by Courtney Carver bemorewithless My simplicity journey is gentle. My decluttering journey was slow. I didn’t wake up one morning cancel my cable television, quit my job and throw all my stuff in a dumpster. One small change led to another. It’s been an inch by inch, shirt by vase by book process of letting go. I’ve simplified and edited every part of my life and continue to approach my life and work with a less is more philosophy. The slow and steady way is the only one that has ever worked for me in terms of sustainable change. That said, picking up the speed and intensity on my simplicity journey…

What competing in triathlons can teach you about staying motivated to sell houses I crossed the finish line, panting and drenched in sweat. Aching all over, but happy.  The year was 1998, and I’d just completed my first triathlon. The only season I’ve missed in the 24 years since then was the summer my second daughter was born (and my first daughter was 17 months old!). It might surprise you to learn that I still struggle sometimes to motivate myself to train for triathlons. My coach has me doing “double bricks” – which basically means you train for one discipline immediately after another one. So going for a 10k run…

When people ask our Relocation Team what we do for a living, we tell them we help people relocate to Madison. Sometimes we get a follow up question, “What does that mean?” The answer is complicated.  What our Relocation Team does each day depends on the person we are helping. We take our cues from our transferees, and every transferee is different. Whether we are babysitting hamsters (true story), making up a bed in temporary housing, or touring a visitor through one way streets in downtown Madison, the services we provide never look the same. One services we are asked about often is rental assistance. If you are a conscious…

Those New Year’s Resolutions can go from encouraging to utterly discouraging very quickly! We all know the guys who flood the gym for a week and are ghosts after that.  Or the holier-than-thou coworker who turn down the office donuts… maybe twice. Or one of my favorites is the one who buys a ukulele and instruction book, watches two hours of YouTube, and then has a new dust collector in the corner! We’ve all been these people, and it’s honestly hard not to be! Resolutions are great. They make us think about how we can improve personally and professionally. So why is it so easy to get discouraged? If we…

Gilda’s Club Madison Can Help When someone hears the words, “you have cancer,” it can be scary, devastating, and life-changing. What many people don’t realize is also how lonely and isolating cancer can be. In Madison, there is a solution: Gilda’s Club. Gilda’s Club provides a community of free emotional support, cancer education, and hope for children and adults impacted by any kind of cancer and those who care for them. Membership and all programs are offered at no cost. Because of the vulnerable population they serve, Gilda’s Club Madison temporarily shifted all programs to a virtual and phone format in 2020. The benefit of that shift is that families…

by Courtney Carver bemorewithless I love a gentle transition from one year to the next and linger in that transition twice a year, in December and again in June when I celebrate my own brand-new year. Instead of holding onto expectations of ourselves or others and keeping a firm grip on goals, it feels healthier to create a few times a year to check in, assess, edit, and move forward. Being more intentional about what we want (and don’t want) in our lives allows us to not only make progress towards changes we are making but gives us a chance to learn and enjoy along the way. As we move into…

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As we head into a new year, have you thought about what you’d like to accomplish, what goals you want to set for yourself, and what dreams you want to turn into realities? This is a time when all things are possible, as we rip 2021 away and replace it with a new (blank) sheet of possibilities: 2022. So, I would like to suggest that we not just get back to work, which many of us are, but get back to play, playing with the possibilities that lie ahead of us in this coming year. “Get back to work!” Who was the last person that gave you that command?   Did you…

You cannot be alive today and not have noticed the abundance of men in tights and women in capes; some are leaping tall buildings in a single bound while others are lifting those buildings with a single hand. Of course, I’m talking about superheroes. They are everywhere: in our movies, on our TV sets, and in our books. And even if we don’t have their powers, we still love them. We always have, and we probably always will. But why? Why are we drawn to these figures with their metallic armor, lassos of truth, and hammers of justice? My belief is because, at their core, they are good people who…

Baseball has spring training, football has training camps, and golfers do… whatever golfers do (putt putt maybe?). In most sports, there’s a preseason. Why don’t we just get on with the games that matter? These practice games and matches are vitally important even though they don’t count toward player statistics or the tally of wins and losses. Why?  Because practice makes progress.  Perfect practice makes the best progress of all. So, you might say that: proper prior planning prevents poor performance. Whatever cute saying you choose the lesson is the same; it may not count, but it always matters. In theatre, before opening night in front of a live audience,…