We’re always listening to one of two things: our true self or something else. It could be our ego, other people’s advice, the culture. We become afraid to do the wrong thing, we’re scared to miss out, and that fear leads us away from ourselves.That’s what fear does. It makes all things urgent, like a weed shooting up from the ground as soon as it’s been mowed over. Weeds grow fast, roots grow slowly.Weeds are persistent. So is fear.The antidote? Listening. Silence. Solitude.In the quiet, …
Hope, Ashes, and Closure: Ending the 100 Day Project
What happens at the end? What happens when you complete something—something longish-term and immersive, something that has a definitive beginning and end date? Something you’ve poured yourself into that’s taken, say, a hundred days? What happens when you start off optimistic and wide-eyed, believing in the power of spontaneous generation and showing up every day, with a plan in place for a hundred days and a plan for what to do after that, then slowly find yourself worn down by your work …
If You Can’t Keep Up
If you're feeling like it's too much, like you're never enough, like you're behind. If there are too many voices, too many rules, too much clutter, not enough space. If you're hungry for something deeper, something more substantial and true. If you're still trying to figure out who you are or who you are now, if you're trying to find your way. Let me say this:It's okay to slow down.It's okay to step back.You can say no.You can say not yet. If you need to retreat, start over, throw …
If You Feel Behind, Unsure, or Frustrated
Maybe you feel like you lack focus. You have a hundred ideas or you have no ideas. Maybe you keep starting again and again. You’re afraid of getting it wrong or you’ve been hurt or you don’t know any other way. Maybe the road before you seems too long and winding. Or maybe when you look out at it, you can’t see anything at all. Maybe you think you should be somewhere else, somewhere further along, where someone else is. They seem to be doing okay and you want to be doing okay too. Or …
Productivity, Burnout, and the Creativity Cycle
T. S. Eliot wrote that April is the cruelest month, which is a joke to me and an endless source of joy. April is seldom the cruelest of the months, though it can be a little necessarily soggy to bring about all the buds and blossoms, and all that rain can be a drag. This year, April crept in with the springiest of spring weather—warm and sunny and full of promise. It didn’t rain for at least a week and we were blessed with a beautiful Easter. Once the rains did come, everything around us …