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Nora shares a practice she started with her family this year that has helped them support each other and connect to each other better.

About It's Going to Be OK

If you have anxiety, depression or any sense of the world around you, you know that not *everything* is going to be okay. In fact, many things aren’t okay and never will be!

But instead of falling into the pit of despair, we’re bringing you a little OK for your day. Every weekday, we’ll bring you one okay thing to help you start, end or endure your day with the opposite of a doom scroll.

Find Nora’s weekly newsletter here! Also, check out Nora on YouTube.

Share your OK thing at 502-388-6529‬ or by emailing a note or voice memo to [email protected]. Start your message with “I’m (name) and it’s going to be okay.”

“It’s Going To Be OK” is brought to you by The Hartford. The Hartford is a leading insurance provider that connects people and technology for better employee benefits.  Learn more at www.thehartford.com/benefits.

The IGTBO team is Nora McInerny, Claire McInerny, Marcel Malekebu, Amanda Romani and Grace Barry.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcripts may not appear in their final version and are subject to change.


It’s still a New Year, and it will be until I stop writing 2023 at the top of my journal. I’ve already shared my opinions on the pressure to optimize and my theme for the year, but as I was cleaning up the living room the other day, I was reminded of the best part of New Year’s Eve 2023.

No, it wasn’t when I chased after a speeding car that tore past our kids, sprinting as fast as I could in ballet flats after months of what I call a sedentary phase (not a lifestyle!!!), only to catch them at a stoplight and find I didn’t even have the breath to give them a good talking to! 

Before we lit the fireworks and I engaged in a physically taxing and definitely stupid form of confrontation, I sat our family down, passed out clipboards, and asked them to quietly answer these three prompts:

  • I want more:

  • I want less:

  • You can support me by:

The hushed sound of pens scratching at paper was interrupted only by our 7-year-old asking for spelling help, and when everyone was done, I asked who wanted to share.

These are simple things I had never made real, intentional space to talk about, and when the conversation was done, I felt like I knew the people I know best in a new and truer light…myself included.

We only know what we know, and we’re only as helpful as the information we have. I want to keep that in mind when people miss my own expectations, and when I fail to meet others’. 

I find it easy to put myself and my relationships on a sort of emotional autopilot. I ask questions. I think I’m a good listener. But I heard things that night that I’d never heard before…simply because I’d never made this kind of space for the answer.

And the answers will change! Before the next New Year. Maybe before the next month. So I’m keeping these three thoughts at the front of my brain for as long as possible, a way of opening the doors between us and welcoming our unstated hopes and needs:

What do you want more of?

What do you want less of?

How can your people support you?

Nora shares a practice she started with her family this year that has helped them support each other and connect to each other better.

About It's Going to Be OK

If you have anxiety, depression or any sense of the world around you, you know that not *everything* is going to be okay. In fact, many things aren’t okay and never will be!

But instead of falling into the pit of despair, we’re bringing you a little OK for your day. Every weekday, we’ll bring you one okay thing to help you start, end or endure your day with the opposite of a doom scroll.

Find Nora’s weekly newsletter here! Also, check out Nora on YouTube.

Share your OK thing at 502-388-6529‬ or by emailing a note or voice memo to [email protected]. Start your message with “I’m (name) and it’s going to be okay.”

“It’s Going To Be OK” is brought to you by The Hartford. The Hartford is a leading insurance provider that connects people and technology for better employee benefits.  Learn more at www.thehartford.com/benefits.

The IGTBO team is Nora McInerny, Claire McInerny, Marcel Malekebu, Amanda Romani and Grace Barry.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcripts may not appear in their final version and are subject to change.


It’s still a New Year, and it will be until I stop writing 2023 at the top of my journal. I’ve already shared my opinions on the pressure to optimize and my theme for the year, but as I was cleaning up the living room the other day, I was reminded of the best part of New Year’s Eve 2023.

No, it wasn’t when I chased after a speeding car that tore past our kids, sprinting as fast as I could in ballet flats after months of what I call a sedentary phase (not a lifestyle!!!), only to catch them at a stoplight and find I didn’t even have the breath to give them a good talking to! 

Before we lit the fireworks and I engaged in a physically taxing and definitely stupid form of confrontation, I sat our family down, passed out clipboards, and asked them to quietly answer these three prompts:

  • I want more:

  • I want less:

  • You can support me by:

The hushed sound of pens scratching at paper was interrupted only by our 7-year-old asking for spelling help, and when everyone was done, I asked who wanted to share.

These are simple things I had never made real, intentional space to talk about, and when the conversation was done, I felt like I knew the people I know best in a new and truer light…myself included.

We only know what we know, and we’re only as helpful as the information we have. I want to keep that in mind when people miss my own expectations, and when I fail to meet others’. 

I find it easy to put myself and my relationships on a sort of emotional autopilot. I ask questions. I think I’m a good listener. But I heard things that night that I’d never heard before…simply because I’d never made this kind of space for the answer.

And the answers will change! Before the next New Year. Maybe before the next month. So I’m keeping these three thoughts at the front of my brain for as long as possible, a way of opening the doors between us and welcoming our unstated hopes and needs:

What do you want more of?

What do you want less of?

How can your people support you?

Our Sponsor

The Hartford is a leading insurance provider that’s connecting people and technology for better employee benefits.
Learn more at www.thehartford.com/benefits.

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Have a story you want to share?

Share your OK thing at 502-388-6529‬ or by emailing a note or voice memo to [email protected].

Start your message with:
"I’m (name) and it’s going to be okay."

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