To find your waking moments always distracted by promises of some intangible future is never to be present in the first place.
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CLEAN DESK
I seem to be in an eternal rearguard action with my desk. It drives me crazy. But, lo and behold, I think I’ve finally figured out how this mess always happens.
Read MoreSPELUNKING YOUR ENTERPRISE
The only way to experience the place is to prepare, and the only way to descend after those preparations is to give yourself over to the experience. There is no middle ground if the journey is going to be successful; there is no way to enter the Earth without getting covered in mud.
Read MoreTHANKSGIVING 2016 -- Creating Value
To be successful with others we obligate ourselves to create worlds of civility an sensitivity. We obligate ourselves to tune in to others in our space, even as we desire to let our own guards down so that others can tune in to us.
Read MoreACTING WITHOUT THINKING
The process of successful creation is intangible. I know there is sky above me and I know there is air all around me and I know that the air around me connects directly to the sky above me. Somewhere the two meet, but the dividing line is a fiction of language, a function of our senses being given over to words. There is no dividing line between air and sky, but we describe the expanse of blue overhead as something different than the wind moving leaves on the trees.
Read MoreAGENTS PROVOCATEUR
Rarely do ideas survive for long if they’re not worthy. But just because some expressions have been perceived as shocking does not automatically make them irrelevant or useless. In fact, provocations in creative thought are not only natural but necessary.
Read MoreBURNING MAN
The honest-to-goodness, grab-you-by-the-shoulder interesting stuff is over here, out on the edge, just before the rest of the world discovers it. You can aspire, but if you want to be a real part of that genesis culture, you can't pretend. You have to dive in and be honest about it all the first place. Acts of honest creation cannot be easily bought.
Read MoreOVERCOMING THE UBIQUITY OF DISTRACTIONS
You’ve got to apply power to the throttle, and you’ve got to start rolling down the runway. This will take fuel; this will make you tired; this will add risks to your day. But once you achieve flight speed, you’ll see the Earth fall away beneath you, and you’ll finally be headed somewhere.
Read MoreWHAT A DAY FOR A DAYDREAM
Daydreams generally mean that you’ve suspended concerted effort for a moment, that you’re awake but dreaming. Amid the churn and bustle and actual competition for viable neurons these days, I find that suspending conscious effort for a few minutes is a rare thing. How bizarre: I have to consciously work at keeping my brain from working!
Read MoreTHE SOUNDS WE HEAR
Don’t just be an accountant: be an elegant, insightful, artful one. Don’t simply restock the shelves at the grocery store: find subtle, nuanced ways to think about what you’re doing and then do it well. Mundane jobs are not without the potential for elegant expressions. Perception is the first part of understanding something, and transformation of those perceptions is the work of authentic creativity.
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