I need and deserve to be with someone who knows they want to be with me, who even after 2 1/2 years doesn't need to take breaks from me to figure out their feelings. Who doesn't default to "I want to be what you deserve," either be it or leave.

Learning to embrace the joy of missing out. When you say yes to one thing, by default you say no to another (time, money, friends, clients, etc). Trying to make sure my yes is always worthwhile and to life life by design, not by default.

“The minute I heard my first love story,
I started looking for you, not knowing
how blind that was.
Lovers don't finally meet somewhere.
They're in each other all along.”
― Rumi, The Illuminated Rumi

This is an important Buddhist principle called “conditionality,” which states, in part, that if you want x, you have to provide the conditions that allow x to arise. There are no short cuts.

Hard work is frightening. We shy away from hard work because inherent in hard work is risk. Hard work is hard because you might fail. You can't fail at long work, you merely show up. You fail at hard work when you don't make an emotional connection, or when you don't solve the problem or when you hesitate.

I'll grant you that being popular (at least on one day in November) is a great way to get elected President. But in general, the search for popular is wildly overrated, because it corrupts our work, eats away at our art and makes it likely we'll compromise to please the anonymous masses.

If you're looking for 'how', if you're looking for a map, for a way to industrialize the new era, you've totally missed the point and you will end up disappointed. The nature of the last era was that repetition and management of results increased profits. The nature of this one is the opposite: if someone can tell you precisely what to do, it's too ( Read more... )

The flip side

It's impossible to have a coin with only one side. You can't have heads without tails.

Innovation is like that. Initiative is like that. Art is like that.

You can't have success unless you're prepared to have failure.

As soon as you say, "failure is not an option," you've just said, "innovation is not an option."

After struggling to develop an electric light-bulb for months and months, Thomas Edison was interviewed by a young reporter who boldly asked Mr. Edison if he felt like a failure and if he thought he should just give up. Perplexed, Edison replied, “Young man, why would I feel like a failure? And why would I ever give up? I now know definitively over ( Read more... )

Sometimes the conversation about the work is more important than the work itself.