Mar 28, 2008comments (2)
Feb 25, 2008comments (3)
A dose of happiness
Last week my friend Terrell Meek wrote an inspired post on feeling happy more often through a “Recipe for Little Happiness.”
Here’s her first ingredient:
Recognize what makes me feel good. I take the time to register my emotions so that I don’t pass by a moment of happiness unnoticed. This sounds absurd, but we’ve all ruined a perfectly good moment by worrying about future events. The classic example is the feeling of dread you may get on Sunday evenings as you start to think about work the next day. This practice also helps me identify what it is that actually makes me happy, which keeps me from repeatedly doing things only because I think they should make me happy.
Click here to read the rest of it. Her perspective has already made my week better.
Feb 7, 2008comments (5)
Song & Dance
One time my buddy Charlie and I were on a roadtrip, and he was documenting the whole thing on video. There was a point in the trip, I think early one morning, he flipped the camera onto me. I was suddenly very conscious of my actions, my facial expression, my tone. I got awkward.
“Sorry, I have nothing entertaining to say,” I said.
“You don’t have to be entertaining, you just have to be real,” he said back.
I think that was a good call.
Nov 30, 2006comments (0)
Life lessons from a hyperactive four year-old
Today on the train, this little kid hopped on with his mom. He never stopped looking around, drinking everything in. The adults surrounding him stared straight ahead, focused on their newspapers, or worked in other ways to avoid making eye contact with anyone else. Meanwhile, he stared people down without shame, shouted “Hi!” to strangers, and asked me “what’s that?” when I pulled out my iPod.I once heard someone say something like, “As you grow older, your experiences whittle you down to a finer and finer point, until you become so specific that it becomes difficult to relate to anyone else.”
The logic that drives that mindset says that experiences provide more and more answers and understanding as they happen. But that’s not true. Experiences create perspective, yes, but not answers.
Staying child-like in observation means that your experiences unveil more questions than answers, as they should. In this mindset, the more experience you have and the older you become, the more fresh, wide-eyed curiosity will drive your life, your joy, and your ambitions.
What some people call “the ideation process” or “brainstorming” or “strategic planning” my brilliant friend Cam calls “playing.” I love that.
Blogging, podcasting, and this whole drive to deliver “quality relevant content” can make me feel like I need to be delivering answers and understanding constantly…like a pizza guy delivers pizza.
Honestly, I just have a lot more questions than answers.
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