I’ve mentioned before that I’m three months into a yearlong creativity course: the Raise Your Hand Say Yes Inner Circle with Tiffany Han. Our group discussion the other day turned to how to push past self-created drama to actually do the work. I shared some thoughts in our private group on Mighty Networks, but wanted to share them here as well. Here are three ways to shake off doubt, fear, anxiety, whatever to get your work done:
Continue reading “How to get out of your own way and do the work”
This is a hopefully weekly post where I share the things that are lighting me up. I get very, very into things and I love to tell people about the things I am very, very into. Here’s what I’m obsessed with right now: Continue reading “5 things I’m obsessed with this week”
Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s recent New York Times article on Gwyneth Paltrow and Goop ends with Brodesser-Akner being stuck on a bus, desperately having to pee. This incident, fortunately resolved without catastrophe, nonetheless leaves the author unable to regain the feeling of zen she’d accessed just a few hours earlier at the In Goop Health wellness summit, described earlier in the piece: Continue reading “Spiritual band-aids vs. sustainable change”
While everyone loves SMART goals, it occurred to me a couple of months ago that vague goals can also work — if they’re tied to values. It also occurred to me I really wanted to stop wasting food. When 49 million Americans are struggling to put food on the table, I really don’t want to throw food away because I never got around to eating it. Continue reading “How to stop wasting food”
I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted. Between work, the heat, familial obligations, and my summer social calendar, I feel burnout creeping in at least once a week lately.
Over the past couple of years, I’ve tried to get better at slowing down, but it sometimes feels impossible to take a sizable Continue reading “5 ways to refill your tank post-burnout”
Five things that made my life better in July: Continue reading “5 things that made my life better this month”
A few weekends ago, I cleared my schedule and holed up in my apartment for a DIY creative retreat. The main goal for this weekend was to catch up on the writing schedule for my novel, which meant writing 21 pages over the duration of the weekend. There were other things I wanted to get done — two blog posts, a visual rebrand for my blog and social media accounts, and an editorial calendar for my blog through the end of April — but all were secondary (and tertiary, etc.) to the main goal.
During the weekend, I reached my desired page count, wrote two blog posts, and made incremental progress on my other goals. Want to do something similar? Here are some tips. Continue reading “Plan a DIY creative retreat for this weekend”
I spent much of the past year reprogramming my brain, but until recently I didn’t have a term for the big change that has had a halo effect over all areas of my life. Recently, through the On Books podcast (also on iTunes), I discovered Carol Dweck’s excellent book Mindset, which gave me the phrase I was looking for: growth mindset. Continue reading “5 benefits of a growth mindset”
[Full disclosure: I started this post three years ago and recently found it in my Medium drafts. I thought there was a decent idea here so I decided to finish it. Some of the specifics are… from December 2014.]
In a former life, I was the board liaison for a major performing arts nonprofit. I realized recently that one of things I miss most about that job is the feeling of closing out a year. Each summer, as the fiscal year came to an end, I’d wrap up every task related to that year and start the new fiscal year with a clean slate. In my current career as a content marketer, I’m unlikely to experience such a clear break between one year and the next. Projects, plans, and deals often span years, without the possibility of being able to tie everything up neatly at one time. At times, this has left me feeling burnt out and like there’s no end in sight.
As such, I started thinking about ways I could recreate the clean-slate feeling despite murkier circumstances. Here’s what I came up with: Continue reading “Starting 2018 with a clean slate”
I’m a recovering control freak. I’ve long been prone to getting ideas in my head about what “should” happen, and then ignoring all evidence to the contrary. I habitually refuse to let go of my vision for the role a person or thing should play in my life, which makes it hard to get over situations where that vision is never realized. Continue reading “Finding a backup purpose for someone”
Spirit for Skeptics 