We have the rare pleasure here of snow these last few days. It was two and a half days before I could get from our house on a hilly dirt road through woods to the main road. So I’ve had a cosy few days, with a little cross-country skiing, up until the bindings broke on […] Read More

This afternoon I heard for the first time about how a Japanese business management technique can be usefully adapted to making positive changes in one’s life. Like lightning, I rushed to Google this new word: kaizen. The basic idea, as explained in One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way by Robert Maurer, […] Read More

If you’re needing an inspiring role model, read the Wired Magazine career history of Avatar director James Cameron. What a combo of persistence, courage, and inventiveness! But to make that feel real and encouraging, I always need to know the details. Thirty-three years ago, he was a young truck driver who went to see Star […] Read More

Okay, it’s Monday at the office, time: 7:36 p.m. I haven’t had a self-defeating thought all day. Not one. Maybe it’s not just work that keeps them at bay. Maybe it’s concentration, a strong focus. But I can’t be this focused all the time. Obviously I need a leisure time strategy as well. Will ponder […] Read More

Turning through an old issue of Metropolis magazine — “Architecture*Culture*Design– last night, I came across an interview with a wise furniture designer, Bertjan Pot. He said this: “I think the best thing you can give to the world is the thing you do best. And if that is making pretty tables, then let it be […] Read More

It’s the first weekend since I’ve been writing down self-defeating thoughts–as a way to get rid of them. This process of “therapeutic homework” continues to be an education. Obviously, I don’t have a big enough sample to claim I’ve discovered a pattern. But I do notice that I’ve written down many more of them today […] Read More

Yesterday I mentioned that I had begun writing down my self-defeating thoughts and finding that the process of watching for them seemed to make them occur a great deal less– in fact, hardly at all. Important addendum: this morning I worked steadily through my forty-some e-mails with no procrastinating at all about the more complicated […] Read More

Tuesday morning my shrink suggested I write down any self-defeating thoughts I have in the course of the day. I can’t honestly say that I’ve had any since then. That’s three days without. I’m impressed. Who knew a cure could be so easy? Try it. And, if you will, share how it works for you. […] Read More

Consider the lovely South African guinea hen. Here’s a bird that’s actually used as a “watchdog” on farms. Not that she’s fierce. Instead she has a lot to say. She’s so attentive and ready to give voice that she can alert a farmer to any little disruption in the night. And warn off an intruder. […] Read More

At Saturday’s workshop, we spent a little time on the use of simple physical jobs as a form of meditation to improve our writing. As in: do a little writing, do a little laundry or sweeping or sorting, then write some more. Once we’ve cranked up the writing, then the rumination continues, in a more […] Read More