Blog Articles
What did Hafiz mean when he said, “The words we speak become the house we live in”?
What did the Sufi mystic poet Rumi mean when he said, “The words we speak become the house we live in”? Rumi meant that our words carry power in our lives.
How to Choose Your ‘Words’ (and Define Your Goals) for the New Year
Happy New Year! Let’s begin our 2020 together with one of my favorite quotes from the poet Hafiz, who said: “The words we speak become the house we live in.” I absolutely love that saying, and remind myself of it often. The phrase evokes an image in my head of a house...
16 Fill-the-Blank Prompts to Recap Your Year (in 30 Minutes or Less)
Featuring 16 fill-the-blank scripts to “story” your year in review and cultivate a natural sense of understanding for how your year unfolded for your benefit.
2019 is the Year that I Learned to Love Again
Of all that I fell in love with in 2019, one of the more surprising things was falling in love with the experience of being a coach: a title I have resisted for years.
How to Start to Live ‘The Unavoidable Life’
A warning story of trying to “go it all on your own” and chasing “straw man” projects that hide the goal beneath the goal you’re chasing.
Here’s What White House Staffers and Presidential Appointees Asked Me About Writing, Story, and Self-Expression
Here’s what I found myself sharing when that room full of White House staffers and Presidential Appointees asked what, exactly, I was doing with my life 11 years later.
“Did You Mean to Invite Me to This White House Reunion Party?”
In 2008, I was an intern at an office of the White House called the Council on Environmental Quality. 11 years later, a reunion invitation arrived in my inbox.
Maybe Don’t Take the ‘Law of Attraction’ So Literally. A Story About the Words We Use.
It’s one thing to believe that the words we use carry power. It’s another to act like each and every word you use turns the Universe into a sort of spiritual Venmo by immediately delivering that word to you, post-haste.
100 Days Unbored: What I Learned By Challenging Myself to Try 1 New Thing Every Day
Since childhood, I’ve complained about boredom. So I challenged myself to do one new, non-routine, non-habitual, unfamiliar thing every day for 100 days.
How to Deal with Overwhelm
The tools upon which we have come to rely hijack what precious little space we possess.
If You Want Things to Get Better, You Have to Risk Them Feeling Worse… at First.
Can we agree on something? We all want things in our lives to get better. We want our salaries and savings to go up, and our credit card and student loan debts to go down. We want our families and all friends to be healthy, well, and happy. We want to feel more space,...
WS:S1E10 – I Quit My Job 10 Years Ago, Now I Finally Understand Why (Episode Transcript)
Quitting my job 10 years ago was for beginnings, I now understand, not endings.
WS:S1E9 – How Language Moves (Episode Transcript)
In my head, I was silently saying to myself, “We already have a word for cool and that word is cool. Why would we need another?”
WS:S1E8 – Is It Avoidance or Something Else? How to Know (Episode Transcript)
Not everything that we avoid means that there’s something inherently soul expanding to learn from by unavoiding it.
WS:S1E7 – How the Story of Writer’s Block Was Born (Episode Transcript)
Stories shape and influence our perceptions of life, who we are, and what we’re capable of. Even a single word choice can contain within itself an entire story.
WS:S1E6 – The Secret Language of Paris (Episode Transcript)
There’s an unspoken language shared by some Parisians that I became aware of during my recent travels.
WS:S1E5 – The Boston Skyline (Episode Transcript)
When we left off, I told you about a so-called “wave of change” that I felt like I saw coming for months but still caught me by surprise when it finally arrived.
WS:S1E4 – The Letter I’ve Been Avoiding for 10 Years (Episode Transcript)
For 10 years, I’ve been avoiding a letter that recommended I undertake a precautionary medical examination. It was finally time to listen.