We’ve all heard it. The over the top inspirational statements designed to change our lives right.now! Level up your joy! Say yes to now! Live your best life! Stop the insanity! Be in the now! When I read or hear these phrases, I mostly roll with it. I’ve attended life coaching school (a school for life coaches! Like Hogwarts but with more listening.) and read my fair share of personal development books. What kills me, is that the people that these phrases are most trying to reach, the uninitiated and new to the ‘life can be different’ scene, is that they are esoteric, hard to connect with. They can be a bit of a brick wall mood killer, because how they are first met with is: ‘If I knew how to do that, it’d be a done deal already. That … Continue reading →

From my family to yours, happiest of Thanksgivings to you dear creativas.  If you are in the US, I wish you a speedy, on time arrival to your destination. One of my most memorable Thanksgivings was Thanksgiving 2008.  I was traveling in South America and the week of Thanksgiving found me working on a small farm outside Santiago, Chile in exchange for room and board.  I was working there with a fellow friend and traveler, and for the most part, we had the run of the farm.  It was us helping out the 80 year old guy, Don Chivo,  that actually kept the place going. When we realized it was Thanksgiving, we tried to get the proper food supplies to make a Thanksgiving dinner.  We tried to get turkey, but the closest thing we could find was a small chicken.  … Continue reading →

Fear. We’ve all got it.  It happens all the time.  Fear grabs hold of us, gets in our brains, and generally tries to run the show.  It convinces you it’s RIGHT about EVERYTHING and should generally be left in charge. Fear & Love are the two great motivating forces in life.  There are about a billion quotes and essays about this, but my favorite is by John Lennon himself: “There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance.” Fear makes us small, we take up less space, take less risks, and generally confine ourselves.  Love is expansive.  It gives us the strength to jump, to try, to grow ourselves. This doesn’t mean … Continue reading →

It’s a simple, three step process to get everything you want. 1) Identify what it is you want. What IS it you actually want? A lot of us like to complain with no desired solution or outcome.  We know we’re sick of things and we want change, but we haven’t really left the complain-y phase.  What’s the bigger picture here?  If you could change your situation to something satisfying and different, what would it look like? What do you want? 2) Be specific.  Let’s use a new job as an example.  Identifying you want a new job is like you want to win the lottery.  It’s super general and tons of people say the same thing.  Great.  You want a new job.  What does that mean? Let’s get specific. Do you want a new job that pays you more? More … Continue reading →

Do you? I know I do.  We’ve all been there.  Maybe it’s not housekeeping related, but there’s that big hairy task in front of you that you just don’t want to do.  Suddenly, that other, slightly less hairy task seems super important and can’t wait another minute. Gotta clean the bathroom? Afraid there’s mold and all sorts of gross surprises waiting for you? Oh look! Those dishes need washing.  Suddenly you don’t feel so guilty for not dealing with the bathroom. Even though you know, deep down, that’s what you should be doing. But look! you negotiate with yourself, The dishes! They’re done now, and that’s a good thing!  Yes.  But it’s not what really needs to happen. Sound familiar?  I see this a lot with my coaching clients.  They’ll tell me how they avoided working on what they committed to because … Continue reading →

Feeling bored? Stuck at work? Jealous of your friends? A little depressed? Lost in your own life? Do something creative, everyday. This is my favorite remedy to life’s doldrums. It has the power to snap you out of it like woah. What do I mean by this? I’m not asking you to paint oil pastels everyday (although if that’s your jam, hat tip) I’m saying, do something creative. Play with crayons. Dance in your kitchen. Take a photograph. When I was 22, I was a year removed from the sudden death of my father, which happened 10 weeks before I graduated college.  At 22 I was living at home, supporting my family, working in a national park, and submerged in my grief.  A fortuitous conversation with some friends a few nights before my 23rd birthday inspired me to challenge myself … Continue reading →