Read the fine print!

Or don’t.

Restraints, boundaries, rules, guidelines, regulations — how you navigate and manipulate them is what separates you from the person sitting next to you.

You can test limits, see them as a dead end sign, or ignore them.

Press on, beyond predefined trails, and you might find yourself heading into the land of creative bliss.

Schedule vacation time, even if you can’t.

When you visit a foreign place, you are stripped of your template for daily living. Your routine is broken, and it’s up to you to make sense of it all. “Home” becomes a reference marker as you begin to assign meanings to new experiences.

Now that each day is fresh, you are free to discover new places and new things and new people. Amazing what you remember! Forgotten parts inside of…

The quiet room

I like watching beginnings of events.

There’s expectation in the room, uncertainty, and a hint of nervousness as people arrive and take note of their new surroundings. For a moment, the room is quiet. The swell of anticipation gradually takes over, and the evening soon turns strangers into friends.

Opportunity is kind of like a Gathering. When it arrives, it can be difficult to know exactly what to do. What…

What are you collecting?

Collectors usually get some sort of attention. Whether it’s stamps, debt, records, insects, comics, paintings, or coins — collectors have something to show, something to talk about.

What if you viewed yourself as a collector, adding more and more unique moments to your personal high-value collection?

You’re the owner. How will you build upon your existing collection? What kind of assets will you preserve and who will be privileged enough hear about…

Step away for awhile.

Set something aside for a week and come back to it.

It will look different, feel different, and you might use it differently when you return.

Maybe you decide you can live without it.

Everyone has a story.

You get to decide if you want to listen.

(And what you can learn.)

Write your own fairytale (or have a really grand adventure)

Happily-ever-afters. Great escapes. Exotic adventures. Fairytales. You’ve read them, you’ve dreamed of them, you listen enviously as your friends tell them. “They can’t be real,” you skeptically reason.

STOP.

This isn’t stuff reserved for children’s tales. It isn’t luck. You can live one, too.

But it won’t happen magically. You’ll have to do some work. Here are some tips to help you on your way:

1. Get honest. 

Find a place with no distractions. Create…

You’re not going to please everyone.

Focus on what you’re passionate about.

People will be able to sense this passion in your writing and your work.

No matter what the topic — Marilyn Manson, Plato, an empty trash bag used as rain gear — someone will be compelled to read or to buy.

Forget about the rest.

Find your company.

Align yourself with people you emulate, whose lives you admire.

You need a template (if you don’t already have one).

By watching someone else prove it can be done, you’ll feel encouraged to make it happen.

You’re like no other.

Unique experiences make you you. Your resume may look similar to another applicant, but how you finished that degree, landed that job, scored that promotion, found new work is like no other.

You have to be able to show someone else the world through your eyes.

Show them why your world is special. (It is.)