Giant spoiler alert: If you couldn’t tell by the headline, this post is about the ending of a movie that’s still in the theater. So if you haven’t seen it yet and don’t want me to wreck everything for you, why don’t you check out another post for now and maybe come back to this after you’ve laughed your butt…
Zen Habits is one of my favorite blogs, and the author offers full permission to share his content. So today I’m reposting one of Leo’s recent articles that really got me thinking, about what discipline really is. Enjoy. The Myth of Discipline Post written by Leo Babauta It’s one of the most prevalent myths of our culture: self discipline. The…
Timed to Cirque du Soleil bringing its new show, Zarkana, to New York this summer, the New York Times offers up a lengthy profile of its creative force, who is described as a “very nice bulldozer.” With the caveat “analyzing his character is challenging since he has few close friends, and even his longtime associates say they hardly know him,”…
Earlier this year, I launched Newvine Growing as a marketing communications consulting firm, with offerings including media training, social media coaching and strategic planning. One of my next steps is providing coaching to those who don’t have the budget for one-on-one consulting but would benefit from a cookbook with guidance on press releases, marketing materials and email newsletters, for example.…
I’m a big fan of setting goals but writing down what I want is not the same as achieving it. My friend, Sara, and I have agreed to hold each other accountable for moving forward on our high-flying aspirations, since creative types often excel at using our creativity to procrastinate in new and interesting ways. That’s why I loved this…
My piano teacher has instructed me that I’m to have a glass of wine before I practice piano. He’s constantly reminding me that it’s OK to make mistakes, that as a beginner I need to make mistakes to learn, and he wants me to give myself permission to be imperfect. Thus the wine, to chill out a bit about whether…
Maybe it’s because I’m a beginner piano player — and I admit it, I sometimes get myself through practice by fantasizing about sitting in with my favorite musicians — but this video of a recent Paul Simon concert chokes me up. Apparently a fan named Rayna yells out that she learned how to play guitar playing Simon’s song “Duncan,” and…
Lately I’ve read a number of articles that discuss the difference between happiness and life satisfaction. In my market research role, I often discussed with people the importance of words in survey questions — asking someone if they are satisfied with a product is different from asking if they’re happy with it, for example. I’m satisfied with my light bulbs…
My blogging to-do list includes several stories I’m excited about, so I hope you’ll stop back in the weeks to come for: a profile of Brook Eddy, a single mother of twins who made the unlikely move from nonprofit fundraising to starting a chai tea company that’s approaching $2 million in sales. Brook is an old friend of ours from…
There’s been a lot of discussion, some serious and some snarky, about the rapture coming today. Personally, I don’t believe God sends an Outlook calendar invitation for the end of the world, but I respect anyone’s right to believe whatever feels true to you. Still, the talk has gotten me thinking about a big philosophical question: if you truly believe…
I moved to New York City from Ann Arbor five years ago this month. Earlier this week I shared a laundry list of tourist tips, in part because visiting friends often ask for “real” guidance beyond what they’d get in a guidebook. Today’s post is more about the experience of being a New Yorker — five reflections on being a…
Five years ago, I packed up and moved to Manhattan for my first post-MBA job. John followed about a month later, after managing a speedy sale of our house, thanks in part to our fortuitous timing before the real estate crash. I think five years is long enough to consider myself a real New Yorker. Obviously not a native, but…
Tim Robbins apparently became such a fan of New Orleans and the HBO show about it, Treme, while he was in NOLA shooting the Green Lantern that he just called up Treme’s David Simon and asked if he could direct an episode. Timed to that episode airing Sunday, the New Orleans Times Picayune ran a great feature about Robbins —…
I got my first job when I was 16, and before that, I’d been babysitting since middle school. Working for other people is something I’ve had decades of practice doing. Working for myself is new. So I was glad to stumble onto Lorena’s Epiphany, a blog by a Lebanese freelancer with good pointers on how to be successfully self employed.…
According to the National Committee on Pay Equity, Equal Pay Day was April 12 — which means women had to work three and a half months into 2011 to earn what men earned in 2010, because we earn about 77 percent of what men do. We talked a lot about the gender pay gap in one of my favorite business…
John and I arrived in New Orleans for our quasi-sabbatical on March 25 so we’re approaching one month in our temporary hometown. I’m already getting pangs about time running short. We have Easter weekend coming up, then two weekends of Jazz Fest, then we pack up for home a few days later. So after we’ve crossed the halfway point in…
A Newsweek article on creativity says E. Paul Torrance‘s creativity test has been administered to millions of children in 50 languages — and American scores are on the decline. Kyung Hee Kim at the College of William & Mary discovered this in May, after analyzing almost 300,000 Torrance scores of children and adults. Kim found creativity scores had been steadily…
Last year I started doing a tour of some of the farmers markets considered best in the country by various sources: Austin, San Francisco, Montpelier, New Orleans, and of course, New York. I love learning about a place by checking out what grows locally, what people eat there, how they shop and generally how it’s the same or different from…
I stumbled onto this satirical post recently on Cassie Behle’s blog. It says in part: Because the onset of case of the Mondays’ symptoms almost always appear like clockwork Sunday, some workers often confuse a stubborn hangover for the disease. Doctors nationwide have seen a rash of workers coming into the office and mistaking the two, and are urging workers…
I’ve been struck by how many people have trial by fire stories from a big journey — often at the very outset of the trip. Two couples we know had all their belongings stolen at the start of long international treks, and in the book I’m reading, Letters from New Orleans, the author’s girlfriend has her car stolen almost immediately…
