Almost every time my wife Heather and I used to go on vacation, we’d spend time during the car or plane ride home going back and forth about how nice it would be to live full-time in the destination we had just visited. By the time we got home, we inevitably talked ourselves out of the idea.

Too hot. Too cold. Too expensive. Too isolated. Too big. Too small. Too...whatever. No matter the destination, we came up with a reason why it wasn't realistic.

That is, until we visited Traverse City, Michigan.

It has been close to two years since I wrote a post for the Life and Whim blog. You may not have noticed. After all, there has been no shortage of words, images, and sounds to fill the tiny void we left behind. The Internet, like nature, abhors a vacuum.

These are some of the most important questions to consider if you want to lead a purposeful, rewarding life, but few of us take the time to give them critical thought. Instead, it’s easy to retreat to default mode and surrender dreams to the idea that there’s simply not enough time in the day.

If you’re someone who’s of the belief that there’s not enough time in a day to accomplish something big—be it starting a business, writing a book, or learning a new skill—then you’re correct. There’s not enough time in a day to accomplish something big! These types of things take a long time—many days—to accomplish.

The problem is that many people get overwhelmed by the enormity of a task and never get started. They overestimate the importance of one defining moment and underestimate the impact of making small improvements on a daily basis. Big success doesn’t require massive effort within a short period of time. It requires a clear objective and daily, incremental action.

What do you want to achieve in life? How do you spend your finite time? What is an hour of your time worth? Are your days spent focused on your priorities or someone else’s?

These are some of the most important questions to consider if you want to lead a purposeful, rewarding life, but few of us take the time to give them critical thought. Instead, it’s easy to retreat to default mode and surrender dreams to the idea that there’s simply not enough time in the day. 

If you’re someone who’s of the belief that there’s not enough time in a day to accomplish something big—be it starting a business, writing a book, or learning a new skill—then you’re correct. There’s not enough time in a day to accomplish something big! These types of things take a long time—many days—to accomplish. 

The problem is that many people get overwhelmed by the enormity of a task and never get started. They overestimate the importance of one defining moment and underestimate the impact of making small improvements on a daily basis. Big success doesn’t require massive effort within a short period of time. It requires a clear objective and daily, incremental action.

I woke in a tent, a bit disoriented, and my attention immediately fixated on my feet. It was the morning of day two of what was to be a four-day, 43-mile hike through Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. 

Three friends and I had carefully planned the journey. We had enough food, clothing, tents, and supplies to get us through. We had the means to filter the Lake Superior water we’d need to stay hydrated. 

But as is often the case when planning for an outdoor adventure, a small mistake I made had big implications for my comfort level during the trip. At the last minute, I decided to wear a different pair of shoes than I had originally intended. Instead of wearing lightweight trail running shoes, I opted for an old, high-top pair of hiking boots. I have a chronically weak ankle, oft-injured from multiple sprains over the years, and I was worried about rolling it while hiking the trail and being a burden to my friends. There’s no easy way out of the trail if you get injured. 

The hiking boots provided good ankle support but they did a number on my feet. After clambering out of the tent that morning I surveyed the damage.

Four years ago, shortly after launching the Life and Whim blog, we decided that it would be fun to host a community event in our hometown Traverse City, Michigan that blended several things that we’re passionate about: creativity, family, and the great outdoors. Because our daughters were obsessed (and still are) with fairies, we thought it would be fun to recruit people to build whimsical, tiny fairy houses made from all-natural materials, and place them on a hiking trail near our home. Our first event was great—over 200 people showed up, which was way beyond our expectations.

Four years later, Fairy Fest has evolved in big and magical ways. In early June, we hosted our fourth annual event, which preserved the core element—fairy houses—of our first event, but also incorporated live music, dancers, food trucks, face painting, and lots of other free, family friendly activities. And the community responded in an incredible fashion. More than 2,500 people turned out to celebrate the coming of summer and explore more than 50 artist built fairy houses on the trails near the Botanic Garden at Historic Barns Park in Traverse City. 

We were, and still are, blown away by how Fairy Fest has grown and been embraced by people who traveled from all over Michigan, and beyond, to be part of the day’s festivities. We would like to thank everyone who helped make the event extra special this year, especially those who spent time creating incredible fairy houses for kids (and kids at heart) to explore and discover on the trails. We also want to thank the many people who visited our shop and purchased Life and Whim gear at the event—your support is what allows us to continue to plan and host free events like Fairy Fest throughout the year. If you missed the event but want to check out our newly released summertime collection of capes, bucket hats, t-shirts, and tote bags, all inspired by the majesty of northern Michigan, you can check it out here.

Check out the photos of the fairy houses and other highlights from the event below. And if you’re up this way, make sure to visit the Fairy Trails in person—the trails are open and free for all to enjoy!

If I was to offer you $100 today or $120 a week from now, which would you choose? If you’re like most people you’d choose the hundred bucks now. That’s the conclusion of a classic study which found that, when it comes to decision-making, most of us opt for immediate gratification.

Why does this matter? Well, making progress toward one’s goals is all about balancing short-term and long-term rewards, and prioritizing time and attention in congruence with one’s personal objectives.

For example, most people understand the benefits of long-term investing. By leveraging compounding returns, like Warren Buffett, it’s possible to build wealth, even if each incremental investment is small. In most cases, the rational thing to do is to adopt a slow and steady approach to investing.

Of course, no one is purely rational, which is why so many of us (myself certainly included) make suboptimal decisions—across many different domains, not merely investing. We’re all affected by cognitive biases that lead us astray. While we all prefer big rewards over smaller ones, most of us have an even stronger preference for present rewards over future ones—even when the future ones are much bigger. This concept, or cognitive bias, is called “hyperbolic discounting.” In short, the farther away a reward is in the future, the smaller the immediate motivation to achieve it. 

Because it’s hard to stay focused on the long-term, objectives and transformations that take long periods of time to cultivate often remain out of reach.

We all have hopes and dreams. When we dial-in on them a little closer, we may even call them goals. This is a good thing. It’s important to have a sense of direction and purpose.

Too often, however, hopes and dreams, even when reduced to goals, go unrealized. We either bite off more than we can chew (e.g., a list of 10 New Year’s resolutions) or the transformation we seek is too vague or too distant to reduce to daily action.

“I want to lose weight” is a worthy goal but it’s not a plan. And that’s the rub when it comes to behavior change. We are not what we hope to become. We are what we repeatedly do.

Most people want the same things, including health, happiness, good relationships, and financial security. Those that achieve these things take consistent, daily action that brings them closer to their goals. Others meander aimlessly through life and are surprised when they never get anywhere. As anyone who has gotten really serious about behavior change knows, life is nothing more than the sum of one’s habits.

Change your habits and, yes, you’ll change your life.

New shows on Netflix. New York Timesbestselling books. Donation centers bursting at the seams. Photos of neatly rolled garments taking over Instagram. A new verb, ”Kondo-ing,” entering the lexicon.

In case you haven’t noticed, minimalism and the tidying up movement are having a moment. “Less is more” has gone mainstream.

 It’s not that the idea of living with less, and the realization of the attendant benefits, is a newly discovered concept. Thousands of years ago, Greek Stoic philosopher Epictetus came to the conclusion that “Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.” It’s just that today’s culture, or at least some meaningful corner of it, is finally catching on.

Nearly two years ago, Heather and I transformed Life and Whim from a blog, which we had started a year prior, into a business. Heather manifested a dream to create and launch a collection of northern Michigan-inspired apparel and accessories on our online store. It was both a stressful and exhilarating experience.

In anticipation of the launch, we spent a tremendous amount of time laying the groundwork by creating content in order to build an audience, being active on social media, and forming relationships with “influencers” who could help us spread awareness of our new entrepreneurial endeavor.

We did this work while running the marketing agency we’ve owned together for more than a decade. It’s the means through which we make our living. And, to be honest, we neglected our agency for a time as we chased our dream of building a lifestyle brand through Life and Whim.

We had really high hopes for the launch of our store. We envisioned a day, in the not too distant future, when Life and Whim would become our full-time endeavor. But things didn’t work out the way we expected.

The typical overworked and overstressed American limps into most weekends. 5 p.m. on Friday is a finish line that leads straight to the couch. The rest of the weekend is a blurry haze of obligations, errands, and other tasks that couldn’t be accomplished during the workweek. Instead of going into Monday refreshed and recharged, we enter the new week just as exhausted as we left the previous one.

The cycle repeats over and over, intermittently interrupted by vacation time. The thing is, we’re not particularly good about taking vacations. The Society for Human Resource Management found that while employees who take more vacation are happier and more productive, the average worker took only 17 days off in 2017. Another recent survey found that the average U.S. employee takes only half of their allotted vacation time. Moreover, in today’s “24/7” always-on work culture, vacation often means merely working off-site.

While spending way too much time inside over the past week as the polar vortex descended on the Midwest, Heather and I started planning our summer bucket list. On the agenda are some classic favorites, such as camping trips with friends, beach days in Sleeping Bear Dunes, backpacking at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, and lazily exploring northern Michigan’s quaint coastal towns. 

But a bucket list wouldn’t be complete without adding some new adventures into the mix. Routine has its benefits, but life—especially in adulthood—can get stale without the pursuit of more first moments. 

Think about the last time you learned a new skill, hiked a new trail, visited a new country, or formed a new relationship. Recall what it feels like to expose your family to new experiences, and to see the wonder in your children’s eyes. These are the moments—“First Moments”—that make us feel alive, create lasting memories, and remind us that how we spend our days is how we’ll spend our lives.

For years, while living in urban and suburban environments, Heather and I would look for opportunities to escape to our “happy place.” When the stress became too much, the busyness crept in, and we just needed a moment to catch our breath, slow down and spend time in nature, we’d head north. Most often, Traverse City, Michigan, was our destination.

We would spend a long weekend recharging, hiking the trails and exploring Sleeping Bear Dunes, eating fresh food, and breathing in the crisp air. After a few days, we would begin the trek home, and spend much of the four-hour drive fantasizing about how nice it would be to spend all of our time in our happy place while lamenting how unrealistic the whole idea was. After all, we had a family to raise, businesses to run, and responsibilities to look after. Maybe after we retire, we’d conclude, while exiting off the highway.

But year after year, the allure of our happy place would keep pulling us back, and that nagging desire to make our intermittent escapes our everyday existence persisted. The obvious and irrefutable logic of the truth we were denying was inescapable: We only have one life to live, so why wait until retirement—an uncertain, future outcome—to live how we want, where we want?