Part 9: The Defining Moment Arrives
Do it. That’s all there is to this step. Oh, there’s more stuff to do, but that comes after. In the meantime, you really have run out of excuses. You’ve marshaled your resources, you’ve come up with a...
View Articlehow to make sense of a chaotic world
Framing Ferguson It’s a troubling time in America. More than usual. The events in Ferguson Missouri have affected not just the national dialogue on racism, on police, on the use of force, the right to...
View ArticleDefining Moment, Part 13: Final Evaluations
The Consequence Hero Everybody, sooner or later, sits down to a banquet of consequences. – Robert Louis Stevenson It’s one of the key principles of personal development, set down everyone from...
View ArticleBONUS POST: Review of Chris Guillebeau’s “The Happiness of Pursuit”
A Dangerous Book About Extraordinary Lives, Including Yours. As a fellow writer on topics of personal development, I opened “The Happiness of Pursuit” with a healthy dose of skepticism. I was expecting...
View ArticleThe Defining Moment: Courage Overcomes Expectations
Not Much Left There’s really only a few last things to say now that you’ve figured out your Defining Moment, found a way to make it happen, and analyzed the results. You know now one of two things:...
View ArticleDefining Moment: the Defined Life
“One more thing…” – Steve Jobs It may be obvious, but it bears saying: unlike the Highlander, when it comes to the Defining Moment there can be more than one. If you’ve tried this process on one of...
View Articleliving the life you want to remember
Instant Dilemma; Just Add Text Every once in a while you get faced with an issue that seems completely unsolvable, until something changes to make it eminently solvable. Here’s how the timeline went:...
View Articleenjoy the mystery
“Spoilers!” – Riversong Rosebud is his sled. Bruce Willis is a ghost. The Titanic hits an iceberg and sinks. For those who haven’t seen the movies that the first two spoilers refer to, I apologize. If...
View Articledon’t just survive; flourish!
With Flourish & Panache… Flourishing means getting on with the things that are important for you to do, exercising your capacities, actively trying to ‘realize’ what you care about and bring it...
View Articlea life of dignity
A Dignified About-Face When I was a kid, we had a cat named Dignity. We named him that, Mom said, “…because he had none.” That was certainly the case as a kitten, but as he grew older, like all cats,...
View ArticleFailure is Valuable Experience
Tangled Up & You My partner made a joke about me recently, pointing out how some of the ways you write the letter “G” could look like a circular arrow. We decided if I was an old-school rancher, my...
View Articlethe key to finding meaningful work
The Stupid Gender Work operates like an eraser on chance or luck. – Emi Kolawole “Fortune favors the prepared mind.” “Make your own luck.” “Never tell me the odds.” Ok, the last one is more Han Solo...
View Articledance and play and work
Starman Dances with the Universe A while back when we were talking about mantras, I mentioned this as one of my own that has stood the test of time. It’s helpful in times of chaos to find the things...
View Articlethe genuine path to success
The Hard Truth This is not going to be one of those comforting, let’s-all-be-happy posts. Fair warning. If you’re already having a rough day, this is not the post to read. Probably a better idea to...
View Articlecreating a bit of nowhere to know where you are
Know-Where Man Location is a funny thing these days. Many of our devices are location-aware, so I can tell my phone “Remind me to take in the car seat when I get home” and it will actually wait until...
View Articlebeware the coercion of malls
Gruen Pains It was back in the mid 90’s when I first noticed it. After a lot of years of relative poverty and the busy-ness of both co- and single-parenting, I decided to take them on one of the...
View ArticleThe 5 Elements of a Great Life
The Narrative Recipe Recently I read an excellent article about the author Ursula K. Leguin. She spoke of “five principal elements,” which must “work in one insoluble unitary movement” in order to...
View Article5 Things Not To Do When Life Sucks (& 1 Thing To)
Happy Holidaze! …or not. For many people, your erstwhile author included, the combination of winter cold and the societal expectations of the holiday season can be pretty depressing, or stressful, or...
View Articlecheck your positivity ratio
How’s Your Day? Quick, off the top of your head: has it been a mostly positive day? Or a mostly negative one? If you’re like me, you may be surprised at the results. I was thinking I was having a...
View Articlethe secret to a meaningful life
The last few days have been spent traveling some of the bleak roads of the midwest in midwinter on our way to the funeral of my partner’s grandmother. Like most family gatherings of this kind, it was a...
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