bare minimum monday: full factory reset

resources for the upcoming election, the steps i'm taking to find a dream job without losing my mind, and how I'm prioritizing my health nonnegotiables

Hello hello – the monday version of the sunday edition is coming in hot! 

a very autumnal snapshot of life, lately

If you aren’t familiar, we get a “bare minimum Monday” when life happens and things need to shift, but I still want to get the paid-subscriber only Sunday edition out the door to you, naming convention and posting schedule be damned! This weekend I have had family in town for a longer weekend visit, and we’ve spent the last few days cavorting around Seattle with the toddler and the grandparents. Despite a very rainy and cool last few days, we’ve managed to make the best of it with a visit to a pumpkin patch, dinners at a few restaurants (for seattle folks - highly recommend familyfriend) , and even managed to sneak in a brunch with friends to celebrate the upcoming arrival of a new baby to the group. 

In my spare time, I have been working on a few very exciting new issues and my way through the responses on the reader survey (which is still available to complete here if you’d like to!!!) and just have to say how grateful I am for all the kind, thoughtful and encouraging feedback.

I won’t lie – it can feel a tiny bit masochistic to ask for what equates to professional feedback on your personal passion project, but I cannot tell you how valuable it all is. I’m walking away with new ideas, some adjusted prioritization for sections, segments and topics that you prefer, and a few things to consider in the topics, content and perspective I share. Thank you, for your time and support – I’m so excited for how this feedback will shape the next year of earlybird, and I couldn’t do it without you! 

With all that out of the way, let’s get into the good stuff! In today’s issue, we’ve got a few different sections that all come back to the theme of a FULL FACTORY RESET and some personal journeys I’m currently working on. One of the biggest pieces of feedback you gave in the survey so far was how much you enjoy personal development and other health and wellness content, so I have got a ton of stuff for you!

In this issue we have: 

• Rock the Vote: Resources with 8 days to go!

• Steps I’m Taking to Find a Dream Job (without losing my sanity) 

• The 65 Refresh (the steps I’m taking between now and New Year’s Day to prioritize my health and wellness, and an invite to join me!)

it’s a longer one, so you might need to expand the email or view in browser!

okay that’s it, love you!

ROCK THE VOTE: 

As of the time of writing, we are about a week away from the national US Election, and early voting has already started in many places. Last week, my toddler and I filled out my ballot together, and then went together to drop it off. King County (in Seattle) has been doing mail-in voting forever, and I am so grateful that they have ballot drop box places in some of our wonderful community centers. We dropped the ballot into our drop box and then walked right over to my son’s favorite playground – so so easy!  

I proudly cast my ballot for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, and I want to do something I have never done before as a creator by sharing a list of specific reasons why, publicly. In addition to voting against a candidate and a party who are evoking Nazi imagery and racist, sexist language at every turn on principle, there are a few issues I’d like to highlight: 

I believe that Harris and Walz have viable plans to focus on supporting individuals and families. A few that really stand out to me: A $6000 tax credit for the first year of a child’s life, a cap on prescription drug costs, a $25,000 credit for first time homebuyers (and other supports for housing costs), the first ever ban on price-gouging to drive down costs for groceries, and a plan to ensure that working parents won’t pay more than 7% of their income on childcare (while also pushing for rights and protections for childcare workers). 

Harris and Walz are working to safeguard fundamental freedoms and rights, specifically for reproductive health and civil rights related to voting protections, anti-discrimination work, and protection of LGBTQI+ communities. As a woman of childbearing age who personally lives with several significant reproductive health complications and who wishes to have another child, this is one one of the most significant factors in this election for me: since Row V. Wade was overturned, women and infant health has been severely impacted: women are dying because they are unable to receive the healthcare they need. Families' dreams of having children are put on hold because of bans to IFV, and heartbreakingly, infants are dying at higher rates (studies show anywhere from 7 to 13%). Michelle Obama’s statements on the issue brought me to tears.

Becoming a parent is one of the most wonderful, challenging, terrifying, painful, happy and heartbreaking things I have ever done, and the experience has solidified my stance that reproductive rights and healthcare must be protected, and absolutely must remain between individuals and their medical providers. 

Harris and Walz are also working to prevent gun violence – an issue that increasingly keeps me up at night. As someone who has personally experienced not one but two mass violence incidents (Boston Marathon Bombing, 2013 and active shooter lockdown at UCLA in 2016, in addition to working as a crisis support volunteer in the aftermath of the Parkland and Los Vegas shootings in 2017/2018) I cannot abide a world where my child, or anyone else's, experiences the same mindlessly preventable terror. 

Harris and Walz are working to improve the health and wellness of our country by increasing food regulation to ensure oversight and protection, supporting small farms and farmers, hold polluters accountable (especially those who are responsible for toxic “forever chemicals” like PFAS) and increasing access to healthy food via expansion of SNAP benefits for low-income families. Nearly 100 environmental and regulatory protections were rolled back during Trump’s administration, and he is currently promising to roll back more. 

I could go on, but instead I’m going to share some resources for how you can get involved and get the word out between now and election day. 

• Want to vote, but not sure how? Register to vote in your state here, and learn more about how to vote here.

• Want to get the word out to people in your life, but you aren’t sure if you know any undecided voters? RippleVote.Org can help you find out if people in your life have registered, if they have voted, and help you to develop some talking points about issues in their area. Research shows a text from a friend increases the likelihood people vote by as much as 8%.

• Want to talk to people but not sure what to say?

  Emily Amick
  has some really exceptional talking points that cover most of the issues  – it’s so great I used it as a resource to write this issue and to talk to some friends and family members. 

• Want to get involved but not sure where your help is helpful? Mobilize has local and national volunteer opportunities for general voting and issue-specific advocacy, based on what is important to you. 

Would love to see / hear the resources you are using to get involved and stay informed during this election. Where are you volunteering, and how are you staying up to date without getting overwhelmed?? 

Steps I’m Taking to Find a Dream Job (without losing my sanity) 

I don’t know if this will be a permanent segment, but several of y’all expressed interest in the job hunt and since it’s a not insignificant portion of my life right now I thought I would include some updates on how I’m approaching this job search. My last job search in 2018 included a fairly significant period of unemployment (which coincided with my first major experience with seasonal depression after we relocated to Seattle). The whole thing was one of the most difficult experiences of my life, personally and professionally, and my learnings from that experience are a major factor in how I’m approaching the search and attitude this go around.