10 Tips for Taming the Email Beast
Email, for all its benefits, is the scourge of our age. What began as a handy way to communicate has become a relentless slave driver. Who hasn’t arrived at one’s workstation ready to make solid progress on something that really matters only to find oneself a million hours later in servitude to email? I’m convinced […]
This Free Book Can Help Your Dreams Come True
This little book could change everything for you. Do you have a passion or side project that energizes you? It could be a different job, a book idea, an art project, a blog, a business idea, a nonprofit you’d like to start. This brief manifesto uses stories and a series of questions to help you […]
Your First Step to Success
Recently my six-year-old son won a slinky from Chuck E. Cheese. It wasn’t long before we tried to do what they do in the commercials. That’s right—we headed for the top of the stairs. We tried. And tried. At best the slinky walked down a step or two, then died. Dead slinky. “Dang,” I thought, […]
The Lazy Person’s Guide to Incredibly Productive Meetings
I’m pleased to be guest-posting at the Accidental Creative blog today. Here’s the beginning… We’ve all been there. You show up to a meeting and it takes 15-20 minutes to get the necessary technology up and running. Or the agenda is unclear, so everybody’s spinning their wheels. Or you don’t understand your role within the meeting. Or […]
How Answering One Scary Question Can Lead You to the Life You’ve Always Wanted
In The 4-Hour Workweek, author Timothy Ferriss encourages readers to answer this question: If you got fired from your job tomorrow, what would you do to rescue your life from financial chaos? Sometimes reflecting on a worst-case scenario opens up whole new worlds of possibility. Job Search I suspect many people would simply launch an […]
Wisdom for Artists from Steve Martin
photo credit: Whistling in the Dark via photopin cc
How to Do More of the Work You Love and Less of the Work You Hate
We go and we go and we go. “Watch this,” we seem to say. “I’m fast. I move. I get it done. See?” But how much of our work comes from a deep sense of calling? How much of our activity stems from our core, our creative center? How fulfilling is our work? And how […]
Why Some People Make More Progress Than Others
Sometimes life feels aimless. We go through our days wandering or, worse, floundering. And of course some of this is just part of the human experience. It’s normal, and we shouldn’t beat ourselves up too much for it. But if it goes on for too long or if it’s too pervasive, life itself begins to […]
Interview with Literary Agent Esther Fedorkevich, a Living Legend
I couldn’t be happier to be interviewing literary agent Esther Fedorkevich of The Fedd Agency. Esther is a first-generation American, the daughter of Ukrainian immigrants born in Argentina and China — and she has that indefatigable immigrant spirit in spades. After breaking records selling Bible studies for Lifeway and then working for The Lampo Group, […]
The One Thing I Really Wish Aspiring Writers Would Take to Heart
Earlier this week I was listening to a conversation between Michael Hyatt (@MichaelHyatt), author of Platform, and Stu McLaren (@StuMcLaren), a startup entrepreneur. At one point in the discussion Stu emphasized the importance of knowing your audience’s pain. What is your audience’s need? What is the problem your audience has that you can solve? And […]