What I've learned since moving to D.C. (some of which should be obvious): 0148

7351.  Elizabeth considers me her best friend;

7352.  Dr. David Lewis Hodgson of Mindlab confirmed the song, “Weightless,” by Marconi Union reduces anxiety by 65% and heart rate by 35%;

7353.  There are two times in retirement: when you are healthy and when you are not.  Plan to travel in the first five years of retirement then if you’re healthy enough to travel after that consider yourself lucky;

7354.  Think like an entrepreneur.  Your investments are a business and you need to treat them like that in order to reach your financial goals;

7355.  If you want a faster way to get rich, you need to have a mind open to new ideas and have the skills to take on possibilities greater than your current abilities.  In order to do that, you must have a reality that can change, expand and grow quickly.  To try and get rich with a poor person’s reality or a reality that comes from lack and limitation is an impossible mission;

7356.  OkCupid reported in 2009 that the male users who were rated most physically attractive by female users got 11 times as many messages as the lowest-rated men did; medium-rated men received about 4 times as many messages.  The disparity for women was starker: About two-thirds of messages went to the one-third of women who were rated most physically attractive;

7357.  A study by researchers at the University of Michigan and the Santa Fe Institute found that online daters of both genders tend to pursue prospective mates who are on average 25% more desirable than they are; presumably not a winning strategy;

7358.  One study found that while hooking up with a new partner, only 31% of men and 11% of women reached orgasm.  By contrast, when people who were asked about their most recent sexual encounter in the context of a relationship, 84% of men and 67% of women said they’d had an orgasm;

7359.  The 2017 iteration of Match.com’s “Single in America” survey (co-led by Helen Fisher and the Kinsey Institute’s Justin Garcia) found that single millennials were 66% less likely than members of older generations to enjoy receiving oral sex;

7360.  Among people who are sexually inexperienced at age 18, about 80% will become sexually active by the time they are 25.  But those who haven’t gained sexual experience by their mid-20s are much less likely to ever do so;

7361.  The authors of a 2009 study in The Journal of Sexual Medicine speculated that “if a man or woman has not had intercourse by age 25, there is a reasonable chance [he or she] will remain a virgin at least until age 45;”

7362.  Research by Stanford’s Michael Rosenfeld found that, over the course of a year, only 50% of heterosexual, single women in their 20s go on any dates and older women are even less likely to do so;

7363.  Sleep deprivation strongly suppresses sexual desire and sleep quality is imperiled by now-common practices like checking one’s phone overnight;

7364.  For women, getting an extra hour of sleep predicts a 14% greater likelihood of having sex the next day;

7365.  Apparently, if you’re a felon, you can still be a tow truck or a taxicab driver;

7366.  There’s a difference between happiness and pleasure;

7367.  In 2017, the U.S. birth rate hit a record low for a second year running;

7368.  Birth rates are declining among women in their 30s.  As a result, some 500,000 fewer American babies were born in 2017 than in 2007, even though more women were of prime childbearing age;

7369.  Over the same period, the number of children the average American woman is expected to have fell from 2.1 (the so-called replacement rate or fertility level required to sustain population levels without immigration) to 1.76;

7370.  In Italy, half of 25 to 34 year-olds now live with their parents;

7371.  A fulfilling sex life is not necessary for a good life, but lots of research confirms that it contributes to one;

7372.  Having sex is associated not only with happiness, but with a slew of other health benefits;

7373.  The relationship between sex and wellness goes both ways: The better off you are, the better off your sex life is and vice versa.  Unfortunately, the converse is true as well;

7374.  Not having a partner, sexual or romantic, can be both a cause and an effect of discontent;

7375.  As American institutions have withered having a life partner has become a stronger predictor than ever of well-being;

7376.  Those who have many things going for them already (e.g., looks, money, psychological resilience & strong social networks) continue to be well positioned to find love and have good sex and, if they so desire, become parents, but intimacy may grow more elusive to those who are on less steady footing;

7377.  Frank Robinson (of the Baltimore Orioles) was the first black manager in Major League Baseball;

7378.  A failed, offside challenge (in an NHL game) now results in a minor penalty (to the offending team) for delay of game rather than just a forfeited timeout (i.e., rule 78.7);

7379.  The real measure of your wealth is how much you’d be worth if you lost all of your money;

7380.  We’ve internalized the voices of others.  We had people react to us which created a thought about who we are.  And we’ve thought about it and thought about it and thought about it.  We have thought about it so much we don’t even call them thoughts we call them truths.  Thoughts are the firing and wiring of neural pathways of the mind.  They are not reality.  They’re habit.  Separate yourself from your thoughts.  Free yourself from thinking they are true;

7381.  When your needs become your partner’s needs, you live life to light them up.  If that becomes the game then everything changes;

7382.  Realign yourself with what is truly important – meeting your partner’s needs, being truly present with those you love and experiencing, in the moment, the beauty of the world around you;

7383.  In a three-dimensional relationship, you treat your partner’s needs as equal to your own and, when you meet your partner’s needs in this way, you develop a profoundly deep bond;

7384.  Even if you don’t love every task itself, you can still love why you’re doing it;

7385.  Loving the bigger “why” of what you’re doing across all of the tasks you perform gives your life a deeper sense of meaning and purpose.  Even with a sense of meaning and purpose, we still need to have fun from time to time;

7386.  Look at all of the tasks you do and ask yourself, “Do I love it?”  If the answer is “no” then “Do I at least love the outcomes of it – what it gives me?  So that I’m willing to keep doing it?  Or could I delegate it and use my energy elsewhere which would give me more joy?”

7387.  How many things do we end up doing because we think we should?  Because we’ve been told that’s what we ought to do?  Or just because we know how and we can?  Things that with a bit of imagination and attention we could figure out how to delegate or even just stop doing altogether (because they’re really not that important after all)?  Find a way to ditch or delegate these things and you’ll open up space and energy in your life for many more joyful and abundant things to take their place;

7388.  One thing that is crucial to every intimate relationship is maintaining a strong sense of connection.  When you’re truly connected with your partner, you feel secure, understood and as if you could conquer the world together.  But how do you maintain that connection in the midst of life’s inevitable stressors?  It all comes down to supporting your partner in satisfying their own personal needs.  A relationship is not a place you go to get, it’s a place you go to give – and, when you focus on your partner’s needs as if they were your own, you’ll experience a level of connection and fulfillment that you have never experienced before;

7389.  What happens when connection is lost?  Unless it is addressed early, a common end-result of feeling disconnected is infidelity.  Whether it is physical or emotional, infidelity is devastating.  The story is very much the same: “I felt lonely,” “I felt unwanted,” “I felt scared,” “You didn’t seem to care about me anymore.”  While there is no excuse for being unfaithful, it becomes easy for one to justify infidelity when s/he feels alone, forgotten or neglected in the relationship;

7390.  While we should take care of our own needs first, the key as a partner is to be in a constant state of readiness.  Otherwise, you’ll both be scrambling simultaneously to meet your own needs and neglect one another’s;

7391.  It is also important to make a distinction between wants and needs as well as immediate and future needs.  Just because you want something doesn’t mean that it is a need – and, just because you have a need, doesn’t mean it is an immediate need;

7392.  Make sure your immediate needs are regularly met so you can help to satisfy your partner’s needs as they arise;

7393.  If you have a plan in place to ensure that your own needs are consistently being met, you’ll be better prepared to tend to your partner’s needs when the connection starts to fade;

7394.  Extraordinary relationships don’t come to people because they are lucky.  Long-lasting, quality relationships are the result of mutual respect, passion and commitment;

7395.  Regardless of gender, we all contain both masculine and feminine energy

7396.  Your leading energy reflects your inner nature and values;

7397.  There are women who have masculine leading energy just as there are men who have feminine leading energy;

7398.  Understanding your leading or core energy is necessary to align yourself or else you will be unhappy no matter how much you succeed;

7399.  Masculine energy focuses on one task or issue at a time;

7400.  Feminine energy is taking in everything at once;

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7301.  When it comes to money, our emotions often get the best of us.  We know what we should do, but instead we do what we feel like doing and that’s usually the safe route;

7302.  Just because it’s fun doesn’t mean it’s easy;

7303.  Gin and rosemary go (well) together. . . . Who knew?

7304.  Celebrate your successes and find humor in your failures;

7305.  You can’t skip chapters that’s not how life works.  You have to read every line and meet every character.  You won’t enjoy all of it.  Some chapters will make you cry for weeks.  You will read things you don’t want to read and you will have moments when you don’t want the pages to end, but you have to keep going.  Stories keep the world revolving.  Live yours and don’t miss out;

7306.  I can say I’ve helped install a (sliding, patio) door;

7307.  I can say I’ve installed insulation;

7308.  The signature, (dumpling,) dipping sauce at Marco & Luca in Charlottesville is delicious;

7309.  The unprepared are panic-stricken by the smallest things;

7310.  I never thought I’d wear women’s jeans;

7311.  The seafood salad at Angelic’s Kitchen (AngelicsKitchen.com) in Charlottesville is tasty;

7312.  Gravel really helps with footing/traction in mud;

7313.  Sanding drywall creates a lot of dust;

7314.  I can say I’ve used a miter saw. . . . They’re (really) easy to use;

7315.  I’ve had better, but if you’re craving them, you can get hand-dipped, corn dogs (made with Hebrew National all beef hot dogs) at Miller’s (Downtown) (MillersDowntown.com) in Charlottesville;

7316.  I can say I’ve sanded stairs. . . . It’s (really) easy with an orbit sander;

7317.  I can say I’ve helped install crown molding;

7318.  Money will never make you happy if you are an unhappy person.  The key to life is to be happy with or without money.  Money only magnifies who you really are.  If you are a happy person, more money will make you happier.  If you are an unhappy person, more money will make you miserable.  So be happy;

7319.  Creating opportunities means looking where others are not;

7320.  We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.  The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons;

7321.  Discipline, while hard at the time, will save you from loss in the long run;

7322.  Regret is a pain you live with long-term.  Most of the time, it isn’t a simple fix and it can be a mental struggle to work through and become accepting of the decision you made;

7323.  Having regrets can keep you from moving forward in business and in life.  This is why when you’re facing an important decision, weighing the pros and cons is crucial so that you don’t ultimately regret your decision;

7324.  Time is the most valuable asset you don’t own;

7325.  Success leaves clues;

7326.  You don’t need to give natural childbirth to a good idea, you can adopt!

7327.  If you want to succeed in life, you need to first have control of your own life;

7328.  No one posts their weakest pose, their fattest body part, their weakest lift or their worst client (on social media).  They don’t post about their 278^th failed project, the rude comment they made to the cashier this morning or the unkind thought they had.  Social media is just a highlights reel.  It’s a nice diversion, but it’s not even remotely close to reality;

7329.  Panettone is very bready;

7330.  Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be;

7331.  Do what you can with what you have where you are;

7332.  Your life doesn’t have to be perfect to be wonderful;

7333.  When you fail/fall, simply get back up, dust yourself off, evaluate the situation, readjust your path accordingly and move forward!

7334.  You don’t manifest what you want, you manifest what you believe;

7335.  Even when you are faced with circumstances that are outside your control you can still control how you respond to the situation;

7336.  Just trust that everything is unfolding the way it is supposed to.  Don’t resist it;

7337.  Surrender to what is.  Let go of what was.  Have faith in what will be;

7338.  The ancestor of every action is a thought;

7339.  When emotion goes up, intelligence goes down, so times of high emotional stress are not good times to make decisions;

7340.  You don’t have to disregard your emotions completely, you just want to make sure you’ve considered all the angles and possible consequences before deciding on a course of action;

7341.  Education is the door to the middle class;

7342.  Entrepreneurship is the elevator for the rich.

7343.  Emotional intelligence is our ability to control our emotions.  We have all lost our tempers.  When we lose our tempers, we demonstrate low emotional intelligence;

7344.  An emotionally intelligent person will experience anger, but not so much anger that it may cause her/him to do or say something stupid.  S/he remains in control;

7345.  A person, who cannot control her/his temper, complains all the time or is chronically depressed, is a person who demonstrates low emotional intelligence;

7346.  Examples of high emotional intelligence are when someone walks away rather than throws a punch, listens rather than argues, sees another person’s point of view rather than defending their own and does a great job without expecting praise;

7347.  Delayed gratification is another indication of emotional intelligence.  For example, a person who buys something they cannot afford because s/he wants it now is a person who cannot delay gratification.  This is a sign of low emotional intelligence;

7348.  Most people remain employees rather than develop into entrepreneurs or investors because they cannot control the emotion fear;

7349.  (A little birdie told me that) Russell Stover doesn’t make any money on discounted, heart-shaped boxed, Valentine’s Day chocolates;

7350.  The things that break you become the things that lead you to a higher self.  The people who hurt you become your greatest teachers.  The deep suffering becomes the catalyst for you to say, “I do not need to carry someone else’s burden;”