Marina Keegan was a writer, activist, and student at Yale. Before graduation she shared a few words for her fellow students: We don’t have a word for the opposite of loneliness, but if we did, I could say that’s what I want in life. It’s not quite love and it’s not quite community; it’s just…
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When you’re evaluating a big decision, sometimes it’s helpful to ask yourself, “What’s the worst thing that can happen?” Most of the time, the worst-case scenario doesn’t actually come to pass. But sometimes it does. Tera and Wes told us this story at Pioneer Nation: We got the dream job. The one our careers had…
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I downloaded another iPad game that was a lot like the one I wrote about in The Tower. It was probably a mistake, given my tendencies for going all-in, but once in a while I download a game and play it off and on for a couple weeks. Then I get bored and remove it…
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Duke Ellington spent forty years traveling, composing, and performing. Ellington composed as he lived, on the road and on the fly. He wrote his pieces in hotel rooms, Pullman cars, and chartered buses, then rehearsed them in the recording studio the next afternoon or on the bandstand the same night. He had little choice but…
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We had a fantastic time at the fourth-annual World Domination Summit (WDS)! I’m incredibly sleep-deprived at the moment, but over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing stories, attendee blog posts, and eventually video of the event. For now, you can see more than 1,200 photos at the official media page. Side note: It appears…
Read MoreMichael Graves, the designer who improved tea kettles for the masses thanks to his partnership with Target stores, recently took on a new challenge. The original hospital wheelchair, apparently still in widespread use, was based off a design from way back in 1933. Graves decided to update it, and also worked on other hospital equipment…
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We didn’t buy it, but we did in fact rent it out. Today I was working on my quarterly taxes and smiled when I saw the charge for the Oregon Zoo from last year. Aside from my house, the zoo was the largest thing I’ve ever paid for—and the largest credit card charge by far.…
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Time after time I remind myself of this truth. When it’s raining… when I’m tired… when I’m stressed or busy. Plenty of times, I just don’t want to do it! I want to stay where I am and keep working, or have a drink, or take a nap. But then, more often than not, I…
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Greetings, friends and readers! I’d like to welcome you to my new blog and online home. Over the past few months, I’ve been working on an all-new layout and structure for the blog. I wanted to make these changes for two reasons. 1. It’s always good to change it up. Never rest on your laurels!…
Read MoreMeet Jack: a 93-year-old man who lives in a cabin in the wilderness. He built the cabin 36 years ago and has lived in it full-time since his wife passed away. “This house is five miles from the nearest road. That’s why I bought it.” “It’s not that I don’t like people. I do. But…
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Anyone feeling overwhelmed? It happens. The worst thing about feeling overwhelmed is the anxiety. The second worst thing is not knowing what to do next. You can resolve both symptoms through a simple exercise. When you’re feeling overwhelmed and aren’t sure what action to take, the very best thing you can do is to go…
Read MoreThere’s a way of playing safe, there’s a way of using tricks—and then there’s the way I like to play.
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If someone has hurt you, it doesn’t have to be magically okay. It will probably continue to hurt for a while. If you’ve hurt someone else, you should do everything you can to make it right—but you also shouldn’t expect it to be completely fixed.
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Somewhere in my journey I learned an important lesson: whatever your location, you can choose to be at peace or you can choose to be anxious. I remember shivering in a tent in Zimbabwe, feeling miserable yet still excited about the adventure. I was on my own in a new part of the world, and I felt like a conquering (though cold) warrior.
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When it comes to money, some people have a floor and some have a ceiling. The floor is the minimum amount of money to live reasonably well. The ceiling is the magic number of what you might possibly achieve in your wildest dreams. Normally there’s nothing wrong with dreaming. But to be happier in life…
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