Self-employment is supposed to offer the advantage of setting one’s own hours. In practice, most of us work a lot more hours than we would on a job. This morning, however, I went hog-wild; stayed home and picked up around the house and did a summer’s worth of ironing, etc. You might not view that […] Read More

This is a rerun of a guest post I did a while back for Mystic-Lit: Writing or practice of any art form—or, for that matter, any kind of problem-solving—relies heavily on one intermediate skill: Greasing the Elements. I realized this while doing the Word Jumbles in my local News & Observer. As you probably know, […] Read More

“Just Do It” is a popular piece of advice (as well as a great advertising catch phrase.) And it has value. It can cut through a lot of inner garbage and unnecessary preliminary hurdles. It’s also true that saying “just” does not make a difficult thing into “a snap” that takes no time or effort […] Read More

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As any writer of fiction knows, a moment can look radically different from each different point of view. Here’s my little-rubber-kayak level point of view of a “flat” lake. Big paddle. Tiny sailboat. Significant-sized waves. I like this particular viewpoint very much. But any time the view’s not good, we likely have some option to […] Read More

A great deal of what we do every day can have more meaning and pleasure if we do it in an imaginative, thoughtful, bold way. Even, for example, a catalog of the most ordinary categories of products can be a delight. Check out the site for the Dutch company Hema. Chill out, breathe, and relax […] Read More

A photographer I know, Artie Dixon, is offering her beautiful second home in the North Carolina mountains for week-long vacations for girlfriends–with tour guide to the sites of the area. So no maps, planning, or GPS is required. The art-filled 1939 house in Little Switzerland is called Sky Blue, and its stone patio opens onto […] Read More

My first-ever Big Bold Sale on my critiquing services, announced here three days ago, is getting a terrific and very gratifying response: lots of writers I haven’t worked with before, some interesting and talented and quick-to-take-action folks from all over the country, have been touch. Not every bold experiment works out well, as we all […] Read More

The new July issue of Success Magazine (the one with “GO FOR BOLD” in orange type on the cover) has a simple, effective idea in its list of action items on the last page. Essentially it’s this: in planning your day, identify the action that would make you feel fantastic to get done today. Do […] Read More