There’s a strongly held cultural belief that people who engage in creative work are poor, deserve to be poor, and, in many cases, need to be poor in order to continue to do creative work. This is all bullshit. Well, except that many are poor. We scoff at degrees in the arts. We tell people … Read more
There are so many creative, often silly, sometimes ridiculous photos and videos that get passed around nowadays, and the response to many of them, from many people, is: “Someone has too much free time!” But you know what? If someone wants to use their time to create something that gives them joy to create and … Read more
As per yesterday’s post, in order to get great at something, we need to do the work. It’s not innate. But just doing work doesn’t necessarily make us better. The old saying was “practice makes perfect.” I still hear people say it from time to time. I disagree. I’ve heard more accurately, “practice makes permanent.” … Read more
My career has been in teaching music. Every job I’ve had has included teaching elementary band—teaching kids who don’t know which end is up how to play a band instrument. (I’ve also taught middle school band, elementary and middle school orchestra, kinder through third grade general music, third grade recorders, middle school music theory, middle … Read more
I am a recovering perfectionist. For a long time, everything had to be just right. Edit, erase, start over. Make sure there’s always a straight-edge handy. No streaks, no cracks, no chips. I realize this is fear-based. I’m better about it. I don’t spend an hour carefully curating which font I’m going to use on … Read more
There’s a new-to-my-awareness probably-MLM line of products being hawked in my Facebook feed. “Total makeover. Only takes 10 minutes!” But you know what? I like my face. Some days, I have bags under my eyes, because I’m tired. Some days, I’m exhausted and have full-blown suitcases. I’m at the point where I have creases in … Read more
We need to change some of our language surrounding food. I do my best not to use the words “good” and “bad” when talking about food. Except when something doesn’t pass the sniff test. Then it’s bad. “Good” could describe tastiness, it could describe healthiness, it could describe virtuousness. We’ve made some unfortunate connections between … Read more
I was the recipient of a random act of kindness yesterday. Even though it was “useless,” it made my day. Here’s what happened. There was A Thing I saw at Costco and debated buying for a friend. Debated a bit, decided with The Climbing Daddy that yes, we should get it. Went back, and it … Read more
TED has started a new podcast series called TED Interviews, where Chris Anderson interviews people who have give TED talks about their talks, and they get more in depth. I haven’t quite listened to all of them, but all that I’ve listened to have been captivating. (As of this writing, there are only six of … Read more
When I was very first starting out as a personal trainer, I used to run Black Friday deals in preparation for New Years. Eventually, I stopped, and if/when I have more services to offer, I won’t offer deals. Why? 1- Twice now I have been on the consumer end of “I just bought that a … Read more