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A consultant friend of mine loves to say that the day you’re pricing structure is perfect is: When the client is thinking they’re getting a bargain, and you’re thinking that you can’t believe you just got a check for that amount.  For many years, I assumed that was the ideal financial situation. But the more learned about how abundance and gratitude and wealth worked, the more I disagreed.  Because…

Getting adequate sleep has been clinically proven to offer myriad health benefits, including improved memory, sharpened attention, inflammation reduction, heightened creativity, healthier skin and strengthened immune system, to name a few.  But let’s not overlook the bigger and more human significance of that glorious moment when we first lay our heads down at the end of a long day.  My friend who suffers from severe depression says it best. …

Renaissance artists often had patrons.  Organizations or individuals who supported, encouraged and bestowed financial aid upon them, so that their creative work could collide with the outside world.  These people were the original angel investors, sugar daddies and fairy godmothers, and without their crucial role, many of our finest works of art never would have seen the light of day.  Davinci himself even had a number of powerful patrons…

Emerson said that the mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.  That’s the true value of innovation. Not only the ideas we create, but the intellectual growth we undergo along the journey.  And so, even if it’s not in the budget, even if it’ll never pass compliance, even if the brief doesn’t call for it, and even if the client continually tries to…

Fox’s enthralling book on the reinvention of work shares a vision where our personal and professional lives are celebrated in harmony.  A world where the self is not sacrificed for a job, but is sanctified by authentic work. One of the points he makes is about doing things for their own reward. Letting the work take responsibility for itself.  He writes:  It is when we learn to work without a why…

Barger was the original hell’s angel.  He not only founded the legendary motorcycle club in fifties, but he also authored several books about a life on the road, riding high and living free. During one particular interview, he was famously asked how he recruited for his biker gang.  Sonny replied: We don’t recruit, we recognize. When we see somebody that’s us, they become us. That’s the best way to describe…

I spent many years trying to squeeze my business into other people’s plans.  From friends to mentors to competitors to strangers, there wasn’t a revenue model, pricing system or marketing framework that I didn’t attempt to make my own.  But after a decade of wondering why nothing ever seemed to gain significant traction, it finally occurred to me what the problem was.  Anytime we try to execute other people’s…

Disappointment happens when somebody expects one thing, and doesn’t get it.  It happens every day. Life lets us down. There is no avoiding it.  The danger is when too many of our decisions are made based on what other people expect, versus what is actually best for us. Because that only creates greater resentment and unhappiness on both sides.  This tendency dates back to our childhood fear of letting our…

The fact that our bodies don’t cooperate all the time can be frustrating.  That’s my fourteenth sneeze since lunch. This is ridiculous. How can I still have allergies after two weeks?  But we can’t beat ourselves up for being human. Being overly critical about our bodies only halts progress in its tracks and pushes the shame spiral deeper.  And if we treat each day as yet another onslaught of…

Once of my clients loved to say, the grass is only greener on other side because it’s fertilized with bullshit. Think twice before you jump the fence.  It’s an interesting philosophy that I can appreciate from a comedic standpoint.  But then again, making grandiose pronouncements from my throne of cynicism isn’t a particularly useful way to spend my time. And besides, no path is entirely free of suffering. We will…