Several years ago, I saw Angela Duckworth's TED talk on "Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance," followed shortly thereafter by the reading of her book with the same name. Enamored by the idea that anyone can reverse engineer the habits of high achievers, I've been continually working to practice grit in my everyday life.... Continue Reading →
A Conversation With Fear
We all experience fear at some point in life, but rarely stop to question the purpose and validity of that fear. The final module of Elizabeth Gilbert's online course, What is Creative Living? involves doing just this. Over the last several years, I've seen countless books, blogs, and podcast episodes that claim to offer tools to become fearless.... Continue Reading →
Decide What You Care About And Then Go Be A Student
The third module in Elizabeth Gilbert's What is Creative Living? online course build upon previous lessons, asking the student to consider what and who they care about. It's lucrative to set our eyes on a grandiose dream, but the lesson suggests that we break down those larger goals in to our core beliefs, and then actionable steps. Don't... Continue Reading →
Curiosity Cat Scan
Over the last few days, I've been going through an online course led by author Elizabeth Gilbert titled, What is Creative Living? After watching a few inspiring videos, the first assignment was to conduct a "curiosity CT scan," in which I was to conduct a brief, 20-minute analysis of my mind, identify anything shiny that caught my attention,... Continue Reading →
Choosing Curiosity Over Passion
We are often given an unhelpful piece of advice, which is: "Follow your passion." The suggestion is all well and good if you happen to have a passion, but many of us don't. Perhaps there are multiple things we're interested in, or we don't yet recognize a strong impulse in particular direction. However, even if... Continue Reading →