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I heard an interview with a screenwriter who admitted his primary tool for productivity was shame. To lock himself into a daily framework that would make him feel guilty for wasting time.  Often times, quite literally. Adam said he frequently did his best writing in hotel rooms. And his thinking was, if I’m paying for a room, just to be in it to a write, and I’m blowing it…

Everyone has talent. Everyone.  But not everyone has the ability to use their talent in a broad range of applications. And as a result, they’re just winking in the dark. All trained up and nowhere to go.  The question is, how to do you improve your ability to make better use of your strengths? How do force yourself to fire on all cylinders?  In video gaming parlance, players call…

I was listening to an interview with a famous television executive whose production company has created thousands of hours of shows for major networks.  He told the inspiring story of trying to secure funding from a major investor, and how nobody would call him back, no matter how hard he pushed. But when it came down to the eleventh hour, he shifted his sales approach. He sent an email to every…

Eyes Full of Dreams is now a hard cover, full color, two hundred page dream journal.  It includes pictures, lyric ideas, song sheets, exercises, essays from the film and a few other surprises. There will only be 100 physical copies in existence. Ever.  To buy your limited edition, autographed copy, click here. Shipping included. Limit one per person. $50.00 You can also download a PDF of the dream journal here. * * * *…

Hoff’s treatise on eastern philosophy makes the point that everybody has purpose, but no matter how useful we may be, sometimes it takes us a while to recognize our own value.  The good news is, the world is mirror. Humans are able to understand the self in the context of other people. We form our identities based on what we hear ourselves say, and how we see others react…

Maisel’s research on the creative mind explains how racing brains don’t come with an off switch.  That they can overwhelm a person’s system and cause anxiety, restlessness and mania. What’s more, if hyper creative people fail to regain control of their psychic environment, their racing brains will incline toward insomnia, mania, obsession, compulsion and addiction. The smarter people are, he says, the more likely it is that they will use their…

Sometimes we need to acquire new skills. Sometimes we need to develop existing skills. But sometimes we simply need to reveal hidden ones. To identify the gifts we most enjoy using, the ones we never get the opportunity to employ, the ones we want to use more often and fully, and bring them to the forefront of our lives.  That’s how we grow our value, build our business and…

When you know who you are, every moment isn’t a moral challenge, it’s just a checklist.  Decisions are easier, postures are sturdier, interactions are warmer, relationships are healthier, risks are smarter, transitions are smoother, failures are faster and commitments are stronger.  What happens when you know who you are? Everything.  Including executional velocity. After all, you can’t expect to get things done until you get to know the doer. And so, identity is…

Few things in this world are evenly spread. Most of life happens in clumps. There always seems to be a multiplicity of contingent events that happen in close succession.  The spooky thing is, clumping occurs in almost every domain of daily existence. It happens to organic behavior in biology, it happens to asteroids in space, it happens to software testing in computer science, it happens to breakfast cereals in…

Gandhi’s theory of social reconstruction famously said it was a false notion that competition was an integral part of human society.  His belief was that competition glorified the tendencies of selfishness and greed and rivalry and envy, and that it didn’t have a place in a non violent society.  I couldn’t agree more. Competition is not a mechanism that operates very strongly within me. Because despite its positive economic implications, I…