skills and tools for developing mastery and fostering creativity
Very often it is the little things that make a big difference in lives that are lived on the edge. In poorer parts of a city, where people’s homes often do not have access to reliable electrical service and where windows that let in light might be a bad idea in terms of home security, people either spend a lot of time outside their unlighted homes or use open fires, candles or oil lamps as light sources. These can be…
New year, new start, new plan, but same old you. Ai-yah! It’s the perennial conundrum that! At the start of every new year, it’s “traditional” for those of us who follow the 365-day Gregorian calendar to make some sort of list of resolutions at the start of the new year. Many of us do. We start the process by reviewing our actions and our lives over the past year. Self-flagellation ensues. Some of us pull out special whips for the…
It’s a perennial bit of advice from most of the entrepreneurial advisers and advocates of DIY bootstrapping in the world to get yourself organized by working out routines and systems of routines that will help you get ‘er done and help facilitate your making that run towards your dream. It does work. It has occurred to me more than once that we humans are routine-building fools. For some of us the whole routine-building thing may even be automatic. We can…
I have some most excellent, scientifically correct news: We humans are a lot more than big old naked brains riding around in vehicles that are kind of like animated meatballs with feet. I have to admit that is a bit of a relief. (I like albondigas in their place, but life, it seems to me, is more than a tapas bar.) All during my growing-up years, I was dragged kicking and screaming into the prevalent paradigms that told me that my…
John Milton (an English poet who wrote epic poems in the 17th century) once wrote: “The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.” Milton did call it right. All of us humans do have one super-power. Every single one of us can shape our own reality and make up our own world. It’s why we find everybody else’s stories so fascinating, I suppose. Because we each have our own…
I didn’t get it; really, I didn’t. It took a long time, but finally a light dawned. The whole pseudo-argument about Life being a “journey” rather than a “destination” is a crock. I mean, think about it. How can you have a “journey” without having a “destination?” It’s sort of a package deal. If you’re a tourist yearning to go traveling, you’ve got all kinds of professionals – a whole industry — trying to help you find a way to…
Urgency, the repeated hammering on the direness of some situation or other that absolutely requires your personal immediate attention (or else), has become the go-to stance for so many of the professional and amateur persuaders in our lives these days. They tell us that urgency is different than panic. Panic is a freak-out. You run around like a chicken without a head, not knowing where you are going, bumping into things and falling down a lot. The proper response to…
[Update: This was written shortly before the Bitcoin troubles began ramping up. The story continues. We will see where it goes….] If you’ve been following me, you know that the last time I did this I was recovering from a whole-brain information overload after my latest foray into Crypto-World. It was a bit messy. I retreated into my comfort zone, taking solace in the Hawaiian real-old style, a beautiful self-indulgence, I thought. (I sure enjoyed it.) You can dive into…
[Writer’s Note: This post was written at the height of the Bitcoin madness, before it imploded and left gaping holes all over the place. It seems to me that I’m not the only one who got confused by the Bitcoin virtual world. Makes me feel less stupid, that.] ACK! I’ve been wandering around, lost, in the Bitcoin virtual currency world these past few weeks in (another) failed attempt to understand what the heck is going on with that. I chose…
Oh, finally! After beaucoup years of nonsense about “finding your passion” and “following your bliss,” people of influence are finally telling us more ordinary sorts a better truth. Passion is not a path. Passion is not a guidepost. Passion is really not a will-o-the-wisp phosphorescent light that dances ahead of you and maybe leads you into a bog or something. Passion is a feeling. It comes, it goes, it morphs, it grows. And, more than anything (like every other human…
