There is so much good food in Italy it’s hard to believe that an American touring Italy would choose to eat at McDonald’s in Italy but it happens. It might be that they really like McDonald’s but what I’ve noticed about myself is that it’s more just that, in a foreign land, I crave the …
Monthly Archives: February 2020
Don’t cram
Don’t cram. You’ll forget something. You’ll break something. You’ll be stressed even if it all works out. Your brochure will be too wordy. Your suitcase will bust. Your drawer will dislike you. Don’t cram. Give yourself some breathing room.
What would you do with an hour a day?
After I had kids, I had MUCH less time to myself. I had to eat fast before they woke up and I couldn’t even go to the bathroom whenever I wanted to because I had to tend to the kids’ needs. Sometimes I had only one hour a day to myself. And then I would …
At least it’s not raining
Sometimes a splinter is your biggest problem. Until you have a cut. Then your biggest problem is a cut. Until you have a broken bone. And so on. I’ve found that the easiest way to feel grateful for what you have is to go one level up in the wrong direction. And why not four …
Slow feedback
When you touch hot oil or water or metal, it’s immediately apparent and you pull your hand away. Yesterday, I got sunburned. The problem is slow feedback. If there had been a point in time where my skin screamed to me, “You’re getting burned now”, then I would have put on a shirt or moved …
Do what you love. See what happens.
No one ever asked me to make art or draw stick figures. I just started drawing. People liked them enough to buy them and I made some money. But the demand wasn’t there until the art existed. Do what you love. See what happens.
Handball ≠ Handball
I overheard two people talking about handball—one was from New York and the other one was from Europe. They seemed to be new business acquaintances. One asked the other if they had handball in their country. This is what the American had in his mind: (image source) It’s like racquetball without racquets. This is what …
Assume it can be done
Sometimes the path to success starts with believing that it can be done. There was a brainteaser about 23 prisoners that seemed impossible to solve to me when I heard it but because I knew there was a solution, I thought about it for longer than I would have otherwise and eventually I solved it. …
Use it or lose it. Grow it and show it.
Penguins evolved from birds that didn’t need to fly and so their wings changed and now penguins can’t fly. Wings and your ability to fly. Use it or lose it. On the other hand, flying fish escape predators by leaping out of the water, flying for several yards, and reentering the water at a safer …
But I don’t feel like writing
Commitments are strange and wonderful things. They are shortcuts for deciding, deciding in advance to do something, deciding now so that you don’t have to decide later, deciding in the past so that you don’t have to decide now. I don’t feel like writing today. But I’ve committed to writing something everyday. I can question …