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I recently read two books about the choices people make when faced with the knowledge of their forthcoming death. The first book is called Last Acts, and was written by a doctor who worked predominantly with hospice patients. Throughout the book, people make different choices—some seek to create closure with their loved ones and prepare as much as possible to say farewell to life as we know it. Others refuse to accept the reality of their forthcoming death and try to fight as long as possible ...
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Greetings, friends and readers. Today I'm in Anchorage, Alaska for the 43rd stop of the Unconventional Book Tour. I'll be at the University of Alaska at noon, and Metro Music and Books at 7pm tonight. (We'll be moving to a beer-and-pizza place afterwards, which I'm told is mandatory when in Alaska.) Today I have a couple of notes on commercial projects ...
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This week's featured postcard comes to us from Eliza in Washington, D.C. Here's what it's all about.
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If you don't live in the U.S., you may wonder why the internet is so quiet today. Everyone else around the world, this is the day you get the internet to yourselves. Use it well, friends, because America will be back online and shopping tomorrow.
I do have a sale going on at UnconventionalGuides.com until Monday if you're interested (use discount code "PUMPKIN"). It's pretty much the only sale of the year over there, so it doesn't need much hype.
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This week's featured postcard comes to us from Rosie in The United Kingdom. Here's what it's all about.
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I did a media call for a journalist on the subject of “time management” recently. When I heard the topic, I was worried: one, I don't think I'm that great at time management ... and two, I'm not even sure such a thing exists. You can't manage time; it exists independently of any choice you make. I tend to think more about managing energy and managing projects—as for time itself, that's another story altogether.
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If you are confident, they will say you are arrogant.
If you are deliberate, they will say you are too sure of yourself.
If you have a sense of purpose, they will say you are self-absorbed.
If you know who you are, they will ask, “Who are you, anyway?”
If you believe in kindness and compassion, they will say you are naïve.
If you are a dreamer, they will say “join the real world.”
If you are a rebel, they will try to shut you down.
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For everyone all over the world who isn't able to come out to the Unconventional Book Tour, this 4-minute movie gives you an idea of what it's about.
This mini-documentary was filmed and produced in Durham, North Carolina by Crystal Street at StorytellingTraveler.com. Crystal spent a lot of time on this project as a volunteer—check out some of her other great work on her site, or subscribe to her newsletter to stay connected with her.
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This week's featured postcard comes to us from May in Edinburgh, Scotland. Here's what it's all about.
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I'm no consultant, but from time to time (as in, several times a day) people ask for my opinion about building some kind of online business. I'm happy to give $0.02 for whatever it's worth, and I'm sure there are times when it's not worth more than that.
How can you do something you love and make a good living from it? Much of my Unconventional Guides business is devoted to answering this question in one way or another. And as discussed before, often when we ask for advice, we don't really want advice—we want someone to say “That's great! Go for it!”
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This week's featured postcard comes to us from Stephanie in Irkutsk, Russia. Here's what it's all about.
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The question comes up a lot: "If you were starting over with this project, what would you do differently?"
In my case, I probably wouldn't put the domain on chrisguillebeau.com. If you have chrisg.com, that works—but Chris Garrett got to that one first, and for some reason, a lot of people have a hard time with Guillebeau. Oh well.
I would try to have a better understanding of my readers from the beginning, instead of waiting 6-12 months to figure it out. And I would have an agenda and a clear message of what kind of change I was trying to create.
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Greetings from the Atlanta airport, where I’m preparing this post before heading home after a 13-stop leg of the Unconventional Book Tour. In writing the AONC book, I wanted to…
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This week's featured postcard comes to us from Natalie in Orava, Slovakia. Here's what it's all about.
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Here's a fun exercise: take 60 seconds and write down the peak moments of your life. A peak moment is a fixed point in time that has strong, positive memories. You summited the mountain! You achieved something monumental! Things will be different now. The obvious ones are things like weddings, births, graduations, and so on. But pay attention to the others as well. When you look back on how far you've come thus far (whether you're 15 years old, 80 years old, or somewhere in between), what stands out?
