On making goals for the new year
Do you make goals for your new year? I’m one of those people who takes the last couple of weeks of the old year so she can look forward to the brand-new slate of a new year and dream and make goals and plan on the next year’s calendars she bought back in July. I look...
How to find meaning to your life
“There is nothing in the world, I venture to say, that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions, as the knowledge that there is meaning to one’s life.” —Viktor E. Frankl Ever since I read this quote, I have been turning it over and over in my...
How to spark the imagination
We are all born with a giant measure of creativity. Of course that creativity looks different from person to person. Some use their creative brains to write fantastical or realistic stories. Some use creativity to draw portraits or dance on stage or act. Some use it...
Becoming an activist in a volatile world
I recently returned to work from a Sabbatical week. During this Sabbatical week, I took luxurious naps and read for hours on end and hung out with my kids and watched documentaries and ate good food (probably too much) and rested as well as I could. I still feel...
We can all be immeasurably great and unfathomably deep
I’ve been pondering some deep things lately. I recently finished Simu Liu’s memoir, We Were Dreamers: an Immigrant Superhero Origin Story. Liu is probably best known for his role as the Marvel superhero Shang-Chi. But you might also know him from the TV show Kim’s...
Some goals have no arrival gate
Back before I published my first book in the traditional publishing world, I had erroneous ideas about what publishing would mean. I thought, for example, that when the first book launched into the world, I would have “arrived.” I would have “made it.” I would have...
What kinds of things are worth celebrating? Everything!
Everybody loves a celebration, don’t they? The problem is, I often forget to celebrate. This is terrible, you might be thinking. How in the world can a person forget to celebrate? As someone who keeps a very meticulous calendar, it might even seem unbelievable that I...
Collaboration can enhance your brain power
I used to think I needed to do everything alone. Everything from my personal life to my professional life. Maybe it was an aversion to asking for help. I still don’t like asking for help. But over the years, I’ve come to understand that we’re not meant to do...
The difference between discipline and obsession
Most days I pride myself on being an extremely disciplined person. I make my to-do list, I divvy up my time between tasks, I mark things off with a flourish and a self-congratulatory pat on the back. I manage expectations, I make lists and calendar entries for the...
It’s cool to be kind, especially to ourselves
Over the years, I’ve written many words and spent many hours of my time teaching about being kind. It’s so important to me, this idea of kindness, that every day, when my sons leave for school, I hug them tight, kiss the tops of their heads (with the exception of the...