Tag Archives: life lessons
One of my favorite movies of all time features a trampoline, a creepy arcade carnival mechanical soothsayer and one of the most romantic songs ever recorded, Moonlight Serenade. The movie’s protagonist, Josh Baskin, trapped within his prepubescent prison, yearns to be Big. Isn’t that a common yearning for us all when we launch our businesses, projects and organizations? Don’t we all wish that we had unlimited budgets, plush offices in some groovy building and an ability to dominate the market?…..
Just in case you needed to hear this today, it’s okay to be selfish. Women, in particular, are conditioned to be givers, peacemakers, feather-smoothers, and people pleasers. Most, if not all of these expectations are based on the sentiment that it’s not good for women to be selfish, or that being selfish is bad. The messaging is so relentless and pervasive that it’s easy for the distinction between selfish and self care can be difficult to ascertain. Some random thoughts…..
I blame Charlton Heston. When I was a little kid, the yearly screening of The Ten Commandments was anticipated in our household for a number of reasons. The first of which was its role as a rite of passage to, if not adulthood, at least big kid status, proved through the ability to stay awake through the entire thing. Alas, for many years, my brothers and I would consistently conk out on the living room floor somewhere around Yul Brynner’s…..
Doing something new requires being willing to be bad at something until you become skilled at it. It requires humility and a willingness to fail forward. If you’ve paid attention to your life’s journey, chances are good you’ve experienced plenty of versions of yourself, and have been resurrected from the ashes of various trials and tribulations to get where (and be who) you are now. “It is not more surprising to be born twice than once; everything in nature is…..
Somewhere during my mid-40s, I read a book by Pema Chödrön that describes the charnel ground. If you aren’t aware of this term, it refers to an open-air crematorium of sorts, where bodies are left out in the open to decompose naturally—usually connected with Hindu or Buddhist cultures. The charnel ground is full of profound transpersonal significance. It represents the ‘death of ego’ and the end of: • Attachment to this body and life • Craving for a body and…..
What kind of cook are you? The “measure-y, by the book” sort or the stir, sniff and sample sort? For what it’s worth, I think that not only does each approach have merit, but there are certain times when it pays to err on the side of the extreme of either. When I was a little girl, I used to perch on a stool in my grandma’s kitchen and watch as she cooked dinner for us. My knees drawn up…..
It has been a terrible, deadly year. Every year brings its share of death, poverty and sadness, but 2021 has been a catastrophic time for almost all of us on this planet. Not only has the death and pain been so widespread, it didn’t have to be this way. It was made possible and exacerbated by the cowardice and greed of a handful of people who valued financial wealth above the lives of millions of their fellow human beings. I…..
Do you ever wonder why some people seem to bounce back after misfortune and crises while others don’t? There are a myriad of reasons, some of which are 100% beyond their control (genetic luck, geographic random location), but some things are not only controllable, but can be cultivated. Your happiness set point can be determined by many things, but these four things represent major areas: • Financial cushion • Health — mental, spiritual, physical • Community • Family These are…..
While there are many definitions of success, if you examine the lives of various people considered successful in their respective industries or fields of endeavor, you will find that they do these things each day. If you take the time to cultivate these habits (customizing them for your own interests), I can promise that you will become successful as you define it. It is a guarantee. 1. Silly: Be silly. Learn to laugh. Do something each day that helps you…..
One of the best features of Twitter is the opportunity to connect with other people around a specific topic via online chats using a hashtag to “sort” the conversation stream apart from the rest of the flow of general tweets. These interactions expand my horizons, introduce me to other minds and concepts and also give me an opportunity to refine my thoughts about any given topic. Today’s post is about blogging, but more specifically, what inspires us to write. There…..