific Method and Engineers take the findings of these Scientists and use them to design and build things that are practical.

Last week we celebrated something that we have been working for all of our lives.

Being Debt Free.

With the burning of our the Mortgage Note on our house, we are finally free.

I don’t like owing anyone anything, particularly something that charges interest. Working to give my hard earned money away to receive nothing in return just doesn’t sit well.

Proverbs 22:7 The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.

But even though I hate debt, I acknowledge that it can be a good thing. It all depends on the return of the debt to whether it is good or bad.

According to the CDC, 377,883 people died in the U.S in 2020 with COVID as the underlying cause. That’s roughly 11.3% of total deaths.

Our country went to great lengths to fight the coronavirus. The government went $5T into debt and the Federal Reserve printed about that much. The result has been a declining dollar and increasing inflation. We disrupted supply chains and caused rampant inflation in products such as lumber. 20 million people initially lost their jobs and today there we are still short 8 million jobs from where we were in 2019.

The land of the ‘free’ shut down businesses and forced people to stay home. We stayed away from each other and everyone was required to wear masks.

We were willing to ‘do what it takes to save even one life’.

The interesting thing is that many more people died of heart disease and cancer than of COVID last year. Nearly twice as many people – 690,882 – died of heart disease. Cancer killed another 598,932.

The more interesting thing is that cancer and heart disease have been killing this many people year after year for many years. Heart disease has been the leading cause of death for 80 years.