The Unlikely Artist

Today we talk about why taking action is so important.

We need to take action to not be in a conversation of one. If we want to satisfy our yearning to have an impact, we need to invite at least one other person into that conversation.

When we actually do something, it feels totally different than just thinking about doing it. It’s only through our actions we can develop our own way of going about it and make something our own...

You’ll find this episode useful if you’ve been feeling stuck or disappointed or like something’s not working out.

In nature, there’s no such thing as a straight river. Rivers meander, find the easiest way forward, get wider and then narrower, change course, rush down steep areas, and become still and reflective in others.

If we want to move forward in a way it doesn’t feel like we’re struggling all the time, we need to be more like a river...

Today we consider why professional development might feel like a burden or a chore and how it can be transformed into something that feels nourishing and useful to you. I was motivated to create this episode when I read Dr. Jackie Eldridge’s post on Instagram (@drjackieeldridge) where she said: “Imagine if people thought about professional development as food for the mind and soul, instead of a chore and a burden...

We all criticize ourselves. We believe that if we judge ourselves harshly, that will spur us on to take the actions we need to take or protect us from disappointment. Our negative judgments don’t accomplish either result. At the end of this podcast, I present some actions you can use to defend yourself against unproductive self-judgments: Build an awareness of all the ways you judge yourself negatively. When you notice your self-criticisms, refuse to criticize yourself for criticizing yourself...

My art teacher, Ian Roberts, shared a thought with us this week that made the hair on my arms stand up. Because of the truth of it. He said, “The quality of attention produces the music.” In this episode I share my thoughts about how the quality of attention you bring to what you do can fundamentally alter your experience of it, draw out the meaning, create the connection, help you see the beauty, and bring you into a deeper understanding of the people around you.

Our quest to feel more alive comes down to one thing. We desire to live life in a way that feels more “us”. In this episode I explore how to become more of who you really are by pretending in one of 3 specific ways. Explore pretending: to have a personal quality you wish you had, to be a celebrity or other person you admire, or to believe something you’re not all sure about. Pretend this way regularly and you’ll soon become more of who you yearn to be.

When we keep expanding our calendars to accommodate all the things we want to do or think we need to do, life can start to feel frantic and unmanageable. Worse, we often find that we still don’t have enough time to do the things we know could contribute to our wellbeing. In this episode I explore how to use subtraction as a tool to expand your life and do more of what you love...

There’s a moment when you realize you're seeing things in a way that feels brand new and exhilarating. It's like, “Ooh, I never saw it this way before. But now that I do see it this way, I feel completely differently about it.” The novelty of a new perspective is exciting because it creates possibility. It fuels us with energy. A fresh perspective helps us invent, find solutions and discover relationships between things we’d thought were unrelated, and reboots our creativity...

Join me for this mind-shifting conversation with my friend and peer coach, Sarah Hurrle. Sarah takes us on her journey from being a fund raiser for non-profit organizations, to refocusing on her own health as she navigated health challenges, to becoming a certified health coach, to her focus today on “healthy sales”. This episode is relevant whether you’re an entrepreneur, work for someone else, are a member of a family, or have an idea you’d like to present...

Legendary music producer, Rick Rubin, advises that in order to create at the highest level, your audience must come last. This is true (maybe even especially) if you care about how the audience experiences your work. Instead, he advises, allow your natural creativity to bubble up and out of you and into the world. Rick’s dictum applies with equal force to every aspect of what we do. That’s because we’re all creators – of our careers, our businesses, our relationships, our art, and our lives...