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Prolific individuals make things happen instead of waiting for them to happen.  We act of our own volition without needing guidance or oversight, without requiring expectations to be agreed upon, and without waiting for instructions to product.  In short, we just hire ourselves and get to work.  One of the best micro practices for becoming more prolific is to take the initiative where we are, not where we are…

Nobody is standing in the way of our ability to create value.  If we walk into a room and make everybody feel validated, like they are about to make a very good decision in hiring us, then it’s only a matter of time before we get to yes.  My screenwriter friend once gave me a titillating piece of advice about pitching any new business venture. He said, whether you…

Some people refuse to go along with anything they don’t believe in.  They are constitutionally unwilling to compromise, and will not negotiate their moral integrity under any circumstance.  This is a noble and admirable trait. These people should one hundred percent be congratulated on having, meeting and holding their own high standards.  But this also does not mean compromise is an unforgivable flaw of character.  Quite the opposite, in fact….

Every day we need to do things as ways to feel good, even if we don’t feel bad.  It’s like having an existential insurance policy.  Instead of waiting until we are sad and lonely and in need, we get out in front of the hopelessness and nip it in the bud. We continuously contribute to our personal savings account of meaning. Trusting that the funds will be available whenever…

Life does not have to be a heart wrenching struggle to discover some tiny fragment of meaning.  Even if we feel helplessly trapped within the bleak prison of shattered dreams and blasted hopes, working soul crushing, mind numbing jobs devoid of any upward mobility, there is still a way to lift things up so that they rise to a place of significance.  Remember, meaning is a decision, not a…

All of our cumbersome ideas about what we require to start, all of our postponements and excuses for our lack of creative discipline, and all of our waiting around until we have things tidily wrapped and packaged to finish, these are just a few of the obstacles that we set up for ourselves.  It’s another classic case of complexity being attractive because it feels like progress.  But the irony…

Adulting is a new word that means carrying out the duties and responsibilities of fully developed individuals, such as filing taxes, going to work, paying bills, doing household chores and eating vegetables.  Naturally, there is an entire generation of young people who view adulting as exhausting, annoying and dreadful.  And they’re not wrong. Growing up is hard work.  Mayer sings it best in his confronting pop song: Honesty, won’t…

My therapist friend has a mantra that he uses with clients:  If it takes more than four words, then it’s probably not a feeling.  In fact, just because we use the word feel in a sentence does not necessarily mean that we are communicating our emotions effectively.  For example, when we whine to a coworker about how we feel that our boss is being an unfair asshole, that is…

Conventional business wisdom tells us that our sweet spot is found at the intersection of three key elements.  Passion, talent, and opportunity.  All we have to do is answer three simple questions.  1. What are you deeply in love with?  2. What are you genetically encoded for?  3. What makes economic sense in the marketplace?  Or, to paraphrase the famous theologian, the place where our deep gladness and the…

Governments have a helpful phrase called need to know.  It describes the restriction of data which is considered very sensitive. Employees are only given access to information that is necessary for them to conduct their official duties.  What’s interesting is, we can invert this concept and apply it inwardly. We can put ourselves on a need to know basis, only taking on what really matters and allowing the rest…