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Being an individual who isn’t restricted by the machinery of society is a romantic and admirable and empowering notion.  But only to the extent that the individual accepts the consequences of being true to himself.  Independence, after all, is expensive. There’s are clear emotional and existential costs associated with choosing your own path. People who feel burdened by the pulsing energy and fierce need to be themselves exhaust easily. …

America has historically been a place where dreams are had a followed.  But the irony is, our citizens have become far more socially isolated today than we were two decades ago. McPherson’s renowned study of the decline of social ties in the country found that our intimate social ties are shrinking or nonexistent.  The number of people saying there is nobody with whom they discuss important matters has nearly…

Portland is a weird city.  It’s a place that promotes individuality, expressionism, eccentricity, local art, as well as atypical lifestyle choices and leisure activities.  Think of this way. In the middle of the country, the guy who wore a nametag everyday was weird.  But on the west coast, I was just another one of the freaks.  That’s why I relocated there right after college. I didn’t have a job,…

Ideas are free, execution is priceless. That’s been my mantra since day one of starting my business. It’s also the title of a book I wrote a few years back. You can download it for free here. But here’s the problem. I’m an idea junkie. Everything I look at in the world breaks down into a collection of ideas. I have about fifty new ones every day, and sadly, I…

Consistency allows you to be there for people.  Having the discipline to show up every day and use your art to tell the world something true in public, that act of generosity can become a source of stability for others. It can help them through their dark times.  And that’s such a beautiful thing. A renewable form of meaning that can’t be created anywhere else. The hard part is,…

We spend all this time doing this crazy work, and then it fails, and then we start to wonder if we’ve killed ourselves for nothing. To the point that we throw our hands up in the air and think, wow, if this is what it feels like to give my best, why would I even bother to continue?  It’s a dangerous cycle to be trapped in. One that lacks compassion and…

Instead of demeaning and pathologizing people’s choices and interests and expressions as conditions from which they need to be cured and saved, I am learning to see them as they are.  To give them the space to be who they are, instead of molding them into the idealized version of who I want them to be.  Because at the end of the day, nobody knows anything. Nobody knows what’s inside of anyone. Everyone…

It’s confusing and frustrating when we’re unable to manifest financial abundance quickly and easily.  No matter how many positive affirmations we write, no matter how much time and energy we spend offering ourselves to the world in service, in exchange for money, sometimes, the bank account just doesn’t go up.  And it feels like we’re just running in place, laboring in vain, killing ourselves for nothing.  But that’s the…

Ideas are free, execution is priceless. That’s been my mantra since day one of starting my business. It’s also the title of a book I wrote a few years back. You can download it for free here. But here’s the problem. I’m an idea junkie. Everything I look at in the world breaks down into a collection of ideas. I have about fifty new ones every day, and sadly, I…

Meditation instructors often implore their students to keep quiet about their practice. Not to tell anyone they’re meditating for the first few years.  It’s form of discernment and boundaries. Honoring the practice by keeping the energy and excitement inside until it’s ready to be released into the world.  Without this form of containment, we allow the marketplace to supersede what we think. We allow other people’s doubts to weaken…