Inspiration
What Joyful Productivity Looks Like: The “Woodland Trail” Metaphor
Picture your writing (or other work) session as a stroll down a beautiful, sun-dappled woodland path. The path is wide and flat, the air warm and inviting, and on either side of you are banks of friendly plants alive with twittering birds. You’re having a marvelous time, and are moving at a relaxed, yet efficient…
Read MoreGeorge Clooney on Mental Backpacks
George Clooney! A few days ago I wrote this piece on how having a mental backpack can slow you down. How could I have forgotten this scene from the great movie Up in the Air? Thanks to Angela Beeching, author of Beyond Talent: Creating a Successful Career in Music for the reminder. Now I’m going…
Read MoreThe Importance of Perception to Productivity Work
People carrying a backpack or other weight typically estimate hills to be much longer and steeper than they really are, to a greater degree than unencumbered people. It also turns out, however, that if someone puts a backpack on your avatar you will experience virtual “hills” as being longer and steeper than they really are.…
Read MoreComing Out of Your Closet: Teyonah Parris, Adam Chandler, David Leavitt, and You
Yesterday’s piece on Betty Ming Liu’s quest for self-liberation got me thinking about authenticity. Today, I ran across stories about two people, each on their own quest for it: For Teyonah Parris (who plays Don Draper’s secretary Dawn on Mad Men) the quest was to accept her beautiful natural hair: “I was walking down the…
Read MoreBetty Ming Liu Quits Her Job: Liberated Time Management in Action!
If your job is not central to your mission, but simply a way to earn money, then one of the profoundest acts of self-liberation you can make is to reduce your hours or (even better) quit. Blogger Betty Ming Liu just quit her job, and her list of goals for her next stage is awesome:…
Read MoreDave Grohl on The Truth About How to Succeed in the Music Industry
If You’re Going to Ponder, Ponder With a Pink Feather Pen
Ponder this way: Not this way:
Read MoreYoga Can Help With Creative Block
This article recommending yoga as a solution for creative block makes a lot of sense. First, as the article points out, a lot of creative endeavors, including even writing, can tax the body: As a yoga teacher, Bobowicz was concerned about the repetitive stress that plagues artists as they work. “Jewelers can hammer over and…
Read MoreWhy Shouldn’t You Strive for Happiness Late in Life?
My dad was an intelligent, creative, and incredibly thwarted guy who was miserable most of his life. I suggested a few times that he get therapy, and the answer was always, “What do you think I am? Nuts?” And so he never got happier. So I’m really happy to read that more elderly people are…
Read More“My life…was often lived as performance art for invisible Simon Cowells”
A moving and wise essay on how one woman’s becoming less perfectionist helped her when she had to face cancer: Around 13 years ago, a confluence of events revealed to me how soul-sucking perfectionism was, and how much the futile striving for it was costing me in stress and anxiety. I began to understand that…
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